Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

I'm the guest speaker at a summer writing camp for 2nd to 6th graders today. I'm going to talk to them about story structure and use the W.O.W. method as our framework. I have to find out where this idea comes from. Anyone recognize it?

Want 

Obstacles

Win?

It's a simple little way to think about story setup. Then I'm going to talk a little about RULES and read them HOT ROD HAMSTER and go through W. O. and W? to show them that both complex and simple stories can be put together this way.

It'll be a nice test run, since I was thinking I would include this activity in my teacher's guide and school visits for HOT ROD HAMSTER. I think even early elementary students can learn to look at a story arc this way--and to strengthen their own stories with it.

W. What does Hamster want? Where do we find out what he wants? (A want sets the story's path, so it needs to come early. In HRH, it's on the first page--even before the official text begins. In RULES it comes in the first chapter)


O. What stands in his way? What else? What else?

What does he do to deal with those obstacles?


W? At the end, does he get what he wanted? There's a question mark after "win," because sometimes the main character does get what he wants, sometimes he doesn't, and sometimes the story changes him in a way that he decides what he wanted at the beginning of the book is not what he wants at the end (the cost isn't worth it, something else has become more important, etc).

That's the skeleton underneath most stories, whether it's a 200-page book like RULES or 250 words like HRH.

Okay, here we go! Off to camp!
 

Down the plane he stormed like a stream in spate,
a routing winter torrent sweeping away the dikes:
the tight, piled dikes can't hold it back any longer,
banks shoring the blooming vinyards cannot curb its course--
a flash flood bursts as the rains from Zeus pour down their power,
acre on acre the well-dug work of farmers crumbling under it--
so under Tydides' force the Trojan columns panicked now,
no standing their ground, massed, packed as they were.

Deus ex machina.
It's pronounced "DAY-us EX MAH-kin-a", and you've probably seen the term before.
The literal translation is "God from a Machine", and it comes from ancient times when the Greeks would put on plays and introduce one of the gods to the story, bringing the actor to the stage on some sort of machine (a crane or a riser from the floor). Oftentimes, the god appeared to resolve conflict and save the day without being mentioned at any point earlier in the story. It was a convenient and easy way to wrap up a tale.

But we've come a long way, baby.

Deus ex machina is now seen as a pathetic plot device used by amateurs who don't plan for the ending of their book (ask me how I REALLY feel about it). At the last minute, when it seems doom is imminent for the main character, suddenly...they realize they have the ability to fly! And they escape the bad guy. The End.

Agents will not like this. Editors will not like this. Readers will not like this.

This is why we have foreshadowing. When your reader gets to the point where the main character resolves the conflict, it must be believable. To make it believable, you must have left an impression in the reader's mind that such an event was bound to happen based on the events that preceded it.

Example, you ask? Of course. 

 Your foreshadowing points should add depth and detail to the story. They shouldn't seem forced into the text.
"I'd better keep this knife hidden in my boot at all times. Who knows when I might need it to resolve a conflict?"

The audience should sense the foreshadowing but not focus on it. Uusually, this means reiterating your conflict resolver SEVERAL times through the story. If you mention a hidden knife once at the beginning of the book, the audience won't remember it at the end.

What does all this have to do with conflict development, you ask?
Find out next week in Part 2!

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/15/myspace-v-facebook/

http://justinelarbalestier.com/?p=5327

Danah Boyd is an ethnographer who’s done a great deal of work on teenage use of the internet in the USA. Her work is absolutely fascinating and I think every writer of Young Adult books should be reading it.

She recently gave a talk about race and class in the MySpace v FaceBook divide. You all need to read it, like, NOW:

If you are trying to connect with the public, where you go online matters. If you choose to make Facebook your platform for civic activity, you are implicitly suggesting that a specific class of people is more worth your time and attention than others. Of course, splitting your attention can also be costly and doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be reaching everyone anyhow. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The key to developing a social media strategy is to understand who you’re reaching and who you’re not and make certain that your perspective is accounting for said choices. Understand your biases and work to counter them.

While on tour last year I was sent to a number of very poor schools. At those schools the vast majority of students did not have access to a computer at home, let alone a computer of their own. They were able to use computers at school and at the library. At the poorer schools I visited I was asked if I was on myspace; at the wealthier schools they wanted to know if I was on facebook. I know that’s a small samples size—a handful of schools in northern California, Ohio, and Michigan—but it’s right in line with Danah’s research. I told them that it was better to get in touch with me via my website because a) while I have a myspace account I don’t use it and b) I don’t have a facebook one. Very few students contacted me and those who did were from the wealthier schools.

This year when I go on tour I will be giving the teens who want to contact me a business card with my email address and website on it. I know I’d have a better shot at communicating with them if I used my myspace account and joined facebook. First though I’m going to see if giving them a card works better than just telling them how to contact me.

I did not enjoy being on myspace. The walls around myspace and facebook freak me out much like walled communities offline do. I like having my blog where anyone can read it without having to log into a different space.¹ I do not want to maintain multiple blogs and moderate multiple sets of comments.

Yet I want to be able to stay in touch with the wonderful students I meet on tour.

I’ll see if giving them cards works. If not I suspect I’ll have to suck it up and deal with myspace again.

How do you other authors deal with this? How many of you are on myspace and/or facebook?

How many of you having read Danah’s research would reconsider myspace?

1. Part of what I like about Twitter is that you don’t have to join Twitter in order to read it. You can directly link to an interesting Tweet from anywhere. However, there are very few teenagers on Twitter.