The WOW Book

[dr_pretentious]

"Real grown-up writers need to think about that, too," I told my oldest niece when she explained her WOW stories. Her first-grade teacher asked her to keep a notebook and write to the following formula: a character Wants something, encounters an Obstacle, and somehow Wins. Any character, desire, obstacle, and win will do. I'd never heard the beginning-middle-end recipe put quite that way--I prefer the Somebody Wanted But So Then formula over here, but then, I've never taught professionally with kids younger than 13.

"Once upon a time, there was a dog named Ella, who wanted..." Kate got stuck there for almost half an hour, in her first-ever experience of writer's block.

"Ask your Aunt Sarah," everyone told her. "This is her kind of thing." And it was.

"Who wanted...to be president?" I proposed.

"To play outside," said Kate.

"On Mars?"

"In the backyard." She recorded it carefully in her composition notebook.

"At chess?"

"With a ball."

So she's writing mainstream literary fiction, and I'm a cheery genre hack. At least (A) I got her unstuck, and (B) she kept faith with the story she wanted to tell.

Maybe if I started keeping a WOW notebook, myself, I'd learn how to write short stories that are actually short. Maybe this is how other people get their stories to weigh in under 5,000 words. And wouldn't that be a handy skill in my line of work?

Comments

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been thinking I need to work on that too. After George Galuschak posted the link to Marion Zimmer Bradley's essay on appealing to editors to our critique group <http://www.mzbworks.com/why.htm>, I've been thinking that in addition to reading more of the contemporary genre magazines, I need to write more proactive characters in more proactive situations...

[jaime-sama.livejournal.com]

I think the chess-playing Martian dog with political ambitions has potential. ;)

[happy-dr-friend.livejournal.com]

I've currently got a half written story that suffers from lack of motivation. The main character pretty much had what she wanted in the beginning and got a problem. I'm worried that I've gotten to the point where everyone starts screaming, "Just move already!" to the character that keeps living in the haunted house for no good reason.

Maybe I'll work on a story about a chess playing Martian dog running for president instead. At least it's got a clear conflict-the dog is likely less than 35 years of age.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Maybe not in dog years, but certainly in Martian years.

Your haunted house story may begin in the wrong place, or have the wrong POV. Consider putting the reader deep in the character's POV in 3rd person, or tell the story in 1st person so she can address the reader directly and say things like, "And that was when I made my dumbest stubborn mistake," so the reader doesn't feel s/he has to point out to the narrator her folly. Alternatively, start near the end and make the story very short, compressing all slow bits into the protagonist's decision-making processes as things she's tried that didn't get the job done, then get right to the big showdown.

Or find her a good reason. Probably that's worth doing, no matter what else you change.

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

I thought you knew...there is a whole wide world to explore in the backyard (or something like that). I bet she knew.