Chapter three of Writer's Workshop raises a lot of good points about the plot and story, which are surprisingly (not!), two different things.
What I've noticed that has really helped me in my own writing is the fact that you need to start small. All of the ideas don't just occur overnight. Just like in chapter one when an author started by writing about a wall, another started writing about boys having a snowball fight here in chapter three. I feel that every story begins with something! Whether it is a portrayal of your own life, your environment, or an item sitting in front of you, anything can spark a story worth telling. On page 66, the text reads in capital letters, "YOU CANNOT 'PLOT' A STORY THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW." Basically what I think Koch is trying to say is that you have to put together the pieces and parts before you have a plot. When teachers ask, "who can tell me the plot of this story?" after students read a novel, don't students usually sum it up in about 30 seconds or less? You definitely can't write a story in 30 seconds or less, can you?! If you do, how are students able to summarize that?
Something that I've had trouble with so far in my writing is building a conflict. Since I am such a positive person, it's hard to create any negativity in my story! From my understanding, I just need to make my character want something. And then, in turn, they have to struggle to get what they want, and finally get what they want. Sounds easy! But I'm actually having a difficult time with this because it takes a lot of planning, imagination, and "fitting the pieces together" that is holding me back. But as the text suggests on page 76, "...conflict determines genre. Is this story going to end with a funeral, weddding, or a party, or a soulful stare at a brick wall? Is it going to make us laugh, cry, or cringe, or get mad, or feel awe, or pity, or gentle sadness, or excitement, or what?" I feel that this actually helps me plan some type of conflict in a sense because inevitably that conflict will affect the ending. We'll see! Until then, I must read on...
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I agree with you on having a hard time writing. I feel like I haven't had anything in my life happen so drastic that anyone would care to read out it. There isn't a huge conflict that I've experienced. I feel like, too, when I do try to make something up that it sounds made up because I know that it isn't true. I am working on it but it isn't easy.
ReplyDeleteI usually have the same problem writing! I can easily come up with characters and what they want. However, I can never seem to come up with a villain or the big problem for the characters to overcome. While I've had huge conflicts in my life, they just aren't things I want to write about. However, maybe I should, maybe those should be the things that I write about but it would just sound like a sob fest, and who wants to read that! I prefer to write historical fiction or short stories. Reading this book has really helped me figure out ways to write conflicts. Maybe we should write a list of possible conflicts for characters to face.
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