Regarding Yes and No · 4:29am Oct 21st, 2014
This is Big Macintosh:
Some say he is a bit limited: he says exactly two things. But if you stop and think about it, so does everybody else. Luna cannot overthrow the cake-hogging Sunbutt regime without saying "no." Donut Joe and Blueblood cannot be an item until somepony says "yes." If the CMC build a dynamite-powered washing machine, the author says "yes, that's too awesome to fail" or "no, I hope ponies can be reassembled with tree sap -- it's their only hope." "Yes" and "No" are the fundamental building blocks of every story. They give weight to our actions and give us power beyond our wildest dreams, but can just as easily make our circumstances flippant or bog the story down. These words are a turning points. The author who is aware of them has that much more power over their story.
Eyyyyup
A story says "yes" when something is allowed to happen. If Twilight is looking upstairs for a book and she finds it, then we have a "yes." When Celestia proposes to Donut Joe and he says "yes," there you are. Most often, "yes" moves the story forward. We have finished with whatever we were doing and can move on to the next thing.
But we must pay attention to what we are saying "yes" to. If Twilight found the book using a spell, we have not only approved Twilight's book finding, but also allowed a spell to find a book. Later on, we might be expected to approve finding other books with spells. "Yes" establishes expectations and each one tells us a little more about the workings of the world.
When to say "yes"
In most circumstances, "yes" is the default setting of a story. If a character is trying to do something in the absence of opposing forces, we generally expect that action to succeed.
Of course, a story is unlike reality in that plausibility is an opposing force to any action. But again, unlike in real life, we have the power to approve such actions anyway. The fundamental operation of magic is to say "yes" to all the wondrous things our hearts tell us should be true, but due to some unknown injustice are barred from our own reality. "Yes" is an author's power to create, explore, favor, and hand-wave. If saying "yes" makes the story more interesting than saying "no," then by all accounts screw the rules. You have sidewalk chalk. Use your powers for awesome.
Or maybe not just yet
Of course, the thing with "yes" is that we get more or less what we want with no further effort required. "Yes" solves conflicts, or perhaps says that there was no conflict in the first place. The more weight you want something to have, the more hesitant you should be to say "yes" right off the bat. Is Donut Joe a hard sell? Then he cannot just say "yes" out of the blue. Is this book supposed to be really lost? Then Twilight's first attempt should probably not be able to find it.
Beyond that, "yes" is more or less instantaneous. The story proceeds apace without having to deal with the details further. We gloss. We rush. To say "yes" to too much too soon means we do not get to explore the circumstances that have been established. Has Twilight fretted enough over this book? If things are tense and she needs the book to save the day, then maybe we need to draw things out more. Or if the lost book is flavor for a starting scene, it is harmless to let the poor mare have her book. "Yes", we can now read it to find the plot. Have we had enough time with Celestia and Donut Joe as themselves apart from each other? If not, maybe it is best to put off an answer for Celestia's proposal until we have explored their circumstances more.
We must also avoid saying "yes" in such a way that it breaks what we already agreed to. If Twilight has spent the past three chapters following a series of clues for her book only to have Golden Harvest walk in and point "It's over there", then why did we string Twilight along for 3 chapters saying "yes, you are now a little closer to your goal." Unless that journey was worth the trip, we might be better off eliminating those three fruitless chapters or finding a better way to agree to give Twilight what she wants.
Eeeenope
"No" is denial. "No," the book is immune to book-finding spells. "No," Twilight flubbed the spell. "No," I'm sorry, Princess, but my only love in this world is lard-fried confections.
Other times, "no" is to not bring something up in the first place. Celestia hears Donut Joe's plea for a tax extension and decides the case according to the law without developing any feelings for him whatsoever. This is a tricky case because we soon realize that it covers most everything ever. To tell this story is to say "no" to all the other ways we could weave.
We can also say "no" for the audience. I know what you are thinking, but "no," Twilight is not going to just whip up a spell and fix everything. I thought of that and turned it down, so you cannot accuse me of plotholery.
When to say "no"
"No" adds weight to the action. We can judge how hard something is by how many times we get told "no." "No," the spell did not find the book. "No," you cannot find the book if you look all night. "No," uprooting the library and shaking all the books out will only ruin the landscaping. Now we know two things: this book is very, very lost and Twilight really wants this book.
"No" defines our characters and setting. "No," Celestia, you may be a princess, but I cannot love a mare who eats only cake. We now know that Joe has his standards. "No," some books do not come when they are called. Books are finicky critters.
"No" beckons us beyond what we know and forces us to think about what we do have. If Twilight always lights her horn and whatever she wants happens, then it can become a crutch to get everything we need without having to make much of it. By disallowing a spell to find Twilight's book, we open up some room to put her in a situation that cannot just be magicked away. She must consider other options to get what she wants and expand as a character.
"No" can also simplify our circumstances. If we do not want to worry about magic in this part of our plot at all, we can give our unicorns a horn rash or any manner of anti-magical circumstances. Now we can focus on all the other ways that we can solve the problem.
Sometimes you must say no to "no"
This little two-letter word is problematic because we are immediately rendering whatever amount of effort our characters put into the attempt useless. In the case of a flubbed utility spell, not much is lost: perhaps a sentence describing a lit horn. In the case of a rejected proposal, we probably lose even more, such as all the effort to set up why Celestia is proposing at all. The question becomes: why did you mention it in the first place? There are an infinite number of things that would not find a book. Why bring up this particular non-effective thing when we could go straight to the effective thing? The thing we just built up as a solution fails to pay out, wasting all the buildup time. "No" is rarely an efficient story element and must be used with care.
Worse, when we flat-out deny an action, we do not automatically gain any sense of what the right action is. When all we do is deny, we eventually deny everything. So Twilight has tried every spell she knows, turned the library upside down, and searched every part of the universe without finding her book. Where might she look next? We have written ourselves into a corner.
We must also be on the lookout for using "no" as a crutch. Sometimes we get so dead-set on having our plot go exactly how we planned that instead of saying "yes" to what we want, we feel obligated to instead say "no" to everything else. This could be a sign of insecurity: we must convince ourselves that our way is plausible by virtue of everything else failing. It might just be OCD: must cover every. single. base. ever. The upside is that if we can think of all of these things, we must be examining our circumstances. The problem is that we lack the faith in our story to allow it to stand on its own. If you find yourself saying "no" multiple times to prop up something you want to happen, it might be time to rethink your plot or your circumstances to find a more natural course of action.
What "yes" and "no" can do for you
Now that we know a bit about these words, we can go back to our stories and put these concepts to use. Skim a chapter. How often can you find a "yes" or a "no"? If we find a long segment chock full of description, there may be only one or two. We might conclude that that segment is not doing very much for our story. Nothing is happening. Consequently, we pare it down. Perhaps instead the "yes" and "no" are flying everywhere: once or even twice a sentence! Perhaps now too much is happening and we might take a breather with more description between each one.
What is it exactly that we find ourselves saying "yes" and "no" to? It is an interesting exercise to open up Gdocs and write a comment on your story for each instance you find. "Yes, <statement agreed to here>" "No, <thing we are rejecting here>". This helps you see how you are conceptualizing your story and how much content you have. "No, Celestia's proposal is rejected" and "No, Donut Joe is not ready for a relationship" might both reflect the same action, but the latter gives us far more to work with: now we know that if we are to get these two together, we need to get Joe comfortable committing. If you find yourself with a bunch of "yes, noun verb", perhaps it is time to take a closer look at your circumstances and see if you can deepen your understanding of what is going on.
Can you see any patterns? Perhaps one segment is all "yes" until we hit a brick wall of "nope". If this was intentional, did we capitalize on it? Did we let Twilight get more and more excited only to be left raving in frustration as the trail goes cold? Perhaps we did not even notice she was getting warmer and warmer, so our current Twilight is merely going through the motions of following the plot. A rewrite might be in order.
These two simple words are very powerful things. They are the fundamental building blocks of the author's interaction with their characters, and govern the ebb and flow of the plot. To be able to find them at a glance is to see the Matrix. See that you use your new powers for good.
"plausibility is an opposing force to any action"
I never thought about it like that before
Hmm... interesting. Useful ideas on how to conceptualize plots are few and far between; the current one I'm using is thinking of 'turning points', which is almost the same idea as what you've described.
Being able to step back and see your plot from a higher level seems very powerful to me, and I wish I could find the right tool to give myself the right amount of 'zoom'. I'll definitely be adding this one to my arsenal.
Fascinating. I especially like the nuance of how the two can be put together. A trail of "no"s leading to a "yes" gives a "not yet." Tacking on a "but" leads to more interesting consequences: "No, Twilight didn't find the book, but she did find that it was lent out years ago." "Yes, Donut Joe will gladly except, but Pinkie Pie challenges him to a duel for Celestia's hoof."
Of course, I may be overcomplicating things.
2547130
There is no such thing as overcomplication. There are merely problems too vast to bother sorting out at the moment, but mark our words we will get to them... eventually! It gets even more fun when your realize that "yes" is "no" and vice versa. It's all a matter of perspective
2546854
If you have not already, you might check out this post if you are looking for zoom levels. The distinction between beat, action, and through action offers multiple angles to view your plot from. I seem to recall that that blog also mentioned the action/activity split, which is another highly useful frame of reference for examining your scenes.
2546850
Me neither, but then I did, and now you have too
2548606 Hmm, I don't know if I've read that one closely, just a minute...
...Okay, interesting. Hmm. You know, I wish people talked about writing in more technical terms; I recognized most of that from other discussions, but with different words. :P It's unlikely authors will ever reach the language precision of programmers, or even philosophers, but still.
Some of this is just for myself, too. I tend to have two very opposite 'zoom' levels; when I'm outlining I zoom way, way out, where I see only through actions and not even all of those, and when I'm actually writing I tend to see only the 'beats'. I've learned to trust my instincts a lot more, and ignore the beats until I'm pounding out words, and I've learned which through actions are important enough to focus on... somewhat, but I still keep hoping for a mode of thought that will make the whole story snap into focus. That's probably impossible, though, at least at my level of skill.
I can remember a time when I was practicing 3D modeling, I reached a point where I could come up with a simple idea and totally grasp the pieces I needed to focus on to bring it to life, differentiating the important points of composition from the pieces that would sort themselves out as I went. It was a wonderful revelation. If I could reach that point with my stories, I'd be happy. It'll be at least a few years yet, though, if it works to a similar time-scale...
Essential actions and literal actions are interesting, and something that I've started experimenting with. I didn't use those terms until just now, but one of the best-received chapters I did in the past used literal actions extensively, and essential actions seem like a good way to 'flesh out' a scene without resorting to padding.
Unless I missed it, this one doesn't mention action/activity.
2549016
The "literal action" section is the one that covers activities -- something that the characters are physically doing that does not actually relate to why they are in the scene. Washing the dishes etc, etc.
As for zoom levels, you may find it helpful to keep a running detail vs time inventory. When you are writing or editing and a detail catches your eye, ask yourself "is this detail going to come back?" If so, ask yourself what the longest time it could stay relevant is. Is it going to be paid off this scene, next scene, 3 scenes from now, 5 from now, or many scenes from now?
In this way, you come away with a breakdown of how much plot you have coming up vs how long you think your story will last. This helps you track how much work your scenes are doing and how much plot you have left in the short and long terms. Ideally, each scene should clear your "next scene" category from previously plus the entire "this scene" category, maybe pay off one or two items from the long-term categories, and leave you with a few things to go on "next scene."
It also helps you track what position you are in your story and helps you know what kinds of details you need to be focusing on. Near the beginning, your scenes should be building up a good stock of stuff in the long-term categories. You must be far-sighted. Near the end, you should be concerned with mostly this scene, next scene, and one or two things 3 scenes from now and add things to higher categories with discretion. In this way, you will make sure that you are establishing exactly enough plot for the length of story you want.
2549136 I haven't had trouble keeping my details straight so far, but my plots have been fairly straightforward. I am trying to 'layer' them more, and it seems to give good effects, and this seems like the sort of thing I would need to start doing eventually as I try to create more purposeful means of writing. Controlling the length of a story is something I very much need to work on; I've done short, (3k) and long, (300k), but I ddn't actually set a length; I just wrote until I reached the end. I need to be more intentional, since that's the whole point of my practice; transitioning writing from an action to a skill. Thank you for the advice!
Oh, and I would like to submit a story to Twilight's Library. Is there some sort of official announcement when the folders open? I have no idea how this works.
2549669
Neither do weIncoming folders opening is a function of the folders being clear and Arcum having spare time to keep track of things, so it generally happens on weekends. We'll try to get the word out as soon as we get word from Arcum, which will occur at a random point in time sometime this week or the next. Keep an eye on the group forum, and you'll know as much as the admins do
2550475 mmmkay, I didn't figure it was a science. Maybe consider posting a new thread, because group notifications are back and then it would drop in people's feeds?
Although, since I work nights anyways, there's a good chance I'll be asleep when it's open. :P Oh well.
Thanks again~!
2550922
The opening announcement is generally a new thread, so no worries there.