The Mysteries of Outlining and Nesting MICE: Creating Killer Stories

Yesterday I talked about Mary Robinette Kowal's workshop The Mysteries of Outlining and promised to show how this could be used in conjunction with Orson Scott Card's MICE Quotient to create killer stories.

Let's get started!

Nesting MICE Story Types

The power of structuring your story with MICE comes through when you start to nest story types. Let me give you an example. Let's say I'm writing a murder mystery. Usually murder mysteries are Idea Stories. They focus on the question: Who killed X and why? In an Idea Story the story is over when the problem--finding the murderer and explaining how the murder was done--is solved. But let's say I want to write my murder mystery as a Character Story rather than an Idea Story.

I can do this. How? By nesting story types.

In my main story I would focus on the widow and her changing role in society (a character structure) but since I want my story to also be a murder mystery I would have an Idea Story subplot where I ask the question: Who killed the widow's husband and why?

Close out subplots in the proper order

When you nest story types it's crucial to close them out in the proper order. I would need to close out the Idea Story subplot first and only then, at the very end of the book, close out the Character Story by showing that the widow had found a new role in society (or, if I was writing a tragedy, that she failed to do so).

If I had ended the story after the murderer was found and before the widow's fate was resolved my story would be incomplete and my readers dissatisfied.

Multiple subplots

Each subplot of your novel can have a different story structure. Just because your main story is, say, an Idea Story, or--as with Lord of the Rings--a Milieu Story, doesn't mean that you can't have subplots that incorporate other story types.

Using Orson Scott Card's MICE Quotient to help outline a story

As I mentioned yesterday, Mary Robinette Kowal taught a workshop on The Mysteries of Outlining at SiWC. You don't need to read that post to understand this one, but it might help. In any case, to make things easier to follow I'll include the updated list of actions we developed for the story of Rapunzel:

List of actions:
1. Parents steal a Rapunzel plant
2. Baby born
3a. Witch/enchantress takes baby
3b. Rapunzel locked in tower
5. Grows hair
6a. Prince out hunting
6b.Rapunzel sees prince and calls to him
6. Prince climbs tower
7. Witch discovers Rapunzel has been seeing the prince
8. Rapunzel is tossed out of the tower and left to fend for herself in the wilderness
9. The witch strikes the prince blind
10. Rapunzel and the prince find each other
11. Rapunzel's tears give the prince back his sight
12. Rapunzel and the prince live happily ever after

The question: How are we going to tell this story? Which action will be start with? Where will we draw the line between backstory, story, and postscript? In the wikipedia version of Rapunzel there is no backstory or postscript, all the events from 1 to 12 are included.

So, again, how are we going to tell this story of Rapunzel? We can help decide this question by choosing a story structure. Let's try out each in turn.

Milieu

Let's say we want to tell Rapunzel's story as a Milieu Story. This means our story will begin when our main character, let's say that's Rapunzel, enters a strange new world and that the story will end when she leaves it.

The only way that fits is if we begin the story at (3b) when Rapunzel enters the tower and end it at (8) when she leaves it. We wouldn't throw out points 1, 2 and 3a, they would simply become backstory and we would work them in at the appropriate time. It would be a sadder story, though, because we would leave Rapunzel learning to be free, learning to feed and clothe herself, learning to stay alive in the great wild forest.

The prince's story could be a sub-plot, one we might decide to write as an Idea Story. In this case the question/problem would be: How can the prince free the princess from the tower? The story would end when the question is answered at (8). We would have to change the outline a bit so the prince's arc would end before the story ends at (8) so we would need to swap (8) and (9) in the outline.

Idea

If we were telling this story from Rapunzel's point of view we might be most interested how she'll get away from the witch (question/problem: How will Rapunzel get out of the tower and escape the witch's power?) in which case we'd begin at (3a) with the witch taking the baby and putting her in the unscalable tower. The story would end when Rapunzel left the witch at (8).

Character

If we wanted to write Rapunzel as a Character Story how we began would depend on who we wanted to be our main character. If Rapunzel, we could start when she entered the tower as a baby (3b) or when the prince came into her life (6b), most likely the latter, since it's difficult for a baby to be unbearably dissatisfied with their life! The story would end when Rapunzel found her new role in life as queen at (12).

If we wanted the prince to be our main character we'd start and end the story at roughly the same place, at (6b) and (12).

Event

The Event Story is about the world being out of whack and the main character has to restore order. For this kind of story it would seem easiest to take the prince as the main character. He's out hunting and he sees a beautiful maiden locked in a tower. Perhaps she doesn't call to him, perhaps he hides behind a tree and sees the witch climbing down Rapunzel's golden locks. He becomes outraged at the injustice of keeping a young maiden locked up in a dusty old tower and vows to set things right.

To tell the story this way we'd have to change our outline slightly. Instead of Rapunzel seeing the prince and calling out to him, the prince would see the witch leave the tower and would go and investigate, so we'd need to change (6b). This story would end when the prince had restored order to the world and had taken Rapunzel home to be his wife and queen at (12).

Alternatively we could have Rapunzel realize that being locked in a tower by a witch isn't normal. At the moment she realizes this, at the moment she realizes the woman she had thought of as her mother is actually her jailor, the story would begin--probably somewhere around the time Rapunzel has grown her hair (5). Everything before that would be worked in as backstory. The main story would end when Rapunzel's world was put right and she was part of a family (12).

Choosing a MICE type depending on who you use as a main character

Instead of choosing a story structure and then figuring who we want our main character to be and where the story should begin, we could choose a main character and ask which MICE type would suit that point of view the best.


Well, that's it for this section! Do you have any questions about Orson Scott Card's MICE Quotient and how to use it in an outline? If so, please ask!

Tomorrow we'll look at the last of the tools Mary Robinette Kowal introduced in her workshop The Mysteries of Outlining: Yes, but ... / No, and ...

I was wondering, those of you participating in NaNoWriMo, how is your preparation coming along? Any tips or tricks you'd like to share?

Cheers!

This article is part of a series:
- Orson Scott Card & The MICE Quotient: How To Structure Your Story
- Mary Robinette Kowal and The Mysteries of Outlining
- The Mysteries of Outlining and Nesting MICE: Creating Killer Stories (Current article)
- Making A Scene: Using Conflicts And Setbacks To Create Narrative Drive

Other articles you might like:
- Dialogue: 7 Ways of Adding Variety

- Amazon Ranks Authors In Terms Of Their Book Sales

Dialogue: 7 Ways of Adding Variety

Photo by ajari, licensed through the creative commons

Dialogue is important. What would a novel be without dialogue? But dialogue needs to be interesting. Witty.

However, writers are mere mortals and inspiration does not come on tap. (If only!) Here are 7 tricks to help coax the muse out of hibernation.

Thanks go to Marcy Kennedy and her terrific blog post 7 Tricks to Add Variety to Your Dialogue. In deference to Marcy, I'll give her first three points and then let you visit her blog for the rest. Enjoy!

1. Answer a question with a question

"Dear, what did you think of Melinda's dress? I thought it looked stunning!"
"Don't you think dinner parties are an awful bore?"

Perhaps your character doesn't want to answer the question, or perhaps asking a question is a way of answering indirectly or being snide.

2. Put your characters in a jar and shake it: Interrupt 

Everyone has pet peeves, this is mine. I have a soft voice so I guess it's easy to do.

When one character cuts another off it sends the message that either the speaker is an impatient person, that they didn't think what the other person was saying is worth listening to, or both.

If one of your characters is a bit self-absorbed, this is a great way of showing that!

3. Silence
Have you ever asked someone a question and they don't reply? They just stand and look at you? Trust me, it's disconcerting.

Silence is the ultimate conversation stopper. There's nothing to rebut and you're given no clue as to what the other person is thinking or feeling. A door has slammed, cutting you off from one another.

Of course, this works both ways. Someone could fall silent hoping to provoke a reaction, but their silence might be appreciated! That would tell quite a bit about both characters.

To read the rest of Marcy's excellent article, click here: 7 Tricks to Add Variety to Your Dialogue.

The subversion of expectation

One thing I've noticed all 7 points have in common is the subversion of the reader's expectation.

"Subverting the readers expectations" sounds like a bad thing. 'Subversion' conjures up images of something dark and steamy, but it's really a good thing! It engages the reader and keeps them from getting bored.

For instance, when a person answers a question with a question they are doing something unexpected. People are supposed to answer questions when asked, not ignore them and ask their own!

Similarly, when one person interrupts another (grrrr!) they are doing something unexpected. That's good!

Other articles you might like:
- Amazon Ranks Authors In Terms Of Their Book Sales
- How to record an audiobook at home
- How To Build A Platform: Why Every Writer Needs A Website

Photo credit: ajari

Surrey International Writers' Conference 2012

I'm attending my third Surrey International Writers' Conference (#SiWC2012) today but will be back Monday. I'll still post articles Saturday and Sunday. They're already written and the system should (cross fingers) send them out automatically.

I'll try to send updates from the conference, but we'll have to see how that goes.

I haven't decided which workshops to attend, there are so many wonderful choices! Here's Friday's schedule.

Diana Gabaldon

To give you a sense of the conference, here's a link to one of my posts from last year based on Robert J. Wiersema's workshop, Don't Flinch: SiWC 2011 Day One, Part Two: Don't Flinch: Robert Wiersema.

Here is my account of two other workshops I attended last year:
- SiWC 2011 Day One, Part Three: The Psychology of Plotting, Michael Slade
- SiWC 2011 Day One, Part Four: The Inner Journey, Donald Maass

If you have the opportunity to attend a writing conference in your area I highly recommend it. It's wonderful to connect and learn from other writers.

Other articles you might be interested in:
- How To Design A Great Looking Book Cover
- The Best Way To Build A Writer's Platform Is To Write
- What Is Writing? Telepathy, Of Course!

John Gardner: You Aren't Fooling Yourself, You Really Can Do It

I subscribe to AdviceToWriters.com, a site that shares quotations from well-known writers, and had to share this one with you because it really hit home for me:

In my own experience, nothing is harder for the developing writer than overcoming his anxiety that he is fooling himself and cheating or embarrassing his family and friends. To most people, even those who don’t read much, there is something special and vaguely magical about writing, and it is not easy for them to believe that someone they know—someone quite ordinary in many respects—can really do it. (John Gardner)

It can feel presumptuous in the extreme, the thought, the belief, that others would care to read our words, the stories we dream up and scribble down. The idea, if taken out and examined for too long or too often, can seem ludicrous. And that thought can, more than any other, dry up our inspiration, dissolve our will to write.

Others do want to read what you write because no one else has your particular view of the world, your particular set of experiences. The unpublished writer is an unmapped, uncharted, country awaiting exploration.

Or at least that's what I think. :)

Other articles you might like:
- Learning Story Structure: Deconstructing a Novel
- 8 Tips For Blogging Success
- Writing Resources

Photo credit: mikebaird

5 Ways To Make Your Writing Better

I admire Johanna Penn. She was one of the first indie authors on YouTube and her blog, The Creative Penn, is a wealth of information for writers at any stage of their career.

Recently guest blogger Scott Bartlet dropped by The Creative Penn to share what he has learnt about writing. Here are his tips:

1) Write
"Only writing will make you a better writer"
Scott remarks that reading the sort of thing you like to write helps make one a better writer--as does reading about the business of writing, thinking about writing and taking writing classes--but that only actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) will get one's book story to being published.

2) Be Yourself
"Every novels origin is different"
Some folks, like Stephen King, write without an outline (pantsers) and some do (plotters). It doesn't matter so long as it works for you.

3) Write every day
"Vibrancy comes from writing every day"
Scott writes:

To keep your characters alive on the page, you need to spend time with them daily. Cory Doctorow writes his novels at a rate of one page a day. His rationale? No matter how busy his day gets, he can always find 20 minutes to write one page. As a result, he stays in close contact with the people populating his stories.

4) Write down your ideas when you have them
"Become a perpetual note-taker"
Scott writes:

Your mind is a colander with large holes—if it functions anything like mine does, that is. Life’s experiences flow through, and, you being a writer, they probably generate some great fiction material in the process—snappy lines of dialogue, incisive observations, beautiful snippets of description, et cetera.

So write them down! An old-fashioned pad would do the job or you might want to use your cell phone if you already carry that with you wherever you go. Whatever works.

5) Edit
"Every novel's first draft needs editing. A lot of editing."
I think it was Stephen King who wrote that the first draft is for you and the second, etc., drafts are for the world.
Scott writes:

Hemingway had some choice words for first drafts. I won’t repeat them here, but the upshot was that they universally stink.

Amen! I've just completed the first draft of a novel and I know it needs a LOT of work.

I hope you found something useful. Click here to read Scott Bartlett article in its entirety: 5 Lessons Learned From Writing 3 Novels.

If you have a tip you'd like to share please do leave a comment.

Other articles you might enjoy:
- Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- Book Promotion: Where's The Line?

Photo credit: *_filippo_*

Spice Up Your Writing: The Passive Voice & Eliminating Passive Verbs

Elizabeth S. Craig writes about passive verbs:

What people sometimes confuse as passive voice is really the use of static verbs instead of dynamic (or active) verbs.  But frequently editors will ask you to reword sentences with static verbs because you could write a stronger sentence with dynamic verbs. Journalist Constance Hale wrote an interesting article for the New York Times in April about static and dynamic verbs and some subcategories of each (I loved her list of wimpy verbs.)

Although hunting down “to be” words isn’t necessarily going to help you create active voice sentence structure, if you have a lot of linking verbs in your story, you might want to make sure you’re showing, not telling.  So even though Anna was mad isn’t passive, it might make for stronger writing for you to say Anna slammed John’s plate on the table in front of him, making green peas fly off.  Frequently, when writers talk about finding linking verbs in their manuscript, they’re really advising us to avoid using weak verbs.

Read the rest of Elizabeth's article here: Passive Voice with Elizabeth S Craig.

If you're looking for a good article on the passive voice and how to avoid wimpy sentences I highly recommend Elizabeth's article. 

Another great article on how to avoid passive sentences is the one Elizabeth recommended: Make-or-Break Verbs by Constance Hale. Here's a sampling:

Fundamentally, verbs fall into two classes: static (to be, to seem, to become) and dynamic (to whistle, to waffle, to wonder). (These two classes are sometimes called “passive” and “active,” and the former are also known as “linking” or “copulative” verbs.) Static verbs stand back, politely allowing nouns and adjectives to take center stage. Dynamic verbs thunder in from the wings, announcing an event, producing a spark, adding drama to an assembled group.

. . . .

Power Verbs Dynamic verbs are the classic action words. They turn the subject of a sentence into a doer in some sort of drama. But there are dynamic verbs — and then there are dynamos. Verbs like has, does, goes, gets and puts are all dynamic, but they don’t let us envision the action. The dynamos, by contrast, give us an instant picture of a specific movement. Why have a character go when he could gambol, shamble, lumber, lurch, sway, swagger or sashay? Picking pointed verbs also allows us to forgo adverbs. Many of these modifiers merely prop up a limp verb anyway. Strike speaks softly and insert whispers. Erase eats hungrily in favor of devours. And whatever you do, avoid adverbs that mindlessly repeat the sense of the verb, as in circle around, merge together or mentally recall.

This reminds me of the advice Stephen King repeated gave in his book On Writing to use strong verbs and, as much as possible, avoid the use of adverbs and even adjectives.

Good writing!

Other articles you might like:
- Stephen King: 15 tips on how to become a better writer
- What To Write About: Fiction That Sells  
- Henry Miller's 11 Writing Commandments

Photo credit: photo by Vincepal on Flickr

Writing Prompt: Desperate Phone Call

I thought I'd try something different and post a writing prompt.

It's the middle of the night and your phone rings. Grumpy, you answer it. The voice on the line is breathy as though whoever it is has been running. "You're in danger. Take it and leave town. Now."

You hear the gurgle of a semi-automatic machine gun and a muffled scream. It sounds as though the phone has clattered to the ground.  

Sleep forgotten you sit up in bed. "Hello? Hello!" No response.

After a moment you hear slow, deep, breathing. "We know who you are" This voice is menacing and gravelly. "We only want the package. Go to the police and you're dead."

What do you say? What do you do?

Good writing!

"Writing Prompt: Desperate Phone Call" copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Aherk! Makes Writing App 'Write Or Die' Look Tame

With the writing app, Write Or Die, if you stop typing for too long you can lose your writing, but with Aherk! you could lose your reputation.

From GalleyCat:

The new Aherk app will help you blackmail yourself into meeting your literary goals. The free service lets you pick a goal and save a “compromising picture” of yourself and use it as “knife on your neck” reminding you to finish your project.

Tell us what it is that you want to achieve and set a deadline. Upload a compromising picture that will be posted to Facebook in case you fail to achieve your goal. After your deadline expires, your Facebook friends will vote and tell us if you achieved your goal or not … No boring graphics and calculations, extensive how-tos or cheesy ‘you’re awesome, go get’em!’ texts. It’s just a knife on your neck that will keep you on your toes while your friends are watching.

Here's the complete article: Blackmail App for Writers. Aherk! is still in beta, but it looks as though it is open to the public.

Interesting idea. Perhaps more fans would friend their favorite authors on Facebook if it was known they were using this app. What pictures we might see!

On second thought, that might not be a good thing ...

Thanks to Elizabeth Spann Craig, mystery writer par excellence, for tweeting a link to this article. Elizabeth has a great Twitter feed which you can view here: @elizabethscraig.

Remember, whatever it takes, keep writing!

Related reading:
- Write Or Die: The App
- 4 iPad Apps For Writers
- Conflict Creation: The Needs Of Your Characters

What THE WONDER PETS Can Teach Writers

This is from 12most.com. (The following are excerpts.)

1. Formulas = built-in consistency

Doesn’t matter if I’ve seen an episode of Wonder Pets or Super Why for the first time or the millionth time: the formula is consistent. Beginning-middle-end. Simple. Straight forward. Built-in consistency.

I know that the opening sequence for Wonder Pets presents the lesson for the episode that is nailed home by the animal they save that day. I know that words make up the animals and objects in Word World and that, when they build a word, they sound it out, put the letters together and then celebrate the accomplishment. “We did it! We built a word!”

2. Simplicity

The Wonder Pets, Word World and Super Why! get simplicity. It comes across clearly in each story line. Call it breaking it down to bare bones, call it dumbing down, it is still simplicity. Even though I’m an adult, and have long since learned the lessons imparted (hopefully), I still get them  because of their simple presentation.

3. Teamwork matters

As much as I’m used to working on my own, by myself, little gets done without the help of others. While we may not all work for a company, or a department within a company, if we’re involved in the same project we’re a team. That project cannot be completed without input and support from all.

I think this point, especially, applies to independent authors. Sometimes we feel very alone but we have a great support network in the form of other indie authors. I'm amazed by the amount of encouragement and support I've received from my peers. It's awesome!

4. Excitement is infectious

I know. I know. It sounds ridiculous. Seriously though. My 3-year-old nephew will literally jump up and down, on the couch, too, and sing “Let’s build a word! We did it! We built a word!” It’s infectious. I can’t help but smile, and before I’m even aware, I’m singing along too! And it’s downright impossible to be in a bad mood with such excitement around. Which leads me to point #5.

I know it sounds cliche, but sometimes a positive attitude--I will finish this book--is everything.

5. Positive approach

The Wonder Pets, Word World and Super Why! all have this positive slant to them. I know they are kid shows, but there are kid shows that don’t have such a positive slant. Sponge Bob comes readily to mind. Doesn’t matter the obstacle presented, there’s a positive approach to the problem and a positive celebration when solved. No one is put down, backhanded or otherwise. No one is left out.

We would all do well to stop for a moment, and think of how we can approach obstacles in a more positive way. The doom-and-gloom and finger pointing, the negative approach we so forcefully demonstrate, clearly is not working.

6. Nicknames are cool… if they are meaningful

Alpha Pig! He builds the alphabet so you can find the letters to the spell the word. Rhyming Red! Sings a song of rhyming words. When you give nicknames, or code names to things, that’s cool, when the nicknames, or code names, are meaningful. There’s no wasted time and effort wondering what the name means, or why the person, or character, has that name.

This is especially true for character names. Sometimes I wonder if a large part of  J.K. Rowling's success was the clever naming of her characters.


Read the rest of the article here: 12 Most Words of Wisdom While Watching Wonder Pets, Word World, and Super Why!

I'm going to try and keep these points in mind as I sit down to write later today.

Keep writing!