By: Monica Gupta,
on 9/28/2016
ये अंधा कानून है. देश का खोखला कानून है क्योकि हर रोज कुछ न कुछ ऐसा पढने सुनने को मिल जाता है कि कानून पर से विश्वास ही उठता नजर आता है. आज भी कुछ ऐसा ही हुआ. नेट पर सर्च करते हुए अचानक ध्यान एक खबर की और चला गया. खबर थी कि फिल्म ‘पिंक […]
The post देश का खोखला कानून appeared first on Monica Gupta.
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By: Sue Bradford Edwards,
on 8/9/2012
The other day, my son discovered Maury Povich, and it wasn’t just any topic. This was “whose the baby’s daddy.” I decided to watch with my tween son and use the show to drive home a few cautionary points. What I didn’t expect was a lesson in building tension.
First, they would bring out the young woman. She would tell her story and swear up, down and sideways that the guy they were about to meet was the father and she was going to prove it. THE PROTAGONIST had a GOAL.
Then Povich would interview the “father” who would swear that there was no way the child was his. He became the ANTAGONIST.
This alone would just be a case of he said, she said. But the producers made sure we got RISING TENSION. One guy said the baby didn’t look like him. Another pointed out that she had pulled this before; he had proved the first baby wasn’t his. The ANTAGONIST has a GOAL that goes against the protagonist’s goal.
At last, Povich held the envelope with the DNA test in his hand – the TURNING POINT. Invariably the man in question was not the baby’s father. Why invariably? To keep the TENSION high, and, believe me, with the tears, screaming and name calling, there was plenty of tension.
As writers, you need to manage the tension in your stories as if you were a producer on Maury Povich.
Start with your PROTAGONIST. What is her GOAL? If you are going to use it to create tension, it has to be a big deal. What is at risk if she fails? She doesn’t have to look foolish on national television, but the bigger it is the more tension you will create.
There also has to be someone or something in her way. If you use an ANTAGONIST, vs. nature or time, your antagonist doesn’t have to be evil. His goal just has to be at odds with the goal of your protagonist.
Before the end of the story, you need to INCREASE THE TENSION. The reader could learn something about the protagonist that puts her goal in question. Or another character could surprisingly side with the antagonist. In some way, the protagonist must meet a REVERSAL.
This is where so many of us fall down on the job. We like our characters and don’t want to be the cause of their suffering. We make things too easy. We make things boring while Povich and his producers keep throwing more and more trouble into the mix.
Do this and, like Povich, you will keep your audience on the edge of their seat, shouting, cheering and maybe even booing. The one thing they won’t be doing is putting aside your writing to watch something on TV.
–SueBE
Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.
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By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 7/25/2011
Fascinating plot consultation today. The writer knows how she wants the story to end -- the Climax -- and needed support to find a way to get there.
I have found that writers who know the end of the story early on in the writing of a story often are able to stay on track more easily than writers who have no idea where they are going (though if you're one who has no idea of the end, eventually you'll finish the first draft and thus, eventually will know the Climax and have the same advantage as the writer who knows the Climax before starting out).
Either way, knowledge of the climax determines so many of the earlier decisions you need to make.
The action the protagonist takes at the climax reveals what traits, knowledge, and skills are necessary for her to prevail. Thus, these necessary skills will be missing at the beginning and she will need relearn or rediscover them throughout the middle. Some skills she will be learning for the first time, but the true skills necessary for success at the climax are rediscovered after having been lost or buried due to her backstory. This is a backward approach to developing a character, deconstructing the end character to determine who she is at the beginning.
Most writers write with a forward approach to developing a character. You fill in a flaw, a strength, and five other character traits on the character profile. Either you begin writing first and the character reveals these traits to you, or you decide upon the character traits first and then construct a character using those traits. However, today was the writer who represent those who write from the climax back to the beginning.
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 5/28/2010
My last post was a bit harsh. I take it back. It is not necessary for a writer to have to go through all that.
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 4/22/2010
I have the great pleasure of working with a writer who is as fascinating and inspiring as his story.
By: Adventures in Children's Publishing,
on 4/22/2010
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 3/18/2010
The protagonist is always the character who is the most changed or transformed by the dramatic action in the story.
At the Climax (the scene right before the Resolution at the end), the protagonist does something to "show" the ultimate change or transformation. Whatever she does at the Climax -- the crowning glory of the entire story -- she is unable to do anywhere else in the story. She has to first endure all the dramatic action that comes before in order to gain the abilities and skills and new understanding of herself.
Make sure the action the protagonist takes at the Climax reflects this inner and outer growth and ask yourself if she could have acted in the same way anywhere else in the story.
Yes? Then rethink the Climax.
No? Then you're good to go!
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 3/16/2010
So, I’m sitting at the hosptial, waiting for my husband to follow in Harry Smith’s footsteps and get the Couric Procedure (screening colonoscopy). Every wall has a sign asking, “Are you in pain?
Of course, it made me think about character pain.
Physical pain may or may not be present in a story. But it’s the emotional pain that creates strong stories.
No pain. In general, a character should never feel a 0 on the Pain Scale, even in the opening; well, maybe in the conclusion, but even there, characters often has residual pain.
Mild pain. This is appropriate for the opening of a story, before the conflict which sends the character into act 2. It’s also appropriate for the conclusion, where the story is wrapped up. You’d never want this for the middle of the story or especially the climax.
Moderate pain. Act 2 should be characerized by at least this level of pain throughout, with mild or severe pain for places of emotional rest or stress.
Severe pain. Act 2 and 3 should have spikes of severe pain, as the emotional crisis of the story heats up.
Worst pain. This would normally be reserved for the climax of the story.
The pain scale is a subjective scale, asking a patient how much s/he hurts. My husband has a higher pain threshold than I do, for sure. And my number 10 is about his number 5. Likewise, there are stories with severe pain scales and some with mild pain scales. A pain scale for a children’s picture book is very different from a pain scale for a horror story.
It’s also helpful to consider the pain scale when thinking about which character is the main character. In general, the character who hurts the most should be the main character. Ask each of your characters to rate their pain at key points throughout the story. Which one has the most pain? Could the story be stronger with a different main character? If there characters with no pain or only mild pain, could you either delete that character or find a way to add emotional pain?
 |  Revise with confidence. |
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 12/5/2009
If you do not have a draft of a story written, follow the steps outlined this month to generate ideas for one now. (You'll have to use your imagination and fill in the missing blanks, but you're good at that, right? After all, you're a writer.....
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 11/9/2009
Whether you like to work out the elements of your story on the page or are a pre-plotter, everyone benefits from a bit of periodic organization. See how many of the key scenes you can identify in the story you're imagining, writing, or perfecting: 1) Set-up: The set-up you create in the Beginning makes the journey the protagonist undertakes in the Middle feel inevitable. 2) Inciting Incident: A moment, conflict, dilemma, loss, fear, etc. that forces the protagonist to take immediate action. 3) End of the Beginning: The protagonist's goal shifts or takes on greater meaning and turns the story in a new direction, launching the character into the actual story world itself. 4) Halfway Point: The moment the protagonist consciously makes a total commitment to achieving her goal and does something that signifies she has burned all bridges back and thus can only go forward. 5) Crisis: The all-is-lost moment.6) Climax: Just as it looks as if all is permanently lost for the protagonist, she saves the day.For more on key scenes:
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 10/15/2009
Last night, I furiously jotted down notes during my book group's discussion of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Although I avoid reading and watching violence of any kind, I read this book like one possessed. For a couple of days I was addicted to Lisbeth and have thought of her often since then.
By: Charles Hodgson,
on 8/7/2008
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The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations says that movie mogul Sam Goldwyn said:
“What we need is a story that starts with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.”
Unfortunately for the word climax the dictionary of quotations goes on to admit that this might not actually have been said, but instead invented in the spirit of Sam Goldwyn; a bit of an anticlimax.
But looking at the etymology of climax I can see that if the earthquake was big enough to open big cracks in the ground it might be handy to have a climax around because climax is in fact the Greek word for “ladder.”
Some dictionaries point out how English has anticipated the goal by using climax to mean “the top” when literally climax was merely a tool to get there.
But I think climax is a great example of those smarty-pants classicists back in the renaissance dragging Latin and Greek words into English.
Climax did make it into Latin from Greek, but before Greek the roots of climax are utterly logical.
Your basic ladder doesn’t work very well without something to lean it against. The American Heritage Dictionary gives an Indo-European root klei that also comes down to us in recline and incline; it means “to lean.”
A ladder leans so the Greeks and Romans called it a climax.
In fact our word lean evolved from the same Indo-European root.
In 1598 the document to first offer up this Latin/Greek word for English use was something called The Arte of English Poesie.
Poesy is a poem so you can tell right away that the author is keen on the power of words, symbolism and metaphor.
In fact the word he is trying to introduce is clyming an invented pseudo-Greek word describing a poetic technique the builds the force of the idea being expressed.
This is not our English word climbing although it only emphasizes my claim that these guys were smart-alecks making a pun like that.
In explaining what he means he actually says a clymax is a “ladder.”
Who “he” is is a bit of a mystery.
For centuries admirers of The Arte of English Poesie didn’t know who wrote it. Then in 1910 a keen observer saw a note that an author had made instructing their printer to use the same typeface as the book by another author named Puttenham.
Since the printer then used the same typeface as appears in The Arte of English Poesie everyone was satisfied that it must have been Puttenham who wrote the thing.
It seems a rocky conclusion to me and it must have to another keen observer also, who spent months establishing that it couldn’t have been Puttenham; and more months building a meticulous list of 14 criteria which only the true author could meet; and then suggesting another guy named Lumley who did meet the criteria.
Of course the results of such research can only represent a climax to the most hard core of History of English Literature students.
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 8/14/2007
We as writers may start out writing just for ourselves, but even for those who are the most resistant to admit it, we each long for a readership to enjoy our projects.
Once a writer embraces that truth, our relationship to our writing changes.
One way to consider your readers or audience is to get closer to yourself. What kinds of writing do you like? How does your favorite author begin their stories? In scene or in summary? How do your scenes compare to theirs in terms of complexity, interest, excitement, character development, and truth?
What constitutes the Beginning, the Middle and the End of their projects? Can you detect what launches the character(s) into the heart of the story world towards the end of the Beginning? Does the Crisis reveal anything about the character to the his or herself or does the highest point in the story so far function only on the Dramatic Action level alone? How does the Climax show the character doing something they could not have done at the beginning of the story? Is there Thematic Significance to their writing? Is there to yours?
One of the greatest personal benefits of writing is the opportunity to dig deep for our own individual truth. The first draft for many writers skims the surface as we look for meaning and conflict shown in scene and how the characters will show their transformatio over time. Often, what we write in these first drafts is what we've heard before or learned from our family and friends, in school, and through our own reading and the news.
But once we read what we have written, we immediately sense when something does not ring true. There is no better way to learn what is true for us and what is not, than to read our words ourselves first.
As I stated in my plot book for writers, Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple, my hope for you and for me is that our search for the truth through our writing remains active and honored. We dig for the truth not only for ourselves, but for our future audience as well.
We each share the need to be heard.
We each have something vital to offer.
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 7/22/2007
Readers turn the pages based on their interest in the characters or the excitement caused by the dramatic action or both. The Middle goes on for quite awhile (1/2 of the entire project), and sure, there is lots of conflict, tension, suspense to keep the reader reading, but all those scenes are building to something and that something is the payoff ~~ the Crisis (about 3/4 of the way through the entire book).
It's like climbing a hill. We keep hiking for lots of different reasons, but in the end we're hoping to get to the top = the payoff. In the case of a story, the Crisis is getting to the top. Except, the reader and the character reaches the top only to realize they're only part way there, that another peak awaits them ~~ the Climax ~~ the ulimate payoff for the reader, the crowning glory of the entire project.
Analyzing other books similar to your genre helps writers begin to "feel" the energetic flow of the story and better helps you apply the principles to your own work. Plus, you'll find lots of great hints and tips and ideas when you are reading as a writer, not just a reader.
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 5/16/2007
THE END
The final 1/4 of the project.
The protagonist now knows what's not working and goes in pursuit of what does.
She is challenged every step of the way, only now in the End, she attempts to react in a new transformed way.
Each scene shows her finding her power little by little.
The Climax
The Climax comes almost at The End of the story itself.
The Climax is the biggest scene in the entire story.
The Climax is what the story is all about.
Each scene in the entire book has worked its way steadily toward this moment ~~ the Climax.
The Climax embodies the transformation.
The Climax shows the protagonist doing something she is now only able to do because of each of the tests and trials she underwent in the middle.
The Resolution
The Resolution is the final tie-up of everything.
The End builds at a fevered pitch to the Climax.
The energy drops off after that.
The Resolution brings final closure.
By: Garden Painter Art,
on 4/18/2007
Good Morning:
I'm off to have lunch with a friend today. Debbie literally lives down the street and around the corner from me, but we both have such busy schedules, we don't get to see each other as of often as we would like, or as often as we once did. She's just graduated from nursing school and is working for the first time in about 17 years. I'm desperately trying to "expose" my collage to a world that doesn't seem to be too receptive to or interested in my idea of art. Nevertheless, my constant blarketing and basic marketing keeps me tied up. Between both of our busy days, we manage to sneak a little conversation in on the telephone or see each other at church. Today, we have set aside time for a lunch date. I'm so looking forward to a couple of hours with a dear friend.
In the meantime, I will leave you with a photo of a perfect fuschia blossom that lives on my front porch.
And...a few pictures of my latest prints. 
I am so pleased with the quality of these reproductions. Initially, I worried that so much could be lost in translation, being that collage depends on textures and layers. I thought the prints might be lifeless and flat. 
I was wrong. They actually look like real life, professional pieces of true art!!
You can find these prints and more at My Etsy Shop.
I hope this finds all of you ready to have a great day.
Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
gnarly-dolls
The Maury Povich show has never been so highly elevated as this.
Perhaps if they advertised their show as a lesson in story writing, they'd get more reaction in their studio audience? (I think not, sadly.)
This post is proof that a person can take anything--even an inane television show--and spin it in a positive way.
Sue--this post made me laugh out loud. I love it, and everything you said was SO TRUE! :)
Ha! I've never thought of those daytime talk soaps as stories...but I do believe they're scripted that way.
One big difference between books and television, though, is that we don't have the benefit of a live studio audience to manipulate the reader. A lot of the tension doesn't come from the participants' problems, which are often trite by themselves, but the crowd reaction to each revelation. I'm sure they have cue words flashing up over the stage saying, "Boo!" "Cheer!" "Aww...." There's a reason the camera is constantly panning around, zeroing in on exaggerated expressions of shock or anger. Without that audience energy, those shows would be terribly awkward. Imagine the teen mamas and baby daddies in an empty white room screaming at each other, with nothing but the camera between them and the viewers at home. That's closer to the situation we have to deal with: just the words on the page and the reader on the couch.
T.K.,
We may not have the reaction of the audience to manipulate reader emotion but we have other "tricks of the trade." These can include:
*The specific setting
*Various sensory details
*Specifics about the characters' emotional reactions
*Verb choices
*Limiting the space through which the character can move
*Limiting the time she has to solve a problem
These are all ways we can ramp up the tension and script our own stories.
--SueBE