Working with Cause & Effect
By Laura Backes, Publisher, Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's
Writers
When we write fiction, we see the story in our mind long before it's down
on paper. We know why our characters are acting the way they do because we
are familiar with their past and in control of their future. We understand
the significance of every event in the plot. But sometimes we forget to tell
our readers.
Successful fiction is dependent on a logical progression of cause and effect.
In real life nothing happens in a vacuum; feelings are a response to an event,
action is followed by reaction. The same is true in fiction. Three areas where
cause and effect are most important are in the presentation of the main character,
the structure of the plot, and the story's resolution.
The Main Character
The plot springs from your main character, so this character is the most fully
developed and multidimensional person in your story. In order for your story
to be interesting, the main character has to encounter an obstacle or conflict,
has to want something, or a combination of the two. But the reader must also
believe the obstacle your character faces is important. In a sense, this obstacle
is the effect of all that's happened before the story started. Mark wants to
get on the high school basketball team because he thinks it will make him popular
and help him get into college. Why are these things important to Mark? Because
his father abandoned the family six months earlier, leaving Mark's mom to raise
four kids alone. Because Mark is embarrassed about his poor family, and wants
to change his image by becoming a basketball star. Because playing basketball
will make him ordinary — one of the guys. All of these reasons are causes
for Mark's desire to make the team, and all occurred before page one of the
book.
If you simply tell your reader in Chapter One that Mark is trying out for
the team, your reader won't understand (or care) why this is so important.
But since you want to start your book with action and not spend the first chapter
setting up or explaining your character's motivations, you need to present
the conflict and then lay the groundwork as the story progresses. In future
scenes between Mark and his family you can show why Mark wants to escape through
basketball. But if you neglect to show Mark's background — the baggage he
brought to the story — the effect of all that baggage won't ring true with
your readers.
The Plot Structure
Each scene in your book must be a logical extension of the scene that came
before. As you begin a new chapter, ask yourself if you've laid the proper
groundwork in previous chapters for the scenes you're about to write. Don't
manipulate the plot so your story will conveniently end up where you'd like.
If you find your plot twisting in an unexpected direction, go back and revise
previous sections so this new development will make sense to the reader. Each
climax, moment of suspense or tension in your story should be a direct result
of an earlier scene.
The Resolution
If the plot unfolds in a logical, cause and effect pattern, it will end with
an unavoidable resolution. Who the character is, how he or she changed during
the story, and how that character chose to deal with the conflict should lead
to only one conclusion. The reader should be able to look back from the end
of the book and see one path that leads directly from the first page to the
last. The resolution (the effect of all that's gone before) will be satisfying
and believable if the cause is believable. If a character is introduced in
the last chapter who holds the key to the solution of the book's problem, the
chain of cause and effect is broken.
Writing fiction is like building a house. The foundation must be strong, and
each row of bricks has to stand squarely on the row beneath. If the foundation
— the premise of your book — is shaky, the whole house could cave in.
If one wall is higher than another, the roof will be crooked. Your story as
a
whole depends on the strength of each piece, and the entire structure must
be solid for the house to stand. •
More Writing
for Kids Articles
For more information about writing children's books, including
free articles, market tips, insider secrets and much more, visit Children's
Book Insider's
home on the Web at write4kids.com.
Copyright 2001, Children's Book Insider, LLC.
10/30/04
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