Ray-Anne Carr

Borders have a series of Interviews with authors such as Lee Child, John Barrowman, and Freya North which are great – lovely to hear your favourite author live.

How do you spend your time? What makes your brain buzz?

Business versus Creativity?

For the sake of discussion, let’s say that I have to divide my working life as a writer of fiction into three basic - and very broad- categories.

For some people, creating the manuscript is the number one priority.

Without a wonderful story to promote, you don’t have anything to sell, but what if you were a beginner - or were being published by small press publishers, who did not have a large budget for promotion and marketing, how would you manage your time to achieve all of these tasks?

• You have a book you want to sell.
• AND you want to learn your craft.
• AND you have a deadline for a bigger, better, more compelling book in your contract.

How do you manage your time? By hours each day? By hours each week?

Talking to other writers, this seems to depend upon :

• what stage you are at in your career. Published authors feel obliged to spend a lot more time on promotion and less of learning craft techniques than unpublished authors
•  the kind of writing you have chosen to specialise in. Graphic novels, mainstream commercial fiction, childrens’ books, romance etc. Each specific genre has their own specialist interest groups and online networks. Other non-genre fiction writers may struggle to compete with that word of mouth connection and persuade reviewers to take their books 
• how interested you are in maintaining an online presence. Many writers are not keen on MySpace or FaceBook but are willing to blog a paragraph now and then
•  the writing. Some people love to write flat out for several hours. Others like to write in short bursts of perhaps an hour then break. They use the down time for the other tasks
• being organised and disciplined. Let’s be honest. Not everyone is talented in this direction. And most of use do have lives.

Overall conclusions?

If you imagine a self-employed entrepreneur, who is creating a unique product which they then want to promote and sell to a manufacturer/ investor… would that person not need to work in all three categories?

For example. A person making silver jewellery.

That person would need to work on learning the skills in silver smithing that they would need to create the finest version of their design.

Then find markets for their stunning work.

Time Management. Easy to say, hard to do..

The Opponent.

I am currently working on extra character layers for the Antagonist in my thriller novel, brainstorming on how to make this character as compelling as possible.

First. How do you define the Antagonist?

For me, I have to start with a definition of the Protagonist – the character who owns the story, and whose active pursuit of her goal will drive the plot forward.

The Antagonist is the equally fascinating character who by pushing against the protagonist shapes the story and drives the plot by forcing the protagonist to act.

There a number of key aspects I want to keep in mind;

1. The Antagonist is the character who shapes the plot, the most important person in the conflict, the character who makes the reader worry and keeps her turning the page.

 If I have worked hard, my reader will have sympathy and empathy for my heroine. The antagonist is now going to start throwing rocks at her.

1. The antagonist must be strong and active, somebody the reader fears will defeat the protagonist.

 My heroine is strong, intelligent and a survivor.

My opponent has to be all of those things and more.

1. Since I am writing a thriller, I want the antagonist to be just as compelling as the protagonist, just as fascinating to read, just as smart, just as funny perhaps, just as good at what he does. In fact, the antagonist should be formidable in every way possible, and stronger than the protagonist – making her work hard and be creative. NOT just REACTIVE but PROACTIVE.

I need to show my antagonist in his ordinary life, doing his job. Even if this is carving the Mona Lisa with a craft knife on the stomach of his victims.

1. But the antagonist is also in need of something. He is pursuing his goal for the same reason that the heroine is pursuing hers: it’s important to his sense of self-worth, his identity. He may not have a character arc as powerful as the protagonist, but he certainly cannot be pulled out of the wings, twirling his moustache, to be the bad guy as in a children’s cartoon. No. He has to have a character profile. His own needs and goals. His own problems.

 Why does he love the Mona Lisa? Is he Italian? What is his motivation?

1. The antagonist’s pursuit of his goal must be in direct opposition to the goal of the protagonist – creating ‘ Conflict Lock’ so that the two characters are locked in until one of them wins. It is this key conflict which is going to shape the plot- and shape the action of my hero, since she will be forced to react and act proactively is she intends to be the winner.

What is the Conflict Lock?

This is where the two characters may either both have the same goal – or they have different goals which are in direct opposition.

The best way of seeing this visually is by drawing up a 4 square grid and I tip my hat to Michael Hague and Jennifer Crusie for showing me this technique, which you can use from the Act level right down to individual scenes.

The top two boxes are your protagonist’s goal and conflict (the action that is causing her conflict).
The bottom two boxes are your antagonist’s goal and conflict (the action that is causing his conflict).

The idea is that the protagonist’s goal is the one thing that is blocking the Opponent from obtaining HIS goal. And the Opponent’s goal is blocking our Heroine from obtaining HER goal.

You should be able to draw an arrow from Goal Row 1 to Conflict Row 2, and Goal Row 2 to Conflict Row 1.

Result  = Conflict Lock.

1. The key turning points of my story should track the building conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. From the start, I want to be able to imagine the Final Fight to the Finish between my hero and the person who has been blocking her all the way. I want to be able to track the fight between these two people all the way from the Inciting Incident – which should be caused directly or indirectly by the Antagonist – to the one to one final fight. Where only one of them wins – and the reader/audience will not know who this until it physically happens.

The reader wants to be on the edge of their seat to find out who will win – and it is no contest if the opponent is way superior to our heroine – they should be equally matched. Think of an equally skilled football game.

1. BOTH of these two key characters MUST be actively fighting for their goals – which might be the same goal. Two treasure fighters after the same sacred icon aka Lara Croft or Indiana Jones. Or one corrupt cop trying to keep hold of his million dollars so he can buy his life back, while the less corrupt cop tries to take the money from him as evidence. Or a divorced mother finds that her estranged husband has run off to India with their daughter, vowing never to return. That active fight will force the hero to change, adapt, be smarter, quicker, better.

1. Both of these two key characters will be forced to make decisions and take actions. Leading to character arc for one or both. Or a bullet and a medal.

1. I want to have my protagonist on the page as soon as possible – the first paragraph if possible. And that means I need my antagonist right there – or the result of his actions and decisions, as part of the SCENE ANTAGONIST who is linked to the main antagonist.

Example. Cops going to murder scene- finds the work of the antagonist, with clues.

Now. All I have to do is create this fantastic character. GULP!

 A question.

Why is it that, while re-writing your current epic thriller, you always get a KILLER idea for a NEW book, which is so MAGICAL and AWESOME, and TERRIFIC, that you just want to throw the book you are writing NOW into the back of the wardrobe where it belongs with all of the other discarded items, and start this NEW, better story which is bound to be a bestseller?

This new idea is TOTALLY commercial and High Concept.

You can already SEE the movie for this NEW idea.

You can hear the agents and publishers hammering on your front door, any door, fighting for the chance to carry this NEW book.

And NOT the book you know that you have to finish, and which, until yesterday, you thought was pretty good. It only needs another couple of weeks of 10 hour days of slog, re-structuring and complete change of opponent motivation etc to create a decent second draft.

While, all the time, this new cunning idea- which has amazed even you, goddess of genius, by how clever and unique it is- is lurking on a note card. Tempting you away from the true path of the righteous professional writer.

Sigh…

What is the Central Dramatic Question?

Using the example I thought of yesterday-

Will John be able to track down his estranged wife Janet in a strange and alien environment and be reunited with his 5 yr old daughter?

At this point Janet could be an astronaut or a deep-sea diver or a tropical fish.

All you have is a situation.

We want to create a thriller.

So what if Janet is actually a loving mother who has just gone into the witness protection program after seeing a gang murder in the park on the way to her ‘mommie and child’ swim class.

She cannot tell John where she is.

Cover story – she has gone to see her hippie parents who live in India for a holiday. Back in a few weeks.

The idea is that you work on the Central Dramatic Question so that it can sustain the weight of an entire book. AND involve the reader emotionally in the outcome. There should be inherent power in the question.

THEN you build this into the Central Story Sequence and create a much more powerful sequence.

How to determine the Central Story Sequence?

Use five steps.

1. Visualise the fight to the Finish between the protagonist and antagonist

Does the level of conflict in your script build to a fight to the finish – one that you can really visualise?

Eg. Let’s say that Janet is in witness protection.

There are so many ways of thinking about the final battle – what if?

1. John will have learnt a lot about what is wrong with his own life on the journey to find Janet and his child, so that you can track a character arc for John. The final battle could be between John and the gang members who know that Janet is a witness to the killing. Or
2. When Janet does not come back, John flies into Goa on a commercial flight after hiring a private detective who specialises in child abduction by spouses. And heads straight to the luxury hotel the grandparents are running, wearing his Dallas casual gear. Big fight. Local police arrest John after he trys to deck the grandfather when he claims that Janet and Lucy are not there. Grandfather is Ex-FBI. He comes back to US with John and they start the search. They both fight the gang who are trying to kill Janet and Lucy.
3. There could be a shoot out – or they could all escape in a speed boat leaving the cops to have the shoot out in the burning warehouse.

2. What is the Central Dramatic Question?

What is the question in the mind of the audience once the fight to the finish has only just started- and they do not know how it is going to turn out?

This is the point of no return – the high point of suspense in the script.

Eg. Will John be able to track down his estranged wife Janet and be reunited with his 5 yr old daughter?

 Be brutally honest with yourself- get down to the real question in the reader’s minds.

 3. What action by the Protagonist touches off the fight to the finish – giving rise to the Central Dramatic Question?

Focus on the actions of the protagonist because that is where the focal point of the audience will be.

In our example. It will be the point when John finds out where Janet and Lucy are being held/living and goes to the Safe house. Unaware that he is being tracked by the gang member.

4. What earlier Action by the Protagonist sets up the Potential Fight?

Go backwards in the story.

Perhaps a third or a quarter the way into the story. [ Turning Point at end of Act One

This is where we are setting up the conflict and comes to a point when the protagonist and the antagonist have a run-in, or cross-swords, a shoving match.

Construct a scene which sets up the potential fight later in the story. Work on the conflict. Develop it.

In our example, let’s say that John is devoted to Lucy but still cannot make it to her 5^th birthday party because he has to fly out at short notice overseas for a client. He has a change of mind at the last minute and decides to fly back for one surprise overnight stay, before flying back out when Lucy goes to school. He arrives back in time for the birthday party carrying presents. The house is empty. They are both gone.

Note says that she has taken Lucy to India to meet her grandparents for holiday.

He is beyond furious.

5.Do the Set-up and the Touch-Off have anything in common that can bind them together?

This is going to help to unify the script and tie the plot together.

Create a valid chain of logic which makes the script coherent and solid.

Eg, In our example, John gives Lucy the presents he bought for her birthday but not realises that they are show-off expensive toys she does not need or want. He though he knew what she needed – now he does. She wants her parents.

With all of these elements in place you should have a single, solid plot line – or desire line, or action line, whatever you want to call it, running through the entire story.

So. Setting up the three sentence proposition for this story from its component parts.

Set-up the potential fight.

John arrives home unexpectedly for his daughter’s 5^th birthday party to find a note saying that Janet has taken Lucy to India for a holiday. He is furious.

Touch off the fight to the finish.

John find out where Janet and Lucy are being held in a safe house and takes off to see them, unaware that he is being shadowed by the murderer.

The Central Dramatic Question = Will John be able to track down his estranged wife Janet and be reunited with his 5 yr old daughter?

 Then all you have to do is create another 100,000 words of compelling story. GULP!

CREATING A POWERFUL CENTRAL DRAMATIC QUESTION

A plot has to have its own logic. And you should be able to state the complete action of the plot using clear and simple language.

How?

By focusing on the key conflict in your story. It does not have to be a serial killer and the detective determined to stop him killing again. It could be a caterpillar and the wind. Or a woman and her boyfriend arguing about which movie to watch.

Start by stripping down the action of the plot to just the protagonist and antagonist. Then show how that conflict progresses – by focusing on three steps necessary to create the logical plot.

A. Set up a potential fight between the protagonist and antagonist early on in the story so that the reader senses that these two people are going to battle each other at some point.

A couple who are divorcing are trying to be amiable and working out how their possessions can be divided. There is some tension about the pet dog, but the hero, John, has to be away for work for the next two weeks so Fido stays with Janet. Fido has been John’s dog since he was 15.

B. Touch it off about two thirds to three quarters of the way in, so that this becomes a fight to the finish which only one of them is going to win. Set the stakes high as you can so that the readers are on the edge of their seats, wondering if the protagonist can pull it off.

John comes back and tells Janet that he has changed his job so that there will be a lot less travel and most of it will be for a day or two at most. Only Janet has decided that she wants to keep Fido. He is a good guard dog for a single woman on her own the city. And she likes the company.

C. Bring it to a conclusion. Janet and John face eachother and one of them walks out with Fido.

So. You now have a basic story idea. Janet and John both want Fido.

What is the Central Dramatic Question?

Version One = Will John be able to persuade Janet that Fido belongs with him?

This is a pretty weak example.

THEN, You start building on that basic idea, playing the WHAT IF game to create options and other possible outcomes which have greater inherent power and potential conflict.

For example, using my simple idea.

What if Fido becomes Lucy, their five year old daughter, who has special needs? Janet can work from home most of the time, only Lucy and John adore each other and they have a very special bond and Janet has always been jealous of that relationship.

The stakes are suddenly higher.

But what if Janet takes Lucy on an unexpected holiday to …India, for example, while John is away for his business trip and when he gets back they are both gone. Only Janet has no intention of coming back…her drug and debt problems are bound to come out in court. And she has friends in India John knows nothing about.

What is the Central Dramatic Question?

Version Two = Will John be able to track down his estranged wife Janet and be reunited with his 5 yr old daughter?

The idea is that you work on the Central Dramatic Question so that it can sustain the weight of an entire book. AND involve the reader emotionally in the outcome.

There should be inherent power in the question.

THEN you build this into the Central Proposition and create a much more powerful sequence.

Among other things, I write Medical Thrillers.

And one of the greatest challenges  I find is this: HOW TO MAKE THE CONFLICT PERSONAL?

What do I mean by that?

Imagine you have a medical condition or medical disaster- eg. A virus or a bioweapon perhaps, in your story. 

The Bioweapon is not a conflict. There is no implicit emotional element in a virus - it is the EFFECT of the virus on a person which creates the conflict.

This is a tool used by an Antagonist as part of his plan to kill people and cause chaos - or perhaps something more creative, such as he actually wants to kill ONE Person and uses the bioweapon as a cover story.

The character of this opponent and his plan drives the action plot - and that is where the challenge lies.

John Truby* wrote an excellent critique of the movie ‘OUTBREAK‘ ** which explains some of the KEY CHALLENGES inherent in creating screenplay for an ‘Action Thriller’.

1. How do you create an ongoing and a building opposition when your opponent is a virus?

You can’t do it. You can’t have a dramatic fight against an invisible bug.  So you have to have a personal opposition.

So, the main opponent doesn’t remain the virus, it is General McClintock.

Let’s look at this opponent for a minute. This guy is clearly a villain. In this movie we’re not going to see any subtlety of opposition between hero and main opponent. They’re not going to have a lot of moral fighting about whatever they might fight about. That’s not what this opponent is all about. He is there to provide as heavy an opposition as we can get for our hero.

This guy does have two really great advantages. One is that he provides the source for the conspiracy, where most of the plot comes from. Without him, we really have no plot. Once we hit those virus beats, we’re going to run out of plot. The other great advantage he gives us is that he escalates the story up to the battle. We can’t get to that battle without him.

There’s a second opponent besides McClintock and he’s an opponent ally. This is General Billy Ford.

As an opponent ally, he is somebody who appears to be a friend to the hero but is actually an enemy. General Ford is an in-between character in this sense. He acts fundamentally as an opponent but he also acts as a friend, especially at the end of the story.

Like McClintock, he is crucial for plot because like any opponent ally, he is hidden. The true nature of his opposition is hidden.

2. How do you get a personal line into a fast action story?

Because that personal line is what’s going to make it pay off emotionally for the audience. It’s very difficult to do because you’re moving so fast that you really don’t want to slow down and take that time.

How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - LAWRENCE DWORET & ROBERT ROY POOL- do it?

There are two storylines in this movie ‘Outbreak’.

The action line for the plot, and the personal line for the protagonist hero detective.

In Outbreak the writers take the time to establish a personal track between the husband and the wife. during the Set-Up initial scenes.

This is a crucial step, and is part of building the empathy of the audience with this hard driven scientist who is totally focused and skilled in his work.

He might be the world expert on this virus - but he is also still in love with his wife who he has just divorced.  This Personal line holds steady throughout the story, and it grounds the movie, which goes all over the place, as it deals with the scientific details and action scenes. And it just gives a real solid, personal connection in a story that really needs it.

3. How do you focus all the action in a single arena. Again, this is especially difficult in a film like “Outbreak” where you’re covering epic action, it covers a huge amount of territory. [The film is set in Zaire and at least four key locations in the US.]

How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - do it? 

By using a ‘Whirlpool’ effect so that the story starts wide, then gradually circles in to a small town in California, where the key players battle it out.

4. A third big problem is how do you create enough plot?

Although we have a lot of action in action stories, we often don’t have very much plot.

How did the writers of ‘Outbreak - do it?

There is a very strong SINGLE desire line.

We have the added advantage that it is a building desire line.

The overall desire line for the character in this story is to find the agent of this disease and to create an antibody to stop it. That pretty much tracks all the way through. Because this virus is so deadly, we have a time element involved in that we’ve got to solve this problem real fast or not just this town is going to go but it will spread throughout the entire country.

The writers take this spine of a plot line and build it, and build it. Increasing stakes. Adding a ticking clock in two places. Adding two foreshadow sections where where the audience knows the virus has already spread and how - but the hero and victims are ignorant, creating tension and excitement.

*Go here to read the full article: http://www.truby.com/outbreakbd.html*

*Go here to dowload the screenplay for ‘Outbreak’ which was written by LAWRENCE DWORET & ROBERT ROY POOL. This is the December 1993 Draft: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Outbreak.pdf