Archive for January, 2016

Resolution: One bite at a time

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One mistake that rookie writers make is to cut straight to the resolution after the climax. Clean breaks in a story are not realistic. Humans crave closure after big events. It is not enough to break up with someone; the status quo is that a person needs closure to heal their broken heart. Humans have made closure an essential on the way to happiness. American endings harp on closure. Decide whether you want your conclusion to be genuine or popular, not unlike Cady Heron’s fate.

Not all endings can be European
The resolution in Mean Girls is when Girl World, the shared reality of all teenage girls within the same vicinity, is restored without a social hierarchy. The North Shore girls are all supposed to get along in theory. While wildly implausible, Americans do not appreciate what is called a European ending. Characterized as a more realistic ending than the saccharine ones of Hollywood. American ends must leave everyone smiling and a little sad the journey is over now.

The limit does exist
If Mean Girls had a European finish, the social hierarchy would still exist, maybe not as intensely. Cady would certainly not act as Aaron Samuel’s hometown beard as he navigated Northwestern: college boys do not date high school girls after Thanksgiving. Make sure your ending has common sense involved. Secondary schools thrive on the social caste system and would mostly be lost without it.

Takeaway
Your protagonist cannot have their cake and eat it too. They must fully change or not at all for an American ending. A European ending is more balanced, but not as popular.

Crisis: The fiery minx of the story

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Burning house!

Alien attack!

Run! There is a Star Wars Convention!

 

Your story’s conflict can be boiled down to man vs. man, man vs. nature, or man vs. self. A crisis plays into the conflict but cannot stand alone within the memoir’s structure. Examples of a crisis could be the stock market crashing or an alien attack, states of emergency. Complications are not the conflict, and neither is the crisis. With so many literary terms used in memoirs, it is easy to get confused. Complications are a series of minor conflicts, and a crisis is an emotional or physical emergency that can be related to conflict, but stands apart from it.

 

To stay in the Mean Girls vein, the conflict is old Cady versus new Cady i.e. man versus self. Cady’s conflict is within. She is trying to maintain a balance between her light and dark side. The crisis is when Regina George unleashes the fury of the student body via the North Shore Burn Book. Emotions are chaotic and the halls are not unlike the jungles of Cady’s youth. Cady is pushed to desperately act in the present before normalcy is destroyed forever. The emergency event has left her no choice but to be brave.

 

To recap this section, the crisis is sudden and emotionally violent. More than one crisis heightens the emotional state of the protagonist and gets him/her to take drastic measures thus reaching a resolution via accelerated shedding of insecurities. Most of us will not act or change unless no other option is left. Consider these human elements when developing your protagonist.

Climax: Ch-cha-changes

change-948017_1920Climax: Ch-cha-changes

The essence of a story is transformation. Conflict occurs when the protagonist is not ready for a life-altering change. Act 1, or the beginning of your memoir, is about the seeds of innovation being planted. In the movie Mean Girls Cady Heron, the protagonist develops from a humble outsider to the regent queen bee of the Plastics. The crisis is the discovery of North Shore’s burn book, and the climax will be Cady’s decision on how she will proceed with her social life.

As within so without
All climaxes are internal and external. The protagonist must go within to affect the without. Cady has to choose between returning to her true, albeit unpopular, self or sacrifice herself to teenage darkness by being the ultimate mean girl. Cady’s internal climax, the choice between nerd or teen queen, is embodied when Janis Ian, her genuine female friend she has abandoned in her quest for popularity, outs her during the fallout of the Burn Book.

‘Cuse me as I learn to be human
Cady somewhat unrealistically chooses to reclaim her organic self. She has to compete as a Mathlete and show herself as a “nerd” rather than a “cool girl”. The once queen bee transforms not from a nerd to a cool girl, but from an unsocialized girl to a fully socialized teenage girl who has a good and bad side, which is not always balanced.

Takeaway
A story is only meaningful when a person revises their life views. People fear change because initially they are worse off than when they were ignorant. Transformations take quite a bit of bravery, something that the average person is terrified that they may not have.

Writing Your Memoir: Let’s Get Complicated

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Rookie writers may not understand the difference between being dramatic and being interesting. Stories thrive on conflict and the perception might be that more problems add excitement to the story. Too much conflict exhausts the reader and dilutes the potency of your tale. Complications, rising and minor, can serve to build tension and sympathy for the protagonist if not overused.

Blood on the pages

Conflict is the essence of every story. As humans, we seek to maintain a middle ground between content and stressed. No one watches reality shows to see kumbaya moments. Humans crave emotional or literal blood, as long as it is not happening to them. Complications must start off small and then continue to build all while remaining realistic. Keep in mind predictable is not the same thing as organic.

Forget the obvious

Mistaking a love interest hugging a woman that will eventually turn out to be his sister or cousin is tedious. In order to develop a sense of credence, the complications should not be rushed or be overwhelming in numbers. Examples of complications, not conflict, include waking up late, missing the bus, and getting to work late all on the day you have the biggest presentation of your life. True conflict is whether you can deliver your best despite a series of minor obstacles that have shaken every fiber of your being.

Triumph and setbacks

Minor conflicts must strike a balance between small triumphs and discouraging setbacks. Maybe when you miss the bus, you manage to get the neighbor you have been lusting over to give you a ride. This is a perfect solution until the dog that your are pet sitting escapes, causing your neighbor and you to chase the yapping creature frantically before the notorious cat that lives in the park kidnaps him in hopes of world domination. Once you catch the pooch in the nick of time, you have a triumph in relation to the setback of him escaping.

Gray is the new maybe

The best complications and conflicts have no right answers. You could have left the dog alone and continued on your way. It may have been disappointing to the readers, but if you made a concession like getting the neighbor to promise that they would retrieve the canine after dropping you off it would be feasible. Having a gray area rather than stark black and white allows the readers to have an emotional reaction to your choice. This reaction is always desirable; you want people talking about your memoir.

Takeaway

Avoid overly predictable situations. Readers should not roll their eyes because your story is just a repeat of everything else. They should cheer you on as the complications add tension to the story and allows them to emotionally invest in your triumph.

Writing Your Memoir: You Can Sit with the Muses

background-313552_1280An inciting incident must be gripping. The scene is a distinct before and after moment in the hero’s life. Before Cady Heron from the movie Mean Girls is invited to sit with Regina George, she is a homeschooled outsider. The invitation changes everything. Cady goes from being a ghost to being one of the most popular girls at the school. A writer must describe the normal before the incident to show how the singular moment altered the protagonist’s life. After a Muse altered their destiny through a person or circumstance, the recipient has to stay the course of their fate. Cady cannot go back to being under the radar and must flow with the change. Inspiration always alters a person’s habits and approach to life in a memoir or fiction piece.

Sit back and enjoy the ride

Please note that the inciting incident is passive. The event happens to the protagonist. Cady could not have sat at the Plastics table of her own accord; the Queen Bee had to invite her. This particular teen was worshipped around the high school like a goddess. Somewhat in the same vein, Ancient Greeks started the notion of Muses providing the necessary inspiration to the seeker. Muses happen to the artist and no matter how arduous the chases. Revelations are out of everyone’s hands much like traffic and the weather.

Before and after

A catalyst is a person or event that incites the hero to take action and begins the story. Fully describing life pre-inspiration gives a glimpse into what the hero’s life – environment, friends, and perceptions – was like before the instigation. A reader must be hooked right away within the first five pages, or the hero’s journey will not be followed. Inciting incidents can go back years, months, or seconds. Laws of time or space do not hold down their impact.

Application

If you are having trouble narrowing an inciting incident think of a clear before and after moment in your life. Consider an event or person that changed the course of your life. The first thing that pops into your hand, unexpected or obvious, is the correct inciting incident.

Writing exercise

Once you are aware of the inciting incident, start describing your life before the Muses blessed you with inspiration. What did you feel, think, and believe before the catalyst happened to you? Write it all down. Next, describe the moment of inspiration in a stream of consciousness. Finally, detail how you were changed and how it altered to life via other significant events or people.

Takeaway

This is the first step in writing your personal or professional memoir.