Quick Link: What have you got to lose? by Kari Lynn Dell

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Conflict is the pulse of the story. Without conflict, your story is really boring and short. But sometimes it is really hard to come up with enough conflict or compelling conflict. There are only so many times you can throw random accidents at a person until you become The Perils of Pauline. Thankfully author Kari Lynn Dell has some great thoughts on how to make sure your characters really suffer. Check it out at Romance University.

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What have you got to lose?

by Kari Lynn Dell

This question single-handedly turned around my writing career. It has become the first thing I ask my characters as I devise new and better ways to torture them along the road to their happily-ever-after. First, though, let me give credit where credit is due.

About four years ago I was struggling mightily with the manuscript that would eventually become Reckless in Texas. In the course of three major rewrites it was getting, if anything, worse as I twisted and stretched to come up with a compelling conflict. In the depths of my despair, I turned to the place you have also arrived–blogs on the craft of writing. Specifically, the blog belonging to the incomparable Jennifer Crusie.

In one of those moments of divine circumstance that I wouldn’t believe if I read it in a book, I stumbled across the exact advice I needed at exactly the right time.

To paraphrase, if you want to write unforgettable romance, make it so the two of them can’t win at love unless one of them loses. Big. Gives up a cherished vision of who they are, or steps off the path they have laid out for themselves, brick by careful brick. Or both.

 

Read the full post on Romance University.

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The Significance of Plot Without Conflict

This post originally appeared on the still eating oranges tumblr on 6/15/12.

In the West, plot is commonly thought to revolve around conflict: a confrontation between two or more elements, in which one ultimately dominates the other. The standard three- and five-act plot structures—which permeate Western media—have conflict written into their very foundations. A “problem” appears near the end of the first act; and, in the second act, the conflict generated by this problem takes center stage. Conflict is used to create reader involvement even by many post-modern writers, whose work otherwise defies traditional structure.

The necessity of conflict is preached as a kind of dogma by contemporary writers’ workshops and Internet “guides” to writing. A plot without conflict is considered dull; some even go so far as to call it impossible. This has influenced not only fiction, but writing in general—arguably even philosophy. Yet, is there any truth to this belief? Does plot necessarily hinge on conflict? No. Such claims are a product of the West’s insularity. For countless centuries, Chinese and Japanese writers have used a plot structure that does not have conflict “built in”, so to speak. Rather, it relies on exposition and contrast to generate interest. This structure is known as kishōtenketsu.

Kishōtenketsu contains four acts: introduction, development, twist and reconciliation. The basics of the story—characters, setting, etc.—are established in the first act and developed in the second. No major changes occur until the third act, in which a new, often surprising element is introduced. The third act is the core of the plot, and it may be thought of as a kind of structural non sequitur. The fourth act draws a conclusion from the contrast between the first two “straight” acts and the disconnected third, thereby reconciling them into a coherent whole. Kishōtenketsu is probably best known to Westerners as the structure of Japanese yonkoma (four-panel) manga; and, with this in mind, our artist has kindly provided a simple comic to illustrate the concept.

 

Click here to read the full post on the still eating oranges tumblr.

 

How To Tell A Great Story, Visualized

This post by Kate Torgovnick May originally appeared on the TED blog on 11/8/13.

A good story can make a campfire that much eerier. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful. A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation.

So, uh, how do you tell one?

Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, has many ideas, and he shared his expertise in his TED Talk, The clues to a great story. Below, see his golden rules of storytelling visualized by Karin Hueck and Rafael Quick of the Brazilian culture and science magazine Superinteressante. Each month, the magazine’s editors take a TED Talk and give it to their graphic wizards to interpret in any way they see fit. Here, a reimagining of Stanton’s talk on stories. Via the Ugly Duckling. Just click the image to see a larger version.

 

Click here to see the accompanying infographic on the TED blog.