While working as a consultant for Roland Jaffe’s film production company, 20th Century Fox, the Disney Studios, and Tri-Star Pictures, Syd Field, the highly successful screenwriter and author of the book, Screenplay : The Foundations of Screenwriting; A step-by-step guide from concept to finished script, read many hundreds of manuscripts. After a while, he began to notice that the best screenplays had certain things in common. He discovered, in a general sense, that certain types of key events happen in most good stories, and they happen in similar places in the story. His book outlines those events so that other screenwriters may employ similar tactics in their story plotting strategies.
In this movie-driven society, writers of all genres have learned to present their stories more visually. It is the movie industry, after all, that has propelled many writers into showing over telling. So why not adapt Syd Field’s ideas to the writing of romance fiction? The audiences of movies and novels want the same things: a story that keeps them engaged throughout with characters that come to life. These are two items that Syd’ s book addresses in detail, so I have simplified his formula for a good screenplay and adapted it here to apply to romance fiction:
The Inciting Event
The inciting event begins the story with a powerful scene, which sets up the premise for the book in a way that communicates excitement and dilemma. This is where the writer can marry intense internal drama with the action.
In my novel, Flight of the Gryphon due from Double Dragon Publishing under my pen name, Ann Durand, the heroine, Katera, watches as her twin sister, Adrella, is led to the altar for a virginal sacrifice. After Adrella is spirited away to an unknown fate, Katera prays that her parents never have to witness a similar scene at the altar again and vows not to let it happen to her. However, two years later, the summons comes for her to approach the altar. Instead of complying, she elects to escape the only way she can – by constructing her own demise. As chapter one opens, she races toward a river that leads to a waterfall and certain death. She is struggling against a screeching voice inside her head, a voice that she believes is delivered by the oppressive god, Askinadon, who rules over her village. The voice in her head is painful, pain made more acute by her rebellion against a god that no one has ever dared to defy. She believes that death is the only way to cut off Askinadon’s Voice. Yet as the river current carries her swiftly toward the waterfall, she is caught and dragged onto the bank where a stranger cuts a high tech device from her forehead, ending the voice in her head forever.
The inciting event should set up the premise of the book in a way that captures the reader’s attention. The reader should feel compelled to turn the pages to get certain questions answered. In this case, the reader will want to know who Askinadon and the stranger really are. Obviously, they are both from a technologically advanced society, but how did Askinadon come to rule over such a primitive village? And what will happen to Katera now that she is in the hands of this stranger who has helped her? Readers will also want to know what became of Adrella. Is she still alive?
According to Field, the inciting event should carry the story for about one quarter of the way. In a long book, this is about 100 pages, and in a short one, 50 should do the job.
The First Turning Point
This is the place where the protagonist learns that the problem he or she has encountered is not going away. In Flight of the Gryphon, the hero, Mikolen, has been resisting his attraction to Katera because he is so close to finishing a stargate…a stargate he’s been constructing for ten, long years in exile. Soon, he will use it to carry him home, and he doesn’t need the distraction of a woman from the past, even if she is the loveliest being he’s ever seen. Katera, for her part, has learned that Askinadon is only a man, a man who has claimed her sister as one of his brides. She is now determined to infiltrate Askinadon’s camp in an effort to find and rescue her sister. Mikolen, now thoroughly enchanted with Katera, agrees against his better judgment to help her.
Mid Point or Second Turning Point
How many books have you read only to put them down at the halfway point? Chances are the author did not incorporate a second turning point, something huge that happens about midway through the book. Field tells us that for a truly rewarding second wind, the event should be nothing short of earthshaking. If a book is going to lag anywhere, this is a likely spot, and it’s important to guard against it. This event must forward the action for about the next quarter of the book.
Midway through Flight of the Gryphon, Mikolen and Katera must battle their foes to gain control of the stargate in order to survive. They succeed, but are cast into the future with no way to return to the past and Katera’s home. Now, though they are both in love, Katera is so homesick that she cannot agree to marry Mikolen.
Third Turning Point
Now we gear up for ending. This is when the hero or heroine realizes that he or she has been sourcing the problem. A sense of doom and impending disaster permeates this moment. The event or realization should send the characters spinning into a tailwind, with no idea how to solve the problem. In Flight of the Gryphon, Mikolen manages to build a new stargate with the support of a rich donor. Katera has agreed to marry Mikolen if they return to her home in the past, and both are ecstatic…until they discover that the donor has stolen the time machine to suit her own purpose. Katera spirals into grief and Mikolen into anger.
Crisis/Black Moment
At this point in the story, it must feel like nothing can fix the problem. The readers need to be kept in suspense wondering if and how the characters will ever see happiness again. This is a good place to pour it on. This period should be kept brief lest it darken into depression. Paint the moment, and then move into the finale. For Katera, she has not realized that her love for Mikolen is the same, whether she is in the future or the past.
Climax or Resolution
Here, the action plays out so that problems are solved and the characters have gotten what they truly deserve, which in a romance means each other. All loose ends should be addressed, and no questions left unanswered…unless, of course, you’re planning a sequel! Even if you are, you’ll want to make sure the hero and heroine find their happiness together!
I hope you have a great time planning your next plot!
