Before reading the “Plot” and “Dialogue” sections, I did not realize how dependent these two elements are on each other. Starting with “Plot”, we almost immediately are reading about characters. This is because Lamott says, “I say don’t worry about plot. Worry about the characters. Let what they say or do reveal who they are, and be involved in their lives, and keep asking yourself, Now what happens? The development of relationship creates plot” (Lamott, p. 55). Since the beginning of this assignment, I have been trying to layout a plot in my head. Where do I want this story to go? What will the climax be? Building relationships between characters is much more important than trying to figure out what the plot will be even before you start writing. This resonated with me, in the way that I am now going to start focusing on the relationships between my characters rather than trying to nail down the exact moments of when I want my plot to take shape. I think – especially for my short story – creating these relationships will lead to the plot happening almost accidentally. If I have trust in my characters, they will ultimately create the plot themselves. Another part of this section that resonated with me was when Lamott was talking about Alice Adams and a lecture she had given about short stories. Lamott wrote, “She said that sometimes she uses a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending” (Lamott, p. 62). As I have been reading over my own Shitty First Draft, I have realized that maybe the structure of my story needs to be changed, and dialogue needs to be moved around. If I take this advice and focus on writing in the ABDCE structure, I actually think that my short story will flow together much better.
With “Dialogue”, I learned that I need to put all of my trust in my characters. Lamott even recommended that we should spend our days out in public, listening and observing other people. This is how we can understand how much of a difference there is between people and the way they speak. If we choose to have two different characters speak in the exact same tone and voice, we are going to be creating dialogue that is dreadful with no flow or rhythm. People are never going to want to read a story that has flat dialogue with no movement. Something important that Lamott said in this section was, “You need to trust yourself to hear what they are saying over what you are saying” (Lamott, p. 66). If we have two drastically different characters both speaking in the same tones we do, it is bound to create a horrible story. We as writers need to submerge ourselves into the shoes of our own characters and – especially with dialogue – write from their point of view.
When the author listed the general sequence of events that is consistent with a short story plot, I attempted relating them back to the story we read most recently for class, “Ghosts and Empties”. This story appears to mix up the order recommended by the author (Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending) by putting a paragraph of background first, followed by action in the form of the woman walking around her town. The development comes in as she describes categories of walks where certain events happen, followed by another series of walks and another series of events where things have substantially changed. This progresses until the end, where there are substantial changes, like the fat boy being a thin runner and the tree having lights. This is the climax, where the woman begins to see signs of brightness: an existence in which life is able to move forward despite the hardships faced. In the end, the woman seems to believe that she can move forward into the likely future as she sees it, in which her home life is lonely but she is able to take comfort in small things, like the laughing moon. It is funny how the whole story is about observations of other people, yet that is action enough to fill a story.
The author’s discussion of dialogue is also valid and is consistent with my own experience as both a reader and writer. When I play dungeons and dragons, or watch other people do so, I notice that the best DMs and players inject distinct emotions into their characters and NPC’s. This makes the in game interactions seem more authentic and thus more enjoyable. I also find that when playing characters myself, the personality of the character develops as the story progresses, based on interactions, mistakes, and tendencies that happen by chance or are otherwise unintentional. By embracing this unknown and rolling with it, my characters develop personality. It is much the same way in writing, where certain tendencies in dialogue and action overtime can come to define the characters the author hopes to give life to. The idea of learning about people from people, including myself, has also contributed to the most authentic characters I have made; my stories fall apart when a certain personality I had in mind is incompatible with my experiences. Furthermore, I notice how good authors make the villains relatable in some regard. One way I have noticed that authors do this is by giving insight into a villain’s backstory, before he or she truly became a villain. Understanding how a villain’s unique childhood affects their development helps the reader to realize that villains are people too, often unfortunate ones who have been led astray by traumatic events beyond their control. Overall, the author of Bird by Bird does a good job of pinpointing what exactly makes a well-designed character well-designed.
In the chapter Plot in “Bird By Bird” I love the way Lamott explains how important characters are for the plot. She says “ I say don’t worry about the plot. Worry about the characters” And reading that really organized my mind on what is important to focus on while writing. She also says “Plot grows out of character” and I really liked that, that the characters are what creates a plot in the end. Throughout the chapter she talks about the characters as real people and it falls into place. She talks about how important it is to receive criticism and how it will help your writing when other people see things you might not when writing. Something I found important was that she talks about how important drama is. She says “ Drama must move forward and upward, or the seats on which the audience is sitting will become very hard and uncomfortable” I never realized how much drama really moved the plot.
In the next chapter “Dialogue” She mentions how Dialogue can make or break a piece of writing. I think that is so true because if I am reading a book and the dialogue is bad why would I want to read it? She also talks about how it is important to make the voices of the characters sound real. She says that you can read the words out loud and see if it is something that someone says. I really liked that she mentions to take notice of others and how they talk and use that in your writing. I think both these chapters help to give life to a story.
I like how Lamott said that plot grows out of our character. The more we know our character, the easier it becomes to move the story along. Taking a plot and trying to force it on our character makes it hard for the story to flow. I had never heard of this idea before as I always have plots ready rather than the characters. I am learning that the focus on the character helps the story grow and expand, which builds the plot of course. I like the ABDCE method- action, background, development, climax, and ending. The plot grows out of discovering what our characters care about the most. Dialogue is something I never liked. It seems very flat and boring without the addition of character cues and seeing where they are or what they are doing during the conversation. Dialogue gives our characters a voice which is another key to their identity and who they are. “Dialogue is more like a movie than it is like real life, since it should be more dramatic. There’s a greater sense of action.” (p 65). The flow of dialogue is something to consider. As writers, we need to be listening and observing the conversations around us and to keep it in mind and eventually turn it into ‘gold’. It needs to sound like the everyday conversations we hear. The tip that Lamott gives is to read our dialogue out loud and to see what works and what doesn’t. There needs to be something that also allows us to differentiate who is talking.
Plot grows out of the characters. Focusing on who they are and what they are doing and how they are changing. Daydreaming about characters. Changing them and learning new things that would work with them as you continue to write about them. The dialogue becomes emotionally nonexistent and makes it sound dead. Dialogue should be more dramatic, it gives its full attention and intensity, instead of making it lame. Also making characters sound different from each other can help with character creation which helps with the plot so much. Having the character’s emotions come out also helps guide your characters when they speak to each other. Compassion for the characters’ angles and needs help you with their dialogue even if they are not the protagonist.
A few things stuck out to me in these chapters; beginning with the Plot, I found it worthwhile to focus on the characters so the plot develops itself. Lamott reiterated this by stating that characters should be the ones doing the plot instead of the author imposing the plot onto the set of characters. Sometimes, having something put into words helps me realize in what ways I could be going wrong. Another example from this chapter is Lamott emphasizing how a “killing” does not have to be a killing. She implies that an event or the climax does not have to involve death to create change but is something that makes a character feel more alive or renewed in self or mindset. The ABDCE format is also beneficial for me since I like having some framework to work towards completing in writing.
For the dialogue chapter, I gathered that readers already think enough, so they would prefer not to be forced to listen to the character’s thoughts. Lamott puts these ideas into a different perspective for me as a writer, explaining how a reader wishes to be an eavesdropper rather than seeing the author’s “brush strokes”. To make less choppy and unrealistic dialogue, writers need to write to mimic what they witness in real life instead of basing their dialogue on another text. Creating a better “movie” in the reader’s head and distinguishing how each character communicates in the world the author assembled keeps a reader engaged. Each point I have brought up sticks with me, and I hope to integrate these into the writing of my short story. I have struggled to write viable dialogue in the past, and I hope to improve that skill with these tips.
Journal #7
In the chapter Plot from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, what particularly stood out to me was the author’s description of the importance of bringing your writing out into the open. Not just writing alone in your study, silently going on in your own vacuum, you must show your work to others. When we show others our work it allows us to take a step back, pull ourselves out of the immersion that comes from writing, and look at our writing from a new perspective. One quote that distilled this for me was from the chapter on plot that read, “You may need someone else to bounce your material off of…” (p.57) Lamott goes on from there explaining that we cannot always be the “executioner”, and it is hard. When you’ve written something you’re attached to it, when you love something it’s hard to let it go, so having another critical eye to go over every nook and cranny, every clause and semicolon with you is one of the best ways to get a new perspective on your writing and see it with fresh eyes. She also talks about how plot does not need to be your focus, and how good writer’s allow their plot to write itself. That was an interesting thought, it probably doesn’t apply to every kind of writing, mystery writers for example probably need to know their plot. It was an interesting idea though, and one that I will play around with.
Now let’s talk about Dialogue, the second chapter we read for this journal. Lamott is a particular fan of dialogue, and explains how dialogue is one of the best ways to get to know your characters. We all want well written dialogue, but I think the amount necessary is very much up to personal taste. I like a good inner monologue or third person omniscient just as much as a dialogue heavy scene, so the emphasis on high dialogue usage isn’t a sentiment I tend to share as a reader. I do agree that dialogue should be intelligent however; there is certainly nothing worse than dialogue that makes you put the story down due to its unavoidable cringe. I also like the point about dialect. It takes a genius to write in a dialect they don’t know intimately, but when an author really knows the dialect, maybe they grew up speaking it or hearing it, it can be a very powerful tool that is incredibly fun to read.
Lamott says that characters shouldn’t serve as pawns for some plot you’ve dreamt up. This is an important concept because this allows the characters to grow outside of the plot, which is necessary in growing them and allowing a reader to care about them in the first place. Also, keeping an amount of drama is important in keeping a reader’s attention—even if it’s small, a level of drama increases engagement.
Understanding characters through dialogue is what really makes their individual personalities. Lamott says that you should be able to identify who is speaking just by a line of their dialogue. I find this interesting because of how difficult it can be to convey tone through text, but it is an exciting challenge. Characters shouldn’t only be identifiable through what they’re saying, but also how they’re saying it, though she warns against writing in dialect as it can be difficult or irritating to keep up with and understand as a reader. Also keeping in mind that characters can reveal things about themselves by the things that they say, without explicitly admitting anything but by the questions that they ask or the assumptions that they make, or anything of that sort.
A repeated theme in Lamott’s book seems to be a general “fake it till you make it” attitude. I find that refreshing. Often in books about writing the author tries to convince you that you must know everything about your plot, character etc. That if you don’t know the character how will the reader? But Lamott pushes the idea that the first draft can suck. Having a skeleton of a plot is just enough to get the story moving along. You can go back and fix it later; you don’t have to get it right immediately on the first try. As someone who struggles with a bit of perfectionism, it’s nice for a professional author to tell me “It can suck at first, you can always fix it”. There’s no finality in your first draft. The plot can change ten times before you finish, and the result can still be concise and beautiful. When it comes to dialogue, I tend to have a hard time making the characters seem human. There’s too much I want to communicate in these interactions that sometimes I forget conversations aren’t just one after the other loads of information. Lamott gives advice about dialect and the flow of communication that I appreciate.
Journal #7
I’ve been thinking about plot a lot within my own writing. Struggling between what I want to happen, what makes sense and what feels real. I think it’s funny how opposing those three rather simple tasks can feel. I think Lamott had some very helpful things to say regarding the processes of creating plot. She says it must come from characters and I agree. I said this last week: if your character’s actions don’t make sense with who they are, what are you even writing? A puppet master holds all the strings but he can simply do whatever he wants with them. One must move their characters through a story in realistic fashions, eventually bringing them to a conclusion where they belong. She also says it’s important to not become too attached to a particular plot or conclusion. Your characters may indeed lead you somewhere far better and quite a bit more natural. She even says not to worry about the plot. Focus on your characters, get to know them and know them well. They will lead you where they need to go and all you have to do is follow. It should feel like a dream Lamott says. Each scene bleeding into the next as seamlessly as night into day and back again.
To start off, one of the lines in the chapter about Plot that stood out to me was her saying how plot grows out of the character or characters. She makes a lot of really good points about how characters can help drive and create the plot and conflict in your story. You can’t have a good plot without characters because conflict and story is made from who is involved with it. I believe that plot should be last on your priorities list because every other attribute in your story plays a part in making and building that plot. I think the idea of figuring what your character’s wants and needs are and then using them to build a plot and conflict, because I agree that something has to be at stake or the readers will not care about the rest of your story. There is a big thing that most writers ignore, which drives me crazy. Although you are the one creating these characters and who they are, that does not mean you automatically know everything about them. You need to take time to get to know them as people rather than characters and the tension and desires they have will help build your story, and it will be centered around those characters and who they are as people. Drama IS the way of grabbing attention because we as a society have thrived on people’s problems, sometimes out of a place as envy and pleasure, weirdly enough. Finally, bad dialogue is something that stood out to me. Bad dialogue can kill a story because if your dialogue is too robotic or makes no sense at all, your reader can’t connect to it. Readers love to be able to connect to the story and envision themselves in it and they do it through dialogue. Captivating your reader all starts with having good dialogue and making a good plot and first impression, in my opinion.
I thought that throughout the reading, Lamott’s view of plot as a journey rather than a rigid structure was refreshing. Lamott discusses that plot should be a naturally evolving process because you can’t have a good plot without good characters and conflict. I feel like as a writer who has been struggling a little bit with having a structured plot hearing this perspective has helped in taking the pressure off of constructing a perfect plot from the beginning and instead focus on the organic development of the story. I liked how in the dialogue chapter, Lamott expressed how in a sense deeper truths can be revealed about a character through dialogue. To go along with this, she highlights the importance of letting characters speak in their own voices, which can be more revealing. Something that stuck with me throughout the reading was the idea that that authenticity is more important than being perfect in your writing. In plot, this means focusing on the natural flow of the story rather than adhering to a strict structure. In dialogue, it means prioritizing the genuine voice of the characters over idealized or polished speech. This perspective encourages a more honest and less stressful writing process.
After reading Plot and Dialogue, I feel like I took away a new perspective on how characters influence a story. While writing previously, I would think of a story plot and then “impose” it on my characters, to use Lamott’s language. I never stopped to consider how my character would affect the story, just how the story would affect my character. However, the emphasis on letting the character guide the story makes so much sense. Using the character as a guide in my story will make the story seem more plausible and less two-dimensional.
13 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 7”
Before reading the “Plot” and “Dialogue” sections, I did not realize how dependent these two elements are on each other. Starting with “Plot”, we almost immediately are reading about characters. This is because Lamott says, “I say don’t worry about plot. Worry about the characters. Let what they say or do reveal who they are, and be involved in their lives, and keep asking yourself, Now what happens? The development of relationship creates plot” (Lamott, p. 55). Since the beginning of this assignment, I have been trying to layout a plot in my head. Where do I want this story to go? What will the climax be? Building relationships between characters is much more important than trying to figure out what the plot will be even before you start writing. This resonated with me, in the way that I am now going to start focusing on the relationships between my characters rather than trying to nail down the exact moments of when I want my plot to take shape. I think – especially for my short story – creating these relationships will lead to the plot happening almost accidentally. If I have trust in my characters, they will ultimately create the plot themselves. Another part of this section that resonated with me was when Lamott was talking about Alice Adams and a lecture she had given about short stories. Lamott wrote, “She said that sometimes she uses a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending” (Lamott, p. 62). As I have been reading over my own Shitty First Draft, I have realized that maybe the structure of my story needs to be changed, and dialogue needs to be moved around. If I take this advice and focus on writing in the ABDCE structure, I actually think that my short story will flow together much better.
With “Dialogue”, I learned that I need to put all of my trust in my characters. Lamott even recommended that we should spend our days out in public, listening and observing other people. This is how we can understand how much of a difference there is between people and the way they speak. If we choose to have two different characters speak in the exact same tone and voice, we are going to be creating dialogue that is dreadful with no flow or rhythm. People are never going to want to read a story that has flat dialogue with no movement. Something important that Lamott said in this section was, “You need to trust yourself to hear what they are saying over what you are saying” (Lamott, p. 66). If we have two drastically different characters both speaking in the same tones we do, it is bound to create a horrible story. We as writers need to submerge ourselves into the shoes of our own characters and – especially with dialogue – write from their point of view.
When the author listed the general sequence of events that is consistent with a short story plot, I attempted relating them back to the story we read most recently for class, “Ghosts and Empties”. This story appears to mix up the order recommended by the author (Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending) by putting a paragraph of background first, followed by action in the form of the woman walking around her town. The development comes in as she describes categories of walks where certain events happen, followed by another series of walks and another series of events where things have substantially changed. This progresses until the end, where there are substantial changes, like the fat boy being a thin runner and the tree having lights. This is the climax, where the woman begins to see signs of brightness: an existence in which life is able to move forward despite the hardships faced. In the end, the woman seems to believe that she can move forward into the likely future as she sees it, in which her home life is lonely but she is able to take comfort in small things, like the laughing moon. It is funny how the whole story is about observations of other people, yet that is action enough to fill a story.
The author’s discussion of dialogue is also valid and is consistent with my own experience as both a reader and writer. When I play dungeons and dragons, or watch other people do so, I notice that the best DMs and players inject distinct emotions into their characters and NPC’s. This makes the in game interactions seem more authentic and thus more enjoyable. I also find that when playing characters myself, the personality of the character develops as the story progresses, based on interactions, mistakes, and tendencies that happen by chance or are otherwise unintentional. By embracing this unknown and rolling with it, my characters develop personality. It is much the same way in writing, where certain tendencies in dialogue and action overtime can come to define the characters the author hopes to give life to. The idea of learning about people from people, including myself, has also contributed to the most authentic characters I have made; my stories fall apart when a certain personality I had in mind is incompatible with my experiences. Furthermore, I notice how good authors make the villains relatable in some regard. One way I have noticed that authors do this is by giving insight into a villain’s backstory, before he or she truly became a villain. Understanding how a villain’s unique childhood affects their development helps the reader to realize that villains are people too, often unfortunate ones who have been led astray by traumatic events beyond their control. Overall, the author of Bird by Bird does a good job of pinpointing what exactly makes a well-designed character well-designed.
In the chapter Plot in “Bird By Bird” I love the way Lamott explains how important characters are for the plot. She says “ I say don’t worry about the plot. Worry about the characters” And reading that really organized my mind on what is important to focus on while writing. She also says “Plot grows out of character” and I really liked that, that the characters are what creates a plot in the end. Throughout the chapter she talks about the characters as real people and it falls into place. She talks about how important it is to receive criticism and how it will help your writing when other people see things you might not when writing. Something I found important was that she talks about how important drama is. She says “ Drama must move forward and upward, or the seats on which the audience is sitting will become very hard and uncomfortable” I never realized how much drama really moved the plot.
In the next chapter “Dialogue” She mentions how Dialogue can make or break a piece of writing. I think that is so true because if I am reading a book and the dialogue is bad why would I want to read it? She also talks about how it is important to make the voices of the characters sound real. She says that you can read the words out loud and see if it is something that someone says. I really liked that she mentions to take notice of others and how they talk and use that in your writing. I think both these chapters help to give life to a story.
I like how Lamott said that plot grows out of our character. The more we know our character, the easier it becomes to move the story along. Taking a plot and trying to force it on our character makes it hard for the story to flow. I had never heard of this idea before as I always have plots ready rather than the characters. I am learning that the focus on the character helps the story grow and expand, which builds the plot of course. I like the ABDCE method- action, background, development, climax, and ending. The plot grows out of discovering what our characters care about the most. Dialogue is something I never liked. It seems very flat and boring without the addition of character cues and seeing where they are or what they are doing during the conversation. Dialogue gives our characters a voice which is another key to their identity and who they are. “Dialogue is more like a movie than it is like real life, since it should be more dramatic. There’s a greater sense of action.” (p 65). The flow of dialogue is something to consider. As writers, we need to be listening and observing the conversations around us and to keep it in mind and eventually turn it into ‘gold’. It needs to sound like the everyday conversations we hear. The tip that Lamott gives is to read our dialogue out loud and to see what works and what doesn’t. There needs to be something that also allows us to differentiate who is talking.
Plot grows out of the characters. Focusing on who they are and what they are doing and how they are changing. Daydreaming about characters. Changing them and learning new things that would work with them as you continue to write about them. The dialogue becomes emotionally nonexistent and makes it sound dead. Dialogue should be more dramatic, it gives its full attention and intensity, instead of making it lame. Also making characters sound different from each other can help with character creation which helps with the plot so much. Having the character’s emotions come out also helps guide your characters when they speak to each other. Compassion for the characters’ angles and needs help you with their dialogue even if they are not the protagonist.
A few things stuck out to me in these chapters; beginning with the Plot, I found it worthwhile to focus on the characters so the plot develops itself. Lamott reiterated this by stating that characters should be the ones doing the plot instead of the author imposing the plot onto the set of characters. Sometimes, having something put into words helps me realize in what ways I could be going wrong. Another example from this chapter is Lamott emphasizing how a “killing” does not have to be a killing. She implies that an event or the climax does not have to involve death to create change but is something that makes a character feel more alive or renewed in self or mindset. The ABDCE format is also beneficial for me since I like having some framework to work towards completing in writing.
For the dialogue chapter, I gathered that readers already think enough, so they would prefer not to be forced to listen to the character’s thoughts. Lamott puts these ideas into a different perspective for me as a writer, explaining how a reader wishes to be an eavesdropper rather than seeing the author’s “brush strokes”. To make less choppy and unrealistic dialogue, writers need to write to mimic what they witness in real life instead of basing their dialogue on another text. Creating a better “movie” in the reader’s head and distinguishing how each character communicates in the world the author assembled keeps a reader engaged. Each point I have brought up sticks with me, and I hope to integrate these into the writing of my short story. I have struggled to write viable dialogue in the past, and I hope to improve that skill with these tips.
Journal #7
In the chapter Plot from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, what particularly stood out to me was the author’s description of the importance of bringing your writing out into the open. Not just writing alone in your study, silently going on in your own vacuum, you must show your work to others. When we show others our work it allows us to take a step back, pull ourselves out of the immersion that comes from writing, and look at our writing from a new perspective. One quote that distilled this for me was from the chapter on plot that read, “You may need someone else to bounce your material off of…” (p.57) Lamott goes on from there explaining that we cannot always be the “executioner”, and it is hard. When you’ve written something you’re attached to it, when you love something it’s hard to let it go, so having another critical eye to go over every nook and cranny, every clause and semicolon with you is one of the best ways to get a new perspective on your writing and see it with fresh eyes. She also talks about how plot does not need to be your focus, and how good writer’s allow their plot to write itself. That was an interesting thought, it probably doesn’t apply to every kind of writing, mystery writers for example probably need to know their plot. It was an interesting idea though, and one that I will play around with.
Now let’s talk about Dialogue, the second chapter we read for this journal. Lamott is a particular fan of dialogue, and explains how dialogue is one of the best ways to get to know your characters. We all want well written dialogue, but I think the amount necessary is very much up to personal taste. I like a good inner monologue or third person omniscient just as much as a dialogue heavy scene, so the emphasis on high dialogue usage isn’t a sentiment I tend to share as a reader. I do agree that dialogue should be intelligent however; there is certainly nothing worse than dialogue that makes you put the story down due to its unavoidable cringe. I also like the point about dialect. It takes a genius to write in a dialect they don’t know intimately, but when an author really knows the dialect, maybe they grew up speaking it or hearing it, it can be a very powerful tool that is incredibly fun to read.
Lamott says that characters shouldn’t serve as pawns for some plot you’ve dreamt up. This is an important concept because this allows the characters to grow outside of the plot, which is necessary in growing them and allowing a reader to care about them in the first place. Also, keeping an amount of drama is important in keeping a reader’s attention—even if it’s small, a level of drama increases engagement.
Understanding characters through dialogue is what really makes their individual personalities. Lamott says that you should be able to identify who is speaking just by a line of their dialogue. I find this interesting because of how difficult it can be to convey tone through text, but it is an exciting challenge. Characters shouldn’t only be identifiable through what they’re saying, but also how they’re saying it, though she warns against writing in dialect as it can be difficult or irritating to keep up with and understand as a reader. Also keeping in mind that characters can reveal things about themselves by the things that they say, without explicitly admitting anything but by the questions that they ask or the assumptions that they make, or anything of that sort.
A repeated theme in Lamott’s book seems to be a general “fake it till you make it” attitude. I find that refreshing. Often in books about writing the author tries to convince you that you must know everything about your plot, character etc. That if you don’t know the character how will the reader? But Lamott pushes the idea that the first draft can suck. Having a skeleton of a plot is just enough to get the story moving along. You can go back and fix it later; you don’t have to get it right immediately on the first try. As someone who struggles with a bit of perfectionism, it’s nice for a professional author to tell me “It can suck at first, you can always fix it”. There’s no finality in your first draft. The plot can change ten times before you finish, and the result can still be concise and beautiful. When it comes to dialogue, I tend to have a hard time making the characters seem human. There’s too much I want to communicate in these interactions that sometimes I forget conversations aren’t just one after the other loads of information. Lamott gives advice about dialect and the flow of communication that I appreciate.
Journal #7
I’ve been thinking about plot a lot within my own writing. Struggling between what I want to happen, what makes sense and what feels real. I think it’s funny how opposing those three rather simple tasks can feel. I think Lamott had some very helpful things to say regarding the processes of creating plot. She says it must come from characters and I agree. I said this last week: if your character’s actions don’t make sense with who they are, what are you even writing? A puppet master holds all the strings but he can simply do whatever he wants with them. One must move their characters through a story in realistic fashions, eventually bringing them to a conclusion where they belong. She also says it’s important to not become too attached to a particular plot or conclusion. Your characters may indeed lead you somewhere far better and quite a bit more natural. She even says not to worry about the plot. Focus on your characters, get to know them and know them well. They will lead you where they need to go and all you have to do is follow. It should feel like a dream Lamott says. Each scene bleeding into the next as seamlessly as night into day and back again.
To start off, one of the lines in the chapter about Plot that stood out to me was her saying how plot grows out of the character or characters. She makes a lot of really good points about how characters can help drive and create the plot and conflict in your story. You can’t have a good plot without characters because conflict and story is made from who is involved with it. I believe that plot should be last on your priorities list because every other attribute in your story plays a part in making and building that plot. I think the idea of figuring what your character’s wants and needs are and then using them to build a plot and conflict, because I agree that something has to be at stake or the readers will not care about the rest of your story. There is a big thing that most writers ignore, which drives me crazy. Although you are the one creating these characters and who they are, that does not mean you automatically know everything about them. You need to take time to get to know them as people rather than characters and the tension and desires they have will help build your story, and it will be centered around those characters and who they are as people. Drama IS the way of grabbing attention because we as a society have thrived on people’s problems, sometimes out of a place as envy and pleasure, weirdly enough. Finally, bad dialogue is something that stood out to me. Bad dialogue can kill a story because if your dialogue is too robotic or makes no sense at all, your reader can’t connect to it. Readers love to be able to connect to the story and envision themselves in it and they do it through dialogue. Captivating your reader all starts with having good dialogue and making a good plot and first impression, in my opinion.
I thought that throughout the reading, Lamott’s view of plot as a journey rather than a rigid structure was refreshing. Lamott discusses that plot should be a naturally evolving process because you can’t have a good plot without good characters and conflict. I feel like as a writer who has been struggling a little bit with having a structured plot hearing this perspective has helped in taking the pressure off of constructing a perfect plot from the beginning and instead focus on the organic development of the story. I liked how in the dialogue chapter, Lamott expressed how in a sense deeper truths can be revealed about a character through dialogue. To go along with this, she highlights the importance of letting characters speak in their own voices, which can be more revealing. Something that stuck with me throughout the reading was the idea that that authenticity is more important than being perfect in your writing. In plot, this means focusing on the natural flow of the story rather than adhering to a strict structure. In dialogue, it means prioritizing the genuine voice of the characters over idealized or polished speech. This perspective encourages a more honest and less stressful writing process.
After reading Plot and Dialogue, I feel like I took away a new perspective on how characters influence a story. While writing previously, I would think of a story plot and then “impose” it on my characters, to use Lamott’s language. I never stopped to consider how my character would affect the story, just how the story would affect my character. However, the emphasis on letting the character guide the story makes so much sense. Using the character as a guide in my story will make the story seem more plausible and less two-dimensional.