Dangerous Behind the Scenes
Oct202009
I was cleaning off my desktop and found this quotation:
“It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved. ”
— Somerset Maugham
Which I gather means you’re all going to turn on me. Well, it was always just a matter of time.
So we were talking about rewriting for audience (well, I was talking about rewriting for audience) and it occurred to me that a lot of rewriting a first draft is about finding out what the scene is about. That is, a lot of first drafts are visceral; you know this happens and then this happens and then this happens, but you don’t know why and you don’t care because you’re just writing down the first draft. Overthinking your first drafts just drives you into a corner and keeps you there, spinning your wheels. But once the first draft is done, you do have to look at it and figure out why that scene needs to be there.
This is where the conflict box is such a lifesaver (and once again, thank you, Michael Hauge). The conflict box can show you how to take a mushy conflict and make it all tight and shiny. The first draft of the scene we just did had Andie wanting to give back the checks and start her life over, and North wanting her to take the job. The problem with that was although it looked like a solid conflict, there was no there there because, as North pointed out, Andie didn’t need to reboot her life that very minute. She could wait a month. So the conflict box fell apart:
That is, North offering Andie the job doesn’t thwart her in starting her new life, and Andie giving back the checks doesn’t stop North from fixing the kid situation. It’s not a conflict lock, a fight to the death.
That’s important because, for a conflict to work, the characters’ goals have to be at cross purposes. So if North’s goal was to get Andie to take the job, Andie’s goal had to be something that absolutely barred her from taking the job. I had nothing on that one. But if Andie’s goal is to move on with her life and forget about North, and North’s goal is to stop that move and put himself back in her life, we have a conflict lock:
All I have to do now is tweak that scene again so that North offers her a permanent job, and she negotiates it down to a month, which works really well with her whole problem as a bolter. If I do that, the conflict becomes North being caught by surprise by the alimony checks and the remarriage news and moving automatically to block her. The action is still the same–she comes in to sever the connection and he offers her a job–but the motivations are different. So the scene is no longer about whether she takes the job, now it’s about whether that relationship is over, which, let’s face it, is a lot more interesting and carries a lot more consequence with it.
If that makes sense. I love the conflict box. It simples things up so much.
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67 Comments to 'Dangerous Behind the Scenes'
On October 20, 2009 at 10:54 am kate said...
No, we aren’t going to turn on you. I am just a reader, not a writer, but I keep up with your blog because I am interested in the process not just the end result. You bring up things I never knew about writing and I think it enriches the reading experience. Thank you so much.
On October 20, 2009 at 11:08 am Kiersten said...
This is great. I’m slogging through my first draft, and though I know I just have to get it done and can go back and fix things in the revisions, the goal, motivation and conflict questions keep haunting me. I’m visually oriented, so this box really gives me a terrific guide. Also helps to have read North and Andie’s chapters and be able to apply the box to that. Thanks!
On October 20, 2009 at 11:32 am Lori J. said...
These little craft lessons are so great. Small dollops that my little brain can understand and absorb. I now get that the conflict box and all the other craft stuff isn’t used until after the first draft is written. I mean, I knew it, I just didn’t get it. No wonder writing this first draft has been driving me crazy, I’m still wanting to apply craft to the first draft. My mantra is now No Craft to First Draft!
On October 20, 2009 at 11:41 am helen said...
Indeed. But the voice over my shoulder keeps harping at me about fixing all the conflicts when all I really want to do is get the damn first draft on paper. I’ve decided to paint CBA (conflict box alert) next to printed-out chapters and keep typing. Anybody want to share other mind tricks to keep that first draft coming?
On October 20, 2009 at 11:49 am McB said...
You know, I like it better already, just going by the conflict box. Yay.
Hmm. I don’t consider this stuff to be “behind the scenes” so much. That’s just details. Like pointing out all the best shiny bits so we don’t miss them. Behind the scenes would be if you told us where the shiny bits came from, what they cost, and who you had to kill to get them. They’d be considerably less shiny if we knew there was blood involved. There might well be, but we don’t want to know about it.
On October 20, 2009 at 12:01 pm Jenny said...
Oh. You mean like I haven’t been out of my pajamas in three days, and when it’s 3AM and I can’t figure out what the scene is about but I know it has to be there, I roam the house looking for candy the kids may have dropped but the dogs haven’t found yet?
That would probably be TMI.
On October 20, 2009 at 12:12 pm toni said...
Yeah, that candy bit totally put you on probation for at least a year. Unless you saved some for us, and then you’re fine.
On October 20, 2009 at 12:16 pm Kate George said...
Oh my, that would be me too, if my husband didn’t shame me into getting dressed everyday. So I’m not in my jammies but I’ve been wearing the same clothes for three days. I’ve been sleeping with my head on the keyboard instead of getting into bed and now there’s a checkerboard imprinted on my face.
And I already found all the candy AGES ago so I’m reduced to eating chocolate chips.
On October 20, 2009 at 3:38 pm toni said...
Kate, I’m glad to know someone else does this. I found Halloween candy a few weeks ago. (My sons are 27 and 23, so if you do the math…)
The tootsie rolls were kinda hard, but still tasted fine.
On October 21, 2009 at 8:08 am Naked Under My Clothes said...
I consider eating chocolate chips as going to the source. Like eating raw veggies instead of cooked, limp ones. It’s getting down to basics and therefore virtuous.
On October 21, 2009 at 2:06 pm Kate George said...
The Source! I like that! I’m not raiding my baking supplies, I’m going to the source. I feel much better about myself already (despite the four day old clothes!)
On October 25, 2009 at 3:00 pm Shangrila said...
That’s genius!
On October 20, 2009 at 12:24 pm McB said...
If you’re stealing candy from the babies, that would definitely take the shine off. But probably we’d forget about it (okay, we’d be distracted by a shiny something else – short attention spans here) by the time the book hit the shelves.
On October 20, 2009 at 10:34 pm Micki said...
Oh dear. I’m on day three for these jeans. I swear, I really was going to take a shower this morning. My schools are all closed because of the flu, so I thought I’d take a little mental health break . . . and wound up reading Turn and The Yellow Wallpaper, and not bathing. I did take a bike ride in the beautiful fall air, though, so maybe my interior decorating will not turn on me after all.
(-: I think we, your fans, have a knack for turning things into illusion, so feel free to share the details. We will romanticize the crap out of it, LOL!
On October 20, 2009 at 12:24 pm Marta said...
Okay, my universe is starting to line up in a weirdly connected way. I just watched the conflict box video on Bob’s site, and then came over here. To find Jenny blogged about the conflict box.
Personally, I’ m a ‘how’d they do that?’ kinda gal. I love technical specifications, and the conflict box is such a great example of a simple, user friendly one. It makes it so clear when things aren’t as solid as they should be. I’m also a “why’d they do that?” kinda gal, and the conflict box sure does make quick work of isolating motivation.
As for the seeing behind the curtain, I always loved those Magic Curtain movies we saw in grade school back in the ’60′s. What a great way to learn.
On October 20, 2009 at 1:26 pm Jenny said...
Bob has a VIDEO on the conflict box?
We never talk any more.
Okay, everybody, go over to http://www.bobmayer.org and see the shiny video. I’ve been one-upped.
ETA: I jumped the gun. I went over there and couldn’t find it. Marta, where is it?
On October 20, 2009 at 1:47 pm Absolute Cherry said...
It’s a YouTube link just below and to the left of his picture (Conflict Lock, from DVD set).
On October 20, 2009 at 12:35 pm tennis41 said...
You know I’ve attended your conflict box workshop twice and I was a huge lurker on HWSW, which was the most helpful blog ever. (Don’t reach for the phone to call the cops, I’m a beginner writer not a stalker) but I never got how to make the conflict box work for me. Today, I got it. Thanks.
On October 20, 2009 at 1:59 pm Egads said...
Bob has a YouTube link on his front page: “Conflict Lock, from DVD set”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuG8bksFu9A
On October 20, 2009 at 2:08 pm Steph said...
This behind the scenes tour is perfect timing for those of us in Lani’s Revision class. Thanks. Well, it was interesting anyway but now I have something to go and use it on. And I knew conflict boxes were useful but I’ve never gotten my hands/ brain dirty and into them and now that I’m diligently revising my story I know there’s no way out of it. I’ve gotta do Conflict Boxes. Damn.
And eating the kid’s candy isn’t a bad thing. It keeps them from getting cavities. You’re actually doing them a favor. Really.
On October 20, 2009 at 2:15 pm TerriO said...
I prescribe to the “vomit it out” first draft theory and it’s the only thing that has kept me moving forward. If you want a prettier term for it (I realize that is not a nice visual) you can call it the AS IF method. Keep writing AS IF what you have is all good.
I’ve never heard of the conflict box, and since I have the most trouble finding motivations and creating conflict, I’m sure glad I know about it now. Off to check out the video.
On October 20, 2009 at 7:38 pm helen said...
The As If Draft. I like that. That’s a good viz.
On October 21, 2009 at 9:24 am TerriO said...
I can’t take credit for the idea as like most things, it’s something I read elsewhere. But since my memory is pretty much non-existent, I can’t remember where I found it. I do remember at the time, I was also looking for a house and kept getting AS IF mixed up with AS IS. Which is something totally different.
On October 20, 2009 at 2:21 pm Susan D said...
Right! The conflict box. How could I have forgotten? It’s all filed under my “good advice” docs. I’ve gone and make a permanent link to it and to this blog post, so I can pull it up in a emergency (if I remember to).
Now, to go watch Bob’s vid.
On October 20, 2009 at 2:43 pm Sure thing said...
Ooh. I’m a counsellor by trade – this sort of diagram reminds me of the Games People Play by Eric Berne.
On October 20, 2009 at 3:37 pm Judy Long said...
I definitely love this behind the scenes thing you are doing. I have a book written which I will be rewriting after reading Evanovich’s How I Write and just reading your books period. I learned so much. I am working on another book. This is so much help. It is affirming also as I saw the things you said in the conflict box when I read the scene & the conflict box made it so much more clear. Can’t wait to have my own first draft of my current book to rework.
Thanks so much Jennifer. I will never turn on you!
On October 20, 2009 at 4:44 pm Sierra said...
Turn on you? Never. The behind the scenes stuff, whether it’s mini-writing workshops or life at your house with the kids around, makes me love you even more. And as a reader, it makes me respect your work more, too. (I didn’t think that was physically possible.)
The conflict box is awesome. I’d seen it ages ago when I first stumbled across your website and you had a link to it. I didn’t have any use for it then, but I’m considering doing National Novel Writing Month this year, so it’s gonna get some use, as well as the seven questions.
I loved your terms in the last post – draft-for-you and draft-for them. I’ve always struggled with trying to make first drafts too perfect, and phrasing it like that helped me to see it in a different light. Maybe now I can stop obsessing over whether the phrasing is concise (in the first draft) or whatever, and can just write it out to re-approach and refine later.
On October 20, 2009 at 5:08 pm Diane L. said...
Jenny,
You are a born teacher, like it or not.
On October 20, 2009 at 5:17 pm Jenny said...
Oh, I like it. I was born to teach, not to write. Which is why I whine so much when I write.
In other news, Jen read the first 175 pages and says AKMG is the best book I’ve ever done. So I’m feeling very chuffed right now.
On October 21, 2009 at 11:36 pm Moth said...
I wanna read it!
On October 25, 2009 at 3:07 pm Shangrila said...
OMG-the best book you’ve ever done?!!! *copious applause*
On October 20, 2009 at 5:32 pm Diane (TT) said...
I’m very happy for you on the AKMG review by Jen (is she now OK with the title, or is that on the back burner?)! SO looking forward to it!
In other news, I may have just given myself a melted-cheese burn on my left thumb when my dinner glopped on it. Better than on the face, I guess (I don’t think the bit on my lower lip will be a problem. I hope).
Although it is very generous of you to share your skills, teaching others to write, I am quite sure that you’re increasing world happiness more by being a writer. I would probably still be sane without your books to read for fun and comfort, but I would hate to have to try that experiment!
On October 20, 2009 at 5:33 pm Savvy2 said...
I could never turn on you. I sat through one of your workshops once. It was in Dallas, I think, and it was the best for me, ever. I’ve never been disillusioned by your work, either. Never. And the Conflict Box is cool. I love all the craft stuff.
On October 20, 2009 at 6:09 pm Carol Anne said...
Oh, this was very helpful. The process of writing and reading the novel are both equal in my little world. The light bulb goes when one must read a book cover to cover (in pjs or sweats, eating candy), when an author has written a world full of characters and you must, must, must find out what happens next, that is the craft of writing. To watch the process and read the end result is wonderful. It is an “ah” moment to see how a very talented writer weaves the story. Puts a big smile of contentment on my face.
On October 20, 2009 at 7:06 pm Sharon said...
My family came across the conflict box in quite a different setting over 10 years ago. Our teen boy was giving us so many problems that we sought counseling. The guy was young and used the box idea to define the conflict we were having. Our son was told to write down what his conflit was as well. Then we had to figure out how to end the conflicts. We did one per session-too many would have overwhelmed us. I think it is probably lots more fun to create conflict for a book than to try doing away with conflicts with a teen!!
On October 21, 2009 at 9:35 am Danielle said...
Thats a really interesting way of solving a conflict, Sharon. Did it work for your family?
On October 20, 2009 at 8:49 pm JulieB said...
We would NEVER turn on you — except for that PORT thing that time back before you changed the blog. But it was just a mini-revolt. We had a beach ball and everything.
On October 20, 2009 at 9:35 pm BCB said...
Okay, damnit, I just have to say that every time I read “turn on you” my brain reads it as “turn you on.” This has made for some very entertaining reading over here.
I think it would be an interesting conflict if he were to suggest not a job, but a marriage. As a convenience. Or for the good or continued custody of the kids. For practicality. Whatever. Then watch him convince her it’s for anything but romance. And see her try to squirm her way out of it when she doesn’t really want to. I think it would up the stakes of the conflict. It’s easy to quit a job (and please, any self-respecting woman would quit this one, if it were just a job). Takes guts to quit a marriage, twice. Or to stop that from happening, a second time. But that’s just me.
Write faster. Go.
On October 20, 2009 at 9:45 pm GatorPerson said...
But Jenny is rewriting The Turn of the Screw. So she can’t have him propose. Oh, glarp! I guess I’ll have to reread that varmint sometime so’s I actually know what I’m talking about. It’s been about 50 years ago when I was forced to read it.
On October 20, 2009 at 10:24 pm BCB said...
Pfffft. Jenny can write whatever she wants to write. Of course, it helps (or hurts) that I never read TOTS and have no idea what it’s about. I’m so pedestrian. Plebian. Both.
Oh! How about she has been cashing the checks all along, out of desperate helpless Victorian need. And now, in order to move on, and after years of sacrifice and saving every spare tuppence, she comes to repay the debt. Only he won’t accept her money. However, His Royal Arrogance will accept her indebtedness. And it occurs to him there is one way she could repay him.
Sorry, I’m having a problem with her motivation for doing this, in this day and age. I’m not convinced re how she sees it as her problem. Why wouldn’t she just go off and get married to whatshisname and live moderately ever after? Again, probably that’s just me.
What’s that? Oh, you weren’t asking for a free-for-all brainstorming session? Ooops. My bad. Must go write my own book now. As you were.
On October 20, 2009 at 10:34 pm robena grant said...
And so you should feel chuffed. : ) I’m chuffed for you!
I read this blog earlier but didn’t have time to reply. I did the conflict box on the first four scenes of my WIP before Lani’s class. It’s amazing how helpful it is and yet I’d forgotten about it.
Thanks.
On October 20, 2009 at 10:49 pm Micki said...
No, no, no, no, she’s not re-writing Turn of the Screw. It’s simply inspiration, and she’s — re-righting it. Fixing that poor, crazy girl and giving her a clue or two. So she can do anything she wants!
But I’m not crazy about the “marrying North again for convenience” idea. Too Victorian Gothic for me. Next thing you know, she’ll be sprouting secret babies and the Ghost of Henry James will possess one of the children, and cause the little boy to say, “Piss off, my dear, I need some space.”
Ohio needs a little more bleak moor for that kind of thing to work, I think.
But page 173, and Jen the editor likes it. (-: Sounds like birthing pains, to me, and I am glad that all the suffering I need to do to get it is to wait the next year or so until it comes out in stores.
On October 20, 2009 at 11:30 pm Jenny said...
If I get it done in good time, it’ll be out next fall. Which is super fast, so go SMP. Also I did one Marriage-of-Convenience story and it was my last. It’s almost impossible to make those suckers work in contemp romance.
And I love “re-righting.”
On October 21, 2009 at 8:45 pm Micki said...
(-: No rush. There’s also Wild Ride coming out in the meantime.
On October 20, 2009 at 11:03 pm Corrine Jackson said...
Don’t. Stop. What. You’re. Doing. Period.
I finished my first novel in March and went through a few rounds of edits. It is lonely work that turns me manic with all the ups and downs. Having seen your end product, I feel so much better knowing you’ve felt my pain. You know what I mean. I admire you for metaphorically lifting your skirt.
On October 21, 2009 at 1:00 am Marta said...
Best book you’ve ever done? Go, Jenny! Whine all you want. We’re here for you.
As a point of reference, what’s Jen’s favorite Crusie to date?
On October 21, 2009 at 1:02 am marly said...
Love the conflict box! It’s one of the joys of education to grasp a concept. If only all learning had such light bulb moments – still have nightmares about those two miserable trains, each going a different speed and a different route. Never cared which got to the destination first. Now if there’d been an interesting conflict resolution at the end of the trip, I might have been more motivated.
On October 21, 2009 at 7:11 am Eva said...
*whispers* I saw the second conflict box being the first post conflict. I got that wrong. Why did I get that wrong?
I’m not seeing so much of a change, but rather a brighter light on the underlying conflict that I first read into the scene.
The negotiating is going to be a fun bit of dialogue. Any negotiating in a romance is about sex, even if they don’t know it. I mean, if North can get her to agree to a month, then if he plays his cards right, he can eventually get her into his bed.
Long live romantic negotiating.
On October 21, 2009 at 9:28 am TerriO said...
Better than BET ME? No way.
On October 21, 2009 at 9:44 am BCB said...
Oh good grief. I was KIDDING. I thought it would be obvious that throwing out a couple truly awful “suggestions” on a post talking about the dangers of letting the public behind the scenes and overthinking things would be taken as the sarcasm they were. Sorry. Not to mention the fact that her editor has read half the book and says it’s the best thing she’s ever written — clearly there are no problems with motivation or anything else.
Sigh. My humour is too dry. This is why I lurk.
Congratulations on your brilliance, Jenny. Can’t wait to read it.
On October 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm Micki said...
(-: Sorry, I forgot my smileys. I thought you were kidding, yes, and thought I’d join in the fun. Always wanted to write for the Bulwer-Lytton contest someday, I did.
On October 21, 2009 at 10:45 am Merry the CB said...
BCB you shameless hussy.
A dry sense of humor? Here?
And you’re apologizing for it?
Tsk, woman.
On October 21, 2009 at 11:37 am Strop said...
A year to wait? Hmmm. I suppose I can put up with that if it means You Again moves to the front of the WIP queue.
On October 21, 2009 at 2:28 pm Louis said...
A year to wait!
Keep up with the exerpts to help keep us waiting.
I still want to read this book.
On October 21, 2009 at 10:03 pm Merry the CB said...
Hmmmn…. a whole year to wait. What should I do in the meantime?
“A year to go around the world! A whole twelve months of scenes and curious happenings in far-off foreign lands! You have thought of doing this, almost promised yourself that when you got old enough, and rich enough, and could “spare the time,” you too would go around the world. Most of us get old enough; some of us get rich enough; but the time! the time! – to spare the time, to cut loose from goods and lands, from stocks and dreary desks, quit clients, patients, readers, home and friends – ay, and our enemies whom we so dearly love! Full many a promise must be broken and few the voyagers round the world.”
- D.N. Richardson, “A Girdle Round the Earth”, 1888
On October 21, 2009 at 4:09 pm Melissa Blue said...
If you never went behind the scenes I wouldn’t know half the stuff I do now. It’s made me a better writer. A more sensitive reader. So now when I come across a good book I have more respect for the author ’cause I know it is rocket science to get it right. Sprinkled with magic of having the right characters show up at the right time.
On October 21, 2009 at 7:01 pm Marta said...
We’ve got Wild Ride coming out in March, don’t forget. So, it’s not like a year of Crusie drought. That would be bad. I remember going through a rough patch health-wise around 2003, and thinking how much better I’d feel I just had a new Jenny Crusie book to read. .:
Strop, can it be true? Is You Again next up?
On October 21, 2009 at 8:06 pm Jenny said...
Strop is putting pressure on me, but nope, not yet. Next is this new thing I want to try and then after that is the sequel to AKMG, about Alice, the eight-year-old girl, all grown up called Spooky Alice. Except everybody hates that title and I could have changed my mind by the time I get my next project done.
On October 22, 2009 at 6:34 pm Strop said...
Well, reserve champion in the Cuddy In-Hand class at the Horse of the Year Show was a lovely grey hunter mare called Little Alice. Will that do?
On October 21, 2009 at 8:39 pm Lily Blues said...
Yes! I wasn ‘t feeling the love for either of the first two “Give back the checks – OK, but take this job” conflict. I can get into this story now.
On October 21, 2009 at 8:55 pm Marta said...
Can we ask the nature of this new thing? Well, I know we can ask, but can you tell us the nature of this new thing?
On October 21, 2009 at 10:25 pm Jenny said...
I can tell you when I get the go-ahead on it. Come back in a couple of weeks.
On October 21, 2009 at 10:56 pm Ellie said...
Come back in a couple of weeks? As if we didn’t set up camp ages ago. Those who pick up candy off the floor together (in spirit) stick together. Just like the two Jolly Ranchers I found under the dining room table.
On October 22, 2009 at 3:36 pm Marta said...
People who find candy on the floor must not have dogs. I turned my back on cupcakes fresh out of the oven for five minutes, and as the nursery rhyme goes, “And then there were none.” Not even a crumb. That’s how I know it was the dog. If it had been the husband, there would have been crumbs.
On October 21, 2009 at 11:34 pm Moth said...
Oh, I know I’ve had a bloodless coup in the works for awhile now… I mean… *shifty eyes*
On October 22, 2009 at 2:45 pm Rachael said...
Perhaps you could put a time crunch on when she is beginning her new life. For instance, having a predetermined wedding date or a date in which she is moving with her fiance that conflicts with her taking the job. Taking the job prevents her from moving forward with her goals and jeopardizes her relationship with her intended, thereby creating an opportunity for North to win her back, or, at the very least, realize he wants her back. Set the date, Jenny. That’s my suggestion.
On October 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm Melissa said...
(a) Better than Bet Me? No frakkin way. My love for Min and Cal knows no boundaries. But I will pace anxiously until it comes out to see if it proves me wrong. (b) I LOVE the behind the scenes stuff and the conflict box is awesome. I have so much trouble showing the conflict. I see it so clearly in my head – this will help me put it on the paper. So thank you (again!). (c) I’ve given up looking for candy the kids dropped and have moved on to the candy my kids HIDE – I’m pretty sure I’ll be dancing in hell with the rest of the pj-wearing ladies here