You Don't Move Me Anymore
Way back when, while I had friends who mooned over Mick Jagger, I had a thing for the cadaver next to him. When Keith Richards released a solo album, I was first in line to buy it. As expected, there's some great guitar on it. And as expected, his voice sounds like someone who has boozed, drugged, and smoked his way through all his years on earth. I'm sure I'm not the only person who mentally pictures Keith Richards at age 2 with a Marlboro hanging from his lips. His is not a a polished voice, but a blues voice--and he's no great lyricist, but I like his music.In particularly, he has a song called You Don't Move Me. And of course, it makes me think of writing. Because I recently read a manuscript that . . . well, didn't move me.
I tried to think of why. Each sentence was perfectly crafted. No extra words. Spare. Lean. Writing that I admire.
There were no errors of grammar. Nothing to stop this editor in her tracks.
The voice . . . solid.
The problem at hand? Yes, the hero faced a pretty Herculean crisis.
But I was not moved.
And it was only later that I realized this newer writer had grasped the mechanics of writing, but not the emotion. And later still that I realized PLOT DOESN'T EQUAL CHANGE.
That was it. Because really, when I arrive at a "meh," that is sometimes the problem. Plot advances story. It has a beginning, a middle, an end. But how does the main character CHANGE? Is there an emotional core to the book? It doesn't have to be this massive "message" book. But really . . . there's a story arc, and there's a character arc. If I am, say, going along with a cop on a case, and he solves the case, but isn't forever changed by the case, then it's just a procedural.
That Keith Richards was right. You need to MOVE me.
So how are you going to move your readers?
Labels: character arc, plot
posted by Erica Orloff at 11:26 AM
21 Comments:
Emotions... I love them.
And how's DB today? Dressed and ready for the day?
I really LOVE Keith Richards--there's a man who does it HIS way!
And yeah, I agree on the meh mss, it's all about emotional growth.
Great post and a topic I struggle with myself.
Now, as for Keith. My wife thinks he's awesome. I think maybe he died in the 1980s, just forgot to lie down.
But for an embalmed guy, he's got cool down.
I try to tap into my readers' secret dreams and hopes. And feel their vulnerabilities, and give them someone (my character) who goes through the same things, makes them feel a little less alone, and shows them how special those vulnerabilities really are.
Hi Ladonna:
Naked Strike continues. Today it was "Go naked out in the pouring rain, carrying a mop--out on the lawn." My neighbors think this is clearly the asylum.
E
Hi Alyson:
I think, when I FIRST started writing, I thought it was about characters and making something happen--a plot. Now I realize there's got to be a companion emotional arc.
E
Mark:
He embodies cool. I dig him.
E
spy:
What a lovely way to approach it!!!!
E
ht your post this one made me stop and consider my writing. With my latest I rely on humor and the first person narrator's voice to overcome what I openly call a slight plot. Will it be enough? I guess only time will tell.
Important question, because will changes in the MC resonate with the reader? Will his or her changes read real?
I hope so. (she types crossing fingers and toes and closing eyes tightly)
Travis:
There are people who have very original comic voices that capitivate--it's a type of story. Carl Hiasson does it well, for example.
E
Amy:
It's all in the depth of feeling and execution--I think nearly ANY change can be believable . . . .
E
Can you imagine being the lucky bloke who gets to do Keith's autopsy? Can you imagine all the filth that's going to come oozing out when they slice him open? Bleualch. I think Mick and the boys should call up the Intervention show and coax him down to DelRay for some detox. The fresh air and fruit juice and a nice daily enema will do him good.
Spot on regarding emotional arcs, Erica. Of course to what extent depends on the book. In a noir classic like The Postman always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, the narrator goes from free-spirited tramp to death row inmate. In a sense, the emotional arc in true noir=bad to worse. I can appreciate those dark books on an existential level, but they don't really leave me feeling very good at the end.
On the other hand, I can also appreciate something like Stephen King's The Tommyknockers (I think I might be the only person on the planet who actually read that bloated but masterful piece of whammy cover to cover), with a theme of sacrificing the one to save the many. No HEA ending there either, not by a far cry, but there is a bit of catharsis I think. That's what I strive for, some sort of emotional cleansing, at least that.
Jude:
Like I said . . . it doesn't have to be a message book--but I can't imagine, for example to go back to the cop book, a really superb drama where the case doesn't change the guy forever. I thought . . . what was it . . . Koko by Peter Straub . . . WOW! Not a cop book, but the way those characters were forever changed. I don't like Straub's later work, but Koko BLEW ME AWAY.
E
I'm a "character first, plot as it happens" writer, so hell yeah, that character has to experience some sort of metamorphosis, otherwise they're all just stick figures.
Love the Keith Richards description as the cadaver next to Mick Jagger. Golden!
I agree that the emotional arc is important so what happened in books like The Da Vinci Code, where the characters are wooden and we see little to no change at the end? Actually there are many successful action books which are not about the characters but about the plot. I love books that have both but obviously there are readers out there who don't need that character development.
hehe I have no pat answers for that. But I hope since my stuff makes me laugh and cry that it will affect others in the same way. (and gah, that makes me sound so self-involved.)
Hi Kath:
I agree. They feel like puppets otherwise.
E
Hi Suzanne:
For most people not educated in things like the Gospel of Thomas, rumors surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls' contents, and gnostic Christianity and the Council of Nicene, the Da Vinci Code was shocking, it raised issues they had never heard of or pondered, so in that sense it was an "awakening" of the reading public to things that had never even dreamed of.
E
Zoe:
I hope I make people laugh and cry, too.
E
Mafia Chic made me laugh and cry, and I can't wait for Freudian Slip. (I know you've got other books in existence too, lol)
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