Workshop 2: Trying on Plots

An experiment in decision making when editing a novel

I’ve spent the last month or so looking at Accidental Notes and asking myself — to no avail — “what do I want this story to be?” Every time I come up with an idea, I realize it comes with trade-offs I don’t know if I like or not. So I set the idea down and walk away, hoping I’ll eventually come up with a solution that magically solves all my problems.

Spoiler alert: I won’t. And I’m starting to accept that.

Even with Enchantress, when I’d find a solution that was absolutely perfect and in line with the story I wanted to tell — and in that case, I knew what that story was — there were complications that I’d have to deal with, things that would have to change with the new information I discovered for that book.

Why would it be any easier for a book whose main issue is being incohesive? Like I could just find the right glue and BOOM everything else would automatically make sense as-is? Unlikely.

Bring in this experiment: ¿por qué no los dos?

If I write out everything that would change in each form of this story, I can see weaknesses in the story, opportunities, risks, etc.

This, I think, is a good place to pull out Truby’s Anatomy of Story. One of the first checks that Truby has you do when creating a story is figure out some inherent challenges with that plot. Doing that with both a flat and a positive arc might not make rewriting any easier, but it will let me “choose my hard,” to borrow annoying self-help language.

Truby’s first exercises for a story are essentially the following:

1. Write down your premise in one sentence.
2. Look for what’s possible in the premise. Write down options.
3. Describe as many of the story challenges and problems inherent in the idea as you can think of.
4. Come up with the designing principle of your story idea.
5. Determine the best character and make them the hero of the premise.
6. Figure out a. who the hero is fighting and b. what they’re fighting about.
7. Find a single cause-and-effect pathway by identifying a basic action your hero will take.
8. Figure out any possible character change.
9. Determine possible moral choices that will take place near the end of the story. It should be difficult but plausible.

Incidentally, I knew about Truby when I originally planned this book. Unsurprisingly given how it turned out, I skipped this part of his drafting questions the first time. My Truby focus was on symbols and meaningful settings. It was not on plot. I think both of these things are obvious in how the story turned out: the symbols are lovely, and the plot doesn’t work.

So let’s look at the two Big Ideas I had for how to change this story:

1. Write a flat arc for Adaya where the story genre is a mystery and she has the Truth that changes her family.
2. Keep the positive change arc Adaya has in learning to improvise and make sure the main story supports this arc.

Premise

Flat Arc

Adaya returns to Bend for a funeral only to find a family frozen in time. When she learns about a family secret older than she is, her ability to improv helps her father grieve and finally learn to live again.

Positive Arc

When Adaya has to go to Bend for a funeral, it throws off every plan she thought she knew, and a family secret only makes this worse. But when she runs into an old friend, his ability to improv teaches Adaya how to accept the family she has for who they are, and improv a little in her own life.

Initial Thoughts

Immediately I realize how much stronger the flat arc premise is, with an implied happier ending and a lot more that harmonizes with the mystery that I see as the center of this story. But redoing an arc is a lot of work, and I said I want to follow this experiment through with multiple versions of the story, so we will keep going.

Possibilities in the Premise

Flat Arc

This arc is the traditional one for a mystery. It allows me to write a happier ending and have Adaya affect a family in a way that is far less hopeless. I can focus on the mystery because Adaya has less to learn about herself in this premise. It could provide both more conflict between Adaya and her father and more notes for connection if she’s already adept at improvising.

I also can explore a different subplot with Grayson, since so much is about composition and music right now that his felt almost too cohesive with the rest, without adding anything. I don’t know what it will be, but there are options that Adaya’s flat arc can open up with their relationship.

Positive Arc

The best possibility here is in getting to save the structure. I did so much intentionally with the idea of “Adaya in the air” and that going from a bad thing to a welcomed thing over the course of the story. All the beats hit according to this arc: the theme stated, the ways she screws up, how she digs in. I get to keep the scaffolding and build a different house this way, in a manner of speaking.

Inherent Problems in the Premise

Flat Arc

The biggest problem for me writing this story is I definitely don’t know how to pace a mystery. I have already tried and failed this once. Rewriting as a flat arc also means reimagining far more of the story. New beats, new metaphors, a new characterization for the love interest, a new ending… it all gets thrown up in the air. I’d be gutting a passable story hoping I could do it better, and that’s scary.

Positive Arc

The problems here are the ones I discovered in writing it the first time. How scattered the various subplots felt. The lack of change in anything except Adaya, which doesn’t feel like enough. How the mystery helps her improvise and relates to that arc. The missing stakes, the reasons she pursues her goals despite those (missing) stakes… I said the problem with a flat arc is it’s a whole rewrite. But I think a positive arc is a whole rewrite, too, in its own way.

The Fight

I’m combining steps four, five, and six here because the designing principle is fairly similar (girl goes to Bend for a funeral but gets a mystery), and the hero is obviously Adaya. So we’ll focus on the antagonist and the specific fight here.

Flat Arc

In a flat arc, Adaya is fighting her family, best represented by her father, about what it means to move on and live in the future. Him: static remembrance. Her: looking to a future that honors the past.

Positive Arc

In a positive arc, this is what crumbles. From an arc perspective, Adaya is fighting Grayson and learning to improvise from him. From a story perspective, she’s fighting her family for the right to be included and to know her history as well as be known.

The Moral Choice

Obviously we’ve already talked about arcs — it’s been the crux of this whole post — so I’m skipping to the last question: what moral choice is made? I’ve said time and again the moral choice I look for when editing is “what does the character choose that they were incapable of choosing in the beginning?” Accidental Notes is weak on this point as-is, so let’s look at how it could play out in a revision.

Flat Arc

The choice belongs not to Adaya but to her father, here, in a redemptive arc for him. She helps him leave behind not only his mother’s house, but Bend, ready to move to California to be closer to Adaya and get to know the child he has.

Positive Arc

Adaya chooses to accept the uncertainty of her family life, life with Grayson, and what’s happening with her mom and Mr. G., realizing that she’s capable of handling a life that’s a little more improvised than it has been.