Anna DeStefano's Blog

We’ve talked a little about analyzing story, a lot about what character growth means, and even more about how to figure out why your characters are doing what they do in key places in your story. So, is that it? You know me better than that. Let’s take a closer look at Jenni’s example from last week’s HoWW Post, think this through a little more, then set things up for a whole new topic starting next week. One of Jenni’s favorite things this time–plot.

But don’t think you ‘ve seen the last of this lovely planning document. It’ll be back sooner than you might expect, especially since we’ve established that character is plot is character is plot. And those of you coming to hear me teach at the  DFWCon this month and the Central New York Writers Minicon  in March, we’ll play with it even more ;o) 

Okay, let’s bullet point some cool features about this type of character analysis that we’d love to get you excited about (I love bullet points, so for those of you who dug the bullets Jenni uses above, you’re my kind of detail freaks):

• Think critique group–you know, the kind of thing Jenni and I were doing when I first showed it to her. Think about the type of digging deeper conversations you’ll have with those helping you with your own stories, with this as a starting point to visualize evolving components of your novel.
• For the first row in Jenni’s table, (more…)

So, after last Wednesday’s Character Chart Basics, that didn’t turn out to be so basic after all, how are we doing???

Like I said, I know it’s a lot to take a step back from a work-in-progress and rethink why you’re doing what your doing with your characters, how you’re making them realistic,  at key points in the story. But whether you’re in the planning stages or preparing to write/re-craft, that level of understanding of your intent for your character arcs is crucial. Still, even if it’s not your or your critique partner’s first time around the “mine for motivation in every scene” block, the process I described last week can seem overwhelming. It’s difficult to envision who and what your characters will be over the course of a novel.

So, let’s take a step back and revisit Jenni’s blog for fresh look and her and my critique of her WIP. It’s her turn to take the HoWW wheel, and she’s promised to give us some specific examples of exactly how this sort of character analysis and planning/re-crafting can work, whether you’re doing it solo or as a team. How to make all the information I dumped into the last post work–YOUR way.

Remember, How We Write Wednesdays began with an idea of showing others how the brainstorming and critiquing we’ve done with our own and each other’s books has enhanced the depth and complexity and quality of our stories.

Mining for motivation and character development is just the first step on our journey here:

• We want to show the process of writing and critiquing as it’s really done, not  just lecture about it.
• We want to demonstrate and encourage you to discover your own process, not simply offer a list of “to-dos” that may or may not work once you try to apply them yourselves with no additional help.
• This is a practical approach to helping writers find their own techniques–not a bucket of quick tips, when there’s nothing quick about the day-in, day-out challenge of creating an satisfying reading experience.

So head on over to Jenni’s blog to read about What is better? Do what other writers say works? Or make it work for you? And how to know the difference.

Then come back here next Wednesday, when I wrap up our Character Arc discussion, answer final questions, then spin things in a totally new direction.

Just as Jenni and I head off to the Dallas Fort Worth Writer’s conference (read more here and here) to teach in person. Hopefully we’ll see some of you there, or at the Central New York Mini-Conference in March, where I’ll be teaching plotting through character and a lot more, along with my agent Michelle Grajkowski.

Look us up. Come out and learn with us in person. Then work with us some more out here. We’ll be talking craft and critiquing and understanding and improving your own writing process for months to come ;o)

Let’s dig deeper into how critique groups and brainstorming can ramp up the motivation and plot we’ve spent the last two weeks of HoWW insisting will work much better, if you write from deeply-drawn character arcs. At least that’s been my experience while teaching and working with writers for years, as well as working on my own books and those of other authors like Jenni. Let’s go deeper into our Character Plotting conversation for another Wednesday, and you can let us know in the comments how we’re doing and if you want to hear more…

We left Jenni last week typing away on her laptop at the conference we attended together, after we’d spent the better part of an evening taking potshots at her work-in-progress. Actually, we’d been working pretty hard together (and pretty calmly, all things considered), trying to understand what wasn’t working and how to get every second of hard work she’d already put into the project to pay off. Which of course meant, as she and you now know, even more work.

She was going to have to rewrite. A lot. Frustrating? Sure. But our critique process is always focused on the work and making it better, so we typically wind up the emotional portion of the evening pretty quickly and get back to business. And for her book, that meant going back to the beginning and figuring out what her heroine was all about, all over again.

“How do you do that?” I can hear a lot of you asking. Just like my students have asked for years, ever sense I began teaching workshops and half-day/weekend retreats on deconstructing story and character and digging to the bar- bones truth about why they’re doing the crazy things they do in your books.

“But I’m a pantser,” others say, “and I can’t write if I have to analyze everything about my character’s motives and conflict.”

Um, okay. Don’t over-complicate your process. Got it.

I assure you, the basics of “character plotting”–brainstorming character arc for an entire novel–couldn’t be more simple. In theory. And in reality, not doing it to preserve your “creative process” is a cop out. Remember, this is something Jenni and I worked with AFTER she’d penned her rough draft–of the ENTIRE book. We were rewriting/reworking at this point. Deconstructing. Fixing the “writing by the seat of her pants” stuff.

Have you ever held a WIP in your hands and loved parts of it, but you knew it was broken and likely unsellable, and you had no idea what to do with what you’d created? Yeah–us too. Most every published author has. With most every book they’ve written. That’s why we put ourselves through the trauma of rewriting. A lot. And some of us learn along the way how to do a bit of this analysis ahead of time, in the planning phase, since that tends to save you time in the long run and make the rewriting you do even more effective once you get to it.

So. Simple. That’s our primary objective for this post. Here goes the “theory” part…

This is what my Character Chart looks like before you and a critique partner begin to deconstruct what’s going on in your WIP. (It’s a little small, so it’ll fit into the blog, but you’ll get the gist.)

That’s right. That’s my super-secret, crack-the-character code. Now you’re in the know. Beginning, middle and end, charted out in pretty much the simplest Microsoft Word table there is. This is a critique concept that’s simple enough for anyone to work with, right? (more…)

Last week, we had a great discussion about motivation. How it takes more than basic plotting to get your protagonist believably through his or her scenes. She can’t  just be doing things. The reader must identify with why she’s doing what she’s doing. Her motives. Her goals. What’s stopping her from getting where she needs to go. Make that come alive on the page, and you’ve got yourself a plot, a story, that a reader won’t be able to stop reading.

But how do you develop motivation on such a deep level? Since it’s Wednesday, Jenni’s taking the reins of this How We Write tangent over on her blog. I’m sure she’ll be nice. I mean, maybe there will be a bit of snark and revenge in her post, after I used one of her manuscripts as my example last week. But I’m a big girl. I can take it ;o)

Seriously, she’s talking more about the brainstorming we did together while she was reworking her work-in-progress, and you don’t want to miss it.  Today, you’ll hear what happened AFTER we broke through and she started discovering why her protagonist was doing all the dark, driven things she was on the page. (more…)

What does it take to go beyond the basic description of a character’s goal, motivation and conflict and make their deepest desires and fears come to life on the page? Brainstorming and critiquing with someone who knows your writing and is willing to put time into helping you dig down to the heart of your story is a highly recommended approach. And since Jenni and I are talking all things critiquing and brainstorming on How We Write Wednesdays, let’s take a closer look at how we’ve done that a time or two (BTW, check out the list of upcoming topics at the end of this post for the skinny on what we’ll be talking about next).

In each of our HoWW posts, we’ll start with the simple, then dig a little deeper–which, you’ll soon notice, is Jenni’s and my overall paradigm for growing your craft and asking other hard-working writers for their take on your work. You can always dig just a little deeper.

Pretty much anyone can understand the basic terms and techniques that fiction writers work with. There are countless experts to remind you what motivation is. There are great books to read. You can even take a class or two. But until you try to weave the concept of motivation into your characters and their stories, you can’t really understand how complicated and convoluted it can become, moving a character through a range of actions and emotions and the challenges of a tightly plotted story. Turns out…this writing thing isn’t so simple after all.

So, basic motivation is the following: (more…)

As promised last Wednesday, Jenni’s charging ahead with our “tag you’re it” How We Write Wednesday blog experiment over on her site, talking about the creative side of writing and how the two of us often challenge (and annoy the heck out of) each other the times we get a chance to brainstorm and revise.

I’ve covered the basics of what we’re trying to do with this thread already–see here (I promise I’m done with the links now…almost).From there, consider us an experiment in progress challenging ourselves to share some the meatier, more in-depth stuff that happens once you’re writing on contract and on deadline and trying to score that next contract and grow your “published” creative process more with each book. Because once you’re published, it ALL makes sense, right?

Uh, no.

Not by a long shot.

Over the next few months, once a week on alternating blogs, we’ll cover the stuff beyond line editing and proof reading.The stuff you don’t hear about every day that just might help your journey to publishing fiction and beyond not be as bumpy as ours. Well, probably not. It’s all bumpy, each of us in our own “special” way. But maybe it’ll be nice to know, when you get there, that you’re not losing your mind once you experience for yourself that the reality of being published is worlds different than you thought it would be.

So, dive in over at Jenni’s. Let us know what you think, here or there. Then come back next Wednesday for more…here…because we’re trading back and forth, you see…the way brainstorming and revision works…just to beat the obvious symbolism to death a bit more ;o)

Oh, and I’m posting December contest winners in just a bit (thanks everyone who’s emailed to say you’re keeping an eye out) as well as new January chances to win. So come back here, too, to see if you’re one of the lucky ducks who’ll be receiving books or gift certificates in the mail soon!