Every Character Deserves At Least A Three Act Play
Image Credit to domeckpol
...or they shouldn't be in the story at all. It's confession time; this is the first time I have ever written a fiction story that had the potential to become Pillars of the Earth, and I am in horror of it every day. For years, I have had the narrative in my head, but every time I have sat down to write it, it has left me after three chapters, sometimes after just one.
But I am also a Software Solutions Engineer by trade, and so about six months ago, I set out to create a system that would let me architect the characters and their relationships to each other, one that would help me visually maximize the drama as the narrative moves to conclusion. And after reading some self-help articles about writer's block, I came across one (can't even remember who wrote it, unfortunately) that said, "Writing is a system and if a program in the system isn't working, change the program."
Well, I, being the wildly creative, sometimes brilliant, but always ancient, old man that I am, thought to myself, "Let me try to create my own system." And every character in a story should have a three-act play they undergo, and their plays should involve at least one of the other characters, so the narrative of the story moves forward, while the characters each move in their arcs of drama.
David Milch wrote, in his amazing Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills, that good characters spin against the way they drive, and that's how you create dramatic tension and movement. He was talking about the legendary character Al Swearengen, brought to life by the world-class Ian McShane, and of course through David's brilliant language and production. I think about this statement every time I sit down to plan and often during my writing. They spin in the opposite direction to the way they drive.
So, taking these two maxims together:
Every character deserves at least a three-act play, or they shouldn't be in the story.
Every character in a drama should spin against their way, because this is where dramatic tension builds and explodes into mini-resolutions for each character.
So devised a system for myself, and it's one that someone else is probably looking at and going, "I've been doing this for years!" which is cool too. I just found something that seems to be working so far. In an object table, I put each character's name in a row, with four columns, including the character's name. The other three columns are: Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. Then you put one sentence in each cell, under each act, for each character, and the sentence should state, as simply as possible, where that character is emotionally in each act. This may take a few weeks because it's a three-dimensional chess level of thinking.
During this planning time, you should be weaving dramatic tensions and conflicts into characters' relationships that run counter to the way they drive. And once you have this structure in place, your job as a writer is to focus on moving the narrative while writing beautiful, effective prose. By the way, I strongly recommend reading poetry while you write fiction and vice versa. You will amp up the elements of one in the other as you switch from writing poetry to prose, if that's your thing.
