Plot Archives - Stacy Lyn Jensen

Final Draft: How do you Know When you’ve written it?

I finished a first draft of my latest project a little while ago. Ever since I wrote the end, I’ve been both excited to move on, and also scared of the process. I’d like to discuss all the expected steps in writing, and help people realize when they’ve come to the end. First, we’ll discuss the steps, and then how you know if you’ve arrived at your final draft.

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Steps

Outline
Zero Draft
First Draft
Second Draft
Third Draft
Final Draft

Outlining

This step can take a lot or a little bit of time, depending on which type of writer you are. Even the most seasoned of discovery writers will still have at least some idea of the plot before they sit down to work.

An outline can be as simple as a couple of index cards that have a few vague sentences about your plot. Or as complex as a codex with character backstories and sketches, along with the economy of your fantasy world going back 1000 years.

At the end of the day, the outline should help you get started. They do say that you either spend a lot of time in edits later, or you plan everything in our outline and don’t have to do so many edits at the end to figure out how to make your plot work together.

When you are done with your outline, you move onto…

Zero Draft

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The zero draft is the draft that you are okay to mess up a bunch. I like the term zero draft, because it feels like, with this draft there are no stakes. One of the best things you can do for your writing habit is to take the pressure off. If you feel like you need to have a certain feeling, or write during a certain time or in a specific location or using something special; you are putting too much pressure on yourself.

If, because you have to be in a certain place or use something specific to write, and you find yourself not wanting to do so because of it. Then, stop. Writing is a difficult and messy process. There is no reason why, if you are thinking about something, not to jot it down anywhere. You can write on and with almost anything. Although, I wouldn’t suggest trying to write the great American novel with blood. Ha.

The zero draft is the first time the story that’s been in your head for so long will come together. Even if you’ve been outlining for weeks and feel like you know everything that will happen, at least in my experience, it will change. The zero draft gives you permission to make the changes, to allow all the messy nonsense to happen on the page.

Then, after you’ve finished your draft, you’ll move onto….

The First Draft

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It’s okay for your first draft to be messy. You also want to go through and begin clean up.

It’s always important to think globally before you think locally. By this, I simply mean to fix big problems before you start fiddling with the small ones. So, if you’ve outlined a lot maybe you don’t worry so much how your plot hangs together, but it is important to be aware of all of the big idea items. Make sure that the gun that was on the wall in act 1 is used during the climax in act 3.

After you finish a first draft, you may feel like giving it to an alpha reader. That’s fine. Not necessary, but fine.

Then, you’ll move onto…

The Second Draft

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When your work is ready to be considered a second draft, it should have a plot that makes sense. It’s okay to still have grammar errors at the second draft.

This means, that during the second draft, you should start working through which characters are doing what and why, does it make sense for the overall plot? You should have a working understanding of all of your characters and their motivations, you should know if it makes sense for a character to run into a dangerous situation, and if it doesn’t make sense but you need it for the plot, then you need to figure out what kind of extraordinary circumstances they would require in order to go into the situation, and then make those present in the work.

Once the plot is in line, and the characters are acting in ways that make sense, you can send the draft to an alpha reader. Still not required, but definitely going to be a good option.

Then, you’ll move onto…

The Third Draft (not the final draft yet)

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Edits. This is where you will want to start editing. You want your syntax to shine. The words should work together to build the story you are trying to tell. Editing also happens from “big” to “small.” As you’ve gone through the drafting process, you will have already done some editing. The first type of editing, developmental editing, is what you are going through as you get your plot in line, and make sure your characters make sense.

In the third draft, you get more granular. Starting with line editing. Line editing is where you focus on the flow and style of your prose. Then, you’ll want to do proofreading, where you identify and correct your grammar and spelling errors.

Now, it is absolutely time to give the draft to several beta readers for feedback. You can always give them a list of things you are concerned about, and make sure to get feedback on those things. It is not helpful to have a couple friends read your work, and tell you it’s amazing. If you want to feel good, it’s wonderful. But, if you want constructive feedback, you’ll most likely need to find people who are going to be impartial judges of your work. That is the best way to get it to shine

Final Draft

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Once you’ve received and corrected the novel as much as you can, taking into mind all the feedback from your readers, then it will be time to send it out to wherever you want it to go.

Congratulations on finishing!!

Plot:Character Arc

Recently, I realized while writing my current WIP, one of my main characters had an issue with their arc. After discussing it with a friend, I thought it may be a good subject to write about. Not only the issue at hand, but also how do we make character arcs that are compelling? Read on for more information about character arc, how to write it, why it’s important, and what kind of impact it has on the plot.

Character Arc

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What is it?

The character arc is the inner journey that the main character or characters go through over the course of the story. Usually, there is some important trait that the character(s) need to develop in order for the plot to resolve itself. For example: in A Christmas Carol the main character goes from being an old miser, who wants only to keep all of his money, to being a generous person. His inner journey is that arc. It walks hand-in-glove with the plot, all the elements that are happening on the outside.

How do you make one?

How do you make your character arc? Essentially, the first thing is to envision what you want the character to be at the end of the story. Do you want them to learn a lesson about being a better fighter? Do you want them to learn that it’s not good to be a bully? Whatever the story is that you are telling, you need to think about what you want the character to learn, and then you work from there. If you want your character to be harder than they were at the beginning, then make sure that they are soft when the story begins. If you want them to learn about kindness, then they need to be unkind.

How does this work into Plot?

It is, and it isn’t the plot, if that makes sense. The plot is the thing that the story lives on. The skeleton, or the roadmap, or whatever you want to call it. The character arc is the meat that goes on the bones, kind of, or the way that the story becomes believable, or maybe the way that the reader is able to suspend their disbelief long enough for the story to take place. The character arc is written into many plot points. There are moments where the character is able to learn a new skill. Or do something they failed at before. Those moments not only require that the character is at the right location at the right time, but that they have gone through enough mental growth that the moments are possible.

I don’t think I have one, do I need one?

Probably. Most stories involve some kind of personal growth. Even if that growth is learning a new skill (like going from being a down-on-their-luck paper pusher to being a CIA agent, or something). It is still mental and physical change, of some kind. Learning a skill will take not only practice, but also confidence building, and probably encouragement from someone the character admires. However, I will put a caveat here: there are some stories that don’t have a character arc, really long series’ like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. In these, the character doesn’t change much over the course of a single novel; simply because the reader expects that they will be getting into the same kind of antics during the course of the next one. Because of that expectation, we cannot have the character change and get their life together every single novel, just to have it fall apart again.

Character Arc Conclusion

At the end of the day, when you make a character arc, the trick is to think about where you want your main character(s) to end up. Then, think about what kind of story you are telling. Where can those two things meet? If you want to write a horror story, and you want to end up with a character who has learned that it doesn’t pay to be a bully; maybe you start out with your characters as camp counselors, and your main character is making the younger kids feel bad. Maybe there is one in particular they are picking on. Then, the horror starts, and the main character has to take care of the kids and make sure they are okay, and the main character’s arc is getting the kid that he made fun of to trust him, so that he will survive the ordeal.

Even though I am what you would call a pantser or a discovery writer. These things, if you want them to come out right, they do take planning. You either plan before, or you change everything during a rewriter when you figure out it didn’t work.

Plot Archetypes

Now that I’ve gone over the different plot structures here, here, here and here; I want to talk about types of plots. They say that there are only seven plots out there. That those seven plot archetypes can encapsulate all literature, and every story ever written.

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The seven plot archetypes are:

Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

Let’s go ahead and look at each of the archetypes in detail and what kind of story you would tell while using it.

Plot Archetypes

Overcoming the Monster

This one would be used when you have a character who has an issue that needs to be resolved internally. Maybe they are an addict, and the story is about their journey to sobriety. Another, more literal interpretation could be a fantasy story where someone is captured by some kind of monster, and they have to either befriend or defeat the monster in some way. The Princess Bride definitely has this plot type.

Rags to Riches

Easy enough to figure out this story. A poor person finds success. I would say that we see this one more commonly, where someone in the first exposition has everything; then they lose it, and they have to gain it again from nothing. Cinderella would be an example, although in more modern re-tellings Cinderella does get to gain her good fortune back, in the old fairy tales, she just waited for rescue in a more passive role.

The Quest

Our characters have to do something. There are usually pretty high stakes in these types of tales, it’s important to get the baby to the person because the world may end. The most modern example of this I can think of is Disney’s Onward. Which is, of course, a movie. A book that has a quest plot is really any fantasy book you pick up. The Way of Kings has some questing, Words of Radiance as well. Any story where the characters need to find something, and the stakes are high would qualify.

Voyage and Return

This is The Hero’s Journey. The characters go on a journey, and then they return home. The journey could be far reaching, it could take them into a whole other dimension–like in The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, or across the universe like in: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The most popular example of this archetype is, I think, The Lord of the Rings.

Comedy and Tragedy

As they say, comedy ends with a wedding and tragedy, a funeral. When I think of these two types, I think of Shakespeare. There are so many examples of both in his works. The comedies normally revolved around a mistaken identity, while the tragedies dealt with all kinds of heavy subjects. A lot can be learned by studying the bard’s works.

Rebirth

The character is born anew. The Hunger Games books do this, do a degree. The Katniss we meet at the beginning of book one, and the Katniss that we end the last book with, are very different people. Although, whether that is due to her own inner thought processes, or simple PTSD is left up to the reader/audience to decide.

The Plot Archetypes are a mix and match bag of tricks for the writer to use. Use a Quest and a Comedy, or a Rebirth and a Tragedy. It’s important to know what kind of story that you are writing. One part of knowing that, is to understand what kinds of stories are out there. The only way to understand what exists in the world is to study it. I know it sounds boring, but it is important to know what you are doing.

Thank you for reading my post about plot archetypes, please let me know if you would like to see more of this kind of thing, or if you would like to know something else.

The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is the first plot type that I looked at when it first occurred to me that there was such a thing. I think it may have been the first one that appeared when I began a search. I feel like this plot type ends up in so many places, because it is so easy to recognize. Once I read about it, I immediately thought of Lord of the Rings. Joseph Campbell wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This book goes through all the stages of this plot type. Without further ado, here are the seventeen stages:

The Hero’s Journey: Stages

1. The Call to Adventure

As we’ve seen with Plotting: Freytag’s Pyramid, Plotting: The Three-Act-Structure, and Save the Cat Story Structure plots have a tendency to begin with a “day in the life,” The Hero’s Journey is no exception. Our hero starts out living their normal life, and then something happens, changes, or someone invites them to do something that starts them on their journey.

2. Refusal of the Call

This is also a typical moment. The hero doesn’t want to go on an adventure. They want to keep on living their life, but there are reasons that they cannot say no, or other forces that keep them from saying no.

3. Supernatural Aid

The hero receives some kind of otherworldly help in the beginning of their journey.

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

This is where they take their first steps into the new world. They really begin their journey at this point.

5. Belly of the Whale

This stage represents the final separation of the hero from their known world and self. The hero is showing their willingness to fully immerse themselves in the unknown and change themselves for the better. The hero may have a minor setback at this stage, or some other struggle where they lose something.

6. The Road of Trials

The hero experiences a series of trials, usually in threes; before he is able to move forward in their journey. These are fluid and ambiguous. They will lose some and have to keep moving forward and gaining confidence in order to move successfully through the story.

7. Meeting with the Goddess

The hero meets someone who provides them with something that will help them later on.

8. Woman as the Temptress

Despite the poor name for this stage; essentially it’s about something that the hero wants, but shouldn’t have. It’s really about the differences between what should be and what is.

9. Atonement with the Father/Abyss

The point of the story that everything has been moving toward. This is a confrontation with an entity that holds the power of both life and death within it. The hero has to trust in the figure that they will be able to confront whatever it is they need to confront, and come out on the other end better/unscathed, etc. The thing given by the other figure earlier in the story will be helpful at this point. The two figures should be mirror images of one another.

10. Apotheosis

The hero reaches a greater understanding. They have learned the lesson that they needed to learn.

11. The Ultimate Boon

The goal of the quest was achieved. Whatever the hero set out to do, was done.

13. The Refusal of the Return

Having found success in the other world, the hero does not want to return to the ordinary world.

14. The Magic Flight

The hero may have to run with the boon, if they have angered the gods, or have made them jealous by winning it.

15. Rescue from Without

Just as they needed aids and helpers to begin their journey, the hero may need help getting back to the ordinary world. This is particularly true if they were wounded or weakened.

16. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

This one seems a bit overly complicated. The hero, not only needs to return to regular life. But, they also need to retain the wisdom they gained on their journey. And they need to share that wisdom with the people around them. That’s a little hard to fit into the last chapters of your novel.

17. Master of Two Worlds

In the end, the hero will be a master of both their inner and outer worlds. They will be happy in both.

So, those are the stages of The Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell’s book on the subject was published in 1949, so you will forgive a lot of outdated phrasing. However, you can easily see how any adventure story can fit into the stages. Campbell studies a lot of myths from a lot of different cultures to come up with the ways in which we tell stories across cultures.

This information is always good to know as a teller of tales, because, no matter what kind of stories you want to weave; you are adding to the tapestry of your own culture. You are putting your own mark in your way, making your own folklore if you will. Adding your own voice to the many that have come before you. And it matters. Allow your voice to be heard, remember that the way you see the world is important, your views are important. Your way telling of Beauty and the Beast or that incident that happened a couple of years ago that’s now family legend; it’s yours, and it’s important. I suppose that’s a post for another day though.

Tension and Conflict in Writing: What is the difference?

Tension and conflict are the heart of a story. Both are important tools to use, it is necessary to a successful story that the tension raises throughout the tale. The tension needs to pull the reader/audience along, it keeps them turning pages. While the conflict of the story, does the same thing, but in a different way. We will talk about these two important pieces of story. Tension and conflict in writing.

Tension and Conflict in Writing

Tension

Tension is the feeling that something bad is going to happen. That feeling of something around the corner. This is used in a lot of different ways, we up the tension between characters, sometimes it’s two people who don’t get along that well; sometimes it’s sexual tension. Other times, the tension is a feeling of things about to fall apart. The plan, so carefully constructed, isn’t going to work at all. Maybe, if your story is of the thriller or horror variety, the tension is the killer/monster getting closer, while the protagonist remains in the dark.

The tension in the story should draw tighter and tighter, before releasing, and then it should do it again. You should have several moments in the story where tension is released, and then it builds back up, before crescendoing during the climax, and finally breaking once and for all during the resolution

Conflict

Conflict, while easier to understand, can also be easy to misunderstand. Conflict is not always an argument or a fight. It can simply be a moment where the character has two things that clash with each other. Maybe they have two goals; but if they reach one, the other is hindered. That itself would create conflict in the story.

Conflict can also be direct, the protagonist and the antagonist, a fight or even a war, depending on the story. But, think about everyday life. There are lots of things that are in conflict with each other all the time. You have little arguments with your spouse/child/brother/sister/mother/father/the weird lady at the service counter. You have issues in traffic, or you have conflicting opinions in your own mind. All of these things feed into the story. Every step of the way, you should have tension that raises, and conflicts that need to be resolved.

Every story needs to have both tension and conflict in writing. Hopefully this article gave a little clarification on what that means, and how to apply to your own writing. Thank you for reading, let me know if you would like more of the same types of posts, or different ones.

Save the Cat Story Structure

Save the Cat is a plot type where the different parts of the plot are broken into “beats.” All the beats have a particular percentage associated with them. Which allows an aspiring writer to understand how much of the story belong to each part. Without further ado, here is Save the Cat story structure.

Save the Cat Story Structure Beats

Act 1

Opening Image (0-1%): A snapshot of the protagonist and their world.
Theme Stated (5%): A statement, made by someone else, not the protagonist. It hints at what the character arc for the protagonist is going to be. This is also referred to as a life lesson.
Set up (1-10%): This is what I call the “day in the life of.” This is where you see the protagonist’s world before things change for them.
Catalyst (10%): This is the inciting incident, the thing that happens that changes everything for the protagonist, and makes their old life impossible to go back to.
Debate (10-20%): A section where the protagonist debates about what to do next. This should show their resistance to change.

Act 2

Break into 2 (20%): This is the moment where the protagonist accepts the call to action, essentially they decide to take action in a way that moves the story forward.
B Story (22%): A new character is introduced that will help the protagonist along the way. This person will help the protagonist grow, and assist in resolving their character arc.
Fun and Games (20-50%): This is where we see the character in the new world, they are either succeeding or floundering. This section represents the “hook” of the story.
Midpoint (50%): The fun and games section culminates in either a false victory, or false defeat, and should raise the stakes and push the story forward for the protagonist.
Bad Guys Close In (50-75%): If the mid-point ended with a false victory, then everything should start to get worse. If it ended in a false defeat, then things should start to look up for the protagonist. Either way, the protagonist’s deep-rooted flaws are closing in.
All is lost (75%): The lowest point. Something pushes our protagonist to rock-bottom.
Dark Night of the Soul (75-80%): A moment where the protagonist reacts to everything that has happened so far. They should be worse off than they were at the beginning of the story. This is the moment right before they figure everything out.

Act 3

Break Into 3 (80%): The moment when the protagonist realizes what needs to be done to fix the problems from Act 2, and also to fix themselves. Their character arc is almost completed.
Finale (80-99%): The protagonist enacts the plan that they came up with. The world is not only saved, it’s better than it was before.
Final image (99-100%): This is a mirror to the opening image, where everything is fixed.

If you have read some of my other posts, or you have some knowledge of plot structure, you will notice the similarity to Freytag’s pyramid, and to the three-act-story-structure. In reality, most plot types will follow the same trajectory. This is one is good if you need to know about specific things and when they should happen in your story to keep yourself on track.

The next time I discuss plot, we will look at a structure that is near and dear to my heart, the hero’s journey. So stay tuned for that, and thank you for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

Plotting: The Three-Act-Structure

Writing starts in your mind. In everyone’s mind, what happens is a strange question takes shape. A what if? Question, maybe. Or possibly just a thought about a character. The only difference between writers and regular people, is those strange little questions, or characters that flit through everyone’s minds–in the mind of a writer, those thoughts take root, they end up sprouting until we have to write them down–that’s where plotting: the-three-act-structure may come into play.

Even if you are a pantser (a discovery writer), you will need to keep some form of plot in mind as you spin your yarn. A plotter will have all of this figured out before they start writing, possibly. With the idea that plot is important no matter what kind of writer you are, we will go over the Three-Act-Structure below. You will note the similarities to freytag’s pyramid, which has been discussed previously.

Plotting: The Three-Act-Structure

Act One: Setup

The first act contains exposition (again, I’m going to go back to what I call “a day in the life of…”) When we meet the protagonist and most of the other characters, and we learn about the world they live in. This will also contain the inciting incident. The inciting incident is the thing that happens that starts the plot moving along, an example of this is: in The Stand when the military employee chooses to escape via the malfunctioning gate. The rest of the first act needs to introduce the question that the rest of the work will answer.

Second Act: Rising Action

The second act is where the protagonist tries and fails to answer the question raised in the first act. There needs to conflict and confrontation. There should also be character development, the protagonist, in their struggle to answer the question that arose in the first act, should grow as a person. We, as readers or audience members, should be rooting for them to win at the end of the day. An example: in The Hunger Games, we see Katniss go through all kinds of horrible things during the second act, she almost dies of dehydration, then she gets hit with a fireball, and she gets stung by tracker-jackers. All of this happens before the climax of the story.

The Third Act: Resolution/Climax

The third act is when the question is resolved. The climax should happen during the third act, it should be the most dramatic part of the story, and it should resolve the question posed in the first act. After which the story should be resolved quickly, and the ending should tie up any loose ends or subplots, without too much exposition. An example: at the end of The Shining, we get a brief moment with Danny, his mom, and Mr. Halloran; leaving the readers happy that they all survived the ordeal, all that the readers need.

That is a brief overview of plotting: the three-act-structure. There are many resources for looking at plots, because it is such an important part of the writing process. Just something to keep in mind while wandering through your story, think to yourself if it has the elements it needs to pull your readers along.

Thank you for reading!

Plotting: Freytag’s Pyramid

When thinking about plotting: Freytag’s pyramid is where we begin. We can apply it not only to novels, but to short stories, too. This imagery of plot could even be applied chapter-by-chapter in a novel.

Freytag’s Purple Pyramid Photo by Castorly Stock

There are several sections of plotting: Freytag’s pyramid. Outlined below:

Exposition
Inciting Incident
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Dénouement

Sections of Plotting: Freytag’s Pyramid

Exposition

In the exposition of the story, this is where world building takes place. This is what I think of as the “day in the life of…” section. In a movie, this is where we follow the main character as they go about their day, this is before everything changes. For example: At the beginning of Game of Thrones (the book) they are going to see someone get beheaded. This serves to build the world, and also shows us what life is like for the character.

With today’s audiences, we don’t want to spend too much time on exposition. It is always good advice to: “start as close to the end as you can.”

Inciting Incident

During the inciting incident, something happens that sets the main character on their story-journey. For example: in Harry Potter, Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The inciting incident can be anything, but it needs to be something that changes the main character, or starts them off on the way to change.

The inciting incident won’t be used if you are applying plotting: Freytag’s pyramid to a chapter in a novel that isn’t the first. This only happens once in a work.

Rising Action

Rising Action is where the meat of the story lives. Every chapter in a novel should raise the tension, bring on another conflict, or have some other complication for the main character and others. For example: In Gone Girl, we find out, about half-way through the book, that one of the characters has been lying the entire time. This effectively raises the tension and also acts as a kind of irony for the reader. We need to see our characters struggle, to fail. We need to worry that they won’t make it out of whatever jam they are in. The tension rises to a fine point.

Plotting: Freytag’s Pyramid Photo by Oleg Magni

Climax

The climax is the point where the tension finally boils over, and is resolved. This is the fight, the declaration of love that is reciprocated in a passionate embrace, this is the moment, near the end of the book/story where everything finally comes together. For example: in IT when the adults are able to finally beat Pennywise and stomp all of its eggs so that it cannot have any babies.

Falling Action

Falling Action/Resolution/dénouement this is the shortest part of the book/story. Essentially, you will want to end the story and get out. Spending too much time resolving the tale can cause readers to sour on the story. We need some resolution, we need to know that they didn’t die, maybe. Or that they got married, or moved in together, or that the killer was arrested, but much more than that is too much. For example: In You, the story ends with the main character setting his sights on another girl. It leaves the reader wanting more, which is what we all want.

Conclusion

This plot device is used to check your writing. You can use it to plot out things, if you want. But there are many other plot options that you can use as a framework for the plot.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want more information about plotting: Freytag’s pyramid. I will be putting up other plotting things soon.