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Ben Bova on plot & Byerly notecarding tips:; @lj/wucheydi
Topic Started: May 19 2010, 10:45 PM (7 Views)
wucheydi
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"To develop my novel beyond this point, I used the Ben Bova's (THE CRAFT OF WRITING SCIENCE FICTION THAT SELLS) plot and character development tools. He believes that plot is a characterization device. You must examine your character and find his/her one glaring weakness and attack it through plot. The protagonist should have a complex set of emotional problems where two opposing feelings are struggling with each other. Emotion A vs. Emotion B. (guilt vs. duty, pride vs. obedience, fear vs. responsibility, etc.) He calls the conflict incompatible aims and desires.

This conflict should exist on many levels beginning deep within the protagonist's psyche and should well up into the conflict between the protagonist and the other characters. Resolution of that conflict is the story. He calls it an interior struggle made exterior by focusing on an antagonist (not necessarily a human enemy) who attacks the protagonist's emotional problem."

- http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/indexplot.html

Notecards: On each note card, I put down a major scene or turning point in the central plot of the novel. Each of these scenes gives several important pieces of information on plot or character as well as moving the novel forward by causing change. .
... I laid out the cards for the main plot, then I tried to figure out where the subplots would fit in with it. Most were just decisions in plot logic. Some were decisions about pace.
.... The most important thing to remember is that the note cards and plot summary aren't carved in stone. The book will change as you write it. You must decide if that change is viable to your overall concept of the book and its premise.

-- Marilynn Byerly
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