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.
– R|R –
Amanda 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!”
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Such a great post! An interesting and entertaining example. The story is so familiar and carries the reader along so effectively, it’s easy to overlook the background machinery that makes it work! Thank you.
Hi Vicki Weisfeld. I’m glad you enjoyed my post. The best stories always manage to “carry the reader along” as you so succinctly put it. The result is an absorbing and immersive read, exactly because we do not detect that “background machinery” at work. Instead, we feel the story as the character experiences it because the writer has told her story from the beating center of her character’s heart. This, in my opinion, is the true art of great storyteller and it begins at the beating center of another heart – that of the writer/author/creator of her story world. Thank you so much for your comment and I wish you many amazing moments of living in those astonishing worlds. Alice
Dear Vicki. You have commented on my blog posts in the past. I invite you to explore my most recent series. It is titled “Oh No I’m a Caregiver – Dementia – Our Cautionary Story.” These posts are of special significance to me. Dementia appears to be a reality destined to assault all of our lives in one way or another eventually. I believe that the story I have to tell – through my initial post and others yet to come at https://www.aliceorrbooks.com – has valuable insights to offer. For this reason, I hope you will read it and pass it on to others so that they might benefit from what I am learning and from those insights.
For example… My husband Jonathan, who has recently been diagnosed with dementia, is actually quite fine at this early stage. He is engaged in lots of cognitively powerful activities. He writes original memoir pieces that are very good and says this is the result of sitting in on so many of my writing workshops over the past forty-five years. He now finds more joy in writing than the drawing and music that were his usual creative pursuits in the past. This is good because, as you know, portraying characters and composing scenes require a deep level of focus and detail concentration which is very beneficial for him. He also loves jigsaw puzzling – the 1500-piece variety. Again much concentration is required plus he has fond memory associations of doing puzzles with his mom when he was a boy. He also reads a lot – challenging books, as well as his favorite New York Times articles. He does regular physical exercise and has also begun gardening at our church which has a large planted space in sore need of attention. Medically, he is taking a basic drug that has disappeared his brain fog for the timebeing. We also have excellent medical professionals on our team and on our side.
Dementia is not like the tv commercials portray it to be. Their purpose is to ramp up fear and sell very expensive, very dangerous drugs. There is a long, gradual period before extreme changes begin, and the aggressiveness these ads emphasize can often be mitigated with simple mood medications that are harmless and affordable.
Meanwhile, there is a real-life story to be told here of real-life experience. I hope you will read and share it. Dementia is a reality for many of us and, unfortunately, promises to be a reality for many more. Truth is our best armor against being cast into despair by the prospect. I hope to add a little to that sustaining truth. Dementia is one of the many ways all of us will evolve from this life into whatever may lay beyond. Passing on is our universal destiny. Some of those passages involve discomfort and unpleasantness. We can perhaps be a bit better prepared if we understand realistically what to expect.
That is what our story – Jonathan’s and mine – is meant to do. Help others – in an honest and caring fashion – to be prepared. Love and Blessings. Alice