Part 4 of Lessons Learned from reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction
The fourth part of lessons learned from reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction. You can read the other essays here: The Importance of the Emotional Journey in Fiction, Inner and Outer Mode for Fiction Writing, The Emotional Life of Your Protagonist Affects How Readers Experience Your Story.
In a previous essay, I wrote about why you, the writer, should focus on the emotional world of your characters and not treat it as a sideshow.
This essay will expand upon that idea, further connecting plot and emotion to create a captivating story. This is where meaning and arc come into play.
The Meaning of Everything
The significance we place on events is what shapes us and gives our lives meaning.
There is a personal story behind every bullet point on the resume of our lives.
In the context of fiction writing, “meaning” is derived from the significance of your character’s experiences. Human beings give different meaning to the same events and make it personal to them.
“Plot happens outside but story happens inside.” (page 59)
This is how you can make info dumps engaging for the reader.
When crafting a new world, information is important to place your reader in that world. But dry facts can quickly bore the reader. Info dumps slow down the plot and make your reader’s eyes glaze over.
But if you give meaning to that information via your characters, you make the mundane compelling.
You can shape a reader’s attitude toward the information. Draw them in. The goal is to use the significance of any moment for a character to connect the inner and outer journey – the plot being the outer journey and your character’s arc being the inner journey.
With that being said, here are some exercises Donald Maass created to master connecting the inner and outer journey (page 73):
- Pick any plot event, large or small. What does it mean to your protagonist? What does it stir inside? What worry, hope, question, or wonder? What does it feel like to feel this feeling? Create a metaphor for it. Make notes. Write it up in a paragraph.
Or… - Pick any emotionally significant moment in your story, a time when your protagonist feels himself changing. Shut off inner monologue. Find a way for your protagonist to show or speak the unfolding inner change in a way that we can’t miss. What is your character compelled to do? Do it.
Shifting From Tension To Energy and Back Again
Broadly speaking, humans can be divided into two psychological camps:
- People who store tension, and thus turn inward.
- They think.
- People who store energy and thus turn outward.
- They act.
This dichotomy matters for what comes naturally to your character. There is no judgment there. Knowing where your character stores tension or stores energy matters when figuring out how your character will change and how that syncs with the plot.
The swing between polarities, from thinking to action and back again, make characters and their stories feel real.
The most interesting characters are inconvenient. Sometimes contradictory. They swing from one polarity to the next, creating an emotional pace as the story goes on.
The most boring characters never change their state of being. Often, this is where the plot gets stuck.
Here are some exercises to shift your character from tension to energy or energy to tension:
- Shifting from tension to energy (page 79):
- Choose a moment when your protagonist sees or hears something unjust. A braver person would get involved. How?
- Your protagonist is good at something. A more commanding person would turn that into a show of strength. How?
- Your protagonist is helpful. A bolder person would be reckless. In what way?
- Your protagonist has insight into someone else. A more compassionate person would show that person kindness. How?
- Your protagonist is peaceful. A true leader would maintain peace y exerting power. In terms of your story, how?
- Your protagonist is a misfit, doesn’t conform, and feels like an outsider. A more independent person would be a nonconformist, even break the law. When?
- There is something or someone who makes your protagonist impatient. A more headstrong person would be wholly intolerant. How would we see that?
- There is someone to whom your protagonist feels attached. A more engaged person would get deeply involved. How?
- Pick a time when your protagonist is withdrawn or distant. A more passionate person would completely detach and not care. How would we recognize that?
- Your protagonist is self-focused, even self-important. A stronger (weaker?) personality would be simply vain. What, in particular, is your protagonist self-focused on?
- Your protagonist has a logical way of looking at a problem. A more intuitive person would not think about it but instead do something unexpected and ingenious. What?
- Your protagonist is attracted to someone. A more uninhibited person would lean in for the kiss or send an unmistakable kiss-me signal. What?
- Your protagonist can do magic. A greater mage can work miracles. What’s the biggest?
- Your protagonist is wise. A truly transcendent human being brings about the impossible. What in your story is impossible?
- Do your answers suggest ways to make your protagonist more active, vibrant, surprising, and memorable? If so, use them.
- Shifting from energy to tension (page 81):
- Your protagonist has a way of life. What is her view of life?
- Your protagonist has a strong sense of purpose but also a strong unfulfilled need. What is that need, and how does your protagonist regard it?
- Choose a time when your protagonist shows courage. At the same time, in what does he also gain faith?
- Find a point at which your protagonist is in control. What does she come to understand — or not?
- In one realm your protagonist is assertive. In what other realm does your protagonist yield, and why?
- Your protagonist relishes adventure. When does that come into conflict with romantic love? How does your protagonist measure the two against each other?
- When does your protagonist show the strongest leadership? What must he teach?
- Your protagonist is good. What is something that she finds beautiful and why?
- Your protagonist is audacious, but about what is he perfectly sincere?
- Your protagonist is rebels. How does she realize that she has also committed heresy?
- Your protagonist is a loner or finds himself alone. How does this also seem to your protagonist a form of poverty?
- Your protagonist enacts justice. How does she realize that she must also show mercy?
- If your answers to any of the above give you ways to open up the inner life of your protagonist in interesting ways, use them.
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