Organization: Your Production Plan by Randy Ingermanson | Advanced Fiction Writing

Organization: Your Production Plan

 

by Randy Ingermanson 

 

Advanced Fiction Writing

 

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In the January 2015 issue of this e-zine, I wrote an article titled “The Success Equation,” which spelled out my ideas at the time for why some authors are successful and most aren’t.

Over the past six years, I’ve honed those ideas by teaching them at conferences and by putting them into practice in my own life.

This year, in this e-zine, I’d like to walk you through my ideas as they stand right now. I’ll teach you what I’ve been doing since 2015.

I recently wrote a blog post, “The Success Equation,” that briefly summarizes the five factors that drive success.

Two of the factors that drive success (Target Audience size and Quality) have to do with your writing craft, and I’ll begin the discussion of those in this month’s Craft column.

A third factor that drives success is your Discoverability. This is a large topic and is going to take months to cover. We’ll get started in this month’s Marketing column.

A fourth factor that drives success is your Production, and that’s the subject of this column.

The fifth factor that drives your current success is something you have absolutely no control over--the success you’ve had in the past. You can’t change the past. But you can change the future, by taking actions now in the present to make today more successful. Because today is the yesterday you won’t be able to control tomorrow.

Why Production Matters

What is Production? It’s the speed that you publish your books.

If all other things are equal, the author who publishes five books per year is going to do better than the author who publishes one. And the author with ten books published in past years will do better than the author with only one, because some marketing methods only work when you have several books published.

That’s why your Production matters. If you want to be more successful, do your best to maximize your Production.

You might argue that the Quality of your work will suffer if you publish five books per year. That’s true for some authors and not for others. I would never tell you to publish shlock, just to publish fast. I don’t write five books per year, for three reasons:

1. I have a day job that consumes half my time. It’s a fun job that I love, and it pays well, and I don’t see any reason to give it up. I get to do science, and I get to write code, and they actually pay me! What could be better?
2. The books I write are huge. The last novel I wrote was 180k words. My current work in progress weighs in at over 240k words.
3. The books I write take a lot of research. My readers know that I connect a lot of dots. That’s my superpower, and my readers like that, but connecting dots takes a lot of time. I try to spend several weeks per year doing on-site research for my books. Time spent on research is time spent not writing. It is what it is.

So how do you set your production rate and then live with it?

Your Production Rate

The two factors you need to look at are these:

• How long does it take, realistically, to write a book?
• How many hours do you have in your time budget per week?

Once you know those, you can figure out a reasonable production rate.

For myself, once the research is done, I can write 500 to 1000 words per hour. So a book of 200k words would take 200 to 400 hours to write. And it would take another 200 hours to edit and polish.

My current time budget for writing fiction is one hour per day, every day of the year. As of this moment, I have a streak of 506 days in a row, writing one hour per day. (The only exceptions are when I’m sick or traveling. Every other day of the year, I work. That includes Christmas. And my birthday. And weekends.)

Once you know how long it takes to write a book and how many hours per week you write, you know your optimal production rate. In my case, let’s say the book will take 500 hours at 7 hours per week. So that’s about 72 weeks. Which is why I can’t publish even one book per year.

A Production Plan is a Production Habit

If you want to boost your Production, you need a Production Plan.

And a Production Plan is just another name for a Production Habit. A famous writer once said, “I write when the spirit moves me … and the spirit moves me every day.”

Stephen King writes 2000 words every day. That’s over 700k words per year. That’s Production, and that’s a key element of his success.

Your life will change amazingly if you create a Production Habit.

So how do you do that?

You do it by making it ridiculously easy:

1. Make a firm promise to yourself that you’re going to write every day of the week for at least 5 minutes. (You get to decide whether that means 5 days per week, or 6, or 7.)
2. Back up that promise with an accountability partner. If you miss even one day in a given week, then you owe your friend a $50 Amazon gift card. (It doesn’t have to be exactly $50. Make it a number that will sting, but won’t impoverish you.) You should have no problem finding a friend who will agree to be your partner on this.

You might argue that 5 minutes per day is too easy.

Yes, it’s easy. The easiness is the point. 5 minutes per day is perfect when you’re starting out. Because when you’re starting out, the value is not in the 5 minutes. The value is in creating the habit.

After you’ve spent 30 days doing 5 minutes per day, your habit will be pretty well in place. Then ramp up the time commitment to 10 minutes. Or 15.

Then after another 30 days, ramp it up again.

At a certain point, you’ll reach your natural limit for the number of minutes you can work in a day. For me, at this point in my life, my natural limit is 60 minutes. I don’t have more. So I make every minute count. Make yours count too.

A year from now, when you look back on your Production for 2021, you’re going to be astounded at how much you’ve achieved.

Astounded. Next year, this time, you’ll see.

Homework:

• How many words do you plan for your current novel? (50k to 100k is a typical range.)
• How many words per hour do you write, on average? (500 words to 2000 words per hour are typical.)
• How many hours do you estimate it would take to write your book and edit it and polish it? (Some writers need as little as 100 hours; others might need up to 500.)
• How many hours do you think you can budget each week for Production? (Most professional writers are producing new content between 5 and 20 hours per week.)
• Now do the math: How many books can you write in a year? (1 to 5 are typical.)

Please note that it’s OK to not be in the “typical” ranges quoted above. The point of the exercise is to define a Production rate goal that works for you, in your life situation

 

About The Author

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

 

 Randy Ingermanson Books at Amazon

 

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Why Every Author Needs a Vision Statement by Randy Ingermanson | Advanced Fiction Writing

 

Why Every Author Needs a Vision Statement

 

by Randy Ingermanson 

 

Advanced Fiction Writing

 

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 In the Organizing column for this month, I mentioned a couple of factors in the Success Equation that have to do with your Craft. Here they are:

• The size of your Target Audience.
• The Quality of your writing.

I hope it’s clear why these are factors in your success.

It’s easier to find True Fans of your books if you’re writing for a large Target Audience. So a large Target Audience makes your marketing easier.

And people in your Target Audience are more likely to become rabid fans of your books if your Quality is high. (I define Quality to be “how well you delight your Target Audience.”)

Note that different Target Audiences like different things, which means they define Quality in different ways.

So your first task is to define your Target Audience. (This doesn’t take long, and we’ll tackle this today.)

Then your second task will be to increase your Quality. (This will consume you for the rest of your life, but there’s a process for improving your Quality, and we’ll discuss that next month in this column.)

Who Is Your Target Audience?

I define your Target Audience to be the set of people who would like the kind of book you’re writing, if only they knew it existed.

So your Target Audience is much larger than your set of True Fans. When you start out, you have zero True Fans, but you may have millions of potential True Fans—people in your Target Audience. As your career moves forward, people in your Target Audience will find your books and become your True Fans.

It’s tempting to think that your Target Audience is nothing more nor less than readers for your category.

So if you write mysteries, for example, you might think that your Target Audience is “people who read mysteries.”

The problem is that this is too vague. There are a lot of different kinds of mysteries. Readers who like police procedurals might not like cozy mysteries, and vice versa.

So it’s important to ask what separates the mysteries you write from all the other mysteries in the world.

Maybe you write mysteries set in Kenya. Or mysteries featuring an eccentric British detective with an addiction to cocaine. Or mysteries where the detective is a cat.

Think hard about what makes your novels different.

Can you define a subcategory that your novel fits in? Or a subsubcategory? One with maybe only a few authors in it?

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to write your Vision Statement.

Writing Your Vision Statement

Vision Statements have a bad reputation. They became popular a few decades ago in the buzzwordy business world, and they are notorious for being vague and useless.

Don’t write that kind of Vision Statement. Write one that’s precise and useful.

If you’ve identified the subsubcategory that your novels fit in, writing your Vision Statement is now very simple. Just fill in the blank below with your subsubcategory:

“I want to be the best writer of <your subsubcategory> in the world.”

That is certainly precise. Why is it useful?

Because it helps you make the hard decisions you’ll face in your writing career.

If you launch one or two or three books in your subsubcategory, and if they don’t sell like lightning, your agent and/or your editor is going to call you one day and say, “Hey, I just had this great idea. Your books aren’t doing as well as we’d hoped, but we think it would be cool if you wrote this other kind of a book that is selling really well.”

It’s possible that’s a good idea. Your agent loves you after all. Your editor loves you. They’re both looking out for your success.

But the odds are high that it’s actually a bad idea. Because neither your agent nor your editor is you, and they aren’t the person who has to write the book. If you write a book that you’re just not that interested in, you’re going to be miserable, and the book will very likely sell even worse than the books you wrote already.

So your Vision Statement is there to help you decide whether to say “yes” or “no.”

If the book they ask you to write fits in with your Vision Statement, then it makes sense to say “yes.”

If it doesn’t fit your Vision Statement, then either say “no” or change your Vision Statement so it matches what they asked you to write. (The polite way to say “no” is like this: “That sounds like it would be a super book, but it just doesn’t fit my Vision Statement, and I don’t think I could write it the way it should be written. So thank you, but I have to reluctantly say no.”)

A Tale of Two Books

Once upon a time, my agent called me and suggested a book I might write. (This was long ago, when I still had an agent.) I didn’t have a Vision Statement then, but I do now, and the book matched my current Vision Statement exactly. I wrote that book and it’s the one book of all the books I ever wrote that makes me happiest.

Another time, that same agent called me in a conference call with my editor, and they suggested another book I might write. The proposed book didn’t match my current Vision Statement at all. But since I had no Vision Statement at the time, I lacked any reason to say “no,” so I decided to give it a shot. It did sound like fun. Almost a year later, I delivered the book, but my editor rejected it. I rewrote it and delivered it again, and the editor rejected it again and cancelled the project. And I paid back the advance. I worked on the book again a few years later, planning to indie-publish it. About that time, I finally developed my Vision Statement, and I realized the book didn’t fit in. At all. It was a fine book. It was a good story. But it was a diversion from what I really wanted to write. So I decided not to publish it.

Brand Confusion

When every book you write fits your Vision Statement, your True Fans know what to expect. You are the author who writes the kind of book that your True Fans love. Bit by bit, you grow your set of True Fans, and you deliver the goods, over and over and over.

Suppose you then write a book that doesn’t fit your Vision Statement. Many of your True Fans will like it, but a fraction of them won’t. Because a fraction of your True Fans just don’t like that particular kind of story.

And now you’ve committed the sin of “brand confusion.” You’ve led them to believe you write one kind of book, and then you sold them something else, and they only learned it was something else after they bought it and started reading.

Imagine you walk into your favorite ice cream shop and order your favorite flavor of ice cream. Because you really, really, really want ice cream today. Your special flavor. And they take your money and hand you … a pizza. That would be weird. You didn’t come in for pizza. You came in for ice cream. Pizza is fine. You probably like pizza, but possibly you don’t. Either way, you suddenly don’t trust them quite so much. You expressly ordered ice cream, but they gave you pizza. What will they give you next, and will you like it? Now you aren’t sure. Next time you want ice cream, you’ll go to a shop that gives you what you ask for.

That’s brand confusion.

You don’t like it when somebody does that to you. Treat your readers the way you want to be treated yourself.

Your Vision Statement will protect you from brand confusion. Write your Vision Statement and stick to it.

Homework:

• What is the main category you write? (Romance or mysteries or thrillers or SF or fantasy or whatever.)
• What is the subcategory within that main category?
• What is the subsubcategory?
• How many competitors do you have within that subsubcategory?
• If you have more than 10 competitors, can you refine your subsubcategory even more—until you have fewer than 10 competitors?
• Define your subsubcategory as precisely as you can. What kind of readers would love that exact kind of book?
• Now write your Vision Statement. “I want to be the best writer of  in the world.” Print it out and hang it where you’ll see it every day.

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About The Author

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

 

 Randy Ingermanson Books at Amazon

 

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A Quick Note on Anton Chekhov’s “Gun Theory” and How to Use it in Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

A Quick Note on Anton Chekhov’s “Gun Theory” and How to Use it in  Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer

 

by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

 Anton Chekhov is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, and his contributions to the field of literature are still studied and admired today. One of Chekhov's most famous and enduring contributions to the craft of writing is his "gun theory," which has become a cornerstone of modern storytelling.

Chekhov's gun theory is a simple but powerful concept: every element in a story must serve a purpose. In other words, if a gun is introduced in the first act of a play or story, it must eventually be fired by the end of the story. Chekhov believed that every detail in a work of fiction should be necessary and integral to the plot, and that any element that does not serve a purpose should be removed.

This approach to storytelling is deceptively simple, but it has profound implications for the way that writers approach their craft. By forcing writers to consider every detail in their work, Chekhov's gun theory helps to create stories that are tightly constructed and free of extraneous material. This in turn creates a sense of inevitability and coherence in the story that draws the reader or audience in and makes them invested in the outcome.

Chekhov's gun theory also has important implications for character development. By insisting that every character, action, and detail must serve a purpose, Chekhov encourages writers to create characters who are fully realized and who act in ways that are consistent with their personalities and motivations. This attention to detail and consistency helps to create characters who are believable and who engage the reader or audience on a deeper level.

The gun theory is not just limited to physical objects like guns, but can also apply to any element in a story that is introduced but not fully developed. This could include a character's backstory, a particular setting, or a plot point that is introduced but never resolved. By insisting that every element in a story must serve a purpose, Chekhov encourages writers to create stories that are tightly constructed and free of loose ends.

Of course, like any theory of writing, Chekhov's gun theory is not without its critics. Some argue that it can lead to formulaic, predictable stories that lack spontaneity and surprise. Others argue that it places too much emphasis on plot at the expense of character development or other elements of storytelling.

Despite these criticisms, however, Chekhov's gun theory remains a powerful and influential concept in the world of storytelling. Its emphasis on purpose, consistency, and coherence has helped countless writers to create stories that are engaging, meaningful, and memorable. Aspiring writers would do well to study Chekhov's gun theory in depth and to incorporate its principles into their own work.

Also see:

• Writing 101: What Is Chekhov's Gun? Learn How to Use Chekhov's Gun In Your Writing
   

More Quick Notes for the Novice Writer

 

The Bedtime Story Model by Randy Ingermanson | Advanced Fiction Writing

The Bedtime Story Model

 

by Randy Ingermanson 

 

Advanced Fiction Writing

 

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There are two common ways people organize ideas—the top-down method and the bottom-up method.

The top-down method starts with just one simple idea and expands it out in stages, adding more and more detail until the whole story is fleshed out. Fans of my Snowflake Method will see instantly that the Snowflake is a classic top-down approach to developing a story. But it’s not the only way.

The bottom-up method starts with the whole story, or at least a big chunk of it. But to sell this to an editor or an agent or a reader, you’ve got to be able to explain in just a few words what the story’s about. So the bottom-up approach keeps summarizing and summarizing the story into smaller and smaller chunks until at last, you’ve got a one-sentence summary or a logline or a pitch sentence that you can use to sell your story.

That bottom-up process of summarizing and resummarizing is hard. You have to figure out what’s important and what to leave out. But it feels like it’s all important!

So how do you decide what to leave out?

I’ve found it helpful to use a clever tool created by Pilar Allesandra, the “Bedtime Story” template, which helps you summarize the Three-Act Structure of your story in just a few paragraphs. The template was originally described in her book The Coffee Break Screenwriter. This book is packed full of good ideas and templates for making progress on your screenplay, 10 minutes at a time.

I originally found the “Bedtime Story” template online at the StoryFix blog, in a post by Art Holcomb from years ago.

The entire template appears in Art's blog post, and I then bought the book The Coffee Break Screenwriter by Pilar Allesandra, because it has dozens and dozens of other useful templates for organizing your story.

Let’s review the Three-Act Structure and then see the Bedtime Story model in action. The Three-Act Structure breaks your story up into four parts of roughly equal length. Yes, four parts, not three. We’ll see how that works shortly

Act 1

The first Act of your story introduces your character and their life situation, reveals some problem in their life, and ends with a First Disaster that impels the character to commit to the story.

An example I’ve used many times is the original Star Wars movie (now numbered Episode 4. In Act 1, we meet Luke Skywalker, a young farm boy who dreams of joining the rebel alliance, but is tied down to a dull job working for his uncle. When his uncle buys two droids that escape, Luke goes after them and meets Obi-wan Kenobi, who invites him to go help rescue Princess Leia. Luke initially says no, but then he discovers that his aunt and uncle have been murdered by storm troopers searching for the droids. So Luke agrees to join Obi-wan Kenobi on a trip to Princess Leia’s home planet.

Here’s the Bedtime Story template for the first act. As a homework exercise, you can fill in the blanks with the storyline from Star Wars or for some other favorite movie that you know better:

Once upon a time there was a ____________________( main character) who was ____________________ (character flaw). When ____________________ (obstacle) happened, she ____________________ (flaw-driven strategy). Unfortunately ____________________ (screw up). So she decided ____________________ (goal) and had to ____________________ (action that begins a new journey).

Act 2A

Act 2 has two parts, roughly equal in length. In Act 2A, your lead character pursues a defective strategy, runs into obstacles, meets some allies, and ultimately hits a Second Disaster that forces the story lead to rethink their strategy.

Continuing the example of Star Wars, in Act 2A, Luke and Obi-wan Kenobi hire Han Solo and Chewbacca to transport them on the Millennium Falcon to Princess Leia’s home planet, Alderaan. On the journey, Kenobi tries to teach Luke to use The Force, but Luke is having trouble giving up rational control to some spooky unseen Force. When they reach Alderaan, they find the planet has been obliterated by a giant Death Star. A tractor beam sucks the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star. Kenobi sets out alone to cut power to the tractor beam. Luke and Han go on a crazy mission to rescue the Princess. But Darth Vader intercepts Kenobi and they have a light-saber duel, which ends with Vader killing Kenobi.

Here’s the Bedtime Story template for Act 2A. As a homework exercise, you can again fill in the blanks:

In order to take this action, she decided to ____________________ (strategy). Unfortunately ____________________ (obstacle) happened, which caused ____________________ (complication)! Now she had to ____________________ (new task) or risk ____________________ (personal stake)

Act 2B

In Act 2B, your lead character makes a new and better strategy, which they then pursue for the rest of the story. However, the obstacles only get bigger, and the Act ends with a Third Disaster that now forces the lead character to commit to one last desperate attempt to end the story.

In Act 2B of Star Wars, Luke and his friends escape from the Death Star. Darth Vader sends out Imperial ships to pursue them, but our heroes fight bravely and defeat their enemies and escape. Princess Leia insists that they must go to the secret rebel planet, where she intends to hand over the droid R2-D2 with the complete plans for the Death Star. She hopes that the rebels will then find a weakness that they can exploit to destroy the Death Star. They reach the rebel planet safely, and only then do they discover that they’ve been tricked. Vader’s men had planted a tracking device on the Millennium Falcon, and now the Death Star has followed them to the home solar system of the rebel planet. It’s only a matter of hours before the Death Star will destroy the rebel planet, and with it the Rebellion.

Here’s the Bedtime Story template for Act 2B. As a homework exercise, you can again fill in the blanks:

Where she once wanted to ____________________ (old desire) she now wanted ____________________ (new desire). But how could that happen when ____________________ (obstacle)? Filled with ____________________ (emotion) she____________________ (new action). But this only resulted in ____________________ (low point).

Act 3

In Act 3, your lead character commits to a decision to end the story. The stakes are high, but your lead character is now a stronger person than they were at the start of the story, and they have a chance to win. It’s only a slim chance, but they accept the odds and risk everything to win or lose.

In Act 3 of Star Wars, the rebels know that the Death Star will destroy their planet shortly, unless they can destroy it first. They could scatter to the far corners of the galaxy, but this would end the Rebellion, because without a home base and communication, they would have no way to continue fighting the Empire. They decide to stand and fight the Death Star. Using the plans supplied by R2-D2, they detect a small weakness in the Death Star’s defenses, and send out every possible fighter ship to attack it. After a wild battle, with many rebels killed, Luke Skywalker finds enough of the Force inside himself to launch a photon torpedo that destroys the Death Star.

Here’s the Bedtime Story template for Act 3. As a homework exercise, you can again fill in the blanks:

Fortunately, this helped her to realize ____________________ (the solution)! All she had to do was____________________ (action using new lesson)! Using ____________________ (other characters), ____________________ (skills) and ____________________ (tools from the journey) she was able to ____________________ (victorious action). Unfortunately, ____________________ (final hurdle). But this time, she ____________________ (clever strategy)! This resulted in ____________________ (change of situation)

A Template is a Guide, Not a Master

I hope it’s obvious that the Bedtime Story template is just a guide to help you in focusing your ideas into a sound Three-Act Structure. It will tell you what to remove from your summary, and it will suggest what to leave in, but you may need to change the wording to fit your story.

The template is not something to follow slavishly. Your story is your story and it has its own inner logic. The Bedtime Story model is just a way to help you summarize your story in a couple of hundred words that reflect the classic Three-Act Structure.

Once you’ve done that, it shouldn’t be hard to trim it further, to a one-paragraph summary and then ultimately to a one-sentence summary that will serve you forever as your selling tool.

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About The Author

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

 

 Randy Ingermanson Books at Amazon

 

More Advanced Fiction Writing

A Quick Note on Writing a Spine-Tingling Young Adult Gothic Horror in Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer

 

A Quick Note on Writing a Spine-Tingling Young Adult Gothic Horror in  Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer

 

by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

 Writing a spine-tingling young adult gothic horror is no easy feat. It requires a delicate balance of atmosphere, characterization, and plot, all of which must work together seamlessly to create a sense of unease and dread in the reader. In this article, I will offer some tips and strategies for crafting a successful gothic horror story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

First and foremost, setting is key in gothic horror. The physical environment should be dark, foreboding, and oppressive. This can be achieved through descriptions of the weather (fog, rain, storms), the natural landscape (barren, rocky, desolate), or the architecture (damp, decaying, labyrinthine). The setting should feel almost like a character in itself, with its own personality and motivations that contribute to the overall feeling of dread.

Next, the characterization should be carefully crafted to create both tension and empathy. The main character(s) should be flawed and imperfect, struggling with their own fears, doubts, and desires. They should have past traumas or secrets that haunt them and contribute to their vulnerability. Additionally, there should be a powerful villain or antagonist that is equally compelling and complex. The villain should be a source of both terror and fascination, with their own twisted motivations and psychological complexities.

Finally, the plot should be structured in a way that builds suspense and keeps the reader guessing. This can involve utilizing a variety of horror tropes, such as ghosts, demons, curses, and psychological horror. The pacing should be slow and deliberate, with the tension constantly rising until the final climax. This climax should be both satisfying and unexpected, resolving the central conflict while also leaving room for lingering questions and unease.

In conclusion, writing a spine-tingling young adult gothic horror is a challenging but rewarding task. By carefully crafting the setting, characterization, and plot, writers can create a story that is both terrifying and emotionally resonant. While the horror genre often relies on shock value and gore, a successful gothic horror story relies on atmosphere, psychological depth, and a sense of mystery. By mastering these elements, writers can create stories that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

 

 Also see:

• How to Write a Horror Story: R.L. Stine’s Tips for Writing Horror
•  What Makes a Gothic Novel: Common Tropes and How to Write One
•  4 Tips for Writing Gothic Horror
•  How to Write Gothic Fiction
  

 

More Quick Notes for the Novice Writer

A Quick Note on "Iceberg Theory" or the "Theory of Omission" in Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

A Quick Note on "Iceberg Theory" or the "Theory of Omission" in  Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer

 

by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

 

 

 Ernest Hemingway, one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century, was known for his concise, minimalist writing style. He believed that the true meaning of a story lies beneath the surface, and that the key to effective storytelling is to leave much unsaid. This approach to writing is commonly referred to as the "Iceberg Theory" or the "Theory of Omission".

The Iceberg Theory is based on the idea that only a small portion of an iceberg is visible above the surface of the water, while the majority of it remains hidden below. Similarly, in writing, only a fraction of the story is explicitly stated, while the rest is implied or left to the reader's interpretation. Hemingway believed that by omitting details and allowing the reader to fill in the gaps, he could create a more powerful and resonant story.

In practice, this meant that Hemingway's writing was sparse and direct, with little to no excess verbiage. He avoided flowery language, adjectives, and adverbs, opting instead for short, declarative sentences and precise descriptions. He also preferred to show rather than tell, allowing the actions of his characters to reveal their thoughts and emotions.

The Iceberg Theory can be seen in many of Hemingway's works, including his early short stories such as "Hills Like White Elephants" and "The Killers", as well as his later novels like "The Old Man and the Sea". In "Hills Like White Elephants", for example, the true nature of the characters' conversation - which is about the possibility of getting an abortion - is never explicitly stated. Instead, it is hinted at through their dialogue and actions, leaving the reader to infer what is really going on.

Similarly, in "The Old Man and the Sea", Hemingway tells the story of an aging fisherman's struggle to catch a giant marlin. While the plot is relatively simple, the novel is packed with symbolism and metaphor, much of which is left for the reader to decipher. For example, the marlin itself can be seen as a representation of the human struggle against nature, while the old man's battle with the fish can be interpreted as a metaphor for the struggle of life itself.

Hemingway's Iceberg Theory had a profound impact on the way writers approached their craft. His emphasis on brevity, simplicity, and implication influenced a generation of writers, including Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, and J.D. Salinger. Today, the Iceberg Theory remains a popular approach to storytelling, particularly in the realm of literary fiction.

In conclusion, Ernest Hemingway's Iceberg Theory, or Theory of Omission, is a writing philosophy that emphasizes the power of understatement and implication in storytelling. By leaving much unsaid and allowing the reader to fill in the gaps, Hemingway believed that he could create a more powerful and resonant story. His minimalist approach to writing had a profound impact on the world of literature, and his legacy continues to influence writers today.
 

 

More Quick Notes for the Novice Writer

A Quick Note on Plotting with the Freytag Pyramid in Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

A Quick Note on Plotting with the Freytag Pyramid in  Fiction Writing for the Novice Writer

 

by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

The Freytag Pyramid is a popular tool for plotting and analyzing the structure of a story. Developed by German writer Gustav Freytag in the mid-19th century, the pyramid is a visual representation of the five-act structure commonly used in dramatic storytelling. It consists of five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In this essay, we will explore how to use the Freytag Pyramid to effectively plot a story.

The first part of the pyramid is the exposition, which introduces the main characters, setting, and the initial conflict or problem to be addressed. (This is also called the introduction or prologue in some storytelling models.) This is where the audience gets a sense of the story's world and the characters involved.

Next comes the rising action, where the bulk of the story takes place. This is where complications and obstacles begin to pile up, causing tension and conflict for the characters. The tension builds as the characters try to overcome these obstacles and reach their goals. There is a sense of rising action and momentum as the story progresses towards its climax.

The climax is the highest point of tension in the story and mark of transition into the final act. It is where the main conflict or problem comes to a head, resulting in a significant change or event in the story. The climax is the moment where many stories will pivot towards a final conclusion. Often, this is where the hero will make their ultimate decision or sacrifice to solve the problem.

After the climax, the story moves into the falling action, where the tension begins to wind down. The conflict is unraveled, and the characters work towards a resolution. This stage can vary depending on the story. In some cases, it is a short denouement that ties up loose ends quickly. In other cases, it might be a longer, more contemplative section, where characters reflect on the events that have occurred and process their feelings.

Finally, the story ends with the resolution, tying up any remaining loose ends and bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion. The resolution should provide a sense of closure and resolution for the characters and the audience. It is the culmination of the work put into building the story and requires satisfying exploration.

Using the Freytag Pyramid, we can see how each of these elements contributes to a well-structured story. The progression of the story is essential to creating an interesting and satisfying experience for the audience. Used wisely, the skilful implementation of these stages can support a meaningful and resonant connection with the story's themes, characters, and overall message.

In Conclusion, the Freytag Pyramid is a popular tool for plotting and analyzing stories as it provides a clear structure to follow, which can be easily understood by both writers and audiences alike. A story that follows the Freytag Pyramid has a strong narrative structure and has the tendency to engage the audience's attention, making it an effective tool for novelists and screenwriters alike. By employing the principles of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, one can create plots that are cohesive and satisfying to readers.

Also see:

• Freytag's Pyramid: Definition, Examples, and Usage

 

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