Should authors simply follow the instructions herein because these are the rules for fiction writing?
“All receive advice. Only
the wise profit from it.”
—Syrus
A. The mindless acceptance of poorly thought out writing advice, ill considered do's and don'ts without reason or explanation, promotes only blithe autocratic misunderstanding and hack ineptitude.
Adding a broad assertion to a list of broad assertions does not make any of them true if, in actuality, they are not to begin with. Hence, arbitrary commandments without reasons ought to be suspect. Rather, it is of greater value to understand the whys and wherefores.
For if it is, indeed, true that there is, after all, no disputing tastes, just as goes that annoying vapid old canard, then Esthetics at all, much less Literary criticism, is entirely and intrinsically vacuous, null and void, actually worse off than xeno/exo/astrobiology, the famous discipline without a subject, because even until extraterrestrial life forms are ever discovered, at least said remains at all conceivable. But if beauty is, indeed, merely in the eye of the beholder, entirely subjective, then, objectively, it would seem that there can be nothing to sensibly discus, let alone ever find in all the universe.
But then, meaning, including value, none the least morality and esthetics, are Phenomenal and contingent experience no less than comprehension and reflection.
Indeed, there may be hope that the arts are not completely arbitrary, because of cutting edge studies in musicology, defining the characteristic patterns in what makes a melody pleasing. For this suggests that the preferences of taste are only partially personal and idiosyncratic, certainly in large part cultural, but also confirm that taste, after all, is an aspect of character, psychology, hence partially biologically innate and in common to the human species and intersubjective. Otherwise, art would never evoke, much less communicate, meaning and value.
So, how does any of this apply to the art and discipline of fiction writing? The answer is in the suggestion that the age old dictums of drama and the writing discipline, are not, after all, valueless, but simply insufficient, incomplete like the fixed biological component of musical preference, a manifest beginning even if not the last word.
In science exceptions constitute refutation. And yet, even then, verisimilitude, imprecision approaching truth, may yet persist, as with Newtonian gravity until anything better came along, despite observations in contradiction, for the indispensable uses it still had. Or, more saliently, psychology remains, even to this day, hit or miss, frustratingly imprecise for testable psychotherapeutic predictions, and yet viable hypothesis of profound explanatory significance. Moreover, much of the most sophisticated psychology remains manifest in the sagacity of great novelists, a sensibility. Indeed, what is drama, save lies pointing to some truth, however obvious or else elusive, of the human condition? Indeed, such are the age old dictums of drama and the writing discipline, always subject to exceptions, because life is the study of exceptions, because there is always more to it, not less, the art, soul and genius, along with the indispensable discipline of fiction writing, that, nevertheless, soulless, churns out only hack.
After all, allegory, as in fiction, endures as the most elusive of techniques, constantly seeming to be other than what it is, redolent with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the world depicted.
And all of that is only why any sort of genuine writer must strive for competence, ever standing at the ready to pick apart technique in order to be able to exchange criticism, meaningfully, so as to however grow in awareness and appreciation of how and why any fiction at all in whatever medium ever held their attention and reached them, and how to apply the same principles and techniques as a fiction writer oneself.
And make no mistake. These FAQ pages, text Onsite plus links Offsite, begin with and endeavor to adequately cover the utter fundamentals indispensable to capable fiction writing at all, let alone the invitation to collaboration herein.
Indeed, the only really sound reason for any perhaps more advanced aspiring fiction writer not to use this free resource or some equivalent thereof, would be that these pages only repeat what one already knows and understands without helping or adding anything much more. But not otherwise. So consider yourself warned.
Writing, much as with photography, may often turn out to be easy to do at all, badly, but difficult to do well. Good writing is more often the product of sustained effort and practice, and seldom comes out right on the first try.
Top Ten Quik-Hints
The Four C's are Conflict, Complication, Crisis and Climax.
Q.
A.
Conflict is everything! Indeed, creating conflict escalating on many levels with difficulty from any sort of obstacle or complication is
sine qua non for any sort of
tension,
every
Technique
of
Suspense
plotting and
anticipation,
even discomfort and
aversion, to sustain
pathos
and interest in a good story.
Conflict on every
level is the engine that drives stories. That, or the at all
meaningful
dramatization of
controversy
and values or at
least an intriguing problem to solve. Otherwise, the world stays at rest.
By every Technique of Suspense plotting, the rising tension and of dramatic conflict signifies that the resolution of whatever the central problem is such as to increasingly press character(s) inevitably to take action in struggle with whoever or whatever the antagonist in some way that must one way or another bring the very values of said character(s) into question for them.
No Powderpuff Pitty-Pat! To propel conflict, the Protagonist and Antagonist characters must display complementary psychologies such that the motivating desires and intentions of the Protagonist are bound to arouse the motivating fears of the Antagonist, and vice versa.
Plausible characters, like unto real people, require adequate motivation for their deeds and dialogue. Drama is people doing amazing things for very good reasons. But melodrama is just people doing amazing things for bad or utterly nonexistent reasons. In real life, as in drama, true character is revealed in conflict and under pressure to lower ones guard and show, demonstrate, what we are really made of and ever grow.
Because conflict on every level, or contradiction, is more than crisis, indeed, not merely an event in the first place, but like unto karma, a condition, a relationship. Conflict pressing difficult free choices is more than crisis or combat wherein the path, however arduous, nevertheless remains fairly clear. Characters develop out of situation and plot ideas emerge from characters in different situations and the actions undertaken because of their relationships and conflict on many levels, the friction entailed as characters come into contact.
Theme being whatever central question or inquiry, must correlate with some dramatic issue that must be compelling, credible and untenable conflict of values escalating naturally through increasingly high-stakes of any problematic situation. Drama requires characters each with whatever their own stake in the issues, decisions, dire free choices to make and the looming consequences thereof. And, to build tension and maintain interest and exploit every Technique of Suspense plotting, all attempts to back out must deteriorate and fail, but without such glaring plot holes as blithely overlooked or ignored obvious opportunities.
Navigate the various possible paths and dead ends and to find stories always dig deeper for insight to the struggle. Throughout the plot, the tension and pathos, even discomfort, outright aversion and every Technique of Suspense plotting and anticipation, are all heightened as things are made more difficult, the personal emotional stakes are raised, the free choices harder, and character development is pressed by worsening obstacles and complications for an active protagonist, definitely including onstage sex!
Stories are made memorable not merely in whatever empathy or curiosity merely as to the plot situation, but because of the reader or audience relationship, actual motivated feelings elicited for or even against the characters.
Whistle
Blowing
- the psycho-dynamics of
conflict
When friendship is not good for your mental health
Prolong the Agony by making life difficult so as to motivate characters. Even pander to vicarious wish fulfillment, but also inspire pathos, anticipation, by every Technique of Suspense plotting, even dread and the outright discomfort of sheer aversion. Stir any range of emotions and force the reader to empathize, to feel. That's what makes for good entertainment, a real gripping page turner.
Frequently, the self conscious illusion of individual will is only the burden of responsibility in hindsight, an artifact of the personal narrative facilitating growth.
Some say that one becomes addicted to shame when another's heart is closed to one, because, however excruciating, the sheer megalomania of taking the blame protects one from the ugly truth that we really have no control over others and the universe or God. We can't make either love us or, ultimately, even protect those who do. Put more simply, then, and in complete good faith, powerlessness, the impotent helplessness of the human condition is terminally demeaning.
And beyond direct action, our influence upon others may often be even the more misguided and deluded.
Life can only be lived forwards, but only understood or recognized in hindsight. Indeed, do we consider our options and consciously take action, or do our actions simply come upon us as we react, and only then rationalize afterward? People often make their most important decisions with their heart but only then rationalize intellectually. Hence, Problem Solving and Justification are reciprocal functions, and one must be shaped to rationalize the other, with integrity or else into hypocrisy. The inner journey must match the outer journey, beginning from the Emotional Disturbance that is is characters internal corollary to it's trigger, the out-of-whack event, or vice versa. The audience must empathize with a somehow at all sympathetic protagonist facing any worthy antagonist, Villains People Love to Hate, presenting enough of an obstacle to keep the outcome in doubt. Or an entire plot may be derived from any character's emotional core, as in a tragedy, hamartia, the blind error of maladaptation by a character inconveniently mismatched to circumstances or situation (in contrast to the aspect of the hero as more opportunely, appropriately and better equipped, skilled or tempered for whatever challenge at hand), the protagonist's greatest personality flaw, error, or, worse, their greatest virtue, but perhaps in disproportion, leads only to misfortune.
For any character's free choice of strategy will be determined not only by their POV, situation or even entirely mechanistic particular involvement in whatever phase of any process considered, but also defined, guided and constrained by values, into somehow or other principled behavior. And even the loftiest personal or ideological motivation and most admirable character trait can miss the mark, go astray and awry even upon the proverbial road to Hell that is paved with good intentions, to inspire and then culminate in a cascade of ill considered if not foul deeds outright, tribulation, dissolution, downfall or comeuppance, ruination and disaster. Indeed, even if thankfully in any somewhat less calamitously heroic proportion, ordinary flawed folk may blindly err, and often prove so much their own worst enemies, that their "inner villain" may provide enough of an obstacle all on it's own to sustain tension and pathos for every Technique of Suspense plotting and anticipation, even discomfort and aversion, by keeping the outcome in doubt.
Genial good listeners may be pleasant to be acquainted with in real life, but in dramatic writing such characters are poisonously dull. Know your conflicts and contradictions on every level, motivations, problems and dramatic obstacles, in order to sustain the narrative.
Unless the story is driven entirely by a completely external situation, plotting depends upon differing motivated goals ever put forth for the building blocks of interpersonal conflict on different levels between characters. With no "prods," the story runs bland. Hostility, mistrust and polarization are among the many aspects attendant upon conflict on every level pressing difficult free choices, which is more than a simple and civil disagreement or merely an event, more than crisis, but like unto karma, a condition, a relationship.
No Powderpuff Pitty-Pat! Throughout the plot, the tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion, of every Technique
of Suspense plotting and anticipation, are all heightened as thing are made more difficult, the personal emotional stakes are raised, and character growth is pressed by worsening complications for an active protagonist, definitely including onstage sex! Virtually all relationships of whatever kind begin with some sort of first discovery, romance even courtship, so to speak, even "the honeymoon," but inevitably and come into conflict on different levels, friction which is normal and even healthy, and in order to survive must reach acceptance in order to commit to substantive cooperation and collaboration.Just such conflict even on levels beneath the surface TEXT and CONTEXT may, nevertheless, emerge through subtext, What Lurks Beneath, shown by way of each of the senses in setting, action and atmospheric tone along with the Subtle and
Delicate Art of Doublespeak dialogue, may either harmonize with text, or in true Method subtext, even disagree with text, subtly, so as to draw attention into a deeper vein or level of conflict by being subtly wrong, to show or evoke characterization, wherein motivation should be apparent, even through thoughts, however expository. -Even ambiguity, which is the level of conflict in meaning as sought for in Literature (as distinguished, narrowly defined and signified by the much vaunted capital "L") .Each event in sequence that follows from motivated character action consistent with background, must in turn initiate from observable proximate stimulus unless entirely emerging from inner life, and, either way, rather than simply remaining mysterious, known only the mind of the character, must one way or another be shown intelligibly to the audience, even if to none of any other characters; either way, in turn, quite probably another vitally important plot point. Whenever the cause and effect chain ever omits such links, expect plot holes stumbling amid succession of unrelated events.
Conflict in it's many levels, or contradiction, pressing difficult free choices, is more than crisis and not merely an event, but like unto karma, a condition, a relationship. Conflict pressing difficult free choices goes beyond crisis or combat wherein the path, however arduous, nevertheless remains fairly clear. Characters develop out of situation and plot ideas emerge from characters in different situations and the actions undertaken because of their relationships and many levels of conflict, the friction entailed as characters come into contact. The dramatic efficacy of revealing and motivated subtext is in frustrated desire, giving rise to need and ingenuity. Drama is the gripping and engaging tension-laden presentation of conflict on many levels, whether or not the storyline is even believable. Drama is conflict pressing difficult free choices on many levels, as inherent to situation, conflict on every level, or contradiction, beyond mere crisis, being, as it is, more than merely an event, but like unto karma, a condition, a relationship. Alas, however, beware! poor staging or presentation of conflict dissipates inherent drama.
Type of conflict is part of what determines genre. Writing : Plot by by Damon Knight [summarized] deals with plot problem types as classifiable by their motivated goals put forth or endings, while 'A Guide to Mystery Genres' classifies by tone and details of setting, George Polti's classic and still controversial '36 Dramatic Situations (plus one)' classifies inciting incidents or circumstances that will, no doubt, make for an exciting mix and match with the 20 Master Plot Exercises. And Wise Women Discuss—Plot! lists the different basic plots, dramatic structure as defined by interconnection among the various levels of conflict with different obstacles. -Including, of course, conflict with an enemy, the more interesting, however, if the enemy and protagonist share any mixed feelings. Indeed, any good story needs levels and layers of interpersonal conflict even among friends. As with Spock and Bones, probing and bickering. And, especially, as with Spock, inner conflict, ambivalence and angst, with all of the obstacles life provides us to carry with us, inside.
Q. What is the function of the dramatic obstacle?
A. The purpose is that the difficult struggles of a character confronted with an obstacle provides so many levels of conflict, tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion of every Technique of Suspense plotting and anticipation, all to prolong the foreplay. It all turns upon the reason why. And it was James Blish who suggested that the best way to derive plot from premise begins by determining: who gets hurt? -as a consequence, by way of any sort of logical or causal conclusion...
Because, by every Technique
of Suspense plotting, the rising tension and of dramatic conflict signifies that the resolution of whatever the central problem is such as to increasingly press character(s) inevitably to take action in struggle with whoever or whatever the antagonist in some way that must one way or another bring the very values of said character(s) into question for them.Complications build upon, worsen, accumulate and intensify conflict. But for the pressure to thusly mount, also requires time and frustration from resolution. Retarding plot elements which delay or prolong the action are obstacles, while retrogressive elements which divert action away from its goals as ever put forth are subplot.
Prolong the Agony by making life difficult so as to motivate characters. Even pander to vicarious wish fulfillment, but also inspire pathos, anticipation, every Technique of Suspense plotting, even dread and the actual discomfort of sheer aversion. Stir any range of emotions and force the reader to empathize, to feel. That's what makes for good entertainment, a real page turner.
All manner of dramatic obstacles may obstruct the anticipated attainment of a desire, whatever that might be, even such as love for onstage sexual tension (as, for a familiar example, on the popular 'Moonlighting' TV show) or such tension as is generated by the need to escape from a threat for every Technique of Suspense plotting. Combat is predicated upon the most dire and deliberate threat. Or any contest or game poses an intentional obstacle, arbitrarily, before whatever prize or motivated goals ever put forth, if only the thrill of victory.
/ [eu]stressBut all manner of situations, even quite unforeseen, may present any range of obstacles, from an empty bread box standing in the way of the perfect sandwich, a bad hair day spoiling romance, misunderstanding threatening love, perplexing riddles and secrets denying truth, engineering limitations in the path of invention or a natural disaster barring very survival.
Or, beyond all such approach and avoidance, characters may even grow by rising to new challenge, often sadly evaded by the complacent. And in fiction obstacles or problems make for dramatic tension, which, when it happens in reality may sometimes be known as creative tension.
Misdirection, whether error circumstantially and honestly, by deliberate manipulation or even hamartia and self-deception, is key in moving from promise to catastrophe. And frequently, the self conscious illusion of individual will is only the burden of responsibility in hindsight, an artifact of the personal narrative facilitating growth.
Some say that one becomes addicted to shame when another's heart is closed to one, because, however excruciating, the sheer megalomania of taking the blame protects one from the ugly truth that we really have no control over others and the universe or God. We can't make either love us or, ultimately, even protect those who do. Put more simply, then, and in complete good faith, powerlessness, the impotent helplessness of the human condition is terminally demeaning.
And beyond direct action, our influence upon others may often be even the more misguided and deluded.
Life can only be lived forwards, but only understood or recognized in hindsight. Indeed, do we consider our options and consciously take action, or do our actions simply come upon us as we react, and only then rationalize afterward? People often make their most important decisions with their heart but only then rationalize intellectually.
Hence, Problem Solving and Justification are reciprocal functions, and one must be shaped to rationalize the other, with integrity or else into hypocrisy. The inner journey must match the outer journey, beginning from the Emotional Disturbance that is is internal corollary to it's trigger, the out-of-whack event, or vice versa. The audience must empathize with a somehow at all sympathetic protagonist facing any worthy antagonist presenting enough of an obstacle to keep the outcome in doubt. Or an entire plot may be derived from any character's emotional core, as in a tragedy, hamartia, the blind error of maladaptation by a character inconveniently mismatched to circumstances or situation (in contrast to the aspect of the hero as more opportunely, appropriately and better equipped, skilled or tempered for whatever challenge at hand), the protagonist's greatest personality flaw or, worse, their greatest virtue, but perhaps in disproportion, leads only to misfortune.
For any character's at all free choice of strategy is defined, guided and constrained by values, into somehow or other principled behavior. And even the loftiest personal or ideological motivation and most admirable character trait can miss the mark, go astray and awry even upon the proverbial road to Hell that is paved with good intentions, to inspire and then culminate in a cascade of ill considered if not foul deeds outright, tribulation, dissolution, downfall or comeuppance, ruination and disaster. Indeed, even if thankfully in any somewhat less calamitously heroic proportion, ordinary flawed folk may blindly err, and often prove so much their own worst enemies, that their "inner villain" may provide enough of an obstacle all on it's own to sustain tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion, of suspense and anticipation by keeping the outcome in doubt.
For with freedom at all, there must be hard choices, not just bogus alternatives, dilemmas, between the greater good, the lesser evil, or both in one, to engender conflict on many levels. Dramatic conflict various levels is sustained by opposing goals put forth from differing motivations that struggle beneath the surface in subtext, characterization and Conflict Handling styles.
All of that is what helps to make fiction compelling.
A disruption such as the inciting incident or out-of-whack event, is that which changes the situation bringing about conflict as a consequence. A character confronted with any sort of obstacle provides conflict. Indeed, in order to heighten conflict on every level, tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion, of suspense and anticipation or doubt, as well as the premise, a story may also incorporate an opposing or contradictory Counter Premise or Antithesis.
Type of conflict is part of what determines genre. Writing : Plot by by Damon Knight [summarized] deals with plot problem types as classifiable by their motivated goals put forth or endings, while 'A Guide to Mystery Genres' classifies by tone and details of setting, George Polti's classic and still controversial '36 Dramatic Situations (plus one)' classifies inciting incidents or circumstances that will, no doubt, make for an exciting mix and match with the 20 Master Plot Exercises. And Wise Women Discuss—Plot! lists the different basic plots, dramatic structure as defined by interconnection among the various levels of conflict with different obstacles. -Including, of course, conflict with an enemy, the more interesting, however, if the enemy and protagonist share any mixed feelings. Indeed, any good story needs interpersonal conflict even among friends. As with Spock and Bones, probing and bickering. And, especially, as with Spock, inner conflict, ambivalence and angst, with all of the obstacles life provides us to carry with us, inside.
All else in the logic of plotting scenes readily follows from pertinent decisions what need be shown regarding motivated characterization and conflict on many levels with dramatic obstacles.
Q. What are the possible outcomes of conflict?
A. Many people often tend to interact superficially for the comfort of denial, to avoid deeper and more troubling issues, focusing upon the trivial they neglect the meaningful, a veritable living death and struggle of running ever harder just to keep up with standing still. But is the difficulty of conflict and contradiction on any level at all, truly avoided in this way? No, for such evasion is merely the exercise of inner conflict, internalized by denial.
By dwelling upon the small mindedly trivial and picayune rather than drama or controversy, only petty bickering arises because the crucial impetus to however grow and progress has effectively been hobbled. And so, in real life, the tension rises all the more, but in fiction only if the reader or audience can be brought to care.
Thus, in fiction no less than in reality, we may do best to welcome the rich and varied levels of conflict so long as they may be important or meaningful, even thematic. A good process aims to resolve the decisive (and divisive) issues and clear them out of the way. Sometimes pressing important concrete motivated goals put forth provides the impetus to move along past conflict. But this tends to reduce drama, an effect while generally soothing in reality and the sooner the better, by the same token harmful to fiction and to be put off as long as possible, because drama is plot structured so as to intensify the tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion of suspense and anticipation from conflict on every level until reaching climax and resolution, dramatic tension, which, happening or cultivated in reality may sometimes be known as creative tension.
No Powderpuff Pitty-Pat! Throughout the plot, the tension and pathos, even discomfort and aversion, of suspense and anticipation is heightened as thing are made more difficult, the personal emotional stakes are raised, and however character growth is pressed by worsening complications for an active protagonist, definitely including the sexual tension onstage! Virtually all relationships of whatever kind begin with some sort of first discovery, romance even courtship, so to speak, even "the honeymoon," but inevitably and come into conflict on many levels, friction which is normal and even healthy, and in order to survive must reach acceptance in order to commit to substantive cooperation and collaboration.
Prolong the Agony by making life difficult so as to motivate characters. Even pander to vicarious wish fulfillment, but also inspire pathos, anticipation, suspense even dread and even the discomfort of sheer aversion. Stir any range of emotions and force the reader to empathize, to feel. That's what makes for good entertainment, a real page turner.
Two possible consequences especially on the level of external conflict, most especially violence, are dominance or annihilation, the outcome determining the victor and the defeated. But other possibilities include stalemate, compromise entailing reciprocal sacrifice, some zero-sum solution, or, instead, the discovery of common interests behind the drama or even some win-win solution. Or, especially in so far as conflict is precipitated by disagreement or opposing values, the outcome may resolve or at least alter conflict via reevaluation and change in perception, learning, growth. All myriad possibilities leaving the outcome all the more in doubt in order to raise tension and pathos of suspense and anticipation.
Indeed, as Mary Parker Follett anticipated so well ahead of her time, conflict is to be found at the root of both deadlock and accomplishment, even reconciliation, in social reality and work, even exactly as in by now standard dramatic formulae of redefinition of the conflicting positions and even of new goals over false. -As opposed to the needless (melo)drama of <