Want to create fiction on the fly? Haven’t finished anything in years? Mary Robinette Kowal @MaryRobinette, Hugo and Nebula-winning SFF author, has a wonderful method of story construction she recently tweeted about. Check it out!
Writing is fractal – Once you understand how a technique works at a paragraph level, you can scale down to sentence level, or up to scenic level. pic.twitter.com/BpBrReBwSB
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Girded with the MICE Quotient, we venture forth to see if I can teach you to write a piece of flash fiction via twitter. Ready?
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Where – Link a sensory detail to the location. So rather than, “She stood in the battleship’s engine room” go for “The thrum of the battleship’s engines resonated through her feet.”
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Genre – Get your genre-specific detail in as fast as you can. Preferably in the first three lines. (Time period is a genre, FYI)
For instance, “battleship’s engine thrummed” could be multiple time periods. “Quantum drive thrummed” is more specific.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Done that? Good. Now you have an opening. Let’s talk about middles. To have a middle, you need a conflict.
Conflicts are all about your character is trying to achieve a goal and failing. This is often called a try/fail cycle.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Excercise: No more than two sentences.
What is your character trying to do and why?
That’s the set-up of your first try/fail cycle.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Still with me? Well done, you.
Look at what you have on the page. Identify the MICE quotient.
Are they trying to escape? Milieu
Are they trying to answer a question? Inquiry
Are they unhappy with themselves? Character
Are they trying to change the status quo/normal? Event— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
When something fails, they try a different approach to get to the same goal. This is a try/fail cycle. As the author, your job is to knock the character down and then pick them up again.
It doesn’t take much. Asking a question and being snubbed is a try/fail.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
In Single-thread mode, the consequences are a direct result of their attempt to achieve the goal as well as blocking them from achieving that goal.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
In multi-thread mode, the consequences of one action affect another goal. You most commonly see this in Event threads, when the solution is to sacrifice a Character goal by giving up something precious or by doing something emotionally demanding.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Coming out of the middle – We open questions until the 2/3 or 3/4 mark, then need to close them. (This is why you bog down there, fyi)
You’ve been using “Yes, but” and “No, and”
Switch to “Yes, and…” and “No, but…” as things start to go in your character’s favor.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Hint: Western fiction is based on the Rule of 3. 3rd times the charm. Three times is funny. Bad things come in threes.
If you want something to feel easy, use fewer than 3 try/fails. Harder, use more.
Three works well, but becomes a problem when it’s the only pattern you use.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Same techniques apply to the ending. It’s a mirror of the opening.
So, again, we need to know: Who, Where, and genre/mood
These things have shifted over the course of the story, so hitting those points again helps us see the change.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Good job. In theory, you now have a rough draft. It may be longer than 250 words, it may be shorter, but it exists.
Questions?
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Oh, and shameless plug…
If you want a class like this, once a month, try my patreon? Or if you just want to support my habit of doing EXTREMELY long twitter threads.https://t.co/trDtmgkBdH
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) September 26, 2019
