The Fiction Toolkit, Part 4
Shelly Lowenkopf -- July 24, 2006
Another in a series of excerpts from Shelly Lowenkopf's forthcoming book, The Fiction Writer's Tool Kit: Terms, Concepts, and Devices for Building a Better Story. In this installment Shelly examines three more terms you'll need if you're to give as well as you take while drinking cocktails with agents, publishers, and other book people.
Power -- what a character in a story or novel frequently enjoys at the expense of others. The power may be anything from political, to financial, to sexual; it may also be manifest in terms of social standing, high esteem within a family or organization, or even in terms of talent/ability. It is useful to observe the power dynamic between or among the characters in any given scene; allotting equal power to characters tends to reduce dramatic tension, and since life is notably unfair in the way of power distribution, why start making it so within the confines of a story?
Power is often a key element in motivating characters to rebel, seek revenge, or make preemptory moves.
Reversal of power is a delicious story element; it often helps dramatize nuances and not-so-subtle behavior patterns resident in characters who have been affected by turns of fate. One of the many joys available to a reader is to be present at a scene where a bully or tyrant, still acting under the belief of continuing power, discovers the plug has been pulled. And think how noble a character must feel to have effected a switch from being the oppressed to the one who can walk away from a dramatic reversal without having the need to exact revenge.
TFS -- an admonition to writers who are distracted from a particular narrative journey on which they have embarked; a PG-rated reminder; a reader's plea to the author, motivated by a growing sense of impatience and frustration from the reader.
There is no polite way to express this most pressing and yet subjective reality: Tell the freaking story approximates but does not quite deliver the necessary urgency; Get on with it brings in a strong overtone of political correctness, which is a quality that defangs story and turns it into either a parable or a sermon. Tell the fucking story is a reminder that too much detail of a descriptive or narrative nature does for story what icebergs did for The Titanic. Being reminded to TFS is cause enough to stop and listen to the characters and their needs; being told to TFS, already, is Nature's reminder about seeing the forest.
earning one's keep -- a debt incurred when introducing characters, descriptions, and events into a narrative; an obligation -- often neglected -- to use only relevant details in stories. In the manner of a newlywed preparing for a first at-home dinner, beginning writers are tempted to throw materials into a story with the fear that story is not enough; perhaps some exotic or compelling detail will cover the defect.
Reading and study of extravagant stylists is likely to reveal that, nevertheless, the richness and details earn their keep by proving to be a supporting vehicle on which the characters and their agendas rest.
One of the essential questions to ask repeatedly during revision is:
Does this specific detail enhance or distract from the story?
Not all characters, details, and events that present themselves in the first draft make the cut into later and final drafts. The analogy of an incurred debt is not all that much of a stretch. The consequence of too many thusly acquired debts is a foreclosure on the reader's patience.
Shelly Lowenkopf's soon-to-be-published The Fiction Writer's Tool Kit: Terms, Concepts, and Devices for Building a Better Story. is more than a lexicon. It defines a conceptual language for thinking about fiction, providing the writer with the tools to raise the level of craftsmanship of his own work.