Spoiler Alert! This movie came out in 1977, so it’s been around for a long time. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?!? There will be spoilers in this article, so don’t read on unless you’ve watched the film or don’t care about spoilers. Got it? Cool. Okay, let’s dive into our analysis of Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

ACT 1: One of the things that is most significant about the opening of this film is that it starts in medias res (i.e., in the middle of things). We get a little bit of backstory, which appears on screen as rolling text, but then we’re immediately thrown into a space battle between an imperial Star Destroyer and a small Corellian Corvette. There are laser blasts flying left and right and eventually, the smaller ship gets captured.

In the next scene, we are on the Corellian Corvette, watching as the crew desperately tries to defend the ship from the invading stormtroopers and the main antagonist, Darth Vader. Before being captured, Princess Leia (of the rebellion) manages to put some information into a small droid, R2-D2. That droid, along with his counterpart C-3PO, get into an escape pod and fly down to Tatooine, the planet below where the ships are fighting. On Tatooine, the droids get picked up by a sandcrawler filled with Jawas, who ultimately sell them to a moisture farmer.

CHARACTER: Luke Skywalker is a young moisture farmer, living on Tatooine with his aunt and uncle. He dreams of leaving the desolate planet for adventures in the stars, but his uncle insists that it’s too dangerous and he’s better off staying home.

VOICE: As with Die Hard, because this is a film and not a book, there isn’t really a voice. It’s more like a mood. We get the sense that this is an elaborate story, with a lot of moving parts and interesting characters. From the first moment, we get a feeling of adventure and excitement about the story.

WORLD: This is an elaborate world, with many different planets and bits and pieces of lore. In Act 1 we only get a small taste of this world, but already we can tell that it sprawls far beyond the tiny slice we get at the beginning of the story.

PROBLEM: Luke wants to go to the Imperial Academy to learn how to be a pilot. His uncle insists he needs to stay one more season to help on the farm.

EVENT: Luke’s uncle buys the two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, not knowing about their background and ties to the rebellion.

R2-D2 insists he is on a mission to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, to whom he must deliver a message. While Luke is at dinner, R2-D2 runs away into the desert. Unable to go after R2-D2 after dark, Luke must wait until morning, at which time he and C-3PO go searching. They find R2-D2 in a valley and get ambushed by sand people. Luke is injured but the sand people are scared away by a loud noise made by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan helps Luke and takes him back to his house. Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father and gives him his father’s lightsaber. He also views the message from the princess and tells Luke that he must come with him to the planet Alderaan to deliver the droid (and the secret plans it contains) to the rebellion. Luke says he can’t.

PIVOT POINT 1:  They leave and in the desert they find a destroyed sandcrawler—the same one that sold the droids to Luke and his uncle. Obi-Wan says that it must have been Imperial troops that destroyed the sandcrawler. Worried for his aunt and uncle, Luke takes his landspeeder back home only to find his home destroyed and his aunt and uncle killed. There is nothing keeping him on Tatooine now, so Luke agrees to go with Obi-Wan.

ACT 2:  At this point in the story, we shift gears into “spaceships and monsters” mode. We meet new characters, see all sorts of different alien species, and spend a fair amount of time flying around in space. Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids go to Mos Eisley spaceport, where they look for a ship to take them to Alderaan. There, they meet Han Solo and his co-pilot, Chewbacca (a Wookiee). They hire their ship, the Millennium Falcon, to go to Alderaan, but as they are leaving the spaceport, they get chased by stormtroopers. Once they leave Tatooine, they manage to evade the Imperial ships surrounding the planet by making a jump to light speed.

Meanwhile, back with Princess Leia in captivity with Darth Vader, she gets taken to the Death Star and handed over to Grand Moff Tarkin, who asks her to reveal the location of the hidden rebel base. When she refuses, he threatens to destroy Alderaan. Leia lies and gives the location of an abandoned rebel base. Tarkin tells the Death Star to fire on Alderaan anyway, destroying the planet.

Back with Luke en route to Alderaan, Obi-Wan teaches him the ways of the “Force” and trains him on how to use the lightsaber. Han Solo insists that the “Force” is hokum and that he’d rather depend on his blaster. They finally arrive at Alderaan only to find the planet isn’t there.

SUPPORTING CAST:  Act 2 is where we see a lot of the supporting characters come into their own. These characters get increasingly more important, and the story goes from focusing primarily on Luke to being more of an ensemble cast.

PRINCESS LEIA: Leading up to her rescue, Leia appears in only a few short scenes, but already we can tell she is a force to be reckoned with. She is a strong character with a powerful ability to withstand the various forms of “persuasion” Darth Vader uses to pry the information he wants from her. She is good with a blaster and has a keen mind when it comes to battle strategy. She might be a princess but she’s certainly not a damsel in distress.

HAN SOLO: This guy is a rogue who’s not above shooting first if the situation calls for it. We get hints that he’s got money problems, and in a short scene we discover he is in debt to the mobster Jabba the Hutt. He’s a great pilot who knows a lot about how to fly (and how to get out of sticky situations), but unlike Luke—who’s fairly innocent and sees the world as black and white—Han is all about the grey areas.

OBI-WAN KENOBI: The wisened mentor, Obi-Wan, has been through a lot. He fought in the Clone Wars and lost his best friend, Anakin Skywalker, when he was killed by Darth Vader. By the time we meet him in this story, we get the sense that Obi-Wan is tired and that this is likely to be his last adventure. 

DARTH VADER: He might seem imposing with his big, scary helmet, but in this story, Darth Vader is not the main source of evil. You could probably point to the Death Star as the primary antagonist, with Grand Moff Tarkin as the human stand-in primary villain and Vader as more of his second-in-command. We get the sense that Vader is a bit impulsive and quick to anger, often choking people first and asking questions later. As the series progresses, Vader becomes a more complex character, but in this film he is just a straight-up “bad guy.”

CHEWBACCA, C-3PO, and R2-D2: These three round out the group on the Millennium Falcon, and they are primarily used as comic relief.

W.O.R.S.T.: As the story progresses, things get worse and worse for Luke and his friends.

WANT: Luke does not start out wanting to be part of the rebellion, but slowly events unfold that pull him more and more into the role of a rebel. At first, he just wants to take the secret plans on R2-D2 to Alderaan. Once he realizes that the planet is destroyed and the Millennium Falcon gets captured by the Death Star, Luke’s primary motivation is survival. Once on the Death Star, he discovers that the princess is there, so his goal shifts to rescuing her. Finally, once they make a successful rescue and get away from the Death Star, Luke gets fully pulled into the rebellion and helps lead the attack on the battle station.

OBSTACLE: The primary obstacle in this story is the Death Star itself. It starts out in the background, with only a few scenes taking place on it. Once Alderaan is destroyed, however, the battle station becomes more prominent, first as something that Luke and his friends need to escape, then later as something they need to destroy.

RISK: Once Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed, he has very little left to lose. They were his only family, and there was nothing else keeping him on Tatooine. When they get captured by the Death Star, he is willing to risk his own life in order to rescue the princess and escape with his friends.

STAKES: The stakes become clear once we find out what the Death Star can do. It’s a battle station that can destroy an entire planet in a single blast. Unless this power is eliminated, no planet will be safe from the Empire.

TRANSFORMATION: Luke’s transformation is relatively subtle in this film. We know from the beginning that he’s a pretty decent pilot, but in the grand finale of the movie we see just how skilled he really is. We also discover that the Force runs strong in his family (his father was a Jedi) and by the end of the film, he has begun to learn how to channel the Force and use it to defeat the Empire.

MIDPOINT: The midpoint of the story is the moment the Millennium Falcon comes out of light speed at Alderaan’s location only to find a bunch of debris and no planet in sight. In the distance, they see a “small moon” that turns out to be the Death Star. This moment is a Temporary Triumph in that it appears Luke and his friends have succeeded in their mission, only to realize that the planet they seek isn’t there.

Because this is an action-adventure story, there isn’t a whole lot of introspection at this moment, but we do get a hint of it when the Millennium Falcon gets trapped in the Death Star’s tractor beam and Luke says, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

The rest of Act 2 consists of Luke and his friends working together to escape the Death Star and rescue the princess from the prison block. In the process, they have to impersonate stormtroopers, get caught in a garbage compactor, and eventually blast their way free of the battle station. 

PIVOT POINT 2: After turning off the tractor beam, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader have a lightsaber duel in which Obi-Wan allows himself to get killed, saying: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Luke witnesses Obi-Wan’s death and is distraught, but he has no time for grief. Instead, he has to jump into one of the Millennium Falcon’s gunner chairs and help Han Solo shoot down TIE fighters so they can escape. This is the moment when Luke first begins to embrace his role as a part of the Rebellion.

ACT 3: The third act of this film is one of the most epic in all of storytelling because there’s not one, but multiple overlapping rules of 3. How awesome is that? But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In Act 3, Luke and his friends arrive at the secret rebel base and analyze the plans R2-D2 is carrying. It turns out that while the Death Star seems impenetrable, it does have one small weakness, which they can exploit. Because the Death Star is built for large-scale attacks, it’s not prepared for small ships approaching it. This means the rebels can send in single-person fighters to fly down a trench until they find a small shaft where they can send proton torpedoes, causing a chain reaction that would destroy the entire battle station. Luke immediately volunteers to go on the mission while Han Solo decides to leave with Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon.

Act 3 of the three-act structure generally has three components, which I call the 3Cs. These are: crisis, climax, and closure (or denouement). The crisis is the build-up leading to the climax. The climax is the grand finale scene where the central conflict of the story comes to a head. Finally, the closure (or denouement) is the “sigh of relief” following the climax.

CRISIS: This is one of my favorite parts of this film because we have multiple overlapping Rules of 3. As the small ships approach the Death Star, they attack in groups of three. In fact, we see three separate runs where a group of three ships attacks the battle station. The first run includes three Y-wings from Gold Group that attempt to destroy the Death Star and fail. The second group to make the run is a subset of Red Group (the group Luke is part of) and consists of three X-wings. The third group is also from Red Group and includes Luke, his best friend Biggs from Tatooine, and a third pilot called Wedge. The first two groups of fighters get shot down, so it is up to Luke and his group to destroy the battle station.

The overlapping Rules of 3 work as follows. We have three groups of ships and the first two groups fail while the third (Luke’s group) succeeds. In addition, Luke’s group consists of three ships. Two of the three ships are unable to complete the mission, but the third ship (Luke’s) is finally successful.

CLIMAX: After the first two groups of ships are destroyed, we have Luke’s climactic run to destroy the Death Star. We have three pilots attempting to complete this run. Wedge is the first to be eliminated, though he does not die; his ship is damaged and he is unable to help the others so he retreats. Next, we have Biggs, who is covering Luke from Darth Vader (in his special bent-wing TIE Fighter) along with two other enemy ships. Biggs is able to hold the enemy off for a while, but eventually he is shot down. Finally, we have Luke, who at first tries to use the targeting computer to aim the torpedoes. Then he hears Obi-Wan’s voice telling him to “use the Force” so he turns off his computer and follows his instincts.

Just as he’s about to shoot, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter closes in. But before Vader is able to shoot at Luke, the Millennium Falcon appears and shoots at Vader’s ship, sending it flying off into space. Luke aims and the torpedoes go into the shaft. The Death Star explodes as the remaining rebel ships fly away.

ENDING TYPE: This is a happy ending. While Luke doesn’t start out trying to destroy the Death Star (he doesn’t even know it exists), he does want to stand up to the Empire. Once he realizes what the Death Star can do, his goal becomes to destroy it, which he does, making this a Happy Ending. He gets what he wants (to stand up to the Empire) and still wants it.

We could argue that this film is also a Change of Heart ending because Luke’s goal does shift as the story progresses. That said, because his underlying goal (standing up to the Empire) stays the same throughout the film, I would still call this a Happy Ending instead.

DENOUEMENT: The film ends with a scene back on the 4th moon of Yavin, where the rebel base is located. All the rebels have congregated in what appears to be a temple of sorts. The Princess is at the front and Luke, Han Solo, and Chewbacca walk up the aisle toward her. She awards Luke and Han medals. We see that the droids are repaired and happy (R2-D2 had been damaged in the Death Star battle). Everyone applauds and the credits roll.

CONCLUSION: This film is a great example of how to use the Rule of 3 to build tension in the crisis and climax of a story. In this case we have multiple Rules of 3 in play: the three groups of ships attacking the Death Star, each group containing three ships. This means that each run down the Death Star trench is like a little mini-Rule of 3. Then, of course, we also have the final group of three ships which includes Luke, and ultimately is able to destroy the battle station.

We could also argue that we have rules of 3 with various groupings of characters. For example, on Tatooine, we have Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids (who operate as a unit in most scenes). Later when we are in the Death Star and the characters are rescuing the princess, we have Luke, Leia, and Han Solo as the primary characters. Yes, we also have Chewbacca, but in the Death Star escape section of this film, he acts almost as an extension of Han rather than a separate character in his own right.

So, in the end, we have Rules of 3 surrounding the plot structure as well as Rules of 3 in terms of character groupings, making this film a wonderful example of the many ways the Rule of 3 might come into play in a story.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Three-Act Analysis of Star Wars IV: A New Hope appeared first on DIY MFA.

Early Decisions with Long-Term Impact

When we write, we often have our eyes on what’s right in front of us: the current project or even the current chapter. What we often don’t realize is that decisions we make right now with one project might have a ripple effect long after that project is done.

For example, when I first started DIY MFA, I had the opportunity to submit my Masters thesis for a contest. I decided to opt-out of the contest altogether because I had too much on my plate getting DIY MFA off the ground. I can’t help wondering, however, whether that choice to put DIY MFA ahead of my fiction writing hasn’t had a long-term impact on my writing career, pushing me in one direction rather than another.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my work at DIY MFA, but I’d be lying if I said that it afforded me tons of time for writing. That early decision to put DIY MFA ahead of my fiction has had a ripple effect that has lasted until now and will probably continue well into the future.

The same is true with renovations. It boggles my mind that we haven’t even started on demolition yet and already I have had to make choices about what tiles go in the bathroom or what the lighting in the living room will look like. Of course, I understand that there are things that have to happen at the gut level of a living space (electrical and plumbing, for example) that have a ripple effect on everything else. Still, it blows my mind that I’m making choices now that I’ll have to live with for thirty or forty years. It’s a little bit terrifying, to be honest.

Similarly, at the draft level of a book project, we might make choices early on that will have an impact far beyond what we would expect. Suppose you decide to combine two characters into one, or you choose to have your character do one thing instead of another, those things can change the entire shape of a story. Think of the movie Sliding Doors, where the story explores what happens when one simple twist of fate—making a subway or missing it altogether—can have a huge impact on a story’s direction.

Realizing that small decisions can have a massive impact can sometimes leave us stuck in our tracks. We become so afraid of making the wrong choice that we don’t make any choice at all and our story flounders. In the words of Maimonides, “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” This means that sooner or later we have to take the leap and make a choice or risk being stuck in decision-making limbo forever.

The thing to remember is that unlike home improvements, that messy first draft is supposed to be in flux. Sure, we might make the wrong choice at first, but we can always backtrack, something that’s not quite so easy to do when it comes to construction. Rather than think we are locked into our choices, we must think of that messy first draft as an experiment, where we try out different ideas to see what works. Then we can always course-correct down the road.

Understand Gut-Level Structure

I’m not a contractor, an architect, or an engineer. I don’t understand the inner workings of construction, but with this renovation I’ve had to develop a basic working knowledge of how things are put together. This means being able to look at construction drawings and make sense of what I see. It means trying to visualize what the finished product might look like, even if I don’t have an example in front of me. It also means having a basic understanding of the timeline and what steps need to come at what different points in the process.

The same is also true with writing. We may not need to be experts on the three-act structure and know all the story beats down to the scene-by-scene level, but we need to have a basic sense of what comes first and what comes later in the story trajectory. Whether we are plotters and like to plan every inch of a novel, or we are a pantsers and write by the seat of our pants, there are certain fundamental storytelling elements that we need to know. These are:

Act 1: The Status Quo. Whether your Act 1 is only a few chapters long or takes up half the novel, the purpose of it is to establish the status quo. The idea is to give the reader a sense for what “normal” is like for your main character, so that when you shake things up, the reader will notice the difference. This is important because it bakes the idea of transformation right into the heart of your story.

Pivot Point 1: The Point of No Return. At some point in the story, some external event will happen that will force the character’s hand and push them to make a choice. That choice often operates as a one-way door, where once the character makes it, they can’t go back to how things were. Think of Katniss Everdeen volunteering to take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games, or Dorothy’s house getting picked up by the tornado and plunked down in Oz. Once these events happen, the character can’t go back the way they came, they can only move forward.

Act 2: The Quest. This part of the story is where you deliver on the premise. If your story is about a girl magically plunked down in a strange new world called Oz, then this is where you have her exploring that world and making new friends. If the story is about a girl fighting in a tournament called The Hunger Games, then this is the part where the games play themselves out. Act 2 can be as short as a third of your book and as long as 80-90%. Really it’s all about what you need to happen in your story and how much space those plot events will require. Just keep in mind that the longer you make Act 2, the shorter Acts 1&3 will have to be. Also, remember that it can feel like a long slog to get through Act 2—there’s a reason some people call it the “muddle in the middle.”

Pivot Point 2: Dark Night of the Soul. At some point, the character must hit their lowest point. Things need to get bad before they can get better, and this is the darkest moment before things turn around. At this point, the character must legitimately feel that it’s okay for them to give up. (Of course they don’t give up, but it has to feel plausible.)

Act 3: The Ending. This is the point where things start ramping up and building momentum toward the climax. The Climax is the scene where the central conflict of the story comes to a head and gets decided one way or another. Either Katniss wins the Hunger Games, or she does not. Either Dorothy gets back home to Kansas or she does not. The climax is where we get a sense of resolution.

This is the basic foundation of how stories are built, but this structure should not be constraining. Think of it as a basic framework… like a floorplan. Different apartments might have the exact same floor plan, but it’s the design and detail that gives a space its own unique flair. Similarly, this basic structure can serve as a guide while still giving the writer ample space to build their story their way. Just as in home improvements it’s important to understand basic structural concepts, the same is true with writing as well. The three-act structure can serve as a framework for us to build something magical.

Hurry Up and Wait

I’ve talked about the publishing process in the past and the realities of what it takes to get a book out on the market. One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that the pace of publishing is weird. One minute you’re scrambling to make a deadline, the next you’re stuck waiting for months before you get any updates. We can sum up the pace of publishing with one phrase: “Hurry up and wait.”

The same is true with home improvements. It can feel like the construction is dragging on forever, and then the next minute you have to scramble to make some fast decisions or else you’ll hold up the whole process. Publishing and home improvements both require us to become phenomenal jugglers, being able to hop from one task to another without missing a beat.

When I first published the DIY MFA book, I got flustered with this feast or famine timeline. Why couldn’t things get planned more slowly and methodically? Why did I always have to drop everything and rush? Of course, what I didn’t realize is that just as I was having to hurry up and wait on my side, everyone else who was part of the process also had to do the same thing.

When you have a lot of different moving parts to a project and each section is done by a different person, everyone has to hurry up and wait or the whole process would grind to a halt. Yes, it means that sometimes you have to drop everything and focus on that one thing that demands your attention right now, but once your step is done and you hand things off to the next person and take a breath… at least until you have to hurry up and wait again.

Everything’s a Mess… Until It’s Not

When I was 14, my parents decided to renovate their living room, dining room, and kitchen all with us still living in the apartment. It was a fiasco. If you’ve ever gone through a major renovation while still living in the place, you know exactly what I’m talking about. We ate nothing but takeout for months on end. Everything was covered in dust. Plus, my parents wanted to redo the living/dining room floors so we had to walk across those areas on planks like it was something out of a pirate movie.

Home improvements are messy and you have to make a mess before you can clean things up and make it all look beautiful. The same is true with writing. That first draft you write is going to be garbage. It will be embarrassingly terrible, and that’s okay because it gives you a starting point where you can build something wonderful. That first draft doesn’t have to be pretty. It just has to do one thing: Exist.

Other forms of art—like sculpture, pottery, even painting—have raw materials. You have stone and clay to shape or empty canvases to fill. In writing, we need to create our own raw material and this is our first draft or “draft zero.” The raw material doesn’t exist before we make it, and we have to embrace the fact that this initial draft will be a complete mess. The artistry comes from what we do with that mess, how we shape it and mold it and make it beautiful.

Remember, writing is a slow and steady process. A book doesn’t get written in a day and it’s all about putting in a consistent effort, one word at a time. So keep taking those baby steps and in a few months, you’ll see the miles of progress you’ve made. 

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How Home Improvements Are Like Writing a Book appeared first on DIY MFA.

Here’s what I realized: If we chop the story and cut off the narrative at the moment of the climax, we leave the reader with one very unsatisfying ending. The purpose of the climax is to answer the major dramatic question (MDQ) of the story, the question that drives the story forward and gives it momentum. The denouement, on the other hand, provides follow-through that gives context to the MDQ’s answer, in addition to giving the story closure. In other words, while the climax answers the MDQ, the denouement answers the question: “So what? What was the whole point of this story anyway?”

Consider the moment of the climax in The Hunger Games. This is the moment when we discover whether Katniss Everdeen manages to survive those horrific Games. Now imagine the story cut off right at that climactic moment when Katniss and Peeta are about to eat the poison berries. Think about how frustrating it would feel for the reader if the story ended at that moment and we didn’t get those few key scenes that follow. Sure, we would know that Katniss survives, but that survival doesn’t really mean anything if we don’t have the denouement.

The denouement provides follow-through. Different stories have different lengths of denouement. In cozy mysteries, for example, the denouement might only be one short scene after the sleuth reveals whodunnit. In some romance, the denouement may not even happen in the story proper, but may be included as an epilogue where the story flashes forward and we see the couple after they have been in the relationship for some time.

Consider our example of The Hunger Games above. In this book, we get one additional chapter after the scene with the berries. In this chapter, Katniss and Peeta are interviewed by the talk show host, Caesar Flickerman, in the Capitol and Katniss has to try her best not to anger President Snow more than she already has. This chapter gives us a sense of much-needed closure and raises the stakes for the ending, making us realize the potential consequences of Katniss and Peeta standing up to the Capitol. That chapter also ties up some—though not all—of the loose ends in the story.

Notice that though the book is the first in a trilogy, it still has a denouement. The denouement does not have to tie together every last detail and there are many questions still left unanswered, questions which get addressed in subsequent books of the series. The purpose of the denouement is to tie the story up enough so that we have a sense of closure. It also needs to make us feel as though the story and the characters extend beyond the pages of that one book. In other words, the purpose of the denouement is seemingly contradictory: while it provides closure, it also creates a feeling of expansiveness, as though the story could keep going on, even after we’ve put the book down.

The Meaning of the Denouement

If we look at the etymology of the word “denouement” we’ll find that it originates from the French verb “denouer” which means to untie or unknot. This is interesting because a lot of times when we think of endings, we think of tying up loose ends, but the truth is almost exactly the opposite. A true denouement is about release and expansion. It’s about untying the knots we’ve created in our story.

If you’ve ever watched Murder, She Wrote, you know exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to the denouement. At the very end of every episode, after Jessica Fletcher has revealed whodunnit and the case has been closed, there’s always one last quick scene where Jessica and her friends sit around and talk. Most of the time they’re not even talking about the case, but simply discussing other life-related things. And the scene always ends with a freeze-frame of Jessica throwing her head back and laughing. This short scene is what makes it clear that Jessica and her friends are regular people, who have lives beyond solving murders. It’s what makes the story feel like it expands beyond the scope of the show.

If denouement is about unknotting, then the reveal about whodunnit would be that first pull when you’re trying to undo a particularly tight knot. That first pull puts the resolution into motion, but it doesn’t untie the knot entirely. The purpose of the denouement is to finish slackening that knot, to give us that feeling of freedom, such that the story isn’t all tied up but, rather, has a sense of relaxation at the end.

This concept of a denouement may seem to be something of a contradiction. After all, how can you “tie up loose ends” and also “unknot” a story at the same time. To me, this all comes down to that feeling of expansiveness, that idea that the world and the characters extend beyond the edges of the page and continue on long after we have stopped reading. The denouement provides that feeling of loosening. It’s that “sigh of relief” that gives the story closure while also making it feel as though the world and characters can live on in our imaginations.

Denouement in Marketing

The denouement is not just something we see in storytelling; it happens in marketing as well. In any marketing campaign, the climax is that moment when the customer finally makes the purchase. In terms of book sales, this might be the point where a customer brings your book to the cash register and takes their credit card from their wallet. Or maybe it’s the moment when they pull your book from a library shelf, or click the “place order” button via an online retailer.

You would think the story ends there, but it doesn’t. Sure, the customer has made their purchase, so we may wonder why we need to worry about what comes next. The truth is that the story isn’t over at the climax or point of sale. In fact, that’s only the beginning. Just as your customer goes on a journey from when they first discover you to that moment when they buy your book, they also start a whole new journey once they’ve made that purchase. In other words, they go from being a prospective customer on their journey to the point of sale, to starting a new journey where they go from being a recent customer to potentially becoming a superfan of your work.

That start of the new journey is the denouement of the previous journey, meaning that the two journeys overlap slightly. Just as the denouement in storytelling gives us a sense of expansiveness and makes us feel like the story extends beyond the page, so too does the denouement in marketing create a similar feeling. In the latter case, we know the story keeps going because the customer is beginning a whole new journey.

Denouement in Life

In life, we often experience moments when one chapter ends and a new chapter begins. In early May, I shared that my beloved Office Cat had gone to what we in the DIY MFA household dub the “giant tuna buffet in the sky.” She was with me for almost twenty-one years (which is about 100 in “cat years”) and saw me through many life transitions, from the birth of both of my two kids to the start of DIY MFA. While I felt tremendous grief that the chapter with Office Cat had ended, I also held out hope that her story didn’t end then and that there would be some continuation “beyond the page” where I might see her again.

And although no other creature could ever take Office Cat’s place in my heart, I looked ahead with anticipation and hope to give another cat a forever home. To that end, we brought home a new member of our family.

This new kitty is super-sweet and affectionate. She clearly picked us, because when we came to her cage at the shelter, she practically jumped into my arms. We could tell right away that she was meant to be part of our family. She loves sitting on the windowsill, soaking up sunshine and watching the world go by. She also purrs constantly and has the cutest little high-pitched mew. As with all members of our family, this cat has an online nickname and we’ve dubbed her Office Cat 2.0. We’re still adjusting to our new family dynamic, and I’ll keep you posted on how that process develops.

Just as the denouement creates a sense of expansiveness and makes it feel as though the story extends beyond the page, so too does this new kitty open up new possibilities in our lives and make it feel as though a new chapter is beginning.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: The Importance of the Denouement appeared first on DIY MFA.

You see, I believe that most stories have one—and only one—main character. I say most stories because there are some exceptions. For example, many romance stories involve two protagonists who make up the couple and the story is told equally from both characters’ perspectives. Regardless of whether there is one (or more than one) main character, the supporting characters still serve the same purpose: to support the journey of the protagonist(s).

One thing to keep in mind is that while supporting characters may not be the stars of your story’s show, they don’t know that. After all, no one wakes up in the morning and thinks: “Gee, I want to be a supporting character in someone else’s life today.” Every character believes they are the protagonist of their own life, which means they will behave according to their own motivations or desires. Yet, for the purpose of your specific story, the protagonist is the star and all other characters exist to support that character’s journey.

So, why do we need supporting characters, anyway? Why not just focus all of our attention on the protagonist? There are a few reasons why stories need supporting characters, but they all boil down to the way these characters support the development of the main character.

(1) They prevent the story from getting boring.

A story with no supporting characters could be extremely boring if not done well. In fact, even in a story where the character is alone for most of the time, it can help to have a supporting character. Consider the film Castaway, for example. Even though the protagonist is stranded on an island, he’s not completely alone. He has Wilson, the volleyball that he personifies and turns into a “friend.” Not only does Wilson help keep the protagonist from losing his mind, but he also serves as a supporting character of sorts and keeps the story interesting. 

(2) They have backstories and goals.

Supporting characters are characters in their own right. Fully fleshed out supporting characters bring with them a history and at least one goal, and these are different from those of the protagonist. These elements can lead to subplots that add depth and dimension to your story. When you explore where your supporting characters have come from (history) and where they want to go (goal), you can potentially uncover material for an interesting subplot. 

(3) They give us an alternate view of the protagonist.

When supporting characters interact with the protagonist, they give us a new perspective on that main character. Note that we do not necessarily need to experience the story from the supporting character’s point of view. Simply by bouncing the two characters off each other, we get a more objective view of the protagonist because we see them in relation to that supporting character. When characters interact, we see a side of the protagonist that we may not have seen otherwise.

(4) They give the protagonist the opportunity to grow.

Supporting characters bring their own set of motivations and these motivations are different from those of the protagonist. When a supporting character’s motivations are at odds with the protagonist’s, we get tension, which in turn keeps the story interesting. Supporting characters’ motivations will affect how they behave, which means that even when they are trying to help the protagonist, they might actually create conflict instead. This conflict gives the protagonist the opportunity to develop and grow as a character.

(5) They have specific roles in the story.

Different supporting characters play different roles in a story. The antagonist exists primarily to cause trouble for the protagonist, while allies are often used to raise the stakes or bring out a specific side of the protagonist’s personality. Advisor characters can sometimes provide much-needed information to the protagonist or fill in parts of the backstory. Some supporting characters don’t even need to appear on the page in order to have an impact on the story. The key to remember is that different types of supporting characters serve different functions and contribute to the story in different ways.

One question that a lot of writers wonder about is regarding the number of supporting characters. How many is too many? And when you have a large supporting cast, what should you do? The truth is, there is no hard and fast rule for how many characters you should have; it should be whatever number your story needs. The key is to consider the roles your characters play. If you have multiple characters that fill the same purpose, maybe you can fold them together into one composite character. Keep in mind that you can have one character serve multiple functions in your story, e.g. a mentor character who turns out to be the villain, or a BFF who eventually becomes the love interest.

In terms of managing a large supporting cast, there are techniques that authors use to help readers get a handle on who’s who. For example, some stories (like a family saga) might provide a family tree or other type of diagram so the reader understands who the characters are and how they are related to each other. Or in other cases, the author might list the characters along with their pictures so the reader gets a sense for who they are. An example of the latter would be Karen Hesse’s novel-in-poems Witness. The important thing is that readers understand who the characters are and how they relate to each other. After all, any moment when the reader is wondering, “who is this person?” is a moment when they get pulled out of the story. Ultimately, the goal is to keep the reader immersed in the story as much as possible.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Supporting Characters – The Unsung Heroes of Storytelling appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. You hit a point of burnout and your creativity fizzles
2. Your non-writing life is full-to-the-brim and your writing gets squeezed out
3. You are multi-passionate and have a hard time focusing on one project
4. A looming deadline has got you stuck and shaking in your boots
5. Something with your health (or mental health) is impeding your writing
6. You’re just not “in the mood”

In the last Writer Fuel, I talked about creative burnout, which is the first item on the above list. While the techniques I’m about to share may not help with all the creative struggles mentioned above, they can help with creative burnout, when we’ve lost that “writing feeling” and we’re just not in the mood to put pen to page. These are all techniques that I’ve used at various points in my writing career, and while no one technique is a cure-all, using a few of them in concert can help get you out of a writing rut and get you back in the writing mood.

1) Create Writing Rituals

Perhaps one of the best ways to get yourself in that writing mood is to create a ritual around it. I know writers who light a scented candle before they begin a writing session. Others might have a special hat or accessory they wear when they’re writing. Some folks might even listen to a special writing playlist. 

Right now, my own writing ritual is that I like to brew a pot of tea and bring it to my desk so I can sip while I write. I’m especially loving the Literary Tea Collection from Simpson and Vail, with my favorite varieties being Jane Austen (obviously), William Shakespeare (of course!), and Edgar Allan Poe (why not?). These teas make me feel like I’m channeling my inner Austen, Shakespeare, or Poe and give me that extra kick of inspiration.

The point of writing rituals is that they need to be simple and quick to complete. If your ritual is too complex or takes too long, then that will only get in the way of your writing. Instead, you want it to be something fairly easy that you can build into your writing routine and do without thinking too hard.

It’s even better when these rituals tap into one or more of the five senses. This is because sensory cues create a visceral, almost automated response in us. They tell us: “Pay attention, writer! It’s time to get to work.” For me, the tea ritual fulfills all five senses. Taste, smell, and touch are obvious, but the teapot also serves as a visual cue and when my cup clinks against the saucer, it gives me a little auditory reminder that it’s time to work.

2) Use Classical Conditioning

The reason writing rituals work so well is because they can sometimes act as a form of classical conditioning. Let me explain. Remember Pavlov’s dogs? Pavlov, an experimental neurologist and physiologist, discovered that when he rang a bell and simultaneously fed his dogs, eventually the dogs would begin to salivate at the sound of the bell alone.

We can create a similar effect in ourselves as writers. If we pair a certain sensory cue with our writing practice, eventually just the presence of that cue will snap our brains into “writing mode.” The key to classical conditioning is pairing the sensory cue with the desired behavior enough times that the link between the two becomes automatic.

Also, you want to avoid using that same sensory cue for other behaviors aside from writing. For example, if you wear a special writing hat, you want to avoid wearing that same hat in other contexts. This creates a stronger association between writing and the hat.

Not all of your writing rituals will serve as a form of classical conditioning. My tea ritual, for example, doesn’t pass muster because I can’t just reserve tea-drinking for writing time alone. I must have my tea at all hours of the day! I can’t help myself. For this reason, my tea drinking is a ritual but it doesn’t create classical conditioning.

Instead, for classical conditioning I have used a writing playlist. When I was writing the DIY MFA book, I had a special playlist that I listened to every time I sat down to write. Seriously. Every. Single. Time. That playlist started with the song “Everything Is Awesome” from the Lego Movie and after a few weeks of listening to that music, as soon as that song would start to play, my brain would snap into writing mode and I’d find the words starting to flow.

3) Think Beyond Routine

When I’ve spent long periods of time writing, routine has been my best friend. When I wrote the DIY MFA book, I had a toddler and a baby at home, so I needed a routine to help me stay organized and motivated. I got into the rhythm of walking my son, Little Man, to preschool, then going to a coffee shop around the corner from his school. Then I would write, write, write until the time came to go pick him up. (I’ll admit, there were times when I got on such a roll with my writing that I had to sprint to get to pick-up on time!) That routine saw me through six or seven months of solid writing and it helped me get that book done.

That said, sometimes routine can get you into a rut. In those moments, the best thing you can do is break out of that routine altogether. So if you usually write at home, try writing in a coffee shop or library. If you listen to music when you write, try working in silence. Even something as simple as turning your writing chair so it faces a different direction can help rev up your creativity and give you a new perspective.

Keep in mind that rituals and routines are not mutually exclusive. You can still incorporate writing rituals while breaking out of routine. For example, one writer I know does a three-minute meditation before she starts writing. That meditation practice is 100% portable, so she can take it with her whether she’s writing at home, at the library, or somewhere else altogether. As you come up with your writing rituals, try to come up with something that you can take with you across different writing contexts or environments. This way, you can tap into the benefits of having a writing ritual while also being able to shake up your regular routine.

4) Clock in the Time

Sometimes the best tool in our arsenal is a good, old-fashioned clock. There are days when my writing mojo is completely gone, but I know I need to get some writing done. When that happens, I sit myself down at my desk and set a timer for 10 minutes. I don’t necessarily have to write during that time, but also I’m not allowed to do anything else. I can sit at my desk and stare into space, or I can start writing. Usually, I start writing out of sheer boredom.

Another way to use a clock to boost our writing is with the Pomodoro Technique. With this technique, you do one—and only one—task for 25 minutes, then take a five minute break. The key to making this technique work is training yourself not to do anything else during those 25 minutes. (I won’t even let myself get up to go to the bathroom! It’s just 25 minutes after all.) During the five minute break you can do whatever you want. Then when the timer rings, you go back into another 25-minute sprint.

A clock or timer can be a powerful tool, and these are just a couple of ways to use it with your writing. You can go old-school with a kitchen timer, or you can use the timer on your phone or mobile device. And if you want to try Pomodoro, there are some great mobile apps out there as well. My personal favorite is an app called “Focus Time.” Not only is it great for writing, but it’s also super-helpful in helping my kids practice their instruments.

5) Engage in Stealth Writing

My favorite thing to do to rev up my writing is to do it when I’m supposed to be doing something else. I call this “stealth writing” because I’m sneaking it in when I’m really meant to be working on something entirely different.

I first developed this habit in college, when I had to juggle a lot of different writing assignments for my various courses. I realized that if I worked on the assignment that was due next, I always found myself getting stuck. But if I worked on another project due later on, suddenly the words started flowing. The original assignment that was due sooner always seemed to get done somehow (it’s amazing how motivating last-minute panic can be!) but the benefit of this productive procrastination is that I would make headway on a later assignment, so when the time came to work on that, I already had some momentum.

As I write this newsletter, I’m actually supposed to be working on something else. I have a series of documents that need review and I have back-to-back meetings filling up my day. But, I’ve decided to sneak in some writing before reviewing those documents and also squeeze it in the downtime between meetings. Between all this stealth writing in fits and spurts, I’ve already eked out about 1,600 words. Not bad for a day when I thought I wouldn’t get any writing done.

Make Your Own “Best Practice”

One of our catch-phrases at DIY MFA is “There’s no such thing as a ‘best practice,’ just what works best for you.” Writing advice is not one-size-fits all. What works for one writer might not work for another. You have to try out the advice and determine whether it works for you.

This is true for all advice, including the techniques I’ve shared here today. Some of these tools will work for you, some might not, and that’s okay. What matters is that you find the right advice and put it into action. You can understand the techniques, but that knowledge is academic if you don’t apply it. Tools are meant to be used. They are meaningless if they stay stored up in the toolbox. So, choose the advice that’s useful to you, and implement it.

Most of the techniques I’ve shared here today focus on external factors, like when/where/how you write. But, it’s also important to consider internal conditions—your mindset, your emotional state, or other factors that are unique to you. Sure, external factors can give you the tools to unlock your writing potential, but the way you will make lasting change to your process is by internalizing these techniques and making them part of your regular repertoire.

Remember: there is no such thing as the “right mood” to write. You create that mood. So get going and create something awesome!

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How to Get in the Writing Mood appeared first on DIY MFA.

As I reflect on my own experience with burnout, it occurs to me that a lot of other writers might be facing a similar situation. I’ve certainly heard a few of my colleagues express that they were experiencing burnout, and I’m guessing some folks in our word nerd community might be going through that as well. Today, I want to share a few techniques I’ve been using to help me work through this creative drought and get back into the flow of writing and building creative things.

1) Take baby steps toward incremental progress.

As writers, we often like to dream big and set lofty goals. These ambitions can motivate us in times of creative flow, but when we face burnout they can feel overwhelming and unattainable. This is where baby steps come into play. Instead of focusing on the horizon, lately I’ve been looking just one or two steps ahead of where I am. Breaking big goals down into smaller, more manageable increments, is like chipping away at a mountain one pebble at a time. Each step doesn’t feel like much, but over the course of a few weeks or a month, you can see real progress happen.

I was once at a conference where a speaker said: “Dream big, execute small.” This phrase has since become a mantra for me. Yes, big goals are great, but in the end, these are no more than vaporous aspirations. It’s with the day-to-day action steps that true progress happens. Not only that, when you’re in a state of burnout, it’s a lot easier to focus on baby steps than a big, lofty goal.

It’s easy for us to ignore those incremental steps and focus our attention only on the end goal. The problem is, when we do that, everyday work can start to feel like a grind. This is why it’s so important not just to take baby steps, but to celebrate the small milestones as well as the big.

2) Zoom in on what lights you up.

This period of creative burnout has made me realize which aspects of my work I truly love, and I’ve made a commitment to myself to focus more on the parts of DIY MFA that light me up. My creative passions are twofold: I love building curriculum and I love working with writers on their books. On the other hand, the marketing and sales side of the business is really draining for me, as I’m sure it is for many writers.

For this reason, I’ve decided to step away from our bigger marketing and sales-related projects. We haven’t done a big course enrollment in almost six months and we’ve shifted our attention to smaller, one-off workshops where I can focus my energy more on building new material and less on the marketing and sales. I’ve also shifted my teaching focus primarily to the DIY MFA Members HUB, using that community as an outlet where I can flex my creative muscles and build new craft-related curriculum every month. If you’re interested in learning more about the HUB and getting notified when it reopens, click here.

In addition, I’ve been feeding my love of working with writers on their books by doubling down on my one-on-one book coaching. Because I can only take a few clients at a time, I don’t generally advertise that I do this work, but it’s probably one of my favorite parts of my work at DIY MFA. I love stepping into different stories and helping writers problem-solve and come up with new possibilities for their books. I love seeing the amazing progress that my clients have made. Milestones include getting book deals, publishing their work in prestigious magazines, and winning awards. 

As writers, we need to figure out what aspect of our work ignites our passion and we need to zoom in on the things that light us up. Whether it be crafting compelling characters, painting vivid settings, or weaving intricate plots, when we reach a point of creative drought, we must rediscover the elements that bring us joy and purpose. This is how we refuel our creativity.

3) Set constraints on what wears you down.

The creative life is full of ups and downs. Yes, there are moments of creative euphoria where we reach a state of flow and the words pour out of us as though channeled from a muse. Yet, not every part of writing is fun. We all have aspects of the process that we dislike or find draining, and while we can focus our energy on the things that light us up, sometimes we have to grit our teeth and do the not-fun stuff as well.

For me, the things that tire me out are short but intense writing projects, like crafting a newsletter or other in-depth email. In the past, I used to delegate some of this writing to my team, so I only had to write a long essay once every 4-6 weeks. Now that I have taken on all the writing myself, I have to get creative on demand and knock out an essay every 1-2 weeks. I still feel strongly that I need to be the one to write these newsletters and they have to get done, so the key has been finding a way to contain this project so as to minimize the stress.

What helps is to set constraints and limit the task to a set time frame. I set a “Writer Fuel day” every couple of weeks and on that day, I focus on just writing newsletters. Sometimes, I can knock out a couple of them in one sitting. Sometimes, I can barely get through one. But the point is that by containing the task to a specific time frame, it frees me up to not have to worry about it at other times. I do the same thing with marketing tasks, where I set aside a single day to work on a marketing campaign and just get it done once and for all. This approach helps to lower my stress because it means I don’t have these more challenging projects constantly looming over me. Setting constraints allows me to reclaim my creative energy and channel it toward the things that I truly love.

4) Find moments of quiet joy.

Creative burnout is a prickly beast, in particular because it leads to so much chaos and uncertainty in our lives. If we’re not sure where our next great idea is coming from, that can fill us with a sense of panic. We start to operate from a place of creative scarcity rather than abundance, and we start to work on whether this good idea will be the last one we’ll ever have.

In moments like these, it’s important to find hidden pockets of quiet joy. This joy can be related to our writing, or it can be something completely separate. For me, moments of quiet joy include knitting socks (you would not believe how many pairs of socks I own!), snuggling with Office Cat, or playing cards in the evenings with my kids.

I’ve also been on a massive tea kick lately; hubby gave me a sampler set for my birthday and I’ve been drinking 2-3 pots per day. I drink tea mostly while I’m writing and it adds that little extra bit of warmth to my day. The point is you need to find the little things that bring you joy, and weave them into your creative life.

Now, let me make one thing perfectly clear: self-care doesn’t solve everything. You can’t burst your way out of depression or revamp your mental health with a spa day. Still, these small bits of happiness can give you that extra boost of comfort you need to get through a challenging creative moment.

5) Use mindful distractions to keep stressful thoughts at bay.

Related to the previous point, sometimes the stress is so much that you just have to distract yourself. When that happens, I like to find distraction by burying myself in a good book (or two, or ten!). The more stressful life gets, the more “comfort food” I need on my reading menu.

Right now, I’m devouring romance novels and cozy mysteries because they’re the most comforting things to read. With romance I know there’s going to be a “happily ever after” and when real life gets stressful, I find it’s nice to read something where you know it will all turn out okay. The same is true with cozy mysteries. Yes, there’s usually a murder that spurs the story into motion, but we all know the sleuth will solve the crime in the end and the criminal will be brought to justice.

Some people find these genres too predictable and formulaic, but I find the structure of these books give me comfort. I know what to expect and I can trust the book to deliver. This is probably why I especially love reading series: it’s like coming home to old friends and I don’t have to meet a whole new cast of characters every time I start a new book.

Some years ago, I did an 8-month program of DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and one of the main things we discussed was the use of distraction as a way to get through tough moments. Of course, the goal is not to avoid the negative circumstances altogether; that would be illogical. Distraction is not an excuse, but rather a mindful choice. This is how I use reading. It’s not purely an escape, but instead serves as a brief respite from the stress of real life. 

6) Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Asking for help is not one of my finer qualities. I have a hard time admitting when I can’t do something and asking someone for help means coming to grips with the fact that I can’t do it on my own. Still, there are times when you need to lean on someone (or something) else. This might mean delegating some tasks that are outside your skillset, or using a tool to help you get something done faster and more easily.

For this particular essay, I decided to ask for help. In particular, I used an AI tool called Magic Bookifier to help me get the creative juices flowing. I fed the tool a five-point outline just to see how it would work and what the results would be. Truth be told, most of what it produced was not useful—I ended up not using 99%—but in a few small instances, it gave me an interesting turn of phrase that I could shape into something that was my own. But that wasn’t the most useful aspect of this tool.

The one big help this tool provided was that I didn’t have to face a blank page. For me, getting started is the hardest part of writing, so having something on the screen in front of me—even if I wasn’t going to use most of it—helped me break through mental blocks so I could start getting words down.

Navigating Through Creative Burnout

Finding our way through moments of creative burnout can be hard, particularly because with drought there often comes self-doubt. By using some (or all) of the techniques I’ve outlined here, writers can traverse this difficult terrain with resilience and grace.

Finally, we have to remember why we write in the first place. Most of us don’t just do it for ourselves. Rather, we have a deep desire to connect with readers. We want to transport these readers to the worlds we create and we want to help them engage in new experiences vicariously through our characters on the page. We write because we want to be read. 

Sometimes all it takes to break through our self-doubt is to imagine that person who will receive our words, that person who will think: “Wow, this author gets it. It’s like they wrote this book just for me.” We’ve all had books that changed our lives, and we need to trust there’s a reader out there who will feel the same way about our books.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Navigating Through Creative Burnout appeared first on DIY MFA.

In the latter case, the best approach is to have some ground rules or guidelines. These will keep us focused amid the myriad of choices and help us select the best point of view for our story. Here are three point of view “rules” or guidelines to keep in mind.

1) Keep It Consistent

One of the most important things to remember about point of view is to keep things consistent. If you start out in first person (the “I” perspective) and then suddenly switch to third person (the “he/she/they” perspective) halfway through your novel, you’re going to throw your reader for a loop. You see, when you switch the point of view without any warning, the reader won’t know whose perspective the story is supposed to be in. This leads to confusion, and it might even lead the reader to put down the book altogether.

Part of keeping things consistent is also keeping a similar pattern to how the point of view plays out in your story. Imagine, for example, that you are writing a book with two alternating points of view. If you alternate between only characters A and B, adding a third perspective (character C) partway through the book will create similar confusion as described above.

In addition, you might have certain formats that you need to keep consistent. For instance, if you have multiple points of view, you might use the name of the character as the chapter heading, to clue your reader in a little bit. If your story has timeline jumps, you might also want to include dates in the chapter heading, or any other information that might be pertinent to the story. Consider the book Shiver by Maggie Steifvater, which alternates between the points of view of two teenagers: Grace and Sam. At the start of every chapter, we find the name of the point of view character, as well as the temperature. This is because temperature plays an important part in the paranormal aspect of the story.

The beautiful thing about point of view is that there is room to experiment. Usually, by the time you have completed draft zero (the first messy draft), you will have a good sense for what point of view you want to use. From there, the only thing you need to do is go back and rework the scenes where you might have experimented with a different point of view. Once you have figured out the point of view you want, you need to make sure all the scenes in your story are consistent with it.

2) Keep It Sustainable

It can be a lot of fun to try different point of view options, like: second person (the “you” perspective), diary or epistolary, interwoven story threads, you name it. The place where things get tricky is keeping the point of view choice sustainable, something you can keep up for the length of an entire book.

Using the second person is a great example. While many short stories use this point of view, very few novels do. The most famous, perhaps, is Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. This book is told entirely in the second person, and I can only imagine how challenging it must have been for the author to sustain. The second person perspective equates the reader with the protagonist, shoving the reader into that character’s shoes. This point of view talks directly to the reader as though they are the main character of the story. Consider the opening of Bright Lights, Big City:

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again it might not.

Notice how, although we know the “you” character is not us, we feel as though we are being shoved into that character’s perspective. In the case of this story, it works, because the character is a bit unlikable, so this perspective helps the reader relate. The danger, of course, with a point of view like this is that it could feel gimmicky, as though the author is using that point of view to prove they can, and not necessarily because it is the best choice for the story.

Another place where it’s important to keep things sustainable is when thinking through the strategy of the point of view. Consider, for instance, the peripheral first person. This is the point of view where the narrator is a supporting character in the story, rather than the main character. An example of this point of view in action is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

When you have a peripheral first person point of view, there will be certain pieces of information or episodes in the narrative that the point of view character will not be able to access. This means that you, the writer, must be strategic in what you show the reader. You may have to maneuver the plot to get that point of view character into a scene, or you may have to get creative in terms of conveying certain information to the reader if the narrator doesn’t have access to it.

Consider the following excerpt from The Great Gatsby with the exchange about the shirts. This scene is really about Gatsby and Daisy, and narrator Nick Carraway has no real reason to be in it. The only reason he is present is because he is the point of view character, and that means the only way to make the scene work is to include him as a quiet observer.

Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.

“I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.”

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”

This type of strategic thinking is not reserved solely for the peripheral first person. No matter what point of view option you choose, you will have to think strategically about what information you can convey to your reader while staying within the constraints of that perspective. If there is information your point of view character does not have access to, you may have to do some storytelling acrobatics to make it work.

3) Keep It Real

When we consider point of view, we need to remember why different points of view came into use in the first place. I once had a fabulous conversation with author David Morrell about this very subject. He shared that the reason different points of view came into use is because they created varying degrees of verisimilitude, i.e. the feeling that the story could be real.

Consider Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, a work which many consider the first English novel. This book is written in first person and that point of view choice creates the sense that we are getting a firsthand account from Crusoe himself. Pamela (or Virtue Rewarded) by Samuel Richardson creates a sense of verisimilitude in a different way. In this case, the story is told in epistolary form, so it feels almost as though we are snooping in the characters’ private correspondence. Later on, many novels by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen use an omniscient third person point of view, creating a sense of distance objectivity. The story feels true because we are getting “just the facts” from an objective source.

As you choose the point of view for your story, ask yourself: “How does this choice contribute to the authenticity of my story? How does it make my story feel real?”

Perhaps the most important “rule” about point of view is that you make the rules. As the author, you have artistic license to choose whatever point of view you like, and you get to decide parameters for how you will keep that perspective consistent and sustainable. Once you set up those rules, however, you will need to stick to them, unless you have a good artistic reason for breaking them.

Consider the book The High King by Lloyd Alexander. This is the final book of the Prydain Chronicles, and perhaps also the most epic in terms of the story’s scope. Up until this point in the series, the books have used a limited third person point of view, following the protagonist Taran on his adventures. In The High King, however, we shift to a multiple third person perspective, and it definitely threw me for a loop when I first read it.

All things considered, though, the shift in point of view makes artistic sense. The story’s scope expands in such a way that it is impossible for a limited third person perspective to convey everything that is going on. The only way to show all the different supporting characters (and all the battles they are fighting) is to shift to a multiple third person point of view that allows for all these characters’ perspectives to come into play. This means that while you want to do your best to stick to the point of view “rules” you set out for yourself, you should not be afraid to break them when there is good reason in your story.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: The Three “Rules” of Point of View appeared first on DIY MFA.

The Writer Igniter Method boils down to one simple concept: writing comes from practice, and the best way to develop your skills is by doing the work and getting those words on the page. The key to the method is using prompts or exercises to guide your writing. When I first began using prompts, I had no system. Instead, I chose exercises at random from the books in my writer’s library.

At first, I would work my way through prompt books one at a time, forcing myself to write something for each and every exercise, even if the result was terrible. Before I knew it, I had produced several short stories (some of which eventually got published), I had put together a writing sample that helped me get accepted into an MFA program, and I even completed my first finished draft of a novel. All because of a few writing prompts.

Writing prompts are not for everyone. Sure, some writers love them and sit in class, pencils poised, waiting for the teacher to give an assignment. These are the same writers who love the sound of their own writing. Their hands shoot into the air as soon as the exercise is over, lest the teacher overlook them and not let them share what they wrote.

Other writers—mere mortals (like myself), who do not have the muse on speed dial—are not as enthusiastic about writing exercises. To them, prompts are the writing equivalent of eating your vegetables: not fun but good for you. Just like the veggies that fill you up and leave no room for dessert, prompts take up time that could be used to write something that matters. Something epic and important, like that book of your dreams. Prompts might be about as appealing to you as soggy brussels sprouts but they do serve a purpose. Here are seven good reasons you should use prompts in your writing.

Lower stakes means higher output.

When we work on a project that we care about, the stakes are high. We want to produce something worthy of this amazing idea, so we put all sorts of pressure on ourselves. This kind of pressure can actually decrease our ability to write, sometimes leading to full-blown writer’s block. Instead, if we warm up with an exercise, there’s little pressure and mistakes are expected so we’re less likely to get performance anxiety.

Prompts are like the writing equivalent of a musician practicing their scales or an actor doing vocalization exercises. You would never do this on stage in a performance, but it helps you loosen up and get ready to perform.

Prompts can boost your confidence.

Most of the time when you write from a prompt, you go into it knowing that the writing will be awful. Once you reread what you wrote, you may discover a handful of gems buried in the garble. Suddenly your writing isn’t quite as hopeless as you thought. If you go into a writing session expecting the result to be truly horrible, then it’s a pleasant surprise when what you get is not so bad. Writing prompts can help you learn to set those first-draft expectations extra-low.

Less attachment means more room for improvement.

Prompts are usually “throw-away” writing. You’re just warming up; you’re not writing for real. This means that what you produce is not going to be as dear to your heart as that turn of phrase in your work-in-progress that you agonized over for the last two hours. The more darling something is to you, the harder it will be for you to kill, if necessary. On the other hand, if you’re revising something you just tossed on the page during a ten-minute exercise, you’ll be much more open to making broad, sweeping changes. Who cares if you have to rewrite it? It’s just an exercise.

You will learn to think “on the fly.”

Want to learn how to write on demand? Here’s a secret no one tells you: creativity has nothing to do with being a “creative person,” it’s all about practice. Forget being inspired by the muse. If you want to be creative, you have to build discipline through practice. The more you train your brain to produce ideas and throw them on the page, the better at it you will get. One of the best ways to build up your writing practice is by doing prompts.

You can hone your craft.

Is there a particular writing technique that has you stumped? Rather than trying to learn it as you work on your novel, do a practice run (or two, or ten) using writing prompts. Is point of view confusing? Write the same prompt using different points of view until you get it straight. Need practice writing dialogue? Choose a couple of prompts and write all of them with nothing but dialogue. Use a prompt as a low-pressure testing ground, where you can try out techniques without fear of failure. This will allow you to hone your craft without the risk of breaking your book in the process.

It can be fun to try something wild.

Prompts are a great way to get the sillies out of your system. You can use prompts as a forum for trying ideas that might seem out of place in your work-in-progress. I’ve done this many times with my own characters, letting them go wild in a writing prompt, then dialing it back and channeling that prompt into something I can actually use in my novel or short story. Use prompts to try ideas on for size or to let your characters do something that might seem completely out-of-character.

Use prompts to write freely and see where it leads. In the end, you’ll probably find something of value buried amid the silliness and you’ll be able to extract it and mold it into something that you can use. This is a great way to test your characters’ boundaries and see how far you can push them until they break, and it can be less intimidating to try something wild in the low-pressure environment of an exercise than to try it in your novel or story.

Think on paper instead of in your head.

The other day I was scribbling in my notebook when someone asked me what I was writing. I replied with: “I’m not writing, I’m thinking.” Thinking on paper can be far more effective than thinking in your head. For starters, thinking on paper engages more senses: you see the words and doodles on the page, feel your hand holding the pen and forming the words, even hear the words in your mind as you write them.

Why is sensory input important? First, associating these sensory stimuli with writing will help you be more productive and make you better able to get creative on demand. Also the more senses you use to process your ideas, the more likely you will be to come up with creative new ideas or solutions. By engaging as many senses as possible in your creative process, you can increase your creative output. Thinking on paper is a great way to do this.

And guess what? Writing prompts are a great way to learn how to think on paper.

Writer Igniter App

Writing prompts are a great way to build a regular writing practice. If you’re looking for some exercises to help you get that writing practice going, we have a resource at DIY MFA that can help. Go to WriterIgniter.com and click the “shuffle” button on the web app for a nearly endless supply of prompts and story ideas.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: The Power of Writing Prompts appeared first on DIY MFA.

The Materials

First, let me nerd out about office supplies for a bit. Journaling feeds my office supply cravings because I get to buy lots of different kinds of notebooks and pens. In fact, I have so many empty notebooks waiting in the queue that I’ve had to go on a blank book fast (no buying new ones until I use up the ones I already have). We’ll see how long that lasts.

The notebook makes a big difference. Between when I start a journal and when I finish it, that notebook gets really beat up. I’m constantly throwing it in my bag and carting it with me everywhere, so I really need something sturdy that will hold up for the long haul. Truth be told, most of the notebooks I used these past six months did not pass the test and I had to reattach a lot of pages with tape.

Side note: Because I’m on a blank book fast, most of the notebooks I wrote in these past few months already had a few pages with old entries. This was one of the most surprising treats in this entire process. If I lost steam during a journaling session, I would flip back and read an entry from 2008 or 2010 (one notebook went back as far as 1992!). It was fascinating to get a window into what my life was like back then. A lot of things have changed (like my handwriting), but others (like my voice and weird sense of humor) have stayed surprisingly consistent.

The writing implement is also important. I press down very lightly when I write, so I prefer fountain or gel pens to ballpoint. (The latter requires too much pressure and makes my hand get tired.) Right now, I’m geeking out over the Dr. Grip gel pens. I have a half dozen of them in my pen case and each with ink in a different color.

Side note: I write each journal entry in a different color and I have a particular order of colors that I cycle through. This order is: orange, pink, turquoise, green (i.e. the DIY MFA colors), then black and purple. After purple I go back to orange and it always makes me smile because those two colors together make me think of my alma mater’s colors: purple and gold.

The Content

People have a lot of preconceived notions about journaling and what it entails. Some think that the purpose is to write what happened to you that day, in order to keep a record of your life. (I call that a diary, not a journal.) Other folks think that journaling is nothing more than a stream-of-consciousness garble that you spill on the page every morning. Not going to lie, my journals tend to go more in that direction. In fact, they can sometimes be downright whiny.

And yet, there are still rare moments when the writing becomes productive and actually turns into something. This essay, for example, began as random scribbles in my journal and evolved into what you’re reading now. Often, an idea for DIY MFA starts out as a journal entry where I noodle on that concept for a bit. Next, if I see it has merit, I take the leap and start mapping it out in earnest. This doesn’t happen all the time. Most of my journaling is just a whiny stream-of-consciousness nonsense, but scattered throughout my notebooks are the seedlings of many DIY MFA projects.

Here’s the thing: your journal’s content is whatever you want it to be. You can treat it like a diary, or go the stream-of-consciousness, verbal spillage route. Or you can do something totally different. In the past eleven months, I’ve used my journal in various different ways, like:

• making lists
• brainstorming DIY MFA projects
• venting my frustrations about life
• recording particularly interesting events
• etc.  

Remember: It’s your journal. Anything goes.

The Habit

The key to journaling is to make the process as frictionless as possible. I know if I leave it to the end of the day, I’ll end up making excuses and never getting around to it. So, I put my notebook on the floor right next to my bed. That way, in the morning, I can’t get up without tripping over it. Most of my journaling happens before I even get out of bed. I just reach down, grab my notebook, and write anywhere between a few lines and a few pages.

This is the trick I’ve learned with setting new habits. You have to make it ridiculously easy to follow through. The more steps or hurdles that exist between you and the habit you want to form, the harder it will be to build momentum.

If you want to start journaling—or building any writing habit, for that matter—you have to do it in such a way that it’s easy for you. Not a morning person? Don’t force yourself to wake up early. Not into writing by hand? Use a computer or voice recorder instead. Just because I happen to write daily, by hand, and (mostly) in the morning, doesn’t mean you should do it that way, too. You need to write in the way that works best for you.

Which brings me to…

The Rules

When I describe my journaling habit, many people remark: “Oh, that’s just like morning pages!” The concept of “morning pages” comes from Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and many other books. Basically you write three pages longhand, in the morning, before you start your day. She recommends a specific kind of notebook and stresses the importance of following the prescribed guidelines to the letter. This approach has worked wonders for many writers, artists, and other blocked creatives, but it doesn’t work for me.

Why? Because I don’t like following rules.

Sure, I usually journal first thing in the morning, but some days I like to come back to my journal in the afternoon or evening. Why should the mornings have all the fun? Yes, I write longhand, but that’s more about my love for office supplies than it is about following the morning pages rules. And of course I don’t write the prescribed three pages every day. Some days I barely eke out a half page, while on others I write ten or more. It depends on my mood and whether I have anything to say.

The reason I’ve stuck with the habit as long as I have is because I can make my own rules and do things my own way. If I had to follow someone else’s prescription, I might stick to it for a little while, but sooner or later I’d get sick of it and stop altogether in protest. What can I say? I’m a rebel like that.

The Point

What’s the point of all this? Why did I even share this with you to begin with? Well, here’s what I learned from the last six months of keeping a daily journal.

1. Take things one day at a time.

For starters, I want you to know that building a new habit doesn’t have to be all that hard. You just have to take things one day at a time. When I first started this process, I wasn’t thinking, “Gee wiz, I want to be the kind of person who keeps a daily journal.” (I know this for a fact because I went back and checked that journal entry.) Instead, I just focused on writing something—anything—that day. I figured, the next day would take care of itself, and it did.

2. Make your own rules.

It’s impossible to build a new habit if you try to run counter to your own natural tendencies. Don’t do things a certain way just because that’s how others are doing it. Don’t follow writing advice without testing it out for yourself. Remember: there is no “best practice” in writing, just what works best for you.

3. It’s all about finishing.

Do I love writing in my journal? Most days, I merely tolerate it. The office supplies give me the warm fuzzies but I’m not going to lie: the actual writing is sometimes just… meh. Here’s the thing: I don’t always like writing, but I love having written. That feeling of satisfaction I get after writing a journal entry? That’s the best! And it’s such a rare treat for many of us writers.

You see, as writers—especially writers of books—we don’t get to finish things very often. It’s rare for us to get that “Yessss! I finished!” feeling, because our projects are long. Journaling solves that problem. It gives us that daily dose of completion every time we finish an entry.

Now It’s Your Turn

If you’ve never journaled before, I want to encourage you to give it a try. If you’re like me, you might bribe yourself with some office supplies, then see if you can gently ease yourself into a regular writing habit. Remember: you set the rules and do it your way. But try it out for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Maybe the process will surprise you, as it has surprised me.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Journaling – My New Writing Habit appeared first on DIY MFA.