Partway into my Scribble
interview for WVIK I mentioned how much I liked my villains. In fact, I liked
them so much I hated to part with any of them. Don Wooten and Roald Tweet took
the opportunity to digress into a discussion of famous literary bad guys and
mentioned how one noted author, I can’t recall who, only had one instance where
he wrote about a completely nice person. Wooten asked, “Why is that?” I chimed
in with my answer, “Conflict.”
Conflict is essential for a
good story to develop, a point that was echoed by a slide in Gary Metivier’s
presentation at the recent Children’s Literature Festival. I took a photo and
saw that the slide originally came from The
Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B.
Klein.
According to Klein’s Five C’s of Plotting, you start with
creating a likable CHARACTER that
makes the reader care about what happens to him/her.
Next comes the CONFLICT. Klein mentions conflict with
stakes.
I think that having stakes
must mean an element of risk is introduced because the next step involves the
character making CHOICES.
Having choices naturally
leads to the CONSEQUENCES of making those
choices, those decisions.
Consequences have to build to
the CLIMAX of the action and the denouement.
Ultimately followed by the satisfying ending.
I must remember these five
points the next time I have to make a presentation.
That and how Sarah Prineas
patiently went through her main characters basic descriptions and motivations.
It was almost like living my own “Thriller.”