Glynna's question-- Romance stories: Two Journeys! How can that work?

Glynna asked:
Do you have any tips you could share today on how to best weave the hero's and heroine's journey together in a romance novel? Most books/articles are about the protagonist's journey--singular--and don't address how to most effectively interweave the journeys of TWO leading characters. How to balance and develop them so that they complement each other to make the overall story stronger. Thank you! - 

Glynna, great question. First, I'm going to give you the easy way, which won't fit all stories, especially big epic emotional ones.
1. So the easy way-- not so easy to execute, of course!-- is to think of the COUPLE having a journey to each other. So think about where the couple starts out, and where they'll end up.
For example, my Nat/Matt (Natasha and Matthew) as a couple start out as "frenemies"-- kind of friendly enemies... not really enemies, but two people who are within the same extended family and have had to be polite to each other for years to maintain family peace but have never really gotten along.
They will end up as "allies"-- realizing that they have always both been kind of outsiders in that family unit, and that they have much more in common than different. They even realize the differences make them more, not less, compatible, because as a couple, they are stronger for having different strengths.
So the couple moves from "opposition to alliance."
They each have their own journey, of course, but the -structural- journey, the one that organizes the plot, might be more about the couple as a unit.

2. Another relatively easy way to have two main characters with intersecting journeys might be to determine which of the two has the farthest to travel to get to the end (which in a romance novel, I think, is "being able to give and accept love freely").

That is, they don’t both have to have journeys of the same level of complexity. One might have a longer, harder road. Which? Which has the most trouble giving and/or accepting love?

Example: While Ken escaped their small town and joined the army, Mary stayed home and has spent the last twenty years trying to overcome the obstacles a few early mistakes created for her (early disastrous marriage, dropping out of school to care for a baby, getting enmeshed in an enabling relationship with her addict mother). In my mind, her life journey so far is from “enmeshment to freedom”. But when the book opens, that journey is already partly underway—her child is grown, the marriage is long over, her mother is dead. Her journey in the book is actually shorter— from distrusting her judgment to trusting herself again.
Ken, however, has a longer journey. He escaped the small town, but that meant giving up every bit of intimacy and family he’d had. The army provided another support system, but also plunged him into the agony of war and the loss of friends. And now he’s retiring from the military and has nothing but a pension and a few battle-scars to show for the last two decades. His journey is from alienation to affiliation, and it’s going to be a longer, harder one, because he’s starting from so far back.

Now in this case, I’d make Ken’s journey the structural one, as he has farther to go. So I would make it mostly in his point of view, and have the first scene “his”—he arrives back in town, and he’s got nowhere to go—Dad is dead, Mom’s moved to a retirement village in Florida, his brothers have scattered—but to the house of his old girlfriend Mary.
She’s got her own journey, of course, but she just doesn’t have that much to overcome. She’s got friends, she’s got her daughter, she’s got a job, and she just has to learn to trust herself.
In a story where one journey is the primary one, consider having Lesser-Journey Partner learn/grow through helping (or hindering!) Difficult One on the longer journey.  Mary, for instance, can learn to stop castigating herself for those early mistakes by telling Ken to ease up on his guilt about the past.

3. If, however, you want sturm und drang, a big emotional story with drama and intensity on every page, you might go for them both having long, complex journeys. That results in the sort of “big” book where it’s really not clear how on earth these two people are ever going to be able to end up together. I don’t think I’ve ever written a book that epic, though I love to read them. But of course I have a couple ideas!
First, it might be less difficult if they are connected early by the external plot. You know, if they’re both trying to find the mole in the agency before all their foreign “assets” are revealed and killed, they’re going to have to stay together and sort of get along even if they’re both full of conflict. After all, national security is at stake! So if they’re both going to have long hard internal journeys, see if you can make the external journey more of a joint project where they really have to collaborate.

Second, while you don’t have to give them the same journey, you might see if they can be of the same “hue” or “tone.” If her journey is “distrust to trust,” maybe his can be “independence to inter-dependence.” If you think about it, the one is sort of an echo of another. An independent man will need to trust himself entirely but not really other people. She might need to be self-sufficient because she can’t bring herself to trust anyone else. Similar steps but perhaps a different starting place.

Third, keep in mind that the “genre journey” for a romance is towards “being able to give and accept love freely.” (That’s my assertion, anyway.) I like to figure out if which partner needs to learn which of those. The independent guy might be able to give pretty well, but accepting love will be hard for him because it seems like a sign of weakness. The untrusting lady might be able to accept somewhat, but she’ll be very wary of giving love freely because she thinks the gift might be exploited. So while they’re both going to be moving towards love, the paths they have to tread to get there will be a little different, and notice—her growing to be able to GIVE love will mean he has to grow to be able to ACCEPT that love.

Anyway, what’s most important, I think, is that the events of the external plot push them down their journey roads. The external plot has to keep them together, even when their internal issues might otherwise drive them apart. So see if each of the major external turning points can have an effect on each of their journeys, and also bring them into alliance and/or conflict as a couple.


Long answer, Glynna! Great question! What do you see as your couple’s big challenge in your story?

Vince's example: Exile to home? or vice versa?

Vince asked:
I have a 120,000 word paranormal called "Characters in a Romance" in which there is a cosmic black moment (explosion) and all the romance characters are blown out of their novels to all corners of the universe and they spend the rest of the book, like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz", trying to get back to their own novels. 

They have many adventures along the way with their biggest problem being their inability to prove if they are real or fictional. Neither the real people, who were also blown up, nor the fictional characters are able to come up with a proof for determining who is real and who is fictional. Try to prove you're real.

What a great plot! I’m getting all sorts of resonances here from post-modern themes about authorship and the uncertainty of “reality,” as in Calvino, Ionesco, and more recently, Jasper Fforde in the Thursday Next novels! I can see how this juxtaposition of “fiction” and “real” (especially WITHIN a fiction!) will call into doubt the reliability of many philosophical verities. I think the "proving you're real" is a great theme, but I better just deal with the basic journey today, as that's complex enough.

So to the journey question! I think the significant challenge here is that you have several characters, and they probably each have an individual journey (you know, from distrust to trust). So keep that in mind—each probably has some individual journey to make within the overall journey of everyone getting back to where they belong.  (This might well come into play at the end of the book, where perhaps some characters do make it back to their novels, but others don’t—the individual journey might be a determiner of whether they make it back or not. Possible example later down the page. J)

 So you've set up that as a group, they have this common journey of getting back to their rightful places. I’m going to call that “home,” but I do need to point out that where they started (in that book or on that world or whatever) might not be where they belong.  That is, “home” isn’t always home. Some characters might find another along the way.

 A few thoughts:

1. When in the book does the explosion take place? What I'm wondering is... when does their common journey start? That is, is the actual start:
Journey starts before the explosion: Knowing who you are and your place in reality
or--
Journey starts AFTER the explosion: Not knowing who you are or where you belong in the great scheme of things

The actual placement of the explosion will make a big difference here. If you think in terms of turning points (I’m linking to an article I wrote laying out my schema of turning points, but other analysts will have a different order and terminology), the explosion could take place at the "Inciting Incident", which is usually at the end of the first scene or first chapter-- the first event to set in motion the overall plot.
But you might want to spend 3-4 chapters establishing them in their ordinary worlds, and have the explosion happen as the second turning point (External Conflict Emerges). In that case, the journey would start back in the ordinary world, and so you might need to think more about what would make the ordinary world different as a starting point than it will be as the endpoint. That is, if the journey really starts “where I belong,” and then ends “where I belong,” has it really been a journey? How can you make it more than a circle?
You mentioned Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and she does end up right back where she started? What’s changed? Her attitude towards home, right? She started out feeling that she didn’t belong at home, and ended up knowing that’s where she belonged.
If you have the explosion take place later, so that the journey starting point is clearly “home,” then you might consider that there’s a journey in subtext under that “geographical” one. What’s that underlying journey—which have to do with how they feel about home, and how home feels about them! Think about those quest novels where the young protagonist starts out as a loser in his hometown, leaves on the quest, and comes back a hero because he’s brought back the Holy Grail or killed the dragon or whatever. That’s a journey from “home” to “home,” but there’s been a marked change.


2. Does everyone make it back to where they started? Think about using that question as a way to hint at the individual journeys within the common journey. Some alternative answers:
a. Denny doesn’t get back home because he failed at some essential task on the way.
b. Sandy gets back home, but finds it no longer fits her, and she leaves again.
c. Leo almost makes it home, but sacrifices that goal so that another can make it back.
d. Charlotte almost gets back home, but when she’s on the brink of returning, realizes she never did belong there, and decides not to go.
e. Paul fell in love with an outsider along the way, and decides to stay with her rather than go home.
f. Rorie got sidetracked halfway through, ending up somewhere else, and stayed to help them battle some evildoer, and loves it there now and doesn’t want to leave to go back home.
g. Louie, unbeknownst to the others, is a bad guy and in trying to sabotage everyone else getting back, ends up destroying himself.
In those cases, each of them has some other individual journey, and that journey’s destination isn’t back to home. Even if “home” is where they belong and they get back there, they might need to learn/do/accomplish something else to finally reach the destination.

Anyway, I think you might just keep in mind that there is a common journey (everyone getting back “home”), but each might have his/her own journey, and that individual journey could determine who actually does get home, and what alternatives the others might find.

What do you think? It’s a great story, I can tell already!



And because I’ve been spending too much time on Youtube, a few “home” songs:
Once there was a way to get back homeward (Beatles)
Famous in a small town (Miranda Lambert)

I wish I was homeward bound (Simon and Garfunkel)

Writing Advice! Books and booklets and novels

The Character Journey: The Basic Way to Plot From Character

 
If you see your stories as "character-driven," you might think that you don't have enough to outline a plot. But in this case, I've found using a character journey as the big structural apparatus really help to make a quick outline of the plot. That is, very basically, what is your character's journey through the story? Like:
 
Independence to affiliation
or
Distrust to trust
or
Innocence to corruption
or
Shame to self-acceptance
 
So to start plotting from character, identify where the character starts emotionally/psychologically and where she/he ends up. Then chart the main steps involved:
 
Act 1: She is devoted to her independence in the first act, and I show that (how will the reader know this). She should probably be given the choice to accept help but refuse it.
    End of act 1 (maybe around ch. 2): Something (what) happens that makes her independence more of a problem than a solution. (What happens and how does she react)
 
Act 2: Things heat up on the external plane and make her independence or self-reliance a REAL problem, and she gradually has to change in response to 3-4 events in the external plot. Some group or person should probably be giving her help, or trying to, or trying to get her to affiliate.
    End of Act 2: In the crisis/dark moment, her need to be independent really complicates the external conflict, and she's in huge trouble (or she's about to lose her goal or lose something essential). In the dark moment, she has to choose to change and ask for help or something that compromises her independence but allows her to receive help from being affiliated with someone or some group.
 
Act 3: In the climactic scene, where the external plot resolves, her newfound willingness to accept help allows her to conquer whatever the main conflict in the outer plot is.
     End of Act 3: Because she has now chosen to affiliate, she is more happy and safe, but also might keep her independence a bit by becoming not just a follower but a leader.
 
That is, you're going to have certain things happen in the external plot.  If you have a sense of what the main character needs to learn and accomplish-- the journey's start and destination-- you can mae each of those plot events push the character down that journey road.
 
I try to have a really good sense of where my character starts out, and how she'll react to each plot event given that starting point, and usually, of course, the basic endpoint is fairly obvious once I know how she's limited or damaged at the start.
I have a couple articles on this in my archive. (Ignore the website stuff-- it's under construction for about the 4th year <G>.)
 
 
http://www.aliciarasley.com/arta.htm  Structuring the Plot.
 

I like to analyze other people's plots, but my own... I'll get bored if I outline too deeply. What I'd love to be wild and yet disciplined enough to do is to write wildly and freely in the first draft, and then use outlining and structure to revise it in a second draft.

Alicia

Journey Examples: From Alienation to Affiliation-- Roland in The Gunslinger (Stephen King's Dark Tower)-- A Journey in a Series

Stephen King often uses the character journey to provide the basic structure to his stories. The Dark Tower, which is about Roland's journey to get to the Dark Tower and solve its mysteries, is a good example of this. But within Roland's quest to the Dark Tower (which is motivated by a desire to right a wrong done in his youth), there are several included journeys. That is, he has to accomplish some important stages in the journey before he can achieve his ultimate goal.

King has said that he drew from Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (which is itself based on The Song of Roland which is based on one of the King Arthur tales), and also from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. What's interesting to me about this pairing of influences is that they each deal with the conflict of alienation/affiliation. (For example, it's Frodo's individual quest to get rid of the ring, but Sam immediately comes along, and as they go, they acquire a "fellowship" of comrades to help on the journey and with the war. In the end, though, Frodo faces the pit alone, but is rescued by Sam. There's a real interplay between "independence and affiliation" in the Tolkien series, which King echoes in his own series.)


Roland, when The Gunslinger (the first book) starts, has been alone for many years. His best comrades and his dearest love have long since died. He starts out alone, but ends up almost adopting Jake, a boy who has been plucked from his time and place and deposited here. Roland almost seems to be ready to give up his lonesome ways, but in the end, he sacrifices Jake so he can continue his quest for the Dark Tower.

This is an example of how to use the character journey in a series. If Roland had united with Jake and they ended up still a team at the end of the book, then the journey from alienation to affiliation would be over, and then what for the next six books?

If you, like King, are planning a series with an overall plot (that is, not just linked books, but a true series with a series plot which advances with each book), keep that in mind. There must be some movement on the overall character journey in each book, but the journey can never been fully resolved until the end.

In this first book, Roland is not ready or worthy to finish his journey (either the external one to the Tower or the internal one to affiliation). Instead, he needs to take a step or two in the first book. With the character journey, often there needs to be a step back before there's two steps forward. (That is, we often start to resist the change, even to the point of violent rejection, because change is harder than whatever we think might happen if we don't change.) Presented at the end of Book 1 with the choice between moving ahead in his external journey (to the Tower) and ahead in his character journey (to affiliation), he chooses the Tower. Each choice he makes, good or bad, teaches him something and changes him in some way, perhaps giving him more wisdom or motivation (like to make up for killing Jake) to continue on the journey.

(In future books, he will realize he needs allies, and chooses two who seem like they won't be much help -- passive-aggressive much, Roland? But the group grows into a team, and halfway through the series, Jake is restored to them, and with that, they can truly start making progress towards the Tower. But of course, the internal journey isn't completed until the end.... BTW, did you hear there's an HBO show planned?)

Point is... let the journey's start and end be the Alpha and Omega of the series. Mentally place those scenes, then you can determine how much of the journey belongs in each book.

So--
1. Where does the series character's journey start? Where does it end? (I mean psychologically, not geographically.)
2. Is the journey sufficiently complicated enough to take the whole series to complete? If not, let's talk-- how can you add more steps, or more competing pathways, or ?
3. What psychologically or emotionally is blocking the character from easily making this journey? (like Roland, at base, has lived so long and loved so hard and lost so much... he fears losing everything.)
4. Why is this block not easy for the character to overcome?
5. How can this "block" be used throughout the series to set the character back on the journey?
6. What must happen for that block to be finally resolved to allow the final stage of the journey?

Thoughts? Questions?

I found a live version of the Beatles' Help with John being impish. What did we do before Youtube, I ask you? When I was younger than I am today, I never needed any help in anyway. But now those days are gone and I feel less assured. I know I need you like I've never done before. Help, I need somebody! 



Your own character's journey: Comment here, and we can discuss!

I'm collecting some good character journeys to use as examples for a free character journey class. If you'd like some free brainstorming of your own characters' journeys, comment here! I will disguise the details if I use the example in class. I'm more interested in the category of journey (like "alienation to affiliation") than plot details.

So comment here, and I'll brainstorm with you in an actual post, if I can figure out the magazine template. :).

Here's my overview of how the character journey will work over the three acts of the plot.

EXAMPLE: Journey from Fear to Forgiveness: August Wilson's Fences

I just saw the Indiana Repertory Theatre performance of Fences, one in the cycle of ten plays in August Wilson's magisterial retelling of the 20th Century through the lives of African-Americans in a Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Part of Wilson's greatness is that while there's always definitely a protagonist in his plays, every character has a journey, whether or not it is completed. So in Fences, the father Troy makes a journey from hyper-responsibility to alienation (that is, a negative journey), while his wife Rose moves from apology to self-assertion. Even the more minor characters, such as the sons, have journeys to make through the events of the plot.

Cory, the younger son, moves from fear of his father to forgiveness of his father. Here's how that works out in the three main parts of the play:
Act 1: Cory is a buoyant young athlete, who is being recruited by a college scout. He fears that his charismatic but tyrannical father Troy will refuse to let him take the scholarship. He is right to be afraid, as his father uses anger and authority to command his son's obedience.
Act 2: When Troy's need to be in control escalates into violence, Cory rejects and defies his father and escapes, but he has to leave his beloved mother behind.
Act 3: When Cory returns (now a US Marine corporal) years later, he starts once more to reject Troy by refusing to attend his father's funeral. But the love of his mother and little sister help him to find the strength to forgive the father who wanted to control him but couldn't love him.

So Cory moves from Fear to Forgiveness through the events of the drama.

(August Wilson's plays are characterized by a classically elegant structure and a depth of characterization. If you get a chance to see any of them in performance, go! Here's a video of a performance a couple years ago with Dale R Mcglonn as Troy. Denzel Washington, btw, is currently planning a film.)

Your new plot awaits.