Every novel seeks to answer a question. The question could arise from the premise, What if______meets_____, to which the plot of your story delivers the answer in showing what ensues when X meets Y.
On another level your novel could raise a question that plumbs the depths of human personality and consciousness. Why is it that we humans tend to inflict the greatest pain upon the ones whom we profess to most love?
Every story or novel questions a certain aspect of human interaction, brings focus to the intense realities of life and living.
Writers benefit greatly from not only anticipating, but also seeking to identify the questions our stories raise, or inject into the ring of human discussion by our very act of crafting the story.
Gaining a sense of that for which the plot of our story, or novel seeks to answer provides a map of the trajectory that the narrative will travel. Knowing this we can glimpse of the highest point of the overall drama of our story.
Realizing the high point or climax or the story you are writing is akin to standing at the base of Mt. Everest and holding a map that indicates the very point at which you are located in the Himalayas with a line going from that point to the top of Everest.
This kind of forethought and understanding of the terrain your story seeks to travel gives way to all sorts of creative ideas that clarify the path between the novel’s opening, and the place where the wave of human interaction crests yielding the peak experience of change and transformation.
Every story offers the reader an opportunity to journey outside her or his world of activity by entering into that of another.
Knowing as a writer where the germs of your story desires to take the reader and you, allows more time and energy for you to flower the way with surprises and particulars that make travel all the more engaging and memorable, for them, and again, also for you.
What most perplexes you about human interactions?
When do you get a sense of your story’s climax–before, during or after the writing the narrative?
It may be a bit too early in my career to answer this question with any certainty, but for my first wip, I knew the climax before I ever put pen to paper. It’s hard for me to write without a specific goal in mind. So I think I will alway be one of those writers that, while I may not have a distinct beginning and middle in mind initially, I must have the ending firmly rooted before the creative process can take over.
Case in point, I am currently brainstorming book 2 in my contemp romance series, and I have the faintest concept of a plot because I’m yet to determine what the climax for these two characters will involve.
My methods may change over time, but for now I write character driven stories, and in order for me to lay out a successful story, I need to make sure the black moment and climax really test my characters, their comfort zones, and their relationships.
Sounds like you’re using Karen Wiesner’s book, “First Draft in 30 Days.”
It’s a great book, particularly for fleshing out the wants and desires of supporting characters and how they antagonize the protagonist. Karen also pushes you to raise the stakes which is ever more important. The gift of her method is the energy for brainstorming that it unleashes. I needed that. Anything becomes possible when using Karen’s plan.
I found that after going plotting out my novel according to her suggestions I was then in a better position to examine my story and and identify some the questions it raises, or rather my characters raise.
Again, thanks so much for commenting.
No, I’m just too anal and plot focused to write a story in which I have no idea what the ending is, or what the major bumps along the road are. I am easily distracted, and if I start a story without enough details, I’ll wonder off on too many tangents :-).
I’ve not heard of that book, but I do have “Book In A Month” by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. It’s a wonderful guide, it’s full of outlines and exercises that will help even the sternest of pansters get their story together.
I will have to check out “Book in a Month” by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. As for planning versus simply writing, I now find myself squarely in the middle. I started out just writing with an image of the beginning, climax and end. After earning my MFA I then set out to develop plan for planning, which I used in writing my novel, “The House,” that I will released in the fall. I have also done extensive outlining for the novel I plan to write this year. I also have the four novels I wrote before earning my MFA, wherein I wrote with three images before me.
Interviewing Lisa Unger renewed my interest in just writing and continuing to do so to see what happens–discover.
But having done extensive planning, whether I write it out or not, it’s in my head. I think now, inherently, before I write.
I’m in the middle, which is a good place to be.
Thanks so much for commenting and sharing.