Craft - Pt. 1 / Plot

I'll say right off the jump that the writing education I got at USF was top-notch. My professors were more supportive of and more genuinely engaged in my work and the work of my colleagues than I've seen in most programs (other than the Philosophy department at UMKC, which was also outstanding in this regard). I've heard a lot of complaints about other MFA in Writing programs across the country; either they don't seem to care about their students, they don't care about the work, or the professors have a tendency to push new writers in a certain direction. None of this is the case with the professors I had over the last two years.

A young professor (I'm keeping names out of this blog) I had for a Spring workshop gave me some of the best advice for my style of writing. Basically, he said that doing experimental writing or anything that shies away from  the more traditional/realistic work requires a firmer grasp of the fundamentals. You can't play with language if you don't understand how the language works, which means you can't play with the details of a story until you understand how stories work. So obvious in its simplicity, but the sentiment had never been stated that way to me before.

So, in an attempt to break down my own process, this is the first part of who knows how many entries. Mostly for my own benefit, to peek back into how I begin a new piece, but also for those of you reading who may be wanting to write, but are confused as to how to start. Again, this is MY process and not necessarily what you should adapt as your own. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but teaching new writers a strict dogma may yield the same fruitless results. Each writer comes to the page with their own vision and their own style.

PLOT:

Ideas come to me in a variety of ways. Like in my very first post, sometimes it's through the music I might be listening to at any moment. Other times, a novel springs forth from a single line that hits me at the most random of times (see: the title of this blog). A picture, a movement, a single a-ha moment - these are all viable. Ultimately, they all lead to one idea which becomes the focal point, the crux, of a story.

I find that this is the most important part of the entire story. The plot contains action and emotional content (sometimes), but ultimately keeps the story moving in a cause/effect kind of way. This happens, which makes this happen, which leads to this; literary dominos falling across the pages. The beauty of focusing on the plot is that you can imagine stick figures as characters playing out certain roles as you, the writer, figure out what's going on. Character is unimportant for the moment. It's all about the larger story right now. If you don't care about the story, then why should your readers?

For me, I prefer to shy away from genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, horror, westerns) because they tend to fall into a formulaic pattern. Not always, but a good portion of them are this way. Try to avoid cliched plotlines as much as possible; we've read those stories before. When I pick up a book, I want something that's going to tickle my brain and a good plot will often do that. If you want to work with a cliched plotline, just understand that everything else about your book is going to have to be straight up untouchable, otherwise it will get dissed and dismissed quickly.

You should ask yourself "why does this story matter?" when figuring out your plot. What about this particular story is going to engage a reader? Why should they pick up your book as opposed to the one sitting right next to it on the shelf? Being original while being yourself is of the utmost importance here. I don't intentionally write towards one audience or another because I don't want to find myself pigeonholed into something I can't find my way out of later. I try to keep my stories timeless. By this, I mean that I try to make sure all the details of a story are things people 50 years from now will still be able to relate to in some way, that the heart of the story still beats as strong within the pages decades later. I'll touch on this topic more in a later post.

So, figure it out. Use a whiteboard to post up ideas for story movement. Use different colored notecards on a cork board. Utilize idea bubbles that branch out into a thousand different possibilities. It wasn't until I was 140 pages into my current novel that I realized what the book was really about, but it completely changed the story for the better. The plot became something less ethereal and more tangible and, ultimately, more emotionally charged. Your plot will change. Over and over and over...but don't let it stop you from starting now.