Today on the Go Teen Writers Book Club, we’re discussing Chapter Eight: Emergence.

Chapter Recap:
Mr. James started this chapter talking about how most authors consider themselves more of an outliner or an organic writer, and that both writing styles have strengths and weaknesses. I particularly liked this quote: “Outliners tend to have cause-effect problems because they know where they need to go but don’t know how to get there. Organic writers tend to have directionality problems because they don’t necessarily know where they’re going.”

The subtitle of this chapter is “The Three Questions That Will Solve Every ‘Plot Problem’ You’ll Ever Have,” which I found quite compelling. The questions are as follows:

1. What would this character naturally do in this situation? Asking yourself this question will improve the believability of your story.
2. How can I make things worse? Asking this question will keep your story escalating toward an unforgettable climax.
3. How can I end this in a way that’s unexpected and inevitable? Asking this question will help you keep the surprises coming as you build your story toward a satisfying conclusion.

Mr. James says that outliners need to keep in mind that everything that you plan to have happen needs to have a reason to happen. That reason for happening needs to come from previous story events. Also, sometimes, what you feel needs to happen in your outline is not always what would naturally happen in your story.

But I think that seat-of-the-pants writers need to remember this too. I’m a hybrid writer. So I outline a skeleton of a story, and then I organically write each chapter. And too often some of my organic writing is something I “feel” needs to happen, yet it’s a boring, talking heads-type scene that eventually needs to be cut. So those italicized phrases above, in my opinion, apply to all kinds of writers, not only outliners. We all need to be aware of those connections and potential pitfalls.

Mr. James also points out that too often we ask ourselves as writers, “What would I do in this situation?” rather than, “What would my character do in this situation.” It’s important to remember that your character isn’t you. Let your character grow and move the story in ways that only he or she can.

Getting to know your characters takes time. You need to spend a lot of time getting to know the characters you have created. The better you know them, the more you’ll know what they want, what they’re afraid of, and how they’d respond in every circumstance.

Mr. James ended this chapter with a Q & A session with himself, which was interesting. He is fairly adamant about his own organic (seat-of-the-pants) writing style as being the best for everyone, and I don’t agree with that. Each of us needs to discover how we can best tell a story, and that won’t ever be the same for all of us because we are different people with different strengths and weaknesses.

What Stood Out:
I really liked this quote: “Continually ask yourself, ‘What are my readers wondering about, worrying about, hoping for, or expecting at this moment in the story?’ Then give it to them,” or give them something better. “Try to watch the story unfold through the eyes of your readers.” You don’t want your reader putting the book down. Work hard to see that they can’t. “Developing the ability to see things from a reader’s point of view is one of the most important things you can do as a storyteller.”

I’ve found this to be very true. If you are writing your story and you know it’s predictable, then you have a problem, and you need to find some ways to do something unexpected. If you know your readers are “shipping” two characters, yet you have no intention of getting them together, then you might need to change the writing enough to either get those characters together or make sure your readers aren’t quite so set on that couple getting together. As writers, we are setting out to tell a compelling, exciting story, not to annoy and disappoint our readers. It’s important to keep that in mind.

Tip of the week:
“Outliners need to ask, ‘What is actually going on here? What are readers thinking at this point? What do they want?’ Organic writers need to ask, ‘Is this scene essential to the story? Have I spent too many or too few words on it considering its overall importance to the narrative?’ The more time you spend asking questions of your narrative and listening to your story, the more it will tell itself to you.” ~Steven James

Go Teen Writers Archived Articles to Help You Go Deeper:
Creating Compelling Characters: Backstory, Goals, and Motivations (From a hybrid)
How To Craft High Impact Scenes for Your Stories (From a plotter)
2 Ways To Be Sure Your Scene Really Matters (From a plotter)
Drafting a Book One Scene at a Time (From a pantser)

Questions:
Answer at least one of the following (or as many as you’d like).
• How do you get to know your characters?
• Are you an outliner or a seat-of-the-pantser or a hybrid of the two?
• What tips do you have for surprising your reader?
• Any questions?