MattLarkin wrote:Watcher55 wrote:How often have you wondered how interesting it would be to fearlessly walk on the arches or the fat cables you see on suspension bridges (Why did Robin Williams tell his class to stand on their chairs in Dead Poets Society)?
I have never even considered doing so!
So, if I'm understanding correctly, as a pantster, rather than plan out character arcs, you envision the story as bridge. And (because of the cables), it's meant to take the reader through a rollercoaster of ups and downs. That sounds like something most good stories do. Perhaps I'm not totally following you, but if the characters are the cables holding the main cable, they don't have arcs themselves, they just support the arcs of the story?
The metaphor is interesting, for certain. Envisioning this helps you keep your story on track?
OK, first things first, then I’ll talk about how I build the “bridge.” The cables (characters) don’t support the arc; they define it. The cables are like tethers that hold the bridge (story line) in place without actually making it rigid. It’s important that you understand that, otherwise the rest won’t make any sense.
I start with a story line - actually a line segment with the beginning and the end serving as the end points. This is the bridge itself. If I were an outliner, I might start with this:
Boy (beginning)
Boy proves his love and devotion to Girl. (end-ish)
As a pantser, I write A beginning that introduces Boy and how he’s just minding his own business when all of a sudden… That’s where I stop and set that character and his satellite characters aside.
The end is a little different because I work more on blocking and setting than on major character development. Maybe a scenario where Boy hands over the reins of Girl’s father’s company to Girl and they go on to develop the first sub-space transceiver.
So - now all I have “on paper” is two parts of A story. The next part’s all in my head. Yeah - it stays there quite nicely, because all I’m doing is identifying points along the story line:
Boy (beginning)
Boy meets girl
Boy gets his butt kicked by Girl’s psycho ex-girlfriend
Boy gets revenge on PXG, but makes Girl doubt him.
PXG frames Boy for killing Girl’s father
PXG’s hired assassin has his own plans
Boy proves his love and devotion to Girl (end-ish)
(Note the irregular line spacing. there is no such thing as chapter numbers at this point.)
Now I can roll up my sleeves and start developing characters (cables - tethers). I might start by writing the part about Boy meets Girl, but I probably won’t. What usually happens is that I sit down with a paper and pencil and start writing until I figure out I’m writing the part where PXG is approaching the assassin for the first time. It doesn’t matter what I write first (there is a logical reason why I’d start with PXG, so watch for it). What does matter is that after I’ve written a large enough collection of raw chapters that belong on the story line, I put them in order and write from one to the next. From this point forward, audience and internal precedent dictate the rules, because if they don’t, the character arcs won’t fit (thought I forgot about character arcs didn’t you?). I look at each character as a little bridge - that is to say, PXG has a story outside the pages, perhaps I chose to start with PXG meeting with the assassin because, while it’s not the first time she appears in the final story, it does provide a good place to ground her because she has history with the assassin (outside the pages). Her (and the assassin’s) imaginary arc has to harmonize with the main arc and she has to grow into it.
Here’s how it comes together - the bridge (story line) rocks and sways, and when things are really bad, it might even wave (if it breaks there's something wrong with the cables). In any case, it sets the tempo. The cables (the chapters and characters - i.e. people, places, external forces - ) sing and dance and hold the bridge above the abyss. The music streams only as far as the arc (the written story), so that’s the only place the audience can hear it.
