Finding Plot, Theme, and Story Through Character

FICTION WRITING LESSONS, January 2007

BACK TO BASICS - FINDING PLOT, THEME, AND STORY THROUGH CHARACTER, a short course
by zentao

A ZEN NOTE: I try to keep these lessons short and palatable because, over the years, I have learned that less is more.

Let's get back to basics for a moment. (No, not grammar, spelling, punctuation. I assume you know all that or you will hire a book doctor to fix it for you if you are the lazy sort.) Basics are CHARACTER, PLOT, STORY, and, underlying all of them, THEME. But we'll stay out of theme for the moment, because most of you won't know what it is while you are in the midst of the creative surge.

Books involve characters, so let's start there. Why? Because it is a very stable way to begin. Story and plot can both be kind of sort of foggy, but if you have a character...and two, then three, perhaps, you've got a delicious way to start nailing down the rest. Let's do an exercise.

Visualize yourself a main character that you'd love to write a prize-winning story about, a prize winning story that would be snapped up by a publisher, movie rights included, production of both book and movie coordinated for a major release a few years hence. VISUALIZE THIS CHARACTER. SEE HER OR HIM in your mind's eye.

You see her/his face? What color is the skin, the eyes, the hair? How long is the hair? All right. Where is s/he? Where is s/he standing? What is s/he wearing? What is her/his demeanor? Is s/he happy? Sad? Alive? Dead? Wounded? Melancholy? Longing? What? Is there someone with her/him? Who? Who are they?

What are they wearing? Are the clothes you see them in traditional for them, their time and their world? If so, identify that time and world? If not, figure out why they are wearing clothing that isn't normal "street wear" for them and their world....

Do you see what we are doing in the above?

You can start working out a book by defining character.

"But I knew that," you moan.

Of course you knew that. But do you actually dwell with your character, discovering everything you can about them, or do you make "character attribute lists" like some role-playing avatar or grocery list? "Hmm, elvish powers of 8, warrior skills of 12, intelligence 6, charisma 18...."

Please don't do it that way. You'll only stagnate in your left-brained, dogmatic slurry. Instead, take the very first….

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Lesson TOC (Table of Contents)...4

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