#NaNoPrep: The Heart of the Story #amwriting.

This is the fourth installment of our NaNoWriMo Prep series. (I’ve listed links to the previous posts down below.) We now have an idea of who our characters are. We also know a bit about the world in which our narrative will be set. We know the genre we’re writing in and what the story might be about. Now we’re going to take a closer look at the plot.

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_101 I am the queen of front-loading too much history in my first drafts. Fortunately, my writer’s group has an unerring eye for where the story really begins.

I have to remind myself that the first draft is the thinking draft. It’s where we build worlds and flesh out characters and relationships. It’s also where the story grows as we add to it.

Let’s write a medieval fantasy:

Act 1: the beginning:

Setting: London in the year 1430. The weather is unseasonably cold. A bard is concealed amongst the filth and shadows in a dark, narrow alley. Tam hides from the soldiers of a prince he has unwisely humiliated in a comic song.

Opening plot point: the soldiers surround and capture Tam, hauling him before the angry prince. The trial is brief and painful. Beaten and bloody, Tam is thrown into prison and sentenced to be beheaded at dawn.

That moment of despair is the end of chapter one.

lute-clip-art You have done some prep work for character creation, so Tam is your friend. You know his backstory, who he is attracted to (men, women, none, or both), how handsome he is, and his personal history. But none of this matters to the reader in the opening pages. The reader only wants to know what will happen next.

You know who Tam will meet in prison, someone who will help him escape. Depending on Tam’s romantic preference, Dagger (an assassin’s professional name) will be male or female and will dislike the bard on sight. Still, Dagger needs Tam’s help to escape as they too are scheduled to die at dawn.

You have decided that the prince is a dark-path warlock. His close friend is a highly placed cardinal who uses his authority to conceal the prince’s nefarious deeds.

Now we will think about Tam and Dagger’s escape, the first pinch point. The information they learn from each other while quarrelling in prison fuels a quest: killing the Warlock Prince. Each will have different reasons for this, but despite their inability to get along, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

The escape is successful. Now they are on the run and have no idea how to accomplish their mutual goal. They don’t trust each other, but are forced to work together despite their clash of personalities.

And we all know how friction heats things up. Romance or no romance, this interpersonal tension is crucial.

We (the author) know the Warlock Prince must die if Tam and Dagger are to save London, but who will be willing to help them? What roadblocks stand in their way? The people you need to help them past these hurdles will emerge as you write the first draft.

You might have had an idea for the ending and may have written it down. If you did, you have a goal to write to. If not, perhaps the ending is beginning to show itself. Either way, at this point, the middle of the story is a work in progress.

Tam and Dagger will tell you what events and roadblocks must happen to them between their arrests and the final victory. This knowledge will emerge from your imagination as you write your way through this first draft.

But the opening moment, the scene showing a lowly bard hiding behind a rubbish heap, is the moment in Tam’s life where the story the reader wants to hear starts.

That scene is where this story begins, regardless of how fascinating Tam’s backstory, London’s history, or the Warlock Prince’s backstory was before that day. It is the beginning because this is the point where all the essential characters are in one place and are introduced.

The reader meets the villain and sees him in all his power
Tam can sink no lower—he has hit bottom and can only go up from there.
Dagger is in the same low emotional place, but this mysterious character has an escape plan.

The story kicks into gear at this pinch point because the assassin is at risk on two fronts, which means Tam is, too. Dagger’s original task of killing the prince has failed, so now they must avoid both the prince’s soldiers and the mysterious employer’s goons.

For Dagger, the original commission must be fulfilled despite the fact there will be no payment. It’s more than merely a matter of pride, but the secret that drives them will slowly emerge as we write the first draft.

Tam agrees to help ensure it happens because he has a conscience and wants to protect the people of London.

Attraction often grows in the most unlikely of places. Will it blossom into romance? It’s London, a city filled with romance and intrigue. But you’re the author, so only you know how their relationship grows as you write their adventure.

What will emerge in bits and pieces over the following 40,000 or more words?

We will learn who Dagger’s employer is.
We will learn who Dagger really is and how they became an assassin.

Tam will find this information out as the story progresses and we will learn it as he does. With that knowledge, he will realize his fate is sealed—he’s doomed no matter what. But it fires him with the determination that if he goes down, he will take the Warlock Prince and his corrupt Cardinal, with him.

The backstory behind the song that precipitated Tam’s arrest, the assassin’s employer, and the enraged prince who intends a lingering, painful death for him must come out gradually.

If we dump Tam and Dagger’s history at the beginning, the reader has no reason to go any further. We’ll have wasted words on something that doesn’t advance the plot.

The people who will help our hapless protagonist will enter the story as he needs them. Each person will add information the reader wants, but only when Tam requires it. Some characters who can offer the most help will be held back until the final half of the story.

By the end, the reader will know everything about the relationship between Dagger and the Warlock Prince. With that information, the final pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.

The reader will follow the breadcrumbs of information. That desire to know all the secrets will be the carrot that keeps the reader turning the pages.

And making that trail into a logical story arc is why I do a certain amount of prewriting and outlining.

storyArcLIRF10032021