Authors: Jerry Cleaver
First:
Do you have an
idea?
If you don't and you can't think of one, go through the course and pick one that appeals to you. If you can't find any you like, take the one you dislike the least. If you still can't make up your mind, pick the third one you look at. Don't make it an ordeal. Whatever you pick will evolve into something that will work for you once you get into it. You may have a
situation
that interests you—a blind date, for example, or a cheating lover.
Second:
Once you have an idea or a situation, you need to decide which
character
you want to write about in the situation. If you're not sure, pick one who
wants
something. If you want to write about a blind date, your
character wants
a lover. If you want to write about infidelity, your
character
is either the betrayed party and
wants
a loyal lover, revenge, etc., or your
character
is the cheating party and
wants
to have an affair without getting caught. So,
character + want
is what you need to find.
If you can't figure out what the character wants, ask: what
could
he want, what
might
he want, what
should
he want? until you figure something out.
(Remember:
You don't have to have quick answers. Mull it over, relax, explore what's in your head. Don't rush. Put in your 5 minutes, and don't worry about what you're getting done or not getting done.)
You may have a character in mind and know what that character wants. Or you may have a character who interests you, but you're not sure how to build a story around him. If that's the case, take the character trait you're interested in and frustrate/threaten it. That's
want + obstacle,
and they equal
conflict,
which is where a story starts. If your character is stingy, put him in a situation where he must be generous, where he must give up some wealth
(want)
or suffer a serious loss (his job, his family, his reputation, his lover, etc.). So his
want
is to protect his wealth. The
obstacle
is donate or suffer.
Want + Obstacle = Conflict.
You can do this with any character trait. If you want to write about a compulsive neat freak, throw him in with a wild slob, and you have
The Odd Couple.
If you want to see an example of a serious, disastrous odd couple, read Somerset Maugham's short story "The Outstation." This setup was here long before Neil Simon used it with Felix and Oscar. People getting under each other's skin, rubbing each other the wrong way, for personal/temperamental reasons, and going to war over it is nothing new. It's also a story that can be told over and over. There's always room for one more. For you to tell
it your
way.
Third:
Once you have the conflict established, the next step is
action.
What's the character going to do? If you have a true (dramatic) conflict, the obstacle is breathing down the neck of the character, and he must
act
to save himself. It's time for him to try to impress his blind date, regain his lover's loyalty (infidelity), or protect his wealth and reputation. He must be taking
action
in order to do that, in order to
make something happen.
He must be trying to change things, trying to get something from someone who is determined not to give it up. This taking action is confrontation and is done in scene.
Fourth:
Your first confrontation scene has your character trying
(action)
to get something he
wants
from someone who doesn't want to give it up
(obstacle).
There are a few critical elements that must be part of a dramatic scene. At the end of that scene, things must be
worse
than they were at the beginning. The scene ends
in the mind of the character,
with him stewing and trying to figure out what to do about this even bigger dilemma that now threatens him.
Your scene will have the same shape as a story, with want, obstacle, action, and
resolution.
The difference is the resolution is a
scene resolution.
In a
scene resolution,
things have settled down for the moment, but the worst is yet to come. Your character is licking his wounds, wondering and worrying about what to do to save himself. Besides trying to figure out what to do, the character will be trying to make sense of things (the new complication or set of troubling facts uncovered during the confrontation). And he will be trying to figure out why this is happening, what it might mean for him, what will happen if he loses the struggle, etc. His worries, fears, and hopes will be churning in him. You, the author need to ask what he's afraid will happen and what he hopes will be the outcome. His fantasies may be working overtime also.
Fifth:
If you've gotten this far, your story should be up and running. You should be on your way to more confrontations (two or three, usually) and a dramatic final showdown that will result in the
final resolution
to the story—a win, a loss, or a mixed victory. If you're having trouble deciding what to do, remember your ongoing purpose is to
reveal character.
You do that by challenging and rechallenging your character—by raising the stakes, by making everything as difficult for everyone as you can, by letting nothing be easy for anyone—ever.
Push things to the limit, to the extreme. Stories are about extremes. And don't worry about going too far. At this stage your biggest problem is not going far enough. If you go too far, you can always cut back. Going too far and then cutting back is what writers do continually. Creating more trouble forces your characters to use more of themselves. In using more, they reveal more. When they reveal more, you, the author, and the reader have a deeper experience of the character—identification.
If what I'm telling you now still isn't helping, go to the chapter on rewriting and follow the steps for getting into your story and characters. Go through the motions, step-by-step, even if it feels stupid. If you're in that state (nothing is any good), the main thing is to keep moving along, following the plan, until it gets good again—which it will, always,
if
you keep at it.
OK, that's a pretty meaty list. It's a lot to be going over in a five-minute session, so I want to give you some abbreviated versions you can carry with you and refer to easily in your five-minute sessions, especially if nothing seems to be working. Here's one shorter list:
One:
Do you have a
situation
(blind date, unfaithful lover, an enemy out to get the character, etc.)? If not, explore possibilities in yourself. If that doesn't work, pick an idea from the course.
Two:
Who is the main character? (The main character is the one with the biggest problem—the most to lose.) What does he
want?
If you're not sure, make a list of
possible
wants
(want list).
Once you have a want or a want list, figure out what the
obstacle
is. If you can't decide, make a list of
possible
obstacles
(obstacle list).
If you're not sure, don't lock yourself into anything. You're just exploring possibilities—for five minutes a day and in free moments.
Three:
Want + Obstacle = Conflict is what you've explored in the second step. Now it's time for the character to
act,
to assert himself to try to overcome the obstacle and satisfy his want. So, what can he do to win out? His
action
should be a direct attack upon the problem. Again, if you're not sure, make a list of
possible
actions
(action list).
This list should include the result, the
resolution
to the struggle between the character and the obstacle. The resolution is the outcome. You may not (and do not have to) know what it is until you write your way to it.
Four:
Each scene ends in a
scene resolution
in which things are
worse
than they were at the beginning, and it ends in the mind of the character as he is stewing over the problem, trying to figure out what's going on and what he should do next to win out.
Five:
Your story should have some momentum by now if you have
want, obstacle, action
working. If you don't or you're not sure, go to the chapter on rewriting and follow the steps for getting the most out of your story and characters.
Here's an even shorter pocket list:
1. Situation.
Check course story ideas if you have none.
2. Character
want + obstacle (conflict).
3. Action
(confrontation/struggle).
4. Resolution.
Scene resolution. Things are worse at the end. End in character's mind.
5. If it's not working, go to the rewrite chapter and follow the steps.
Remember to analyze any scene or story to see what you've got. Always remember:
Want:
Who wants what? Where does the want first appear?
Find it on the page. Do not work in your head.
What does the character want? Could it appear sooner? How much does the character want it? Could he want it more? How?
Obstacle:
What's the obstacle? Where does it first appear? Find it on the page. Could it appear sooner? How threatening is it? Could it be more threatening? How?
Action:
Is the character taking direct action against the obstacle to defeat it and get what he wants? Where does the action first appear? Find it on the page. Could he act sooner? Is he doing his utmost? Could he do more? How?
Yes, it's WANT, OBSTACLE, ACTION, over and over and over, until it's coming out of your ears. It may seem like I'm overdoing it, but these are your keys to creating compelling stories. It cannot be done without them.
FROM 30 TO 365
I've stressed the thirty-day trial period to get a feel for what this method can do for you. Once you've done the thirty days and are able to see what you can accomplish in five minutes a day, your next commitment needs to be for one year.
To find yourself as a writer and experience some substantial progress, you should not be fussing around evaluating what you've done or how well you've done it on a daily, weekly, or even monthly
basis. There are too many slumps and surges and losses of perspective in all of this to permit any accurate judgments in the short term. Plus, we tend to evaluate our work when things are going badly—the worst possible time to judge anything. So, don't do it. It's been many a writer's downfall. And if and when you do evaluate, do it when things are going well and never when you're down.
So you must follow the system for a year straight, and keep going no matter what, if you're going to give yourself a fair chance. You should shoot for at least one hundred pages in that year. If you do that, at the end of the year, when you can look back over what you've done and compare your year-end writing with what you did at the beginning, I guarantee that you will be pleased.
The next few sections offer some cautions, tips, and reminders.
THE WORST
The worst thing you can do in all of this is to
not write and not make meaningful contact with your writing
for an extended or not so extended period. With this plan, there is no need to ever be away from your writing for any significant amount of time, because 5 minutes a day keep you in touch. The CARDINAL SIN in all of this is skipping the 5 minutes a day. Always, always, always make that daily contact. If you don't, when you get a chance to do some writing, you will be lost or, at the very least, creatively tense and stiff, and you'll flounder around trying to get into the swing of it, to loosen up, all the while losing time and running the risk of giving up. Do your 5 minutes— always.