Sorry for my teenybopper outburst
there, but I’ve just spent a few hours today revising my book, now that I have
character arcs – complete with necessary scenes, incidents, and internal and
external manifestations of each stage of the arc. It went so much better than
any of the other of my attempts at revision, I just had to tell you about it.
The pitiable thing is, this is a
lesson I keep learning: first it was the story as a whole that I needed to
either build or recognize the structure; then it was themes; now it’s secondary
character arcs. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think it gets much smaller
than this, so I’m excited to simultaneously start working on outlining book
two.
And even though I ran out of time
yesterday to start outlining book two, with the massive success I had with
starting to revise book one, I’m confident I’ll be starting this week.
What I did for the character
outlines was this: each arc has four points – think of it as beginning, rising
action, complication, solution. Because of the complicated natures of these
sub-plots, and the themes they argue, it worked well to have the characters
overshoot their solution, leading to a complication and eventual return to the
proper solution.
Then I figured out what would be
going on internally and externally for each of these steps. What are they
thinking while they try to work out this part, and what are they doing? Sometimes
it’s obvious that they haven’t figured out their question yet – other times,
not so obvious.
Then I determined one dedicated
scene per point, in which they are the main character for that scene.
Additionally they each receive an internal incident (a moment in which there is
no scene, per se, but the narrator focuses on them for a moment, either in
reaction to or preparation for another event) and an external incident, both
reflecting what I’d already established as their separate manifestations.
Now, of course, these are not the
only times the characters are focused upon: many times their actions and reactions,
and dialogue, are foregrounded – and these too will often reflect their general
moods at that point. But, realizing that real people are not controlled by one
emotion or intellectual problem at all times until that emotion has been dealt
with, most times otherwise the dialogue goes as it must to be natural and
fulfill the needs of the story.
But what’s nice is that I have
very firmly in my head what needs to
be in the story to complete the three secondary characters’ arcs – and it’s
easy to know what that need has been adequately fulfilled. So instead of
reading through and thinking “I could put something here, maybe…They need to
kind of act like this, right?” I can say: “Next is this part, where this kind
of scene needs to happen. Good? Yes, good, I like it. Next, over here…”
Because, see, the creative part –
the drawing of the objects – has been done. All I’m doing now is filling in the
lines, and shading, and contouring. The overall picture is still fixed; but the
nuances are yet to be put in place. And recognizing where those lines are makes
it so, so much easier.
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