Today on the Go Teen Writers Book Club, we’re discussing Chapter Six: Change.
Chapter Recap:
Mr. James talked about the difference between putty people and pebble people. The events of the story cause putty people to change, while pebble people remain unchanged. Protagonist are usually putty people.
Characters like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes are pebble people. External struggles reveal characteristics of the protagonist, while internal and interpersonal struggles transform him. Since Bond and Holmes both handle cases of grand external significance, their stories reveal what they are like more than transform them.
Here are some examples of outcomes that Mr. James gives for stories told from a primarily external nature:
1. A new set of circumstances. (The city is saved from terrorists.)
2. A new outlook or attitude. (Hero learns to work with a team rather than on his own.)
3. A new set of skills or abilities. (The hero now knows how to disarm a bomb.)
4. A new insight or revelation. (The hero can face his fears to protect others.)
5. A new (or renewed)
relationship. (The guy gets the girl.)
For putty people, the struggle of the story changes them. They are dealing with those internal struggles that relate to universal desires like love, acceptance, freedom, adventure.
When your character reaches his emotional or spiritual climactic moment, you need to show, not tell. Don’t rush over it. Readers want to experience it. Draw it out. Make your hero struggle and fight for it! And he should come out on the other side transformed into a new man. A better, stronger in some way man. Unless you’re telling a dark story. And in that case, genre conventions dictate your plot and character arcs quite a bit more in regards to horror stories or psychological thrillers.
What Stood Out:
“Don’t necessarily think of change as a complete conversion from one type of person to another but rather something that results in a new kind of normal.”
To recap the book thus far, consider these five elements:
Orientation: Readers meet the protagonist, discover what he’s like. If he has what he wants, he’s about to lose it. If he wants something, he’s about to pursue it.
Crisis/Calling: Crisis: Something bad happened to the hero. What’s he trying to overcome, avoid, or obtain? Calling: Something good beckons the hero on an adventure. How will he respond?
Escalation: The hero tries to solve the problem but meets progressively bigger and bigger challenges along the way until he meets a final climactic encounter with the antagonist.
Discovery: The hero reaches a moment of realization. What does he learn about the world and himself?
Change: The hero’s life has been transformed. How has life changed?
Tip of the week:
To develop your protagonist’s journey through the story, think about four things:
1. Desire: What does he want?
2. Setbacks: What keeps him from getting it?
3. Stakes: What will happen if he doesn’t get it?
4. Outcome: What will change in his life when he does fulfill his desire?
These four don’t have to happen in this order. Move things around if your story need that.
Go Teen Writers Archived Articles to Help You Go Deeper:
How to Change the Heart of Your Characters
Main Characters Need to Change
Writing The Climax of the Story: Your Character’s Final Test
How To Know If You’ve Done a Good Job with Character Development
Questions:
Answer at least one of the following (or as many as you’d like).
•Is your hero a putty person or a pebble person?
•Do you show a new normal for your character at the end of the story?
•Have you worked hard to show the emotional or spiritual climactic moment at the end of your story?
•Any questions?
The concept in this chapter didn’t feel as fresh and new as some of the other content, but I still thought it was laid out well and a good reminder.
In the YA genre, it’s almost exclusively putty people for the main characters. That’s one of the big draws to the genre, I think, and why we don’t see a lot of Nancy Drew type series these days. Modern readers don’t want young pebble main characters.
I typically use my denoument to show how the change has taken root in the main character’s life. That’s my favorite when I’m a reader, and it’s influenced how I write.
I like what Mr. James said about using a scene to show how the character changed rather than reflection. It always feels more powerful, I think, when a character’s actions do the talking, especially when it’s something that seems small and subtle but carries a lot of weight in the context of the story. I want to incorporate scenes like that in the end of my WIP.
My two main POVCs are definitely putty people, but I do dip into the POVs of a couple other characters throughout the book, and they have their putty moments as well. I feel like my book has a lot of putty characters. Basically anyone who’s involved in the curse (who isn’t already a ghost) that my book revolves around is a putty character, and those that aren’t are pebble characters. I’m not sure if I have too many putty people though. Is there a problem with having over a certain number of putty people? Will it overwhelm the story?
Is my hero a putty person or a pebble person: To be honest, I think he’s more of a pebble person. He definitely experiences a “new normal” (#2!) at the end of the book, but it has more to do with new circumstances, new skills, and new (and renewed) relationships than it does with internal change. There are definitely some good things there, but I do want to delve deeper into his internal struggles.
I thought it was interesting that there are examples of famous protagonists who are pebble people, and I like how James listed out potential outcomes for stories of that kind. I’ve never heard it put that way before.