Notes from Clarion 4

Our instructor for week four was the heavy hitter, Connie Willis. Connie is the most decorated writer in all of sci fi, she has more than five each of both of the top awards in sci fi: Hugo and Nebula. She's been writing forever, I think she said twenty five years. She's enthusiastic and hilarious. She had enough energy to pull us through the final hours. Week 3 was painful for me because I was always tired, waking up late, dragging to read my critiques, basically living at the mercy of my responsibilities. By Connie's week, I had put together a system. I know exactly when I need to read critiques, what time I need to go to bed, when I need to take a shower. I'm still TIRED and very spacey, but I'm no longer suffering. And that's GOOD. We all take naps every afternoon now. Otherwise we wouldn't make it to the next day. By the way, we're still treating each other nicely. I'm happy to report, beyond a few minor skirmishes, there've been no major blowups.

During our first meeting Connie suggested we pay attention to other people's critiques. Ideas on how we can improve our own stories are good, but in terms of us learning craft, it is better for us to study other people's stories so we can be objective in assessing what needs to be improved and what techniques make a good story work. In fact, she suggested we start analyzing our favorite novels and stories to see what makes them work. What is the plot structure? What drives you through the story? How is conflict resolved? If you waste time in your writing group crossing your arms, pissed off at how someone is critiquing your story, you're missing most of your development. Your development occurs when you start comparing various analyses to your peers' work and taking a close, objective look at what flaws and perfections the critiques point to.

Connie decided to focus on plot and I'm so glad she did. I was getting very bored with that character arc model of critiquing. Character? Check. Conflict? Check. Transformation? Check. Main character made choices? Check. Resolution? Check. Shit, if writing is a checklist, then telling a story is very boring. It'll be the exact same story over and over again with different dressing.

Connie threw out millions of little gems over the course of the week. She suggests you start a story with something the reader or character has to make an emotional response to. Plot is a response, rather than one event after another. Your plot begins with something that triggers the action. Get everyone on stage as soon as possible, as much as possible. This causes conflict and drives tension. Only use a flashback when it's absolutely necessary. Coincidences are generally accepted by readers when it makes the character's challenge more difficult, but not when it makes their lives easier.

But what really excited me was her lesson on plot complications, specifically reversals. At the beginning of every story, you start with a character who wants something. A plot complication takes them from their path. A plot complication can take the form of an obstacle, a raising of the stakes, time constraints, coincidences and reversals. A reversal is a plot complication that reverses the action, the plot suddenly veers off from the expected direction. A good reversal changes the question the reader is asking him/herself.

In juicy stories the character gets what s/he wants, but it's not what s/he expected. Or s/he get what s/he wanted at the beginning, but at the end of the story, s/he wants something different. Or s/he gets what s/he wanted, but the price was too high. Or s/he ends up wanting the exact opposite of what s/he was seeking or getting the exact opposite of what s/he wants. Just having this as a conscious tool as a storyteller makes a mound of difference. These are specific ways you can complicate, and therefore complexify, your plot, theme and message. It is Connie's doctrine that getting characters into trouble is good for readers. It certainly makes a story more interesting, interactive and gripping.

So I finished my first draft of my new story on Monday night. It was a good story, but not especially gripping or intriguing. There was no interesting tone or mood and no emotional core holding the story together. Connie gave her reversals lecture on Tuesday. Tuesday after class I had lunch, critiqued four stories, napped, went out for dinner, then went to Connie's reading (instructor's readings are always on Tuesday nights). When we got back to the dorms I messed around, roaming the halls complaining about how my story had no umph. Part of my problem is I had so many characters, that there was no throughline and no way for people to distinguish the characters from one another. So I put together this unconventional structure to deal with that problem, and as I rewrote the story using my new structure and using a tone I hit upon while reading the story out loud, I began to weave in reversals and complications. A gift that turned out to be a curse, a desire that turned out to be unnecessary, a reclaiming of power that turned out to be empty. And it made my story so much more interesting to write. I had more to play with, beyond the stiff character arc model. This of course, is the exact same model, with some wavering put in the middle. I thought most people would have problems with the structure, but it worked for most people. Their biggest problems will be easy enough to address.

During my private conference with Connie (each writer consults with every student), she confirmed my beliefs about my writing. My writing is polished, my characterization is strong, all the story elements are there, what I need to work on now is structure. How to put together a good story. Her words for it were: structural hints. I take that to mean, a sense that I have a plan in putting together the work, that I know where I am going and I am intending to take the reader to the place that I take them (which I confess, I'm never considering, I'm only considering where I'm taking the character). She specifically repeated her suggestion that I take apart some novels and really look at how they're put together.

Connie gave us coupons for one critique of a short story or novel chapter after Clarion is over. She, as well as all the other instructors, have been quite open and generous. I've found the sci fi community to be warm, welcoming and supportive. They have a community called "fandom" which is an organized group of avid supporters of the genre. They throw parties for writers and fans, they organize conferences, and create networks to keep the genre alive. I've noticed this support also in readings for Dark Matter: sci fi readers are so attentive and grateful for your presence and your work. It really is a wonderful community. Of course I already have a wonderful community of my own. Black publishing has been so supportive of me, publishing my sci fi stories in mainstream anthologies and literary journals, so that I never felt like an outsider in my own community. Sci fi is very much about outsiderness and, well, I'm not quite bizarre enough to be considered a weirdo in my own community. So I'm undecided on whether I'll be attending cons (conferences, a big socializing/networking opportunity for the sci fi community) and actively/consciously joining the sci fi community. [In response to my protestations that I don't really write sci fi, Octavia Butler told me to get over myself, melding travel pods and sex in space are definitely sci fi].

The improving and questioning and questing and working continues.

For better, more powerful, more profound art everywhere.

kis.