Session 5: Exercise

Here is an exercise for you to complete in time for Session 6 (April 21):

We've covered main character wants and needs. Now consider those of your villain/antagonist. What does he/she/it* want more than anything? And what is standing in his/her/its way?

Bonus round: As you look at your main character's and villain's desires and motivations, where do they intersect? Are they ever the same? Is you main character the biggest obstacle to your villain, and vice versa?

*If indeed the primary antagonist in your work is an "it" (cancer, a rogue wave, amnesia), think in those terms! What do these things do? And what might interrupt them from completing their natural courses of action?

Session 5: Wrap-up

This session we covered:

• The writing exercise, in which we revisited what the main character wants more than anything and what he/she is willing or compelled to give up in order to secure it. 
• What obstacles still stand in the way of the character achieving this mission or goal.
• Which obstacle could be considered the antagonist/villain, and what manifestations this force or character takes.

Last session's exercise: Revisiting character wants/needs

We discussed the range of character wants and motivations, from subtle to more obvious, and how these can go hand in hand with the genre or style of the story being told. For example, I have been reading the novel A Little Life, a 700-some-page character-driven novel in which the main character's greatest desire is to be normal and safe. Compare such a subjective 'want' (normalcy) to a plot-driven story in which the character motivation is often (not always) going to be more tangible or active (getting the girl, finding a cure, climbing the mountain). 

Often a character will have multiple motivations, but they vary in size and urgency. It is the thing the character cannot carry on without having or doing that carry the story. Those secondary needs/wants will often drive the subplot.

The Antagonist or Villain

So what is preventing our hero from reaching his goal? As with the main character's motivations, the obstacles are likely manifold. These road blocks keep the story moving and raise the stakes for the main character. But just as you determined which of the many your character's primary motivation is, determine a hierarchy for the obstacles preventing the character from getting where he or she is going, from inconvenient all the way up to life-threatening.

These obstacles are not always human, or even living beings. While there will usually be contrarian characters in any story, the biggest issue for the main character could be something non-sentient of either internal (disease, phobia, poverty) or external (geography, a political regime, time) provenance.

We considered our own works with respect to obstacles and antagonists.

In Karl's nonfiction work-in-progress, he won't know yet he scope of the challenges until he starts hiking the trails he's researched and will write about. He and his companions could face treacherous weather, health-, geographical-, or animal-related obstacles, or perhaps they may even encounter some interfering humans, as well. (We hope not.)

Sometimes the biggest thing standing in the character's way isn't a traditionally bad thing. For example, in Jerome's work-in-progress, in the process of seeking revenge, the main character falls in love, and he must choose between this love or his original mission.

We talked about how Jim's hero is himself a bit of a villain, yet he is the villain we root for--the best of the worst.  Anf this main character is confronting the gamut of obstacles: internal (opium addiction, inhabiting a new body), as well as external human adversaries and the incompetence of his colleagues.

For my part, the baddie in my next work on nonfiction is a gene mutation, so... that gives you a nice wide range of villains to consider. (Lions and romance and genes, oh my!)

Think about stories in which a character's wildest dream comes true (insane wealth, power) and how that lottery-winning event is ultimately his/her undoing. What other unconventional iterations of an antagonist can you think of?

Obstacles within, obstacles without

 Instead of workshopping someone's writing this week, we did a check-in on our works-in-progress. In talking about the current status of our projects, we realized that just as there are narrative obstacles for our main characters, so are there narrative obstacles for us as the writers.

For my part, facility with research and medical writing will be a challenge, as well as getting "audience participation" since I'm compiling an oral and written history from members of one side of my family.

For Karl, the white-washing of the geographical and historical records he is researching both motivates his narrative (he's writing an indigenous history of the trails as a counterpoint to the Western explorers' accounts) and complicates his efforts to find information from native sources.

We had a very interesting discussion regarding Jerome's impulse to go back and fix what he has already written before going further. For him, this helps in not making the same writing mistakes again and again. The idea is to correct and carry on better than before.

Session 5: Outline

Session 5: Manifestations of the villain, and his/her/its arc

• We will share insights from the writing prompt.
• We will discuss the antagonist in our work and what form he, she, or it takes.
• We will identify the villain/antagonist's appearance (inciting incident? before? after?).
• We will talk villainous motivations and how they intersect with those of the main character.

Session 4: Exercise

Here is an exercise for you to complete in time for Session 5:

As a refresher, what does your main character want or need more than anything? And what is he or she willing (or obligated) to give up/change in order to acquire/fulfill this thing or need?

Knowing what the main character must do or sacrifice in order to accomplish his or her goal, consider what still stands in the way of your main character succeeding in what he or she has set out to accomplish.

Session 4: Wrap-up

This session we covered:

• The session 3 exercise, considering the setting of the inciting incident  
• The benefits of Beta readers 
• Dialogue across genres

Last session's exercise: The setting of your inciting incident

By first looking at how the setting of the inciting incident functioned is some popular films (https://screencraft.org/2015/09/08/10-strong-inciting-incidents-in-screenplays/) we looked at its function in our own works.

• What significance does that location have with relation to the theme and tone of the work at large? 
• Do the characters return to this location? 
• When, and why? 

The inciting incident works like a point of no return, a moment in which a fuse is lit, setting the story up for the climactic showdown later on and ultimately the resolution; as such, the place in which this action/moment/revelation takes place should be significant to the story.

How (and why!) to use Beta readers

We went wildly off script and discussed, instead, the benefit of Beta readers!

Megan talked about the type of Beta readers she has for her current project (balancing, for example, enough Carroll fans with the many Austin fans since her piece is Austin fan fic set in Carroll's Wonderland).

Jim offered that dialogue was an early flag by his Beta readers, and something he has since worked on to make it feel authentic. He also noted that in the sometimes dozen-odd drafts he writes per novel, he uses each draft to refine a specific component. For example, draft one could be dialogue, two might focus on setting, three for character, and so on. Can you relate to this approach?

Jim dropped some wisdom, pointing out that great storytelling does not equal great writing, and vice versa. Look at the writing in The DaVinci Code! Taught pacing and great intricacy ... terrible prose!

Dialogue across (and within!) genres

This prompted a conversation about the function of dialogue with regards to but not limited to genre. How different, for example, Austin-esque dialogue is from Carroll-inspired.

Look, then, at how period or fan fiction dialogue would differ from that in steam punk or sci-fi. Even within the genre of fantasy, the rhythms and style of dialogue can vary depending on the story. Look at the dialogue in Game of Thrones versus Lord of the Rings and how they handle explication, invented languages, and the world-building considerations of history and lineage.

We talked about reading drafts out loud, not just to hear the dialogue spoken, but also as a means of catching grammatical and continuity errors.

A final note on context

And finally, we ruminated on how the timing of the reading (in your life or with regards to current events) and perspective of the reader (pre-marriage or post-baby, for example) impacts your response to the work.

Lindsey mentioned reading Handmaid's Tale now and how it might've struck me differently if I'd read it back when it was originally published.

This opens up the subject of repeat readings.

• Do you re-read books?
• Do you have a new take upon the second (or third, or fourth) pass? 
• If you're a re-reader, what was the book and how did each subsequent reading differ from the first?

This discussion carried us through our workshopping of Megan's fan fiction chapter from the novel-length work Darcy in Wonderland.

Session 4: Outline

Session 4: The setting of the inciting incident

• We will review the writing prompt, in which we examine the setting of the inciting incident and why that setting is (or is not!) significant
• We will workshop a piece of writing.

Session 3: Exercise

Here is an exercise for you to complete in time for Session 4.

Consider the setting of your inciting incident and what significance that location has with relation to the theme and tone of the work at large.

• Why did you pick this location? 
• When and how frequently do the characters in your work return to it? 
• How does it reflect the theme or tone of the piece?

As a warm up, try looking at these video clips of inciting incidents from popular movies and consider the above questions as they pertain to each film:
https://screencraft.org/2015/09/08/10-strong-inciting-incidents-in-screenplays/