Beating the Story

by Robin D. Laws

  the granter, and defends herself strongly at first, but then gives in to demands as the petitioner adopts stronger tactics

  the petitioner, who seems to be winning the granter over, until the granter shifts to a stronger defensive tactic and rebuffs the emotional demand

  A down-slope followed by an up-slope marks a scene in which the viewpoint character acts as:

  granter, defending at first consistently poorly and then consistently well

  or petitioner, making the pitch at first consistently poorly and then consistently well

  A flat line followed by an up-slope starts with petitioner and granter countering one another strongly until our identification character, in the role of:

  granter, rallies and defends strongly

  or petitioner, finds a new and devastating line of persuasion or attack

  A flat line that plunges down also has petitioner and granter making strong points until the character opposing our identification character rallies and in a series of beats:

  strongly refuses the petition

  or overcomes the granter’s objections

  These all assume situations in which the audience wants the identification figure to refuse the other character’s petition. In those rare cases when we want a protagonist to fail, the emotional line flips on its head.

  Having mapped the line, ask yourself if it matches your intent.

  If you meant for the scene to include more consistent give and take, and thus show a flattish line, find beats where you can give the losing character stronger tactics, so she doesn’t fail in every beat.

  Chances are that the answer to the question about your uncooperative scene lies less in the shape of its line, than in the content of the scene’s individual moments. The process of breaking it down, encapsulating each beat for your map and studying the characters’ tactics, will help you find the wrong note that sends the scene spinning off in an unwanted direction.

  Typical problems within dramatic exchanges include:

  Repetition of tactics. Real life arguments mostly consist of participants repeating themselves, but in a dramatic work you want to boil a conflict down to its highlights. In writing, when you can cut something, you should, so cut out the repeated beats. Unless you’re striving, for some higher aesthetic reason, to reproduce a realistically frustrating argument.

  Out-of-character tactics. Watch out for cases where you have given a character a tactic, often a strong one, that she wouldn’t actually adopt. The perfect response to a statement may not fit the character’s background, desires, or outlook. This often happens when you choose the witty line over something the person would actually say in a naturalistic world.

  Overreaction for drama’s sake. In pursuit of greater emotional impact, you may have bent a character out of shape, undercutting long-term believability or desired sympathy, by depicting an absurdly extreme response to a revelation or request.

  Inconsistent motivation. Finally, consider whether the entire underpinning of the scene makes sense given the granter’s desires. Does the granter have a clear reason to resist the petition, given his established goals? If not, you have contrived the drama of the situation in order to create gratuitous conflict.

  Now, Over to You

  You’ve now familiarized yourself with the elements of beat analysis. To recap, these are:

  Conceiving your story, then identifying your premise, throughline, core question, and boil-down.

  Knowing and developing the characters at the heart of your story:the procedural hero, who may be iconic, with an ethos allowing for cyclic repetition over multiple episodes; or transformational, with a transformational arc and tactical goal

  the dramatic character, with a pair of opposed poles animating internal conflict

  the antagonists who oppose your heroes

  the supporting characters who draw them out and help propel the narrative: sidekicks, companions, confidants, foils, psychopomps, and functionaries

  Considering your stance: validatory, revivalist, comedic, pastoral, satirical, revisionist, or metafictional.

  Developing your story and identifying its beats:foundation beats: dramatic and procedural

  information beats: pipe, question, and reveal

  flourish beats: commentary, anticipation, gratification, and bringdown

  Noting and modifying the emotional rhythm dictated by the order of your beats and the outcomes of each.

  Sharpening your pacing through an awareness of transitions between scenes: outgrowth, continuation, turn, break, viewpoint, rhyme, meanwhile, flashback, return, and flash forward.

  For some complex narratives, you may wish to note the interweaving of plot and subplot by thread mapping.

  With these techniques and concepts in hand you are now ready to put the system to use, taking the bits of it that make sense to you and setting aside the rest.

  Head on over to gameplaywright.net for the current link to Northland Creative Wonders’ beat mapping tool, Story Beats. This browser app enables you to easily create beats with their accompanying icons, plus descriptive text, rhythm arrows to note outcomes, and transition icons to mark scene shifts and their types.

  You may wish to explore the system further by using the tool to beat map a favorite television episode, movie, or work of prose fiction.

  Or dive right in to map the story you’re working on now.

  I just used the tool to outline my current novel and found the ease with which it was possible to cut, replace, and move narrative moments revelatory—far superior to any actual or virtual index card set-up.

  I’d wish you luck, but the part of a writing career that turns on the serendipity of contacts and opportunities lies beyond the purview of this book.

  Instead, I’ll wish for you what I always hope for myself when I settle in for a day’s work:

  the discipline to remain in the chair

  the insight to understand the story as I am telling it

  and the mental acuity to put it all together

  So I guess, really, in the end, I’m wishing you coffee.

  All the coffee you need.

  —Robin D. Laws, Toronto, 2017

  Appendix 1:

  Inspiration to Premise Worksheet

  The reflowable Kindle format does not provide a solid technological basis for a useful worksheet, so instead, we’ve made the worksheet available as a free, letter-sized PDF download on the Gameplaywright website:

  gameplaywright.net/beatingthestory

  For your ease of reference while reading this edition, here is a list of the story details that the worksheet helps organize:

  Throughline

  Core question

  Boil-down

  Thematic opposition

  Protagonist type: dramatic or proceduralPoles (if dramatic)

  Procedural protagoinst type (if procedural): iconic or transformationalIconic ethos (if iconic)

  Tactical goal (if transformational)

  Transformational arc (if transformational)

  Genre

  Distinctive angle

  Mode

  Supporting characters (name, role, and notes for each)

  Appendix 2:

  Beat Mapping Quick Reference

  For each beat you find noteworthy:

  Identify its beat type. For ease of reference, these are:foundation beatsDramatic

  Procedural

  information beatsPipe

  Question

  Reveal

  flourish beatsGratification

  Bringdown

  Commentary

  Write an identifying phrase, summing up the beat in a few words.

  Note the beat’s emotional impact with an outgoing arrow.up

  down

  crossed
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  lateral

  If this is the last beat in a scene, identify its transition to the next beat.Outgrowth

  Continuation

  Break

  Viewpoint

  Rhyme

  Meanwhile

  Flashback

  Return

  Flash Forward

  A letter-sized PDF download of this quick reference is available for download at gameplaywright.net/beatingthestory.

  Also from Gameplaywright:

  Hamlet’s Hit Points

  by Robin D. Laws

  The White Box Essays

  by Jeremy Holcomb

  Things We Think About Games

  by Will Hindmarch & Jeff Tidball

  The Bones: Us and Our Dice

  edited by Will Hindmarch