The Eighths – Part Two

Writing Update

Scenes Arranged: 5
Total Scenes: 59

Yesterday was not a productive day on the writing or reading fronts. Work was bananas (which is sadly becoming the norm) which ate all my time and then…I fell asleep for almost nine glorious hours. Hopefully that gives me the drive I need to get a lot done today.

Reading Update

Vengeful: 46

Like I said, not a productive day.

Personal Update

Today is my 6-year dating anniversary with my wife. Neither one of us can believe it’s been this long already. In some ways, it still feels like we just met last month while in others we have the comfort of having been together for a lifetime. I love this woman immensely and cannot wait to take her out tonight. (Shhh…it’s a bit of a surprise where we’re going.)

Discussion Topic

The Eighths

Part Two

Yesterday I started this blog series and today we’re going to get into some of the meat and potatoes (mmm…potatoes). That means today, I’m covering three topics: the Hook, the Inciting Incident, and the Key Event. Admittedly, this is the section of the book, the First Act, that is the most difficult for me to write. Kicking the snowball down the hill is harder to do than to ride the momentum once its grown to Raiders of the Lost Ark size.

Again, most of what I’ve learned came from K.M. Weiland (check out her site and Twitter for lots of great content).

The Hook is one of the hardest parts for me. For Book 1 of my Tidestone series, I wrote at least four different first chapters because it just kept feeling wrong. Either I started my story in the wrong place or there was no conflict or the conflict didn’t relate to anything at all. Okay, make that at least six different first chapters now that I’m thinking through the pitfalls I experienced. The Hook is the first few pages to the first chapter of a book that are intended to grab the reader, draw them into your world, and make them want to stay and learn more. A weak Hook leads to an unfinished book for the reader. A great hook is exciting; a bad hook can be catastrophic.

An example of a downright great hook is the one that got me back into reading in my thirties. It’s from A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (site and Twitter – she’s amazing) and it reads “Kell wore a very peculiar coat.” The first chapter then goes on to describe the surface of why the coat is peculiar and what it allows Kell to do. The descriptions of the coat’s abilities and Kell’s draw the reader into the world while building it up around them until you can’t wait to read the next page.

Moving on from the Hook, the author has to build the character’s Normal World before blowing it open. The first “detonation” is with the Inciting Incident. To me, this is lighting the fuse on the story. This is the thing that happens that kicks off the conflict. At the same time, the main character denies this Call to Adventure. They would rather stay in their Normal World and submit to their Lie (both of these concepts are covered in K.M.’s/Katie’s work) than stand up and do something about the problem, even if they can admit that there IS a problem.

The Inciting Incident punctuates the first Eighth and signals that things are starting to change. The main character is about to start getting uncomfortable and be forced to evolve into something else. Through the next eighth of the book, new things happen to the character who is just trying to get through the moment, hoping it will pass so they can go back to Normal. Tensions are building toward the moment that the main character will be forced to accept the Call and start combating the Lie in their life.

The turning point where they start fighting back is the Key Event. This is the doorway through which they walk at the end of the First Act. They resolve themselves to doing something, even though they haven’t accepted the Truth yet, and make a decision to turn toward the conflict. They don’t know what they’re doing yet so they spend most of their time reacting to what’s going on around them, but they’re engaged now instead of running away. From here, the real adventure begins.

Tomorrow, we’ll dive into the real adventure through the thickest part of a novel: the Second Act. This will cover half the book as well as three and a half of the eighths. Stay tuned.

May the tide carry you to safer shores.

BSG