This is a special midweek post, not part of my regular blog series, to make a long overdue announcement—I’ve been working all summer on the sequel to The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual.
I call it The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual, and I expect to release it September 30th.
That’s in time for all you NaNoWriMo writers to read it and use it for a whole month before you fling yourselves out of your airplanes into thin air. I’m thinking of it as a parachute.
And for every single one of you who’s ever gotten yourself passionately worked up over the depth and brilliance of your fictional world, dashed to your keyboard to plunge headlong into the splendor of this work, written and suffered and gloried hour after hour, day after day, in your incandescent vision, and come up gasping some weeks or months or even years later to stone-cold writer’s block with the heart-stopping realization you have no idea what you’re doing. . .this one’s for you.
In The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual I tackled this work we do globally—on all three levels, Developmental, Line, and Copy, with a whole section on how to survive as a writer.
In The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual I’m focusing only on Developmental Issues: plot structure and character development, with a large section on storytelling—what it is, how to do it, what readers get out of it and why—plus in-depth advice on revision on a Developmental level, that eternal Pandora’s Box of writing.
Here’s the Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION
The State of the Industry: Fiction
PART 1: STORYTELLING
Chapter 1: Loving in the Time of Cholera with Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Chapter 2: Searching for Entertainment-Industry Intelligence
Chapter 3: How Stories are Written
Accepting the Gullibility of Being a Storyteller
Reviewing the Definition of a Story
Reviewing the Defintion of Fiction
Reviewing the Purpose of Storytelling
Character Arc/Narrative Arc
Chapter 4: Relationship & Quest—the Only Two Stories
Mining Yourself
Distinguishing Between Together & Alone
Molding & Being Molded by Relationship
Aiming Past Ecstasy through Quest
Chapter 5: Reading with Attention
Reading for Plot Design
Reading for Character Development
Chapter 6: Creating Reader Addiction
Creating the Basic Tension in Character
Creating the Basic Tension in Plot
Chapter 7: Creating Reader Fulfillment
Touching Your Reader’s Core with Resonance
Playing Fair with Resonance
Chapter 8: Graphing in Three Dimensions with (x,y,z)—Theme
Chapter 9: Drawing a Visual Analogy
Drawing an Icon
Applying the Analogy to Storytelling
PART 2: CHARACTER IS CONTENT
Chapter 10: Being Mesmerized with Louisa May Alcott
Chapter 11: Hunting the Ghost Tiger
Taking the Tiger by the Tail
Focusing on the Tiger
Chapter 12: Developing Character
Differentiating Between Yourself & Your Reader
Getting What Your Reader Gets Out of Character
Sucking Your Reader in with Sympathetic Character
Chapter 13: Condensing & Contrasting Characters
Condensing Multiple Characters into One
Condensing Characters for Internal Conflict
Condensing Characters for Contrast
Chapter 14: Using Character
Using Character to Discover Plot
Using Character to Fuel Momentum
Using Character to Addict Your Reader
Chapter 15: Layering Character—Complexity
Layering with Behavior
Layering with Confusion
Layering with the Two Classical Elements
PART 3: PLOT IS CONTEXT
Chapter 16: Designing an Impossible Plot with Maria Dermout
Chapter 17: Beating Your Drum—Introduction to Holographic Structure
Chapter 18: Designing a Crescendo—Explication of Holographic Structure
Fatal Ignition
Backstory
Three Acts
Two Plot Points
One Fulcrum
Feinting
The Whole Point
Chapter 19: Layering Plot—Complexity in Holographic Structure
Main Plot
Subplots
Plot threads
Chapter 20: Hook—Holographic Structure, Act I
Act I Hook, hook & development
Act I Hook, faux resolution & climax: Fatal Ignition
Act I, Backstory
Act I Conflict #1, hook & development
Act I Conflict #1, faux resolution & climax: First Plot Point
Chapter 21: Development—Holographic Structure, Act II
Act II Conflict #2, hook & development
Act II Conflict #2, faux resolution & climax: Fulcrum
Act II Conflict #3, hook & development
Act II Conflict #3, faux resolution & climax: Second Plot Point
Chapter 22: Climax—Holographic Structure, Act III
Act III Faux Resolution, hook & development
Act III Faux Resolution, anti-faux resolution & climax: Feinting
Act III Climax, hook & development
Act III Climax, faux resolution & climax: the Whole Point
Chapter 23: More Climax
Pinpointing Your Climax
Structuring Your Climax
Making a Scene Out of Your Climax
Building Total, Complex, Overwhelming Significance into Your Climax
Chapter 24: Epiphany—Beyond Holography
PART 4: REVISION
Chapter 25: Writing and Rewriting with Franz Kafka
Chapter 26: Vision & Revision: the Story You Need to Tell
Rethinking Motivation—Character Arc
Reorganizing Events—Narrative Arc
Re-ignoring Theme
Chapter 27: Reshuffling Your Deck—Planning the Revision
Brainstorming
Overall Organization
Scene-by-Scene Arc
Intuition
Fun
Staying in Motion
Resting When Necessary
Rewriting Out of Chronology
Taking Notes
A Word of Warning about Resolution
Chapter 28: Spiraling Up the Helix—Multiple Drafts
First Draft
Second Draft
Third Draft
Nth Draft
Final Draft
Chapter 29: Going Beyond the Beyond
CONCLUSION
‘Riding Out the Winter of Our Discontent
I’ve opened up a discussion on the Amazon page for The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual asking for input on exactly what you’d like to see in this sequel, The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual. Please—if you have a wish list, put it out there! Now’s the time. I’m sending preliminary ARCs to a few select reviewers in the next couple of weeks, but I can still squeeze in another chapter or two.
I know I should have been asking you folks for your input throughout the summer. I know. But I’ve been all over the map traveling with my husband for work, and my client load has been huge, keeping me up to my eyeballs in the luxurious world of working one-on-one with you crazy people (you know who you are), so I’ve been slacking.
I apologize.
Stop being so damn fun to work with, people! You know who you are.
And if you’re too excited to wait, everyone on The Art & Craft of Fiction Lab is reading The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual chapter-by-chapter right now. We’re talking about each chapter. Readers are offering opinions. We’re hashing things out.
You know you’re always welcome to join us!
NEXT YEAR: The Art & Craft of Prose: 3rd Practitioner’s Manual
So excited about this book! I guess I would need to read the first book before the second…another one to add to my fab TBR list. 🙂
🙂
Thanks! I’m excited too. And exhausted.
You don’t have to read the first one first. They’re complimentary, not consecutive.
I am half-way finished with reading your first book. It is a wonderful book and I’m getting a LOT out of it. Thank you for writing a second, I’ll definitely buy it.
Angela, thank you so much. If you wanted to post a review on Amazon, I would be most appreciative!
Ah, how thrilling! This is exactly what we need. You have no idea (oh, you actually do, don’t you…) just how desperately this book is needed. You are a gift to the industry. Truly.
Ever expectantly, RG
Thank you, RG. When I calculate what I earn for the hours I put in on these books, it turns out my cats make more than I do, but it’s people like you who make it totally worth it.
Wow, do I want to buy this. I’m also midway through your first book. It has the odd quality of being equally jarring and reassuring by turns. I am really, really looking forward to this next offering.