emotional arc Archives - Lisa Hall-Wilson

Learn Deep Point of View Using Emotional Layers

June 13, 2018 by Lisa Hall-Wilson Leave a Comment

Deep point of view lets your readers experience story through a virtual reality headset. Readers want to take an emotional journey alongside the main character in every scene. This style puts readers IN the story as much as possible.

To achieve this, writers have to avoid summarizing or telling how a character feels. Instead, writers have to present evidence to the reader about how the character feels. Not enough evidence and the reader is lost, too much and the reader is bored.

To do this, the writer must know the WHY in every scene. Why did your point of view character (POVC) say that, do that, hide that, run away or stand and fight—all of it.

I’m constantly looking for a way to break things down, create an actionable process, so I can understand things. Deep point of view makes sense to me by writing in emotional layers. Every action (or in the case of fiction every thought) has an equal and opposite reaction.

Layer 1: Primary or Basic Emotions

These are the unthinking instinctive emotions. Some examples would be: attraction, lust, disgust, joy, fear, excitement, sadness, surprise, etc. Most often, we show readers primary emotions through body language and physiology—what’s going on inside: heart rate, skin prickles, sweating, etc.

This is a guest post on Writers In The Storm. Read the rest of this post here.

3 Reasons Deep Point Of View Might Not Be Working For Your Story

April 19, 2018 by Lisa Hall-Wilson Leave a Comment

When writing in deep point of view, even though this writing technique is visceral and delivers an emotional punch — sometimes it just doesn’t seem to be working. There’s no depth. Readers aren’t connecting with your characters. Assuming the story is well constructed and the characters well-conceived, does that mean Deep Point of View isn’t the right decision for your story?

Perhaps.

Maybe it means you have one of the problems below instead and just a simple tweak can turn a good story into a great story that readers tell all their friends about.

Voice

Deep Point of View is a great tool that almost by necessity forces you to create unique voices for your characters. However, if your characters all sound the same, or they just sound like you, that’s a problem. Often, the cause for this is that you either don’t know your character as well as you think you do, or you’re trying to artificially force a character into a plot event. Deep point of view works best for stories that are character driven, not plot driven.

As an exercise, pick a scene with high tension/emotion. Dig down into what I call the why. Why is your character behaving this way? What are they trying to accomplish by behaving this way? List three other ways your character could react to that exact situation and in point form explain the thinking/rationale that character would use to justify each of those actions. The actions don’t have to be rational, but they do need to make sense to that character. What does each of those reactions show readers about that character’s traits, motivations, goals, backstory, etc. Now, pick the action/reaction that is surprising, that forces the character into a situation or emotional state that leaves them uncomfortable.

Now that you know why your character is behaving the way they are and what they’re trying to accomplish in that scene, now write the scene as the character moves through the scene.

Filter

Every detail of the story that the reader knows about has to come to them through a point of view character, and that character has to have opinions, feelings, attitudes, prejudices, history, etc. that influence how they see the world and see themselves in the world. This filter is applied to every word you choose, every metaphor, all of it.

Sometimes this points to a confidence problem in the writer – either they don’t trust themselves or their reader. Sometimes it’s laziness because we don’t want to do the hard work of figuring out these kinds of details. Don’t take that personally. Every writer is guilty of lazy writing at least now and then.

So, going back to the exercise above, you’ve rewritten the scene as though your character is telling the story. Do your word choices reflect how your character feels about what’s going on? Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games describes her sister’s cat as the ugliest cat in the world and says it’s the color of rotting squash. It’s not an orange cat, or a marmalade-colored cat, it’s not the color of a Halloween pumpkin – it’s the color of rotting squash. How do you think Katniss feels about that cat? You find out that Katniss’ sister named the cat Buttercup. What do those two small pieces of information tell you about Katniss and her sister? About how they each see the world. That’s filter.

Change (Emotional Arc)

Does your character change over the course of the story? This might be why the deep point of view technique isn’t working. There is such a thing as a static character, a character who begins the story with all the tools/skills/knowledge they need to accomplish their goals. Usually, we see this in characters who are professional detectives, lawyers, etc. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher is perhaps one of my favorite static characters. Indiana Jones could arguably be considered a static character. However, most of the time your character will have to grow, change, learn, acquire new skills or thinking in order for them to have success by the end of the story. Will your readers see that change through the way your character experiences or tells the story? In the words they use, what they notice that they might’ve skipped or skimmed over before?

The emotional arc applies even to static characters. They have to care about something in order to put themselves at risk to accomplish the seemingly-impossible story goal. Emotional arcs are critical in deep point of view because the reader isn’t just inside your character’s head, they’re inside the character’s heart too. This journey then should include some emotional challenge to overcome. Is their pride getting in the way? Is it their prejudices or attitudes or assumptions tripping them up? These emotional obstacles need to be overcome. Remember, to build in this emotional journey for your character and readers too.

I LOVE getting emails from readers and I LOVE hearing how these posts are helping you create better stories. What topic(s) would you like to see covered here? Leave a comment or send me an email!

Want to learn more about deep point of view? Heard about it and don’t know what it’s really about? Been told readers struggle to connect with your characters emotionally? Know about deep point of view, but stumped trying to find intermediate-level resources? Registration is now open for Method Acting For Writers: Learn To Write In Deep Point Of View. Class begins May 7 and the cost is $165CDN (approx $130USD).

Editing In Layers Part 1: Goals

December 12, 2017 by Lisa Hall-Wilson 9 Comments

Editing and revising is a necessary part of writing fiction because no one NO ONE writes a perfect first draft. Everyone’s work is improved with the help of a good editor and the first editor who should go over your work is YOU. That said, especially if you’re a pantser like me, the first draft can be fugly.

Pantser or planner, it’s time to get off the crazy train and work smarter.

Fast drafting and first drafts aren’t supposed to be pretty. They’re a skeleton outline of your story. For me, the first draft is how I get to know my characters. What their motivations and dreams are, their goals, and struggles. This is where I identify the three main goals of the story.

Once I have those down, I can approach the editing phase with a bit more objectivity. <- This, objectivity, is the first thing you need to learn. Write with the door closed and rewrite with the door open as Stephen King says. The first draft is for you. No one should influence how you tell the story or what kind of story you want to tell. The subsequent edits clean up the mess. Some objectivity goes a long way at this stage.

I got real tired of editing for months and months because I was approaching the novel chapter by chapter. Every chapter had to be perfect before I moved on, but a small edit in the middle could have ripple effects that forced me back to the beginning. I was getting nowhere.

So, I have created (for myself) a 6 step process of editing in layers. This process boiled down the revision stage to 5 passes through a manuscript to get it in shape for beta readers. Now, how long you spend on each layer is variable.

Prep Work: Goals (you are here)
Layer 1: Plot
Layer 2: Scenes and Sequels
Layer 3: (Weakness) Plus Characterization
Layer 4: Emotions
Layer 5: Consistency

Let’s get started. As I publish a post about each layer, I’ll add a link to the steps above.

Step 1: Goals

There’s some ground work you should do before you even write your first draft. If you’ve already written a first draft you need to this before you begin on the 5 layers of editing. I can’t stress how important this is. Without a road map for your plot, emotional arc, and characters you’ll end up on the crazy revision train that only goes in circles without a final destination.

There are three goals your story needs: Story Goal, Character Goal, Emotional Arc

Story Goal

With a first draft complete, you should have a good idea of what the theme of your story is. Maybe you don’t have a story theme, but know what readers are looking for from your brand. Is there something unique about your author voice you want to retain or convey?

Did I lose you? This is hard to define. I have been able to look back over my fiction work and identified a couple of recurring themes. Regardless of time, specific conflict, or cast of characters, I have unconsciously written stories about women struggling for an egalitarian role. They’re not feminists, they don’t want strict equality but they want people to have the same access to opportunity, etc. This is an overall general theme I want to preserve book to book. I don’t write graphic sex or profanity either.

Think about your favorite author. What is it about their work you’ve come to count on with every book? Patricia Briggs is one of my favorite authors. She writes shifter fantasy. I have no idea whether this is intentional or not, though I suspect it is, but I like that there’s no graphic sex in her novels or profanity. I like that her female protagonists are strong but deeply flawed.

Character Goals

Your protagonists and antagonist should have a specific story goal. What is it they want? They begin the story with a problem forced on them (the inciting incident) and this forces them to act to solve this problem. The solution to their problem has to be a specific, concrete goal. World peace is not a viable character goal. Getting mom and dad back together is a specific goal. You need to map this out. The goal needs to be logical to the character, it needs to be a goal they believe will fix their main story problem. There needs to be an inciting incident, and then at the 25%, 50%, 75% and the end there needs to be major obstacles they proactively overcome.

So, let’s look at The Lord of The Rings. Frodo’s story problem is he’s given a ring that turns out to have the power to destroy his world, and if he doesn’t leave home the enemy seeking the ring will kill him. The logical solution to this problem is to leave home and then get rid of the ring.

Plot happens with all of the obstacles placed in his way to prevent him from achieving his story goal, obstacles that force him to act in a way that changes the direction of the story (he’s proactive). Each success is only a partial win. Each of the characters in the fellowship have unique character goals and unique-to-them ideas on how to overcome the obstacles they face.

And now, this last part is crucial. In the end, Frodo achieves his goal–he leaves home and gives up the ring, but it’s a partial win because he learns it’s not just his home that’s threatened but their whole world. He’s the only one who can carry the ring. The ring must be destroyed. He succeeds in this second goal, but the journey has left him broken and scarred and he has to leave Middle Earth. He isn’t able to live in the world he saved. There’s both a win and a loss here for each story problem.

Each of your main protagonists needs a story goal that ends with a partial win and a loss.

Emotional Arc

The best stories, the ones we revisit and want to learn from, are those where we’re invested in emotionally. Your protagonist needs to change emotionally in order to succeed. It’s the emotional journey, resilience, brokenness, and all-or-nothingness that pulls readers in. Your character should go from observing the world to taking responsibility for it. Needing safety transforms into needing freedom. Self-awareness transforms into self-confidence. (examples taken from Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft of Fiction)

Does your protagonist change? Map this out. You need to know where this character is at emotionally at the beginning, at the 25%, 50%, 75%, and ending. These percentage marks in your word count should roughly correspond to a large conflict point in the story that has forced the character to change emotionally. They must be challenged, grow and change, and be a stronger person at the end. Even a character who has all the tools they need to succeed at the beginning of a story (a static character)–think Jack Reacher, Indiana Jones, James Bond, they need an emotional arc. How do they change and grow emotionally from beginning to end?

This is the beginning of a six-part series. Save your moolah and get the 5 day e-course on writing secondary emotions in layer here.