Dressing Up The Skeleton with Subgenres

What if we decided the meteor story worked better as a Romance? We continue with Dick, love interest Sally, and friend/foe Jane and Ted and the meteor and try on different subgenres.

If we select the Romance skeleton, the focus is on Dick meeting, possessing, or losing the object of his affection: Sally. The meteor, Jane, and Ted present antagonistic and interpersonal obstacles to this goal. There are different ways to dress up a romance.

1. You can add the Contemporary Romance jacket. This is defined by the time period. The obstacles to their love occur post World War II to modern day. It is often combined with or related to the term “women’s fiction.”  Most romances are told from the female’s POV, but doesn’t have to be in certain subgenres. Ted wants Sally, or Jane wants Sally. Jealousy and rivalry keep Dick from achieving his goal. The impending meteor strike adds an element of anxiety. At the final turning point, Dick saves the day and wins Sally's heart forever. Or, Sally and/or Jane saves the day if you want to add a feminist touch.

2. If you add the Historical Romance mantle, it means that the obstacles to love occurred prior to World War II and may feature elements of mystery or “damsel in distress.” In this instance, Sally is directly threatened by Jane or Ted while the impending meteor strike provides atmosphere and heightens emotion. We learn a bit about the history of astronomy along the way, but not too much. In the end Sally and Dick live happily ever after.

3. If you choose the Romantic Suspense trench coat, the meteor strike is a Thriller and Suspense subplot. The setting could be contemporary or historical. The couple’s relationship is tested by the race to save the planet. Will they live to love or will the meteor obliterate them? Ted is foiled. Jane is mollified. Dick and Sally live happily ever after.

4. If you select the Paranormal Romance cloak, one or all of your characters could be vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, or witches. The focus is on the romance and the paranormal elements as they attempt to thwart the meteor strike. The different species may have different agendas. In the end, Dick and Sally wind up together, the normal world is saved, and they are happy about it. Except for perhaps Ted. Or Jane. Or Ted and Jane.

5. If you prefer the Science Fiction Romance jumpsuit, the setting becomes the future, perhaps on a remote lunar outpost. A rocket may circumvent the tragedy, taking out the antagonistic Ted along with the meteor, leaving Dick and Sally to love uninterrupted in their space capsule as Jane waves forlornly from the control room.

6. If you adopt the Romantic Fantasy cape, your story will feature dragons, wizards, or fairies working to repel the meteor heading for them, preferably with magic. Perhaps the near miss with the meteor was foretold in a prophecy naming Dick The Chosen One, which tests his relationship to Sally. Dick and Sally hold onto their love in the face of fantastic odds.

7. If you assume the Time Travel uniform, some - or all - of the cast must travel through time to solve the meteor strike problem. Perhaps Dick travels to the past, leaving poor Sally in the present. Will their relationship survive the distance? If Dick changes something in the past, will Sally still be in the present anxiously awaiting his return? Or will he return to find her happily (or unhappily) paired with Ted? Perhaps Jane sees her chance with Dick now that Sally is out of the way. But in the end, Dick and Sally are reunited and it feels so good.

8. If you don the Erotic Romance sheet, you’ll need to add steamy sex scenes in specific chapters. The impending meteor and Ted and Jane's interference fuel the fire. As long as they fog up the windows while fighting for their lives, you're good to go. In the end, the meteor misses and Dick and Sally wind up in bed, thankful to have dodged the celestial bullet. Ted and Jane may end up in bed together as well, even though they pretend to hate each other.

Whatever costume you choose, your romance should satisfy the reader by answering the question: “Will they or won’t they?” The answer should be, “Yes.” If your reader is titillated and satiated by the story’s end, they will love you for it.

The four layers method is versatile enough to work with any genre, subgenre, and mixed genres. Breaking the story down into the types of conflict keeps the reader turning pages. A conflict can be as small as trying to get a cup of coffee and being interrupted and diverted along the way to Starbucks or as massive as a space opera with cowboys fighting aliens.

As always, if you find this information useful, please like and share. 

The four layer method is laid out in Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict, available in paperback and e-book if you wish to have a copy with all of the information. The theory information is also available on https://dianahurwitz.com/

Stacking The Layers

We have developed our scenes. Now let's look at the best way to arrange them. We began with the premise for a story involving a meteor streaking toward earth, a conflicted scientist, his crumbling marriage, and a coworker who makes his life miserable.  We decided to make the story about Dick, love interest Sally, bossy Jane, jealous Ted, and the meteor streaking toward earth. We have selected the Disaster Thriller format and created at least ten ideas for each layer of conflict. The next step is to decide which order works best for each scene.

We have come up with ten basic ideas for all four layers of conflict. You may find you need to add more scenes to fill in the gaps in the story. You may change your mind about elements of the plot. The point is to have a series of prompts that keeps you working through your rough draft. You can tweak and enrich the draft during the revision layers. Things will come to you as you write that you didn’t think of before. Your characters will come alive and may change the trajectory of your story. That’s expected. What’s important is to avoid getting stuck in the muddy middle.

Let’s layer the scene ideas we've developed in the most logical order.

INCITING EVENT

Internal Conflict 1: Dick and Sally make plans to go on a long-awaited vacation. He gets a call.

External Conflict 1: Dick learns a meteor will strike.

Antagonist Conflict 1: Ted learns there is a meteor headed toward earth. Finally, the world can be destroyed and he doesn’t have to lift a finger. All he has to do is sit back and watch the show.

Interpersonal Conflict 1: Jane meets with Ted to declare her feelings before it is too late. He manipulates her into helping him without telling her the real reason.

Internal Conflict 2: Dick informs Sally that he isn’t retiring after all. He can’t tell her why.

Antagonist Conflict 2: Dick has come up with a plan. Ted vows to make sure it doesn’t work.

Interpersonal Conflict 2: Jane meets with Dick and gives him erroneous data.

External Conflict 2: Dick thinks of a way to stop the meteor while it is still far away. He will nudge it with a satellite.

Interpersonal Conflict 3: General Smith argues that his satellite is too important to be used to adjust the meteor’s trajectory. It could cause more harm than good. They should blow up the meteor.

Internal Conflict 3: Dick and Sally fight about the vacation. Looks like we have to cancel it.

Antagonist Conflict 3: Ted is denied access to the equipment. He has something on one of the ground crew, Bob, and uses that pressure to convince him to tamper with the equipment.  Bob objects, "But we’ll all die.”  Ted threatens, "Do you want to die now or later?"

Interpersonal Conflict 4: Bob tries to tinker with the satellite, but almost gets caught by Jane.

Antagonist Conflict 4: Ted confronts Dick. "Why are you trying to stop the inevitable?"

Interpersonal Conflict 5: General Smith relents and allows the satellite to be used.

External Conflict 3: The satellite crashes into the meteor, but doesn’t change the trajectory.

TURNING POINT ONE

Internal Conflict 4: Sally gives Dick an ultimatum: "I’m tired of waiting. It’s me or the job." Dick replies, "If I don’t do this there won’t be any me or you." Sally asks, “What do you mean?” To which Dick replies, “I can’t tell you.”

External Conflict 4: Dick comes up with plan to divert the meteor with a laser beam.

Antagonist Conflict 5: Dick has come up with a new plan. So Ted must get Bob to tamper with the laser beam.

External Conflict 5: They can’t get the beam close enough from the ground.

Antagonist Conflict 6: Ted calls Sally and tells her Dick and Jane are having an affair.

Internal Conflict 5: Sally accuses Dick of having an affair with Jane at work. Dick is called away.

Interpersonal Conflict 6: Captain Curtis balks at sending the laser to the space station.

External Conflict 6: They send the laser to the space station. The equipment breaks off and is lost in space.

TURNING POINT TWO

Internal Conflict 6: Dick finds Sally packing her bags. Dick says, "Don’t leave. I love you. I’ve always loved you."

She replies, "Then why are you ruining things?" Should he tell? Is it better for her to know or not know that their days are numbered?

Antagonist Conflict 7: Dick confronts Ted. "You had something to do with this." Ted replies, "You’ll never prove it and in a few days it won’t matter anyway."

External Conflict 7: They are back to the drawing board - all seems lost. They enter countdown mode.

Internal Conflict 7: Sally tells Dick that she received a call from Ted and that he said there was no reason for Dick to stay at work. That he is lying to her.

External Conflict 8: Dick comes up with a final plan. It is do or die. They will nuke the meteor.

Antagonist Conflict 8: Ted must find a way to make certain the shuttle doesn’t take off.

Interpersonal Conflict 7: Captain Curtis appeals to his crew. Is anyone willing to go? Captain Curtis decides to go himself.

Internal Conflict 8: Dick tells Sally the truth.

CLIMAX

External Conflict 9: They rev up the shuttle loaded with a lethal payload to intercept the meteor and, despite last minute glitches, the shuttle takes off on a suicide mission.

Antagonist Conflict 9: Ted’s attempts to prevent take off fail.

Interpersonal Conflict 8: Ted and Jane have a show down. Jane can’t believe Ted is so evil.

Internal Conflict 9: Dick and Sally spend the evening together knowing it may be their last.

Interpersonal Conflict 9: Bob rats on Ted.

Interpersonal Conflict 10: Jane and Bob celebrate when the shuttle succeeds.

Antagonist Conflict 10: Ted is led off in handcuffs.

RESOLUTION

External Conflict 10: Their plan succeeds and everyone lives, except the crew of the shuttle.

Interpersonal Conflict 11: General Smith tells Dick to stay. He is too valuable an asset to retire.

Internal Conflict 10: Dick and Sally leave for the airport to go on their vacation.

THE END

Now that we have a basic outline of the plot progression, we can begin our first draft. If massive changes are made along the way, it doesn’t hurt to repeat this exercise at the end. Make a list of each scene and the conflict it addresses. Does it still flow in a logical cause and effect order? 

Next week, we will take a look at how subgenres can affect the story idea.

As always, if you find this information useful, please like and share. 

The four layer method is laid out in Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict, available in paperback and e-book if you wish to have a copy with all of the information. The theory information is also available on https://dianahurwitz.com/

Working the Theory Internal Conflict Scenes

 

Internal Conflict scenes introduce and explore the personal dilemma your protagonist struggles with. The verbal camera is focused with a tight spotlight beaming on the protagonist in the background. Use these scenes to reveal the protagonist’s back-story and show him dealing with his guilt, pain, or need which leads up to and is resolved by his point of change.

These conflicts test the protagonist’s character and faith. They make him question who he is and what he does. These are the emotional complications or ties that bind that complicate the overall story problem.

If the love interest has equal weight, you can explore her personal dilemma and point of change in these scenes as well.

Internal conflict scenes can be flashbacks, dreams, and revelations of back-story through memories or an encounter with a friend or foe.

You can show him exhibiting one type of behavior in the beginning and a complete reversal of behavior at the end to show the point of change.

These scenes can reveal the event that happened in the past and how it changed him: he deals with the death of his partner, the loss of his wife, or the child he didn’t save.

The internal conflict often culminates in the section after the climax, where we find out if the protagonist lives happily ever after. It can also culminate just prior to the climax.

That does not mean other characters cannot be in these scenes or that he is not doing anything. It means the verbal camera is zeroed in on his thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions to the underlying problem that drives him and complicates the overall story problem.

In this Thriller, Dick’s personal dilemma focuses on his marriage. His marriage is on the rocks because he is a workaholic. He had planned to retire but this latest crisis forces him to keep working.

Internal Conflict 1: Dick and Sally make plans to go on a long-awaited vacation. He gets a call.

Internal Conflict 2: Dick informs Sally that he isn’t retiring after all. He can’t tell her why.

Internal Conflict 3: Dick and Sally fight about the vacation. Looks like we’ll have to cancel it.

Internal Conflict 4: Sally gives Dick an ultimatum. “I’m tired of waiting. It’s me or the job.” Dick replies, “If I don’t do this there won’t be any me or you.” Sally asks, “What do you mean?” To which Dick replies, “I can’t tell you.”

Internal Conflict 5: Sally accuses Dick of having an affair with Jane at work. Dick is called away.

Internal Conflict 6: Dick finds Sally packing her bags. He begs, “Don’t leave. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Sallies feels otherwise, “Then why are you ruining things?” Should he tell? Is it better for her to know or not know that their days might be numbered?

Internal Conflict 7: Sally tells Dick that she received a call from Ted and that he said there was no reason for Dick to stay at work. That he is lying to her.

Internal Conflict 8: Dick tells Sally the truth.

Internal Conflict 9: Dick and Sally spend the evening together knowing it may be their last.

Internal Conflict 10: Dick and Sally leave for the airport to go on their vacation.

In the next section, we will look at the best way to layer our scenes. 

As always, if you find this information useful, please like and share. 

The four layer method is laid out in Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict, available in paperback and e-book if you wish to have a copy with all of the information. The theory information is also available on https://dianahurwitz.com/.