Category Archives: Storytelling

The Ideal Story Idea Equation

Storytelling, ,

The Ideal Story Idea Equation. Every writer I know, and probably every writer I don’t know, is praying for the Idea from Heaven. The perfect combination of elements that will create the best story you’ve ever written and take you where you want to be in your writer’s adventure. What we sometimes forget to emphasize is the Combination of Elements part. The Equation.

The Technicolor Idea Strike. Most of us have, on very happy occasion, experienced the exhilaration of a technicolor idea strike. A story concept, maybe a scene, appears suddenly, unexpectedly, like lightning in the mind, revealing something entirely new, previously unimagined. “This is it,” we cry out in creative ecstasy. “This is the story I must write.”

An Idea Is Not a Plot. The problem is that we don’t really have a story. We have an idea for a story, and an idea is only a beginning. A story, particularly in the commercial fiction arena, requires a plot with a beginning, middle and end. At best, our flashes of inspiration will get us through the opening scene, maybe the first chapter. Without lots more work and a much bigger brainstorm, the story tumbles downhill from there.

The Cocktail Party Scenario. Permit me to illustrate with a cocktail party scenario that goes something like this. Author stands at the edge of the party crowd to maximize observation potential. Fellow partier sidles over, discovers that Author is, in fact, an author and suggests some variation on the following. “I’ve got a terrific idea for a novel. Bestseller for sure. How’s about I tell you my idea, you write the story, we split the take fifty-fifty?”

The Peril of Underestimating The Storytelling Process. A giant misconception is in play here. This non-writer underestimates the writing process. Somebody once famously said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.” The partier with the great story idea knows nothing about the bloodletting aspect of the writer’s craft. He doesn’t understand that an idea is not a story.

An Idea Is Only A Kernel. That kernel may possess the potential to grow into the next Nora King Mary Higgins Grisham opus or it may not. Either way, tons of nurturing, strain, frustration, doubt and even bloodletting must be applied between planting and harvest. A clever idea is a jumping off place but without the sweat equity required the storyteller is in for a hard fall.

The Equation Begins With Character. An idea flash may reveal intriguing, even startling circumstances, but those circumstances must happen to equally intriguing characters or the agent/editor/reader will soon cease to care.  An intriguing character comes to life on the page, has a history fraught with complex experience, and a personality riddled with contradictions, like Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. Such characters are complicated, often confused, and always in conflict with each other.

The Equation Continues With Conflict. Great storytelling is all about story conflict, and that conflict must have enough power to reach beyond the initial story idea. Enough power to propel the agent/editor/reader, nonstop and without much respite, from first scene to last with a riveting rollercoaster ride between, like in The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

A Powerful Story Idea Plants The Conflict Kernel Deep. A powerful storyteller cultivates that kernel through obstacles, frustrations, near misses and reversals as layered and complex as the characters themselves. Conjuring all of that requires opening the previously mentioned vein. A lightning flash story idea makes the first cut, then the real surgery begins.

The Ideal Story Idea Equation Is Simply This. Great Idea plus Characters We Care About plus An Excruciating Conflict Situation equals First Class Storytelling. Which is, of course, not simple to accomplish, but that’s the challenge which creates the conflict at the heart of your great writer’s adventure. Welcome to the rollercoaster.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

A Wrong Way Home – Alice’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1 – is a FREE Kindle eBook HERE. Enjoy!

Alice’s latest novel is A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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Character Triage – Who’s In? Who’s Out?

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Character Triage – Who’s In? Who’s Out? Every character you start out with in your story may not carry enough storytelling weight to be allowed to stick around. Some will most likely have to go. Which characters do and do not belong in your story? How do you decide? First, let’s make a couple of general lists. Then we’ll move on to specifics.

Character Triage – Who’s In? Characters Who Should Stay in Your Story. They sparkle with contradiction and controversy (like Holly Golightly). They enhance the main characters in the story, making them more intriguing. They aggravate the main characters in the story, making them more conflicted. They have secrets, often dark ones, the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don’t. They have hidden dreams the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don’t. In other words, they generate plot by adding more complications to the story.

Character Triage – Who’s Out? Characters Who Should Leave Your Story. They don’t make anything happen (which is never the case with Harry Potter). They get along with everyone, neither creating nor enhancing conflict. We aren’t interested in knowing more about them. They are not connected with either the main characters or their stories. In other words, they don’t generate plot by adding more complications to the story.  Here are some specific character types that should be shown the door.

Character Triage – The Lackluster Character. Especially when creating the main characters of a series who must be extra unique and compelling. In fact, any continuing character must stand out in order to hold a reader’s interest through several stories. Be careful not to focus on thrilling plot at the expense of thrilling characters. This can be fatal to storytelling success.

Character Triage – The Character Who Cloys. Especially as a romance heroine. She’s cute/adorable/precious, and the alleged hero scampers along in her wake for far too long. At first, she may be lovable for the reader as well. Then, we become exasperated with her and, eventually, out-and-out irritated. She’s a distraction from the story and undermines your hero’s portrayal too.

Character Triage – The Character Who Fails at His Story Mission. Especially as a mystery-suspense hero. He’s the detective who doesn’t detect. A murder is committed, and he should be intent on finding the murderer but does too little to further that quest. He avoids real investigative questioning. He lets others do the legwork. He slows the pace instead of enlivening it. He must thrust himself into danger and battle his way out (like Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes).

Character Triage – The Interchangeables. Especially as secondary characters. Three sisters or friends or whoever that would be better as two. The extra sidekick clutters the story. She isn’t distinctive enough and her lack of substance drains story vitality. She should be folded into one of the other characters to streamline plot and pacing or rewritten to reveal her individuality.

Character Triage – This is Only the Beginning. A sampling of characters that need to go if you want to write a strong story, and of course you do. Make your own list, maybe even from your own work, but don’t be discouraged when you do. There are ways to save these characters from the no-hope heap.

Character Triage – Every character, like every human being, has a story. Your job as storyteller is to discover that story and give your creations life on the page. When you do, they will not just belong in your story, they will be embedded in your reader’s heart.  Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com

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A Time of Fear & LovingFor a great read where every character definitely belongs – Don’t miss Alice Orr’s latest novel. A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

 What readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet, Alice!”

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Do Be Cruel – Create Characters that Intensify Your Plot

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Do Be Cruel. Put your character in hot water from the start. In the most powerful stories, an intensely conflicted situation starts on page one, or even before page one. Your main character is smack dab at the center of that situation, in hot water that will become hotter and hotter, then hotter still. But first, you must set up this situation and second, you must set her up to be smacked down hard by the consequences that follow.

Do Be Cruel. A story that shows you how. Please forgive me for taking you back to Tara when we all know it’s a politically incorrect place to be. But Scarlett O’Hara’s doings and undoings will never be Gone with the Wind when it comes to great storytelling technique and that’s what we’re focusing on here.

Do Be Cruel. Margaret Mitchell knew how to twist and turn a yarn. She tangled us into her plot, tying us more tightly to her main character with every scene. Scarlett herself adds knots to that tangle by making choices that raise the temperature of the hot water she’s in to boiling and beyond.

Do Be Cruel. Set your character up for a long fall. For your character’s downfall to be significant, we must see and, more important, we must feel her topple from a great height. Scarlett is the perfect protagonist for such a plummet. She’s the southern belle of the southern ball at the start of her story, confident to the point of unabashed arrogance. “Fiddledy-dee,” she says to any suggestion that life could go anywhere but her own totally self-centered way. She and her hooped skirt are bouncing toward a precipice for sure.

Do Be Cruel. Set your reader up for a fall also. In order to “give a damn,” a phrase that will figure in Scarlett’s downfall, your readers must sympathize with your character’s motivation. We must understand what she wants and why she wants it. We must want it for her too. No matter how ruthless and manipulative Scarlett may become, we must be on her side, at least in the beginning. We are on her side because what she cares most about is Tara. What she wants more than anything is to preserve her home and, deep down at heart level, we get that.

Do Be Cruel. Create a catastrophic story environment in general. What could fit that bill better than a war? Not just any war, but the war that split a country in two and sent Scarlett’s future fantasy crashing to smithereens at her satin-clad feet. Your story may not involve a civil war, but it needs a bloody battleground all the same. A catastrophe that embroils your characters in fiery controversy, the more fire, the better. A cataclysm that leaves casualties in its wake, with your character only barely escaping the flames.

Do Be Cruel. Create a catastrophic personal obstacle as well. What could fit that bill better than doomed love? It worked for Romeo and Juliet. It works for Scarlett and Ashley Wilkes too. She makes a bad choice while he, being a fairly weak fellow, makes it worse. Can you think of a couple less temperamentally suited for one another? Not to mention Melanie and the whole aristocratic arranged marriage thing. Plus some additional disastrous choices on Scarlett’s part, with a bit of Rhett Butler in the mix. Catastrophe, here she comes.

Do Be Cruel. Don’t forget that romance is a battleground. If you’ve read my previous posts on character creation and taken them to heart, your main character already has way too much trouble on her plate. The last thing she needs is to fall in love, either wisely or unwisely, at this point in her story. But your author job is to hot the pot under this person you want us to care about, even love. The heat of a relationship she doesn’t need but can’t resist is kindling waiting for a spark. So light that match and let it flare.

Do Be Kind to your storytelling career. The name of this game is Hook the Reader, and your most powerful playing piece is a powerful protagonist. The heroine we love from beginning to end. Or, if you make it work the way Margaret Mitchell does, the character we simply can’t let go of, even when the deluge she wades us into burns our own satin slippers straight off our toes. Either way, she makes us say, “Frankly, Scarlett, we can’t help but give a damn.”  Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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A Time of Fear & LovingAmanda Miller is in steamy hot water and just might drown. Join her there for a great read in Alice’s latest novel, A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

 What readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/