Did you miss the boat, POKEY?

To do the original M/T/S Boot Camp solo, START HERE

Graduation Day

Recruits, it's been an honor to serve you.  I hope you gleaned one thing out of this training:  that you CAN DO what you put your mind to.  

Only you know if you kept the pace, SUNFLOWERS.  Only you know if you've put your characters' true actions on the page.  Our job is done here, but yours goes on.  

To be the best writer you can be.  

That final stretch

Are your ducks in a row?  FIRE!

You should take the last of your novel at an all-out run.  Let your characters do the thinking and plotting.  Your job is just to type.  After that final pit stop (see yesterday's post), you should PLANT your ass at the keyboard and finish the book.  

I said FINISH it.  

Don't stop to watch a movie. It'll be on video in a few months anyway.  You CAN take bathroom breaks and get something to eat now & then.  

Otherwise, you're on the final stretch and can't stop running. 

GET TO IT!

The Next Move

Did you write to the middle of Act 3?  What do you MEAN you didn't get there yet?  You're an author, not a turtle--GET IN GEAR.  

You've moved into Act 4?  But the writing guides talk about three acts, not four? 

I say, GO 4 IT.  If your story needs a fourth act--if that last twist brings a whole new set of complications--TWIST MORE.  Keep the tension high, maintain a rocket pace, and follow this tale anywhere. We love the surprise of plots that turn, but the twist has to seem plausible.  Your readers should think, Wow, I should have realized he would do that.   

Your plot will feel spontaneous if it evolves from your characters--and yes, you do have to stream to the end so you don't frustrate or bore the readers--but somewhere along the way, you'll need to make a pit stop.

The "Next Move" Pit Stop 

If character interactions are driving your plot, stop halfway through the last act--whether that's 3 or 4-- and review the means, motives and opportunities of your suspects, in a new way.  Review timeclocks and pacing. (Can this event happen at midnight if it was 7pm two minutes ago?)  Head into your final resolution with your ducks in a row, but without knowing the end. 

How can you keep yourself and your readers guessing?  I want you to make a fricking chart.  Each PLAYER in this novel--every character who has the power to determine the end--each one of them has a next step in mind.  So on your chart you write:

Name -- What He Wants - His Main Obstacle - His Angle - His Next Move

What's his angle?  If you know your characters, then you KNOW how this one thinks. Is he angry right now?  Star-struck in love?  Does he want to protect someone at all costs?   Sure, that's part of motivation, but I'm talking 'bout RIGHT NOW.  At this moment, what does it all come down to for this character? 

Now look at the "room" of characters on your paper?  Who's the strongest?  Who's the smartest?  What event might change that mix?  If character A does his Next Move, how does that affect everyone's dynamics. 

This isn't a chess game. Don't plan out the end with a series of next moves, just do this one set of moves--

And let your ending EXPLODE.  

What are you waiting for?

So you slept last night, right?  Consider that your Gatorade break in the sprint to the end of your novel. You've had your rest, poured your coffee.

Well?  What are you waiting for? 

PLANT your butt at the keyboard and write, recruits.  NOW.  The rest of Act 3 is waiting for you, it's treading your river rapids of plot and needs you to help it find the shore.

HUSTLE!

Have a Lot of Faith

--in your characters and your ability.  That's right, YOURS, Private.

So you finished writing your 2nd Window and launched your readers into ACT 3.  If you didn't, TOUGH SHIT.  I don't have TIME for your ass today.  Plant yourself in front of a computer and write some one-way glass. 

The rest of you--what next?  There's so much to accomplish in Act 3, so many loose ends to tie up along the way.  Plus you want to get to that big ending, right?  It can feel rather overwhelming.  I have two writer friends who both have started multiple books only to stop writing here--in the third act.  They don't believe in their ability to finish it "right."

PANSIES!

Instead of stressing the details and plotting in your mind, I want to suggest that you just write.  Sit at a keyboard or take a notebook and pens to some fave spot--and write the third act.

Okay, maybe you can't finish it today--but SPRINT toward the end like Usain Bolt in Bejing. No planning allowed. 

I believe that if you know what's going to happen, if you already have plotted the end, then your readers will know too. Everything from that 2nd window through the end of your book needs to FLOW like a raging river rapid.  No, it doesn't have to explode, you don't have to have violence, but you do HAVE to sweep your readers into a fast current of events.  The best way to achieve that current is to write it in free-flowing prose. A prose that follows only the whims of your characters and needs of your story, not some intellectual plan. 

Just know that anything that doesn't get tied up in the end either wasn't important or can be fixed in revision. 

And write the third act from your characters the demands of your narrative--yes, I said it's demands.  The STORY has kidnapped you.  It has imprisoned your mind for months.  What does it want to say before it will let you go?  Where is it wanting to take you and your Lead? 

Sounds a bit insane--well, writing in general is a rather demented task.  I say in Act 3--which might end up having an Act 4--you just follow the preposterous path of your story and characters.  They will tell you where to go. Are you listening?  Whatever path they take you down is RIGHT. 

Have a little faith--no, a lot.  

One-way Glass

We've made it through the first act to that second window of opportunity.  What happens here needs to do two things:  

1) It needs to set up the final conclict.  We've developed characters and built tension between them, but people like to avoid confrontation.  In mysteries and thrillers, the villain especially likes to avoid it.  If your book is a deeply introspective novel, you might find that your characters would rather not confront each other.  We all have put up with people we dislike for long periods.  Maybe the person who gets under your skin is a hypocritical scout leader or your best friend's wife. You can avoid conflict with that person indefinitely--still, privately fuming at their shortcomings.  

The second window has to be an event that forces your Lead into a confrontation that will resolve your central plot problem--and maybe completes a character arc too. 

2) What I want to emphasie to you is that this window should be made of one-way glass.  Climbing through it needs to create a situation where you can't see what's going to happen, and once you're through it, there's no going back.  You have to face the confrontation. 

If your readers care about your Lead, they've just watched him suffer at the midpoint, then they will be eager to follow this through to the end.  They want to see things turn around for him.  And maybe his luck won't change, but they can't help reading on--to find out.  

So write a one-way window of no return.  

Hustle.