Freytag's Pyramid

In 1863, German novelist and literature professor, Gustav Freytag, studied classic Greek drama trying to identify what made a good, entertaining play. The result of his analysis is called Freytag’s Pyramid, or the Dramatic Structure.

According to Freytag, a drama is divided into five parts, or acts. This structure is also called a dramatic arc. The five parts are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

A Freytag’s Pyramid is the first exercise I use to develop the backbone of my plot. The focus of the exercise is to define the events in the story which build suspense, leading to the climax. The events are dire3ctly t5ied to the conflicts defined in the last blog post’s exercise.



I start with three questions used by Susan Warren Utley of Haunted Waters Press.

1. What does the main character want?

2. How does he/she get it?

3. Why do we care?

Then I fill out the pyramid with successive dramatic events.

Exposition: Start of the story, situation before action starts.

Rising Action: Series of conflicts and crises leading to climax. A typical novel repeats this step at least three times.

Climax: Turning Point, the most intense moment of the story.

Falling Action: Everything that happens following the climax.

Resolution: Conclusion where all things come together. At this point all conflicts should be resolved.
In my next post I will look at Well’s 8-point story arc.



All of the brainstorming exercises described in this blog series can be found in my Scrivener template on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzGNFy181nZiM0J5TGI3WXJyUkE/.

For non-scrivener users, Personal Noveling Assistant (PNA) pages are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzGNFy181nZiczA2aGJrTnN1X2c/.

For more about my stories, check out my author page at http://www.amazon.com/author/lauraewrites/. 

Plotting or Pantsing

For participants in Nanowrimo, it’s the ultimate question: Am I a plotter or a pantser? In other words, should I develop a detailed plot outline before I start my novel, or should I wing it, letting the words flow in a stream of consciousness like jazz improvisation?

George R. R. Martin had this to say on the subject. “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

In my experience it helps to be a bit of both. Instead of being an architect, I consider myself an English cottage gardener. I’ve tried being an architect (or a plotter) before. I found the rigorous need to follow my plan too restrictive. The result was a boring story, lacking in inspiration. I’ve tried being a gardener (or a pantser) as well. That story never did have a coherent ending.

These days I chose to do something in-between. I lay out the framework for my story before I begin; the way a cottage gardener decides which section will contain herbs and which will contain flowers. The details are left for later. They spring up by themselves as the story grows. Sometimes they take over, and I need to give them a section of their own. That’s okay.

Once I have an overview of my novel, characters, settings, and a premise, I consider the many conflicts which will drive the story. Conflict can exist between different characters, such as a Man versus Man type of conflict. Sometimes the conflict is internal to the main character, like a crisis of conscience. Here are the most common types of conflicts:

RELATIONAL — Man vs Man OR Family vs Family

SITUATIONAL — Character finds himself in a dangerous situation.
INNER CONFLICT — Character is conflicted about which choice to make.
PARANORMAL — Character must face paranormal entities.
COSMIC — Character must face a universe at odds with his values and/or expectations.
SOCIAL — Man vs Society
NATURE — Man vs Nature

Once I’ve identified the conflicts which will define the story, I consider how each will be resolved. At this point I only develop a basic outline of what action will take place in order for resolution to occur. The specific details will become clear as the story is written.

Conflict	Resolution	Type
A VS B

In future posts I will explore commonly used exercises for developing both story and plot, starting with the popular Freytag’s Pyramid.

All of the brainstorming exercises described in this blog series can be found in my Scrivener template on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzGNFy181nZiM0J5TGI3WXJyUkE/.

For non-scrivener users, Personal Noveling Assistant (PNA) pages are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzGNFy181nZiczA2aGJrTnN1X2c/.

For more about my stories, check out my author page at http://www.amazon.com/author/lauraewrites/.

How Do You Start?

Sometimes, the hardest question for an aspiring novelist to answer is, Where do I begin?

 

For me, the beginning is usually a single scene that pops out of my head. We call it the PREMISE. It starts with the question What if…

In the case of my novel, SECRETS OF A TWEENAGE DEMON HUNTRESS, the question was What if Dean Winchester, the character from the television series SUPERNATURAL, was a twelve year old girl? Like Dean, her father hunts demons and monsters, and expects her to follow in his footsteps. Where most parents want to shelter their pre-teenage children from the horrors of the world, this parent exposes the main character to a terrifying secret, that is, that demons exist. Then WHAT IF Dad went missing, and no one was looking for him? Would she be brave enough to untangle the mystery of what happened to Dad by herself? WHAT IF in doing so, she encountered a demon that even Dad never fought? WHAT THEN?

Suddenly, I could envision the whole opening scene of a new novel. That’s how I begin. The next steps are to get this idea into an organized framework.

I start with the NOVEL OVERVIEW. Even if I plan to change it later, I create a title. It doesn’t have to be accurate or splashy, it just needs to exist.

Then I get specific about how I plan to express this character. What point-of-view will I use to write the story. Will I use past or present tense?

From the beginning I ask myself WHY do I want to write this story? WHAT message do I want to convey to my readers?

I decide the geographic location of the opening scene for the story, the historical period in which the action takes place, and the time of year (and weather conditions) for the opening scene. I decide on the culture of the main character and the surrounding community. In the back of my mind, I assign a genre for the novel because that’s part of the framework, too.

Then I write a paragraph that summarizes the HOOK, that opening scene that inspired the entire story. More times than not, that summary paragraph will become the back-of-the-book pitch. Whittling it down to two to three sentences gives me a 25-30 word teaser.

At this point I’ve established the traits of my main character, decided on an initial setting, written a premise, and developed the hook, or opening scene, for my story.

Now I’m ready to begin.

With just over six weeks left before the start of Nanowrimo 2016, are you ready?
All of the brainstorming exercises described in this blog series can be found in my Scrivener template on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzGNFy181nZiM0J5TGI3WXJyUkE/.

For non-scrivener users, Personal Noveling Assistant (PNA) pages are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzGNFy181nZiczA2aGJrTnN1X2c/.

For more about my stories, check out my author page at http://www.amazon.com/author/lauraewrites/.

Brainstorming the Perfect Settings for Your Nano Novel

Knowing the location of your story is almost as important as knowing your characters.

Start with the primary location where most of the action takes place.

• Is it in a large city or a small town?
• What country?
• Which state?
• What is the closest metropolitan area?

Think about how the setting affects the details of the story.

• Why did you choose this location?
• What role does it have in the overall tale?
• How does this setting affect the major characters?

Start to see the location in your mind.

• What season is it?
• Are there particular buildings you want to highlight?
• Does the setting have any unique features?
• What can you see from your main character’s vantage point?
• What can you hear, smell, feel?

Once you know the general location it’s time to figure out the settings for each scene. Decide on the buildings that will house each scene in your story.

• How many stories are there in the building?
• Is it a house, apartment, commercial or industrial building?
• Are there any distinctive architectural features?

Determine specific rooms for certain scenes.

• How are these rooms decorated?
• What furniture is in each room?

Use visual aids to design your settings. Here are some ideas:

     1. Use the ‘Bird’s Eye View’ mode on mapquest.com to see whole neighborhoods. Take screen captures of these maps so you can return to them later.
      2. Use Realtor.com to find examples of specific houses to use in your scenes. Download a printable brochure into Microsoft XPS Document Writer to save a digital copy of the brochure.
      3. Visit decorating websites like Houzz.com to get ideas for interior designs.

Lastly, save these visual aids for later reference. I pin screen shots of neighborhoods into the Settings Cork board in Scrivener.

 

I convert those JPEGS to folders and inside of them pin brochures of specific homes for my characters from Realtor.com.

 

Inside the folders for each home I pin albums of pictures of interior room scenes onto Pinterest which I link into the Scrivener cork boards for the individual homes.

 

As I write, I refer to these visual aids often.

What can you do to visualize your settings as you develop your story idea? Let me know in the comments.

In my next post I’ll start discussing plot development, starting with an overview of the plan of attack I use to develop a plot outline that works.

All of the brainstorming exercises described in this blog series can be found in my Scrivener template on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzGNFy181nZiM0J5TGI3WXJyUkE/.

For non-scrivener users, Personal Noveling Assistant (PNA) pages are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzGNFy181nZiczA2aGJrTnN1X2c/.

For more about my stories, check out my author page at http://www.amazon.com/author/lauraewrites/.