Write Left Right

Breaking through writer’s block

Characterization, landscape and plot arc are the big three factors that readers consistently refer to, in some way, when they say how much they enjoyed a story. Landscape can be used to transport the reader to places they have not seen, making them comfortable in surroundings they may never have considered going to. The story’s plot arc contains the beat, slow or fast, that carries the reader through what we writers use as our guide along the narrative. It takes us by the signposts that we recognize as being within a three-act play. Landscape and plot arc are generally in the intellectual side of a story.

Characterization is fully in the emotional side. This is where we can make the protagonist empathetic, edgy, conflicted, flawed, or heroic. All too often, the press of time causes us to restrict supporting characters to stereotypes. We don’t have time to give a compelling backstory to more than the protagonist and perhaps one other character. So we describe the others in simple terms such as “an aggressive Executive”, or “a spinster aunt”, or “a beer-bellied white cop”… These short-form characterizations may be convenient but they leave an unsatisfying taste – like a slice of plain white bread without butter.

Not only will the reader be left unsatisfied, the writer, too, will have such a restricted menu to play with that the main character and the plot will look flat. One way out of that two-dimensionality trap is to build your characters on a basis, not of stereotypes, but real-world descriptions. The key is to be accurate and respectful of the supporting characters’ development. If we use as our template people we know, that depends on our ability to perceive intentions correctly, in the face of self-interest. As well, we may back off at a critical juncture to avoid painting a friend’s template too harshly.

Let’s Get Real

We are told that the language side of our thinking apparatus (left side) sorts the world into compartments of data that describe things that have happened, and has further compartments for what can happen in the future, as a result.

The right side is solely and completely occupied with the mass of data coming in NOW.  (See https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight)

The bridge between the two sides is the corpus callosum.

In the literary field, writers struggle to varying degrees with the many topics within which life’s adventures can occur, and how to organize a particular thread of events into the conventions of a story.  The past and the future are multitude, while the present is a blank line on a page.  Making coherent sense out of that relationship is the profession of a literary artist.  As a writer, do you make use of your bridge between the past, the future and the present?

When writing non-fiction we must rely on those extensive files of what has happened.

Fiction writers may daintily pick through the details of the past, then bring them forth boldly into their creative NOW.  Science fiction writers will stare long into the future, then bring their creative sparks back, sometimes reluctantly, to the present so that a narrative may be fashioned.

Writer’s Blank

Stereotype characters and plots usually lead to a writer sitting and staring at a blank line. If the blank line begins to gather dust, it may be that a bridge is needed.

The problem may not be the simple beige characters or plot. The blank line can occur when the creative side fights with the rational side for control over what you are doing.

While writing, that fight means loss of focus, inconsistency between sections, and a petering out of your desire to carry on with this project.

So you drop it and go to another one…

Whether the blank line results from an excess of beige or a left-right fight, there is a technique that can bridge that gap.

Use facts to improve your characters

Grounding your characterizations within a rational methodology will open new avenues for your creativity.

Character development is important for a smooth flow along the arc of the plot line.

Plot Arc

For the highly structured genre of film scripts, a standard description of the plot arc goes like this:

• Eye grab – start with a scene that grabs the viewer’s immediate attention
• Introduction of the thread character – usually the protagonist, this person carries the thread of the story all the way
• Incident – the event that gets our attention
• Turning point – something changes to engage the previously reluctant protagonist
• Sweet spot – near the middle, when we are confirmed as pulling for the protagonist
• Reversal – our protagonist runs into a critical decision, and/or gets slammed hard
• Climax – fighting the other characters and maybe “fate”, we don’t know if our protagonist is going to succeed
• Closing – success!  Wrap up the loose ends.

We should link the dramatic aspects of a character effectively to the various points along that arc.

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