Recently, I bought acclaimed author and teacher Robert McKee’s book STORY. If you don’t know about it or don’t own a copy, get it QUICK here: [link]. Every person who is serious about writing should own it.
I’ve been reading pages of it every night before bedtime over the last few weeks, and it has me nodding, and yessing, and amening all over the place.
About a week or so ago, I read McKee’s thoughts on The Loss of Craft, of which he states
The novice [writer] plunges ahead, counting solely on experience, thinking that the life he’s lived and the films he’s seen [or books he's read] give him something to say and the way to say it. Experience, however, is overrated. Of course we want writers who don’t hide from life, who live deeply, observe closely. This is vital but never enough. For most writers, the knowledge they gain from reading and study equals or outweighs experience, especially if that experience goes unexamined. Self-knowledge is the key – life plus deep reflection on our reactions to life.
So often, as advice, novice writers are told to “Write what you know.” In and of itself, it is not bad advice; however, if you don’t illustrate how a writer can do this, we get books that are “surface reads.” They tell the little “t” truth of an event or situation and not the big “T” Truth.
What’s the little “t” truth? Second by second “telling” of information as if one is reporting a day in the life of someone. We get too much detail – down to the type of laces in one’s sneakers. We get too much development of setting and clothing and feelings and thoughts that have absolutely nothing to do with the story’s purpose. It’s as if we held up a video camera and recorded what we saw and transcribed it as a book.
This is NOT a story – not in the true sense.
What we’re looking for is the big “T” Truth, which is the examination of that life. Telling us EVERYTHING a character wears does not draw us closer to that character. Telling us, from the time a character wakes up ’til the time a character goes to bed, EVERYTHING that character does will not draw us closer to that character.
However, showing us a character’s dialogue, his/her interaction with others and self, and his/her actions and reactions to situations allows us to see a life within a specific context and that, in addition to studying the writing craft, not only brings the character to life, but also it brings the STORY to life.
This is so true and I'm definitely going to remember this as I'm penning my first novel. I'm also going to look into Robert McKee's book because as a novice I value any advice from experienced writers. Another book that I've found to be educational find is Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel.
Hey there, Shani,
Thanks for the comment! I have Mosley's book – love it. Sent a copy to a girlfriend.
Excellent point…and probably why I don't do character interviews and such before I write. What's important to me — and to my characters — is what has shaped them thus far, what in their pasts makes them react to events and situations in their present. Yeah, some of those surface choices — what they eat or wear, what music they like — can in a degree also illustrate who they are, but without the core stuff, the other means little or nothing. And usually those details evolve as I'm writing — I don't have to go digging for them beforehand.
Interesting, writing romance — often so maligned for being "fluff" — has really grounded me in digging for the character gold. The "who" more than the "what," or Big T, if you will. Emotional conflict is, or should be, at the heart of romance. For me, that translates into exploring the fears that keep a couple apart, specific to THOSE characters. The external plot points can exacerbate the internal conflict, but it doesn't substitute for it. Hence, I've always written about the human condition — about as big a T as you can get! — as it relates to the universal need/desire/quest to love and be loved.
So my plots, such as they are, all hinge on those emotional turning points, the life lessons learned through character growth. Not to say there's not a fair amount of detail in my work, because there is. But the detail is an outgrowth of, not a substitute for, the deeper issues that make a character three-dimensional.
Karen, it's so great that you mentioned romance because it does get a bad rap, and actually, despite whatever formula may lay beneath a romance story's surface, WHO the characters are is paramount in the success of that story – not necessarily WHAT they are.