Falling In Love With Romance

Showing posts with label theme. Show all posts

There aren’t a lot of books out there that I consider advanced level books, but this slender volume (just under 200 pages) is one of them. That’s not to say that a beginning or intermediate level writer wouldn’t get anything out of it, but I believe that people don’t hear what they’re not ready to learn, so just as teaching calculus to third graders would not lead them to an understanding of E=MC², I would expect an advanced writer to find more in this book than less experienced writers.

I believe books should be judge not just on what they deliver, but what they intend to deliver, so I found what the author wrote about his intent relevant:

My purpose is not to load writers with a new set of rules to follow and learn, but to help them internalize some of the basic principles of what creates the effect of a well-told story so that when they write they aren’t struggling to come up with a plot or with reasons why their characters act, to figure out what kind of events to describe, to understand why their stories are dramatically inert, to find that combination of details that creates a story world that rings true.

I have to say that I think he fulfilled his purpose. In fact, he fulfilled it so well that while I was reading this, I had a revelation about the WIP that’s been giving me fits for months, and I now know what’s going to happen in the second half of the story (how I’ll deliver on the promise of the first half), how it will play out, what are the big scenes that I’ll need are, and what the finale will look like. This is an example of the kind of payoff a good writing book can have (at least for people whose brains operate like mine does.)

So how important is the promise you make to readers? How far does the promise impact the story? The author makes a good case that it impacts everything.

For instance, when he talks about plot, he says:

What a plot does: It raises dramatic questions that a reader or viewer will follow to get answers.
What a plot is: It is the process of generating questions and drama around the advance of a story’s resolution and fulfillment of a story’s promise.

The author does expand on these statements, but the discussion is probably going to be of more interest to someone who has already been in the trenches for a while.

The author talks a lot about a story’s “dramatic issue,” which he always defines in emotional terms: love, hate, redemption, the desire for revenge, etc. All universally felt emotions and always intertwined with the story’s promise. He believes it’s important to state the story’s promise right from the start. As an example, the author uses the movie Rocky to illustrate how that’s done.

Rocky is a story about self-respect. When the storyteller arranges for Rocky to be called a “bum” and thrown out of the gym where he trains, the story reveals Rocky’s self-respect being actively undermined.

Attacking the promise of the story head-on sets the stage for the story’s drama. Or in the author’s own words:

You create an anticipation of a story’s promise by suggesting that something around an issue such as courage, redemption, or renewal needs resolution. If you haven’t set out that an issue, event, character goal, idea, etc. is in need of resolution, there can be no drama over an outcome around it.

This makes sense to me, because when I haven’t read on my kindle for a few days, and I open it to the page I left off on, I often don’t remember what I was reading. Because it’s on kindle, I don’t see the cover when I pick it up, and there’s no title name on every other page to remind me. For the time it takes me to remember what I’m reading, I’m not invested in it. Imagine a book with no cover. We often use the front cover and back blurb as a hook, but without those clues—those promises, if you will—the reader is not going to be invested until that first sentence provides a clue that tells the reader what kind of story this is. That’s the promise of the story.

Of course, good story telling doesn’t stop there. The audience wants to trust that the author can pay off the promise. An intriguing opening puts a down payment on that issue as well.

The author talks a lot about the story’s premise. Premise isn’t a word I like much. Like theme, its meaning is murky and confusing because it means different things to different people. In fact, I believe he could just have easily used the term “theme.” He may have chosen not to because he could hear his audience groaning in frustration, their eyes glazing over, as they think, “I never get this stuff.” If you let go of your preconceptions and allow the author’s definition to guide you, you may not have that problem again.

So… My understanding of the way this author uses premise is that a story’s premise is emotional in a basic way. The emotion must involve a basic human need. In fact, the promise discussed above is an intrical part of the premise.

So here comes the part that is going to delight writers who have problems with defining theme, because in four steps, he teaches you how to put your premise into words. (I love when complex ideas are broken down into steps.)

Step One. Complete this sentence: My story is about…

For Rocky, he starts with this: Rocky is a story about gaining self-respect.

That fits his definition of a basic human need because we all want to respect ourselves.

Step Two: Complete this sentence: The movement of my story toward the resolution of its promise can be described as…

Rocky is a story about someone discovering within himself the courage to overcome insurmountable obstacles.

Step Three: Complete this sentence: The fulfillment of my story is…

Example: The fulfillment of Rocky is that Rocky’s courage to overcome the odds proves he is somebody to himself and to the world.

(The author discusses movement and fulfillment in more detail, but as a general rule, reviews should be shorter than the book being reviewed so I’ve omitted extended references to these principles.)

Step Four: Reduce the previous three sentences to one sentence beginning with: The premise of my story is…

Example: The courage to persevere in the face of overwhelming obstacles leads to self-respect.

Notice the verb: Leads. This verb implies motion. Notice, too, how specific this statement is. This is no “love conquers all” type of statement. You have a solid destination.

For my money, this is sheer genius and worth the price of the book all by itself.

But just like on those late night Ginzu knife infomercials, THERE’S MORE.

Every component of a story contributes to whether the story will resonate with its audience, and the author is good at separating what happens in a story to what a story is about. For instance, he shows that what is at stake for the characters isn’t necessarily the same as what’s at stake for the story.

For instance: Die Hard is about a lone NY detective, John McClane, trapped in a building taken over by terrorists…but what’s really at stake is whether McClane can get back together with his wife.

Do you see the difference? What happens vs. what’s at stake? And what’s at stake in a good story will always tie back to its premise and, therefore, it will involve emotion.

One of the things I like about this book is that, though the author promotes the idea of outlining your story before you write it, he also demonstrates how a pantser can build a solid story without making major missteps if you understand your premise. By sheer happenstance, I’ve proven that to myself. I’ve also proven that if don’t have a solid grasp of my premise, I flounder.

One of the areas authors moan about is the first line of a story. We sweat blood over that first line.

In the section where the author talks about how your premise might lead to opening sentences, one of the examples he uses is built on the premise that overcoming greed leads to peace of mind. The opening sentence he suggests that might grow out of such a premise is:

Jack woke with one thought insistently repeating itself: either he had the option in his name by noon or he’d lose the McKindrick deal.

Because the idea of greed, subtle though it is, exists in that sentence, we know this isn’t going to be a story about love or revenge or courage. If it is about any of those things, then the story would violate the promise of this first line.

The author provides a few other examples which gave me a growing sense of déjà vu. The sentences reminded me strongly of the way NY Times bestselling author Harlan Coben opens his books. Here's an example from Coben's No Second Chance:

When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter.

See what I mean? There's so much promise in just those few words. Coben’s novels always grab me from the first line, so this is an interesting revelation. (If you want to test this, I have a collection of opening lines here.) As the author of A Story is a Promise acknowledges, this are not the only way to start a story, but one of the major advantages to this method is that starting with a sentence that draws directly on your premise, you’ve set your feet on the right path, pointing them unerringly in the right direction, and made it clear to your reader what this story promises.

At the end of the book, the author spends about 40 pages evaluating six stories (2 films, 2 plays, and 2 novels). Here's where he shows how the others of these stories utilized the principles he’s laid out in the previous 120 pages.

And for those who want more, Bill Johnson also has a website: http://www.storyispromise.com/

I suppose by now you've figured out that this is a book I recommend highly. I hope you'll find it as valuable as I have.

Finding the Theme - It's Easier than You Think

Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

I don't know any novelist who likes to talk about theme. Lord knows, I don't. Or at least, I didn't used to.

It's no surprise to anyone who's followed my ramblings here that I'm a huge fan of Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! books. One of the myriad of things STC! taught me is to listen for a movie's theme to be stated in plain terms, usually in the first ten minutes of the movie and usually it will be said to the movie's protagonist. Once I started listening for it, it was usually so easy to spot that I have to wonder if I was stupid or just deaf before.

Since nothing proves a point better than real-life (or in this case, real-movie) examples, I've listed some below. The first group are examples from STC! Goes to the Movies.

Alien:
Parker says to Kane: "Anybody ever tell you that you look dead?"
Theme: What is it to be alive -- and human?

Fatal Attraction:
Anne to her daughter: "Ellen, I don't want you messing with my makeup. I told you a million times."
Theme: Trespassing into places we don't belong is the running theme.

What Women Want:
Alan Alda tells Mel: "If we don't evolve and think beyond our natural ability, we're gonna go down."
Theme: Change or die.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
Clementine to Jim: "I can't tell from one minute to the next what I'm going to like, but right now I'm glad you're here."
Theme: The battle between the Ideal and the Real.

Sleeping with the Enemy:
Julia's husband says to her (about her fear of water): "We can't conquer our fears by running away."
Theme: We can't conquer our fears by running away--yes, they can be said that clearly.

When Harry Met Sally:
Harry to Sally: "It is impossible for men and women to be friends."
Theme: As with Sleeping with the Enemy, this theme needs no interpretation because it's plainly stated. (Remember, the theme statement isn't necessarily true. It's what the story is going to prove or disprove.)

Titanic:
At dinner, Leo says: "Make each day count."
Theme: Another directly stated theme.

The Lion King (Disney Special Platinum Edition)

The Lion King:
Mustafa to Simba: "There's more to being king than getting your way all the time."
Theme: There's more to life than getting your way all the time.

The Matrix:
Neo says: "Do you ever wonder if you're awake or dreaming?"
Theme: What is reality?

So why is knowing your theme important? As writers, knowing our theme helps keep us focused. It's easier to look at the story and find places where we missed opportunities to reinforce our theme. Knowing our theme allows us to strengthen our stories and to do so with confidence.

These are some of the movies I've watched recently (for the umpteenth time) where the theme statement jumped out at me.

P.S. I Love You:
Gerry to Holly: You can't keep waiting for your life to start.
Theme: Live each day.

On Golden Pond:

The theme is expressed so many times in this movie because of Norman's obsession with dying that it's difficult to pinpoint just one. If I had to choose one within the first 10 minutes (where the theme is usually found) it would be when Ethel says to Norman: "Your obsession with death is beginning to frazzle my good humor" but the place where I think it's stated most clearly is later when Ethel says to Chelsea, "Life marches by,Chels.I suggest you get on with it."
Theme: Life is short; grab on to it while you can.

Dirty Dancing:
Robby the creep says to Baby: "Some people count; some people don't."
Theme: Just what is says. True or not true: Some people count; some people don't.

Sweet Home Alabama:
10-year old Jake to 8-year-old Melanie: "Lightning never strikes the same place twice."
Theme: Can a broken relationship be resurrected?

The Wedding Date:
Said twice. First from Kat quoting Nick's statement in a magazine article, then from Kat's dad on her sister's wedding day: "Every woman has exactly the love life she wants."
Theme: Does every woman have exactly the love life she wants?

So it turns out that theme isn't as scary or as obscure as we think it is. Neither is it as generic as some writing books seem to want it to be. (Love conquers all? Really?)

Can you put the theme from something you've written into the mouth of one of your characters? What would that character say?

A Theme in a Million

Today's issue is theme. I suck at figuring out theme, but I just read A Story is a Promise by Bill Johnson, and Bill spends some time on theme (though the author refers to it as "premise," it's the same thing.)

The author gives examples of premises to well-known stories.

FREX:
Romeo and Juliet - Great Love defies even death

It seems so obvious in retrospect. Others examples of theme statements the author uses are:

Going through the pain of young love leads to growth.
Hate destroys those who wield it as a weapon.

Which, guess what? Could also be applied to Romeo and Juliet. As well as half a million other stories. Which makes me crazy. How is knowing what feels like a generic statement about your story helpful? I just don't see it.

But what was useful—what gave me a completely different perspective—were the open ended statements the author posed to help get me to the premise.

They are:
My story is about...
The movement of my story toward the resolution of its promise can be described as...
The fulfillment of my story is....

Okay, so I'm also crappy at figuring out how to use these without an example to follow. The author, thank heavens, provides one. Using Rocky again, he proposes:

Rocky is a story about someone discovering within himself the courage to overcome insurmountable obstacles.

He neglects to give a tidy statement for the second statement but specifies that it must involve the actions of the main character moving toward the story's ultimate goal.

The fulfillment of Rocky is that Rocky's courage to overcome the odds proves he is somebody to himself and the world.

Which leads to a premise/theme of:
The courage to persevere in the face of overwhelming obstacles leads to self-respect

...and we're back to a statement that could be applied to just about every story in the world. And that I find too general to be useful.

But the questions used to get there? Ah, those I found useful. Those helped me grasp something about a story that's been giving me fits for months. I've started the story, stopped, backed up, changed direction, stopped, started again and on and on in a viscous cycle. But these questions have helped me to realize that what I was trying to write about is that paralyzing emotion when you love someone so much that they become your hostages to fortune. Once I got that, suddenly, everything about the story crystallized. I understood not only the heroine's issue, but I knew what the issues were for the subplots and secondary characters, and how to make them resonate with the heroine's issue.

Hallelujah! I've just taken a giant step to solving my story issues.

The author threw one last open ended statement out there, almost like a bonus:

The message I want the reader to walk away with is....

Which is theme, yes, but maybe that little tweak in perspective is what I needed to make it resonate for me. Maybe it will help it resonate for you, too.