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Stories are the framework of writing, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. Stories are the way humans communicate and learn, so it's critical we understand as writers how to improve our stories.
In this video, I interview David Baboulene, author of The Story Book about improving story, sub-text and how to engineer a commercial bestseller like Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.
In this video, David talks about:
- The 3 framework elements of story. (i) Arc of character growth. Every great story has a character that changes and grows (ii) Key questions that need to be answered by the conclusion of the story. iii) Subtext – the more there is.
- What is sub-text anyway? It's the underlying story. It's not written i.e. it's not obvious at the textual level. It's about introducing gaps in knowledge that the reader fills in which produces intrigue and engagement. Introducing knowledge gaps is important and the reader will fill in the blanks.
- How to improve your story using these techniques. Where is the power in this story? Look at character growth. Look at where the story really starts. Many first drafts have the inciting incident very late so consider cutting a lot of front matter once you find where the story really kicks off. Look at the questions you have opened, and ensure you address the questions by the end.
- On Lee Child's opinion on character development. When you're writing a series, if you allow your characters to change and grow, you run out of plot. So you can have other characters change around the character, and they can stay the same. Jack Reacher stays the same in every book, but characters in the book change around Jack. (If you haven't tried a Jack Reacher, check out my review of Worth Dying For here.)
- On engineering a bestseller. Lee Child came out of television and designed the book around a character. People remember characters, not what they do. (David has an interview with Lee Child in The Story Book)
You can find David at Baboulene.com where there are details about The Story Book, which is available online at Amazon and other stores.
View Comments (9)
Hi Jo. Quick note to thank you for your wonderful website and for being a perfect host!
Also wanted to add another thought about Lee Child’s method of incorporating character growth and yet keeping Jack Reacher constant for the series.
Essentially, the trick is that you have a protagonist who, during the story, gets to the very point of growing and changing and getting fulfilled (in whatever way that means for them) but turns it down at the last second. Jack Reacher usually wanders into a town at the beginning of a story, and by the end of it he’s a hero who has won himself a princess and the keys to the city… he could settle down and live happily ever after - but something inside him won’t let him settle, and he slips away in dead of night to start again in some new city.
By having Jack as a perennial wanderer in search of himself, Lee Child has made Jack troubled and emotional and empathic and ‘real’ in that sense. Jack can then go through the desired process of character growth… but not accept it. He’s not ready. So he drops back to the start and therefore makes himself available for sequel, but we in the audience have been on the character growth journey with him, so the story has that power…
More on this on my own blog (www.thescienceofstory.blogspot.com).
Thanks again and all the best!
David
Excellent interview Joanna! The videos go a long way to taking in the passion of the people you interview. David is very much to the point of his thoughts and ideas of writing. Looking forward to more!
I'm glad you enjoyed it Junior, I like doing the live video thing :)
Hi Joanna and David! Great interview. I especially enjoyed the part about subtext. I've been unsure how much to put in, but now I'm comfortable with the number of incidents creating my subtext after listening to David explain it. Also the character growth is a huge part of my story, so I'm glad to hear that the growth and depth of the character is what readers remember most. When someone breaks it down like this, it's like a light bulb moment..."oh yeah, why didn't I think of that? I see it all the time in the books I read and movies I watch."
I guess that proves the idea correct that we should break down other novels to look at how they are constructed as part of our education in writing. Thanks for another great video, Joanna.
Thanks Marcia and I feel I really broke through when I dissected a James Rollins novel end to end so I appreciate that comment :) It sounds like you have subtext nailed as well, I need to work on that.
Great interview Joanna. Thanks for the wealth of information you provide just about every day. How do you do it?
Thanks Maurice - I'm keen of on a mission to be the one of the best places to come for this type of info and Google ranking is all about quality content & traffic :) Plus, there is so much stuff to share, we are at an amazing point in the history of authors and writing!
I love this blog. :D
This interview is really informative, thanks! It's so lovely how you basically went out of your way to get it done and post it up!
At times I've had problems dealing with "What happens next?" myself. I like the notion of having everything change/grow around a character instead of the character finding more ways to grow - thanks for putting that in context.
I appreciate your love Hiroko and also your comments :) I've got a series so I struggle with the character arc thing too, I think I will aim for the James Bond type of approach which is similar to Jack Reacher.