THE SECRET TO COMPELLING FICTION
Linda Style © 2011
I confess. It's not really a secret, but it is something a lot of beginning writers haven't yet discovered...or have forgotten quickly because the explanation can easily make eyes glaze over.
Dwight Swain talks about it in his book, "Techniques of the Selling Writer," and while he's one smart dude when it comes to knowing novel structure, his explanations can sometimes be more than my brain wants to handle in one reading. So, I'm going to give you the down and dirty version.
The SECRET to compelling fiction lies in what Swain calls MRUs. Motivation Reaction Units. MRUs are written by alternating between what your POV character sees (the Motivation) and what he does (the Reaction).
The aforementioned Motivation is objective...something your character can see, hear, taste, smell or feel. It is the action that motivates your character's response. And you must write it in such a way that your reader can also see, hear, smell, taste, or feel it. Then in a new paragraph, your POV character does one or more things in "Reaction" to the Motivation. The Reaction will be written in the exact sequence it happens physiologically.
When you write using MRUs, you create in your reader the powerful illusion that he is experiencing something real.
Motivation is external and objective, and you present it that way, in objective, external terms. You do this in a single paragraph. It does not need to be complicated.
[The woman swung around and pulled a gun from her purse.]
This is objective. The Motivation is shown as it would be captured by a video camera. Nothing here indicates that we are in anyone's point of view. We keep it simple and sharp and clean.
Reaction is internal and subjective, exactly as your POV character would experience it -- from the inside. This is how you can make your reader feel as if he is your POV character. The Reaction is more complex than the Motivation because internal processes happen on different time-scales. When you see the gun, in that first microsecond, the character has time for only one thing -- fear. Within a few tenths of a second, he has time to react on instinct - a reflex action. Then, shortly after the first reflex reaction, he will have time to react rationally, to act, to think, to speak. This sequence, the full complex of your character's reactions, from fastest time-scale to slowest, must be presented in order. If you put them out of order, you'll destroy the illusion of reality.
Motivation (something happens) + Feeling + Reflex reaction + Rational Action & Speech
You may leave out one or two of these three parts, but you can't leave out all three. If you do, you'll have no Reaction. Just remember, rational action always comes last.
Then...after the Reaction/speech comes . . . another Motivation.
This is the Secret. You can't write one perfect MRU and then quit. The Reaction you wrote will lead to new Motivation that is again external and objective and which you will write in its own paragraph. The character has a reaction that involves doing something about what just happened. The key is to keep the alternating pattern. Write a Motivation and then a Reaction and then another Motivation and then another Reaction and another ... and when you run out of Motivations or Reactions -- Voila -- your Scene is finished. And, eventually, your novel.
**Reprint or use of this work is forbidden unless permission is granted by the author.
I
Linda Style © 2011
I confess. It's not really a secret, but it is something a lot of beginning writers haven't yet discovered...or have forgotten quickly because the explanation can easily make eyes glaze over.
Dwight Swain talks about it in his book, "Techniques of the Selling Writer," and while he's one smart dude when it comes to knowing novel structure, his explanations can sometimes be more than my brain wants to handle in one reading. So, I'm going to give you the down and dirty version.
The SECRET to compelling fiction lies in what Swain calls MRUs. Motivation Reaction Units. MRUs are written by alternating between what your POV character sees (the Motivation) and what he does (the Reaction).
The aforementioned Motivation is objective...something your character can see, hear, taste, smell or feel. It is the action that motivates your character's response. And you must write it in such a way that your reader can also see, hear, smell, taste, or feel it. Then in a new paragraph, your POV character does one or more things in "Reaction" to the Motivation. The Reaction will be written in the exact sequence it happens physiologically.
When you write using MRUs, you create in your reader the powerful illusion that he is experiencing something real.
Motivation is external and objective, and you present it that way, in objective, external terms. You do this in a single paragraph. It does not need to be complicated.
[The woman swung around and pulled a gun from her purse.]
This is objective. The Motivation is shown as it would be captured by a video camera. Nothing here indicates that we are in anyone's point of view. We keep it simple and sharp and clean.
Reaction is internal and subjective, exactly as your POV character would experience it -- from the inside. This is how you can make your reader feel as if he is your POV character. The Reaction is more complex than the Motivation because internal processes happen on different time-scales. When you see the gun, in that first microsecond, the character has time for only one thing -- fear. Within a few tenths of a second, he has time to react on instinct - a reflex action. Then, shortly after the first reflex reaction, he will have time to react rationally, to act, to think, to speak. This sequence, the full complex of your character's reactions, from fastest time-scale to slowest, must be presented in order. If you put them out of order, you'll destroy the illusion of reality.
Motivation (something happens) + Feeling + Reflex reaction + Rational Action & Speech
You may leave out one or two of these three parts, but you can't leave out all three. If you do, you'll have no Reaction. Just remember, rational action always comes last.
Then...after the Reaction/speech comes . . . another Motivation.
This is the Secret. You can't write one perfect MRU and then quit. The Reaction you wrote will lead to new Motivation that is again external and objective and which you will write in its own paragraph. The character has a reaction that involves doing something about what just happened. The key is to keep the alternating pattern. Write a Motivation and then a Reaction and then another Motivation and then another Reaction and another ... and when you run out of Motivations or Reactions -- Voila -- your Scene is finished. And, eventually, your novel.
**Reprint or use of this work is forbidden unless permission is granted by the author.
I