Prompt: Extract an outline from your current Work-In-Progres (WIP).  If your WIP is finished, go through it scene by scene outlining what you have.  If you’re still in the middle of your WIP, do the exercise for what you have so far then brainstorm a couple of different directions your story can take.

Extracting an outline is a great way to figure out what you have in your story already and see where the holes are so you can fill them.  I find this technique to be most helpful when I’m trying to work out the details of my plot.  I outline what’s already in my WIP, then figure out which pieces are missing and decide how I’m going to fill those gaps.

Unlike traditional techniques, this technique forces you to look at a topic from multiple different angles. It also makes it easy for you to see an entire project in one glance, rather than having to read through line-by-line to get a sense of the full story.  While it usually lends itself more toward nonfiction, mind mapping can also be a great way to brainstorm ideas for a fiction project.

How to Apply this to Fiction: Try mind-mapping your story or novel by making each of the main branches as chapter topics or major events in the story.  The sub-branches can be scenes that sub-divide these larger branches.  There are no rules with mind-mapping so feel free to doodle and make notes (I use thought bubbles and speech bubbles to add notes to my mind maps, as you can see in the image.)

Here’s the very first mind map I used to brainstorm DIY MFA back in 2010 when it was just a glimmer of an idea..

Story Maps

We talked about this one in Tuesday’s post: Mapping Out Your Story but here’s a recap for those of you who missed it.

I love subway maps.  What can I say, I’m a New Yorker so it’s in my blood.  Recently, I started outlining stories using New York-style subway maps.  Just as subway lines intersect, different subplots weave in and out of the main plot thread in a novel or short story.  I like to think of writing as a journey so to me, this idea of mapping out a story works. Tip: If the subway analogy doesn’t resonate with you, try thinking of the map as roadways with local exits and big intersections.

How to Apply this to Fiction: The different threads in a story are in different colors.  Scenes in each thread are marked as subway stops (or exits).  If a scene applies to more than one story thread, then it becomes an intersection.  What I love about this technique is that when I sit down to write a scene, all I’m writing is a “dot” of the story.  Dot’s aren’t big and scary; they’re cute and round.  They’re just dots for crying out loud!  Somehow in my mind, it seems a lot more manageable.

Here’s a subway map of one of my favorite novels, The Hunger Games.

Scene Cards

This technique is super-portable, which is one of the reasons I love it.  Take a stack of index cards and make one card for each scene you know needs to happen in your story.  What’s nice about this technique is that you don’t have to write the scenes in order (you can move the cards around), and you can always add more cards later if you think you need them. 

How to Apply this to Fiction: On each card write the following information.

•  Scene Title: Something easy to remember like “Scene where Jimmy falls from the tree.”
• Characters: Who’s in this scene?
• Events: What happens?
• Setting: Where are we?
• Purpose: Why do you need this scene? (Character development? Important plot point? Reveal important information?)  This last one is crucial because if you can’t think of a purpose for the scene then you have to question whether you need the scene at all.

Some computer programs actually have an index card function built in (Scrivener, for instance) which is nice because it makes editing and moving the cards around even easier.  I still like the old-fashioned method because it means I can grab a handful of cards and take it with me anywhere.

Also, for those of you who love spreadsheets, you can do the exact same thing but use Excel or some other spreadsheet software.  Just make each of the bullet points above into columns on the chart and have each row represent a different scene.  Voila!  You have your story in spreadsheet form.

Rough Sketch

This technique got a post all of it s own back in March called Rough Sketch: A Snapshot to Capture Your Work-In-Progress.  The idea behind the rough sketch is to capture the main elements of your story in a one-page document.  It forces yourself to really narrow down the complexities of your story into the few most important elements and makes it easy for you to see the overall trajectory at a glance.  What’s also great about this technique is that you can give copies of it to critique partners new to your story to bring them up-to-speed.

How to Apply this to Fiction: Download a Rough Sketch worksheet and fill it out!  For more details, read the post on the Rough Sketch to learn what each part of the worksheet means.

Have I convinced you yet that outlines can be awesome?  Try one of these techniques–one that’s new to you–and see if it works for you!

Each road or subway line represents a different story-thread or plot line.  The dots (exits on the highways or subway stops) represent different scenes or moments in the story.  Black dots represent local exits or subway stops (moments that apply only to that one storyline) while the white dots indicate moments where two or more plot lines intersect.

By mapping your story out in this way, you can tease apart the different plot threads in your story and make sure that each story arc makes sense in terms of build-up and tension.  Also, it can be difficult to juggle multiple story threads at the same time so when you use this subway map technique, you can isolate the main plot or one of the subplots and look at it separate from the others.

For an example of this type of outline click on the image.  The map shows a (very basic) outline Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.  (Note: Because this is an outline, it inevitably includes spoilers.  You have been warned.)

How do you put together a story map like this?  Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Write out your scenes.  I like to use index cards for this step, where for each scene I jot down a brief description of who is in the scene, what happens and why the scene is important to the story overall.  The why is key because if I can’t figure out what purpose a particular scene serves in the story, then it probably means that scene is dispensable and I should get rid of it.

Step 2: Figure out your main story threads and the Dramatic Question related to each.  Every novel has a main plot thread and at least one or two subplots.  Each of these plot threads is driven by what’s called the Dramatic Question.  For the main plot thread we have the Major Dramatic Question (MDQ) and for the subplots we have what I like to call the Lesser Dramatic Questions (LDQ’s).  These Dramatic Questions boil down each plot thread and propel them forward.

For example, in The Hunger Games the Major Dramatic Quesiton is: Will Katniss survive the Hunger Games?  We also have questions that relate to the subplots of the novel (such as the love story between Katniss and Peeta or her relationship to her younger sister, Prim).  Those questions are: Will Katniss love Peeta back? and Will Katniss be able to protect her family?  These are the questions that readers will be holding their breath to find out the answers to as the plot threads develop.

Step 3: Sort out your scenes according to which plot threads they relate to.  Remember, some scenes can belong in more than one plot thread.  In fact, most key scenes in a novel (like big turning points or the climax) will relate to multiple plot lines.  I usually do this step by drawing colored dots on each index card. The color of each dot indicates the plot thread(s) where that scene belongs.

Step 4: Draw your map.  Now that you have your scenes sorted out and you know which scene falls where, you can draw your map and look at how the different plot lines intercept.  You can also separate the main plot from the subplots and see how each individual arc works.

What I like about this technique:

• It allows you to look at plot lines together and individually whereas most outline techniques force you to look at all plot lines at once.
• It forces you to think about your story’s major dramatic question (and the lesser dramatic questions).  This means you have to be able to boil down each plot line to one question.  If you can do that, then you know the main plot of your story.
• It’s very visual so at a glance you can see your entire story and how everything fits together.  This is especially helpful for writers like me, who are more visually-than-verbally oriented and have a tough time with traditional outlines.

Pantser: n. (1) A writer who writes by the seat of the pants and discovers the story through the process of writing it; (2) a writer who finds outlines and plotting devices to be constricting and the work of the word-demon; (3) a writer who fervently believes that the characters decide where the story is going and the author is just along for the ride.

Thankfully, most writers fall somewhere in between these two extremes.  Here’s where I stand:

When I draft a novel, I go through a 3-step process.

1. First, I usually pants (a verb?) my way through about one third of it, getting to know my characters and discovering the story.  Then I stop.
2. I go back and do one or two quick revisions of that first third so I can nail down both the characters’ personalities and the direction of the plot.  After that, I extract an outline from that first section (i.e. I sit down with the text I’ve written and write an outline of what I have), then continue by writing a rough outline of the rest of the story.
3. Once I have an outline of the whole novel, I write from it but pause every 20-30 pages to re-evaluate and make adjustments.

With this process, I spend the vast majority of my time getting to know the characters and writing that first third of the story.  The last two-thirds of the story get written in a whirlwind process where it almost feels like the novel is writing itself.  So, I guess you could say that first I’m a Pantser for the first third of the novel, then a Plotter after that.

What about you?  Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?  What does your process look like?

Rarely do we get supporting characters who have full-fledged lives of their own in a story.  Of course, we want to avoid making these supporting characters flat and one-sided, but when it comes to the role of the supporting characters within the scope of the story their job is always the same: to support the protagonist.  The reader usually doesn’t need to know the intricate details of a supporting character’s life, unless it relates to the protagonist.

This week I want you to enter the world of a supporting character in your work-in-progress (WIP).  Get to know that character’s family or follow her to work.  Take him out to lunch and see what he picks out from the menu.  Just because this information doesn’t exist within the confines of your WIP doesn’t mean that you don’t  need to know it.  In fact, by gaining a deeper knowledge of a supporting character’s life “off stage” you’ll gain insight about his or her role “on stage” as well.

Weekend Prompt: Follow a Supporting Character “Off Stage.”  Choose a supporting character and follow him or her “off stage” and outside of the presence of the protagonist.  Write a short scene of your character doing something without the protagonist around.  That scene could be something as everyday as grocery shopping or as steamy as a love affair.  (500 words)

When you have finished, consider the following questions:

• What did this scene reveal to you about this supporting character?  Was some of it what you texpected?  Did some of it surprise you?
• How can you hint at this information or use it in your WIP?

Remember, you probably won’t be able to include the actual scene you wrote, but you can use details from it to show us that character in more depth.  If you’re stuck, what you learn in this exercise might be the jolt your WIP needs to get out of a rut.

What can you do with these “deleted scenes?”  There are many ways you can use these deleted scenes, even if they don’t end up in your actual WIP.  You may choose to write a companion piece to your WIP and these “deleted scenes” can give you ideas of potential story lines.  Also, if you blog and you end up publishing your WIP, you’ll probably want to avoid sharing large segments of your actual WIP on the blog.  These “deleted scenes,” though, can be a great way of bringing your readers into the world of your book without giving away too much of the novel itself.  You never know when these character studies and exercises can become something bigger and more exciting, so don’t throw them away because they might come in handy.

1.  They provide conflict.  Read any of Carolyn Mackler’s novels and you’ll find that the central conflict for the teen protagonist often revolves around her relationship with her mother.  In The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things,Virginia has to find her own identity, independent of the identity that her mother tries to steer her toward.

2.  They can incite a story.  In Sarah Beth Durst’s Icethe story really begins when Cassie gives up her own freedom in order to free her mother from the trolls.  If it had not been for her mother trapped in the troll castle, the story never would have unraveled from there.

3.  They provide a safe place in a world of chaos.  Though Katniss’ mother doesn’t play a huge role in The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), she does provide a safe place, a home base.  In the first book of the trilogy, the mother doesn’t appear very much, but in Catching Fire,when Gale is wounded, she springs into action with her healing skills.

4.  And did I mention the conflict?  In Coe Booth’s Tyrell, the mother’s inability to get her act together and take care of her family is what pushes Tyrell into his caretaker role.  If the mother had been a regular, responsible mother, then Tyrell wouldn’t need to take care of his younger brother and he never would have come up with the plan that drives the story.

5.  Finally, even when they’re not around, the mother’s presence can be felt.  Perhaps the best example of a mother who has a strong impact on the protagonist is Lily, Harry’s mother in the Harry Potterseries.  While we never see Lily, but we know her selfless sacrifice is partly what protects Harry throughout the series.

To all the mothers, moms and mommies out there: you’re awesome!  I’m honored to be joining the ranks of mommyhood and I hope I can live up to amazing women who have been moms long before me.  Despite the stress, scuffs and struggles, just remember: kids would not exist without their mothers.  And neither would storybook characters.

Now don’t you all jump up and start protesting that supporting characters are much more than just a support for the main character.  Let me explain.  In the confines of the story, supporting characters exist for the sole purpose of interacting or otherwise engaging with the protagonist.  Supporting characters might be multifaceted but they are still supporting characters.  They exist so they can do things in the story that will affect the protagonist and thus allow us to better understand that main character.

But just because a character is “supporting” doesn’t make him or her “secondary” to the protagonist.  In the original Star Wars trilogy for example, Darth Vader is far more interesting and complex than Luke Skywalker, despite being the “supporting” character.  The purpose of the supporting character is to help us better understand the main character, but that doesn’t mean the supporting character is any less important.

That said, there are many different types of supporting characters.  I’ve chosen five archetypes and will give you a quick run-down of who these characters are and why they exist in the story.

The Nemesis
Also known as the “villain,” the nemesis is at odds with the protagonist and creates conflict from the get-go.  Whether this conflict is big “good vs. evil” stuff or simply a scuffle between the unpopular protagonist and the mean cheerleader, the purpose of the nemesis is to create conflict for the protagonist.
Examples: Darth Vader (original Star Wars trilogy), Voldemort (Harry Potter series), Regina (Mean Girls).

The BFF / Sidekick
Just because this is the main character’s best friend, doesn’t mean there’s no conflict.  In almost every protagonist-BFF relationship, there ends up being some sort of falling out part-way through the story that causes additional conflict for the main character.  Look at Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Harry Potter series.  It seems like two of the three are always fighting and the only thing that changes is which two happen to be getting along at any given moment in the story.
Examples: Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter books), Goose (Top Gun), Murtaugh (Danny Glover’s character in the Letal Weapon movies), Dion (Cher’s BFF in Clueless).

The Mentor
This character exists to advise the main character and pass on valuable information.  Interestingly enough, the information that the mentor usually shares is intended just as much for the reader (or audience) as for the main character.  For example, whenever Dumbledore gives Harry Potter one of his end-of-the-book monologues, he’s imparting valuable information that not only Harry needs to know but the reader as well.
Examples:  Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars movies), Dumbledore (Harry Potter series).

The Love Interest
This is the Peeta to the protagonist’s Katniss (The Hunger Games trilogy), the Juliet to the main character’s Romeo, the Princess Leia to his Han Solo, the Harry to her Sally.  Note that just because one member of the lover pair might love the other, it doesn’t mean the other returns that love.  After all, unrequited love is one of the greatest sources of conflict for a story.

The Fool
In Shakespearean terms, the fool is a character (usually the court jester) who says the things that the protagonist may not want to hear but needs to hear.  Just because the fool is called “The Fool” doesn’t mean he or she is foolish.  In many cases, the fool may be the wisest character of the bunch, sharing pearls of wisdom with the rest of the characters, only no one seems to listen.
Examples: The Fool (King Lear), Haymitch (The Hunger Games trilogy), Alan Arkin’s character (the grandfather) in Little Miss Sunshine.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but you’ll find that most supporting characters will fall into one of these five categories.  Can you think of any other archetypes for supporting characters?  If so, please share in the comments!

Every story needs a “bad guy,” someone or something that gets in the protagonist’s way and keeps making trouble for him or her.  For instance if my life were a novel, the “bad guy” would be an impossibly cute 3-year-old ginger cat, whose offenses include:

• “Decorating” the living room with shredded articles of mail
• Skulking atop the fridge and swatting at our heads as we pass by
• Pouncing on and harassing the other feline inhabitants of the household, and…
• Using the hand that feeds him as a chew toy.

The job of the antagonist is to make life difficult for the protagonist, and those difficulties occur because the antagonist becomes an obstacle blocking the protagonist from what he or she wants.  If heroine needs to escape from the tower, the antagonist is the dragon that blocks her way.  If sleuth wants to solve the crime, the antagonist is the criminal who’s masterminded the dastardly plot, making it (nearly) impossible to crack.  If the hero wants something as simple as a glass of water, the antagonist becomes the drought that keeps him parched.

But not every story has a villain, but regardless of style or genre, there is always an antagonist.  In fact, villains are a subcategory of antagonists so while all villains are antagonists, not all antagonists are villains.  Here’s a quick rundown on the difference between the two.

Antagonist: The antagonist is a force, entity or person that gets in the way of the character getting what he or she wants.  The antagonist does not have to be human, nor must it even be a sentient being.  Antagonists can be “bad guys” but they can also be natural disasters, an oppressive society or even the protagonist himself.  The antagonist is the protagonist’s worst enemy within the context of the story.  This means that someone or something that is an antagonist in the story may not necessarily be evil or even all that antagonizing in another context.  For instance, the storm in The Perfect Storm is the antagonist for the men on the boat, but for the people on shore, sure it’s a big scary storm but it’s not really an antagonist.

Another example is the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire in which the story of Oz is told through the point of view of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.  In the original story of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is the protagonist and the wicked witch is the antagonist.  In Wicked, Elphaba becomes the protagonist, the character we root for and the Wizard (among others) become the antagonists.

There are six basic types of antagonists.  Notice that of all these options, only the first one constitutes an actual villain as the antagonist.

• Protagonist vs. Another Character (villain)
• Protagonist vs. Nature
• Protagonist vs. Society
• Protagonist vs. Technology
• Protagonist vs. Supernatural Forces
• Protagonist vs. Self

Villain: The villain is a character who is at odds with the protagonist.  This character specifically wants to prevent the protagonist from getting what he or she wants.  While it’s tempting to paint villain characters as pure evil, it is far more compelling when a villain has a streak of good.  Even more so, when the author shows the motivation behind the villain’s actions, the reader is able to understand why the villain is in conflict with the protagonist.  Villains are not usually all-bad, they’re just misunderstood.

Just like the Bad Cat, whose behavior has vastly improved after some treats and playtime with the mouse-toy.

Your prompt: Collect three ‘Story Sparks’ every day for a week.

By ‘story sparks’ I’m not talking about a fleshed out story idea, nor even a lesson you want the story to impart, or a fully-realized setting or character.

I’m talking about one-liners, flashes of memories, five-word character sketches, overheard lines from conversations, an arresting photo you saw online… any little thing that could be a spark for a story.

I want you to commit to doing three a day in order to create a habit that feeds itself*. When you begin looking for new creative ideas every day, you train to brain to start looking for them everywhere, subconsciously. If you know you have committed to finding three story sparks today, you will start to listen to the woman in front of you in the supermarket line; you will pay attention to the little girl twirling in the falling cherry blossoms – how she holds her arms, what she does with her feet, her face; you will listen to the way you retell an incident that happened to you and wonder if that might make a good story for a character.

Not only will you come out of the week with 21 sparks for stories, you’ll have turned on your writer brain, the one that notices and stores up details for later use.

*(If you need help making yourself stick to new habits, check out BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits.)

Keeping Your Sparks

Faced with a blank screen, it’s hard to remember what had you feeling so creative when you were walking home yesterday. So write your story sparks down in the sketchiest way you can (three words, one sentence, quickly, quickly) and store them somewhere you can retrieve them.

If you like to write on paper, that’s great – as long as you keep to one notebook, so you don’t lose myriad scraps of paper.

I always carry my phone, so I’ve started keeping my story sparks in a big long text document on that. I keep it simple because, for me, nothing kills a creative idea faster than trying to classify it.

If you lack my irrational fear of organizational systems, a good option is to create a Google docs form and create a link to it right on your smart phone. Create a text-paragraph field that you can type your story spark into. Optionally, create keyword fields that can help you find the idea again later (e.g. for the girl dancing in the cherry blossoms, you could write about that, but also put ‘cherry blossom’ ‘young girl’ ‘spring’ ‘joy’ into the keyword fields). The advantages of capturing your ideas this way are that:

• You have access to them everywhere,
• The form automatically date-stamps your story spark for you,
• Google automatically stores your ideas in a spreadsheet which is certainly simpler to search through and organize than my clunky text file.

Care and Feeding of Your Story Sparks

When it comes time to write, use your story sparks as just that: sparks.

Sit and look at your story spark for a while. Put yourself back in the place where you decided it could be the spark of a story. Don’t rush this. Think about the line and who spoke it, the character, the memory, or the image. Think about whose story it belongs to. What are they like? What do they want?

At this point you can start writing or outlining (depending on your style) and you’re off.

But don’t forget to keep collecting more story sparks.

Will you collect 3 story sparks a day for the next week?

Enter Corey Brown: a fellow member of the Quill & Coffee writing group, an excellent writer, and a good friend.  When it comes to short fiction, Corey’s also the most well-read person I know and his knowledge of short fiction ranges from classics to obscure gems that make me wonder “where has this story been all my life?“

I would have listed the obvious choices: Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to FInd,” Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” or Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral.”  Corey’s list is much more interesting.  When I asked him what was the hardest part of putting this list together, he said: “Stressing about who wasn’t on the list.”  I hear you, Corey.

Now without further delay, here’s this month’s suggested reading list, compiled by Corey Brown.

So many stories! How does one truly find the time to read them all? Well, one story at a time. For me, I devour short stories daily. They bring me great joy and inspire me to get to the real task at hand—writing.

The world is not lacking in short stories, perhaps maybe readers. Oftentimes, short stories, I think, don’t get the same level of respect as the novel, but there are a lot of gems out there. And no: this is not a definitive list. Yes—these writers, plus several more not listed have influenced in me some way: Donald Ray Pollock, A.M. Homes, Flannery O’Connor, James Franco, Miranda July, ZZ Packer, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Annie Proulx, Clive Barker, Chuck Palahniuk and…you!

Where is your gem of a short story for the world to read and celebrate? After seeking out these writers and their work, command your talent to the page. For a writer writes.

A writer also reads. In this particular case, short stories.  Here’s a list to get your started:

Short Fiction Suggested Reading
(Elements of craft represented by these stories are in italics.)

Aimee Bender, “Night Trilogy.”  Style / Point of View (POV)

Truman Capote, “Miriam.”  Dialogue / Character / Plot.

Dan Chaon, “Shepherdess.”   Plot / Structure / Style.

E.L. Doctorow, “Edgemont Drive.”  Dialogue / Character / Style.

Lisa Glatt, “What Milton Heard.”  Character / POV / Voice

Patricia Highsmith, “A Mighty Nice Man.”  Dialogue / Character / Plot

Shirley Jackson, “Mrs. Anderson.”  Dialogue / Character.

Stephen King, “The Gingerbread Girl.” Plot / Structure / Style.

Ander Monson, “To Reduce Your Likelihood Of Murder.”  Style / Voice.

Alice Munro, “Free Radicals.”  Dialogue / Character / Plot.

Joyce Carol Oates, “Wolf’s Head Lake.”  Tone / Mood / Voice / POV.

Davy Rothbart, “How I Got Here.”  POV / Character / Voice.

Joy Williams, “Charity.” Plot / Dialogue.