Another insightful book I read in bits and pieces (mostly because it takes several passes before the information sinks in) is Robert McKee's Story. It's awesome. These are the things I've learned thus far about structure (taken straight from his book):
Book structure is a selection of events from the character's life, composed in strategic sequence to arouse emotion and express point of view.
A story event creates meaningful change in the life situation of the character and it is expressed in terms of a value.
Story values are the universal qualities of human experience that shift from positive to negative from one moment to the next. Such as life/death, love/hate, truth/lie, courage/cowardice, strength/wisdom, loyalty/betrayal, etc.
A story event creates meaningful change in the life of the characters through conflict. An event is measured by values and conflict forces the character to make a change.
You can have 40-60 or more story events in the book. These are the scenes.
In each scene, the writer has to decide what value is at stake in the character’s life? How is the value charged at the top of the scene? Positive or negative? If the value-charged condition of the character’s life stays the same from one end of the scene to the other, the scene is a nonevent and shouldn’t be there.
Mckee says: NO scene that doesn’t turn! Meaning: kill it, my darling.
A beat is an exchange of behavior couched in action/reaction. Beat by beat these changing behaviors shape the turning of a scene.
A sequence is a series of scenes – generally two to five – that culminate with a greater impact than any previous scene. The sequence has a greater value that overrides the values from the scenes.
Sequences turn in a more moderate, impactful way. A series of sequences builds the next larger structure, the act.
An act turns on a major reversal in the value charged condition of the character’s life. The difference between a scene, a scene that climaxes a sequence, and a scene that climaxes an act is the degree of change.
And finally, the story is simply one huge master event. The value charged condition of the character has changed at the end of the book, reversing the value charge from the beginning. The change is absolute and irreversible.
The story climax consists of a series of acts that build to the last act climax bringing about the irreversible change.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Word Painting
Since I'm pressed for time and falling behind, my post is about a book I read last year...Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan. I only finished part of the book, so I'm re-reading in anticipation of an upcoming project.
McClanahan advises going beyond the labeling prevalent in fiction. By labeling, she means those conventional terms we use to describe something. Such as lovely, gross, sweet, inspiring, depressing, etc. Those are conclusions. Don't do them. Approach description from the backend, first. Why is the object lovely? Gross? Sweet? Doing it this way is sure to help the writer avoid cliches, and come up with a vivid and original description.
In a very hippie kind of way, she suggests really looking at an object and letting it speak to you, whispering it attributes. So, I'm sitting in La Madeleine, reading this book, drinking French roast coffee with half and half. I tried to eat part of a spinach quiche, but all that crust was gross. (No, I'm not being overly descriptive here. You wouldn't want me to).
Okay. I decide to give it a try. For real. I look at the vase on the perfectly square table. It has two carnations. One red. One white. And some baby's breath. Here's what I wrote:
The white carnation has stiff white peaks much like beaten egg whites. It is surrounded by baby's breath that reminds me of a cluster of bright white stars on a cold winter's night. The carnation stem is a deep green, folding and rolling in on itself like carefully wrapped tissue paper.
Not great, but not horrid either. I think I see where the author is going with this and I think I can roll with it.
Try it! And leave a description of something on your desk...like say, your mouse!
Tear shaped and metallic blue with rubber bumpers, the Dynex mouse slid across the pad without the aid of the typical track ball.
McClanahan advises going beyond the labeling prevalent in fiction. By labeling, she means those conventional terms we use to describe something. Such as lovely, gross, sweet, inspiring, depressing, etc. Those are conclusions. Don't do them. Approach description from the backend, first. Why is the object lovely? Gross? Sweet? Doing it this way is sure to help the writer avoid cliches, and come up with a vivid and original description.
In a very hippie kind of way, she suggests really looking at an object and letting it speak to you, whispering it attributes. So, I'm sitting in La Madeleine, reading this book, drinking French roast coffee with half and half. I tried to eat part of a spinach quiche, but all that crust was gross. (No, I'm not being overly descriptive here. You wouldn't want me to).
Okay. I decide to give it a try. For real. I look at the vase on the perfectly square table. It has two carnations. One red. One white. And some baby's breath. Here's what I wrote:
The white carnation has stiff white peaks much like beaten egg whites. It is surrounded by baby's breath that reminds me of a cluster of bright white stars on a cold winter's night. The carnation stem is a deep green, folding and rolling in on itself like carefully wrapped tissue paper.
Not great, but not horrid either. I think I see where the author is going with this and I think I can roll with it.
Try it! And leave a description of something on your desk...like say, your mouse!
Tear shaped and metallic blue with rubber bumpers, the Dynex mouse slid across the pad without the aid of the typical track ball.
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