Friday, February 6, 2015

Fiction's Heartbeat

by Jean Henry Mead

I once read a magazine article titled, “Action, the Heartbeat of Fiction” by Jordan E. Rosenfeld, which I thought was worth discussing. Rosenfeld said, “Action is a dynamic word that calls to mind a director hooting into a megaphone at his actors. It's also the heartbeat of good fiction that keeps readers riveted to the page. Action is comprised of all the elements a reader can 'witness' taking place. From physical movement to spoken dialogue, action transports your readers into your writing and brings your writing to life. Despite all this, many writers have a tendency to shuffle important action offstage, relying on pace-dragging narrative summaries and recaps instead.”

The solution to preventing pace-dragging scenes is to write them within a framework. By presenting scenes as though they were happening on a theater stage, all the drama takes place as it happens, not offstage and something for the characters to discuss. Readers remember what happens on stage and can make their own deductions. They needn’t wait for the characters to endlessly discuss what has just taken place.

The scene’s momentum keeps the reader reading and her heart pounding as the action accelerates if the plot situation seems real, particularly when the character is in danger. Instead of characters talking about a past experience, replay the scene in flashback action. By reliving it in living color, the reader can experience it for himself.

Another good way to involve your reader in a scene is to reveal information in dialogue. A good plot reveals new information in each chapter and one of the best ways to deliver the news is to have the characters act it out. Give the narrator a rest. It’s much more powerful to have events happen now than to hear about it later, secondhand.

Character movement is essential in a good scene, whether the protagonist throws a chair through a window in anger, or flicks ashes from a cigarette into his cup. Don’t leave your characters standing around without something to do. Body language is a giveaway when a character’s motives are in question. If a man drops his head when asked if he killed someone, it usually means he’s guilty or knows who committed the crime. If a woman lifts a palm to her chest while denying something, changes are she’s telling the truth.

If your character comes to an important decision or suddenly realizes that he has the answer to a problem, avoid internal monologue as much as possible. The realization will have more impact if it happens in someone else’s presence because it raises the emotional stakes for all concerned, as well as your storyline.

And finally, turn your backstory into frontstory whenever possible or delete it from the plot. It’s usually spooned in as narrative summary instead of dialogue and lacks the elements of scene writing. Because it doesn’t take place in the present, there’s no dialogue or scene setting or action taking place. When that happens, the best part of backstory is casually written off without the slightest hint of emotion. And emotion definitely drives the plot.

9 comments:

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Good tips!!

L. Diane Wolfe
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net

Morgan Mandel said...

Fitting backstory into strategic parts of the book is a talent to work out.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Mark Troy said...

Good tips, Jean. A lot of writers can improve their stories by taking cues from stage drama.

Kait said...

Excellent post. Framing as if the action is taking place on a stage. Great advice.

Jean Henry Mead said...

Thanks. I failed to mention three-part staging, which I'll write about in a future article.

Barry Knister said...

Action can't ever be thought of for very long as just mental action. People in motion, people doing something is crucial. It doesn't have to be mayhem action, but it does need to engage the reader. I am thinking of a scene in my forthcoming suspense novel Deep North, in which two women are in the galley on a large houseboat. One is making twice-baked potatoes, the other a salad. The dialogue takes place as the actions of preparation are described, and (I hope) the reader in engaged by both words and gestures.

Jean Henry Mead said...

I agree that dialogue should be balanced with physical action, Barry, or as someone once said, "Verbal sparring within a scene should end with a knock-out punch."

Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. Meredith said...

Excellent tips and reminders.

Jean Henry Mead said...

Thank you, Marilyn.