I've always struggled to combine character development and plot, I always had one or the other and those obviously never worked out well. I have a better understanding this time around, thankfully, and I know how I want my characters to change throughout the story. I also realized around halfway into planning my characters that they've all experienced a loss in some form or another, my MC lost his mother and entire village in the beginning, my second MC's brother is missing and possibly dead, two other characters lost the same person midway through the story, and two other characters lost people close to them before the story starts. Weirdly enough that wasn't planned, and instead of trying to change it to make everyone different I decided to try and utilize it. I want to use their grief to bond them, but also as a means of conflict, the grief bringing out the worst in some characters. My problem, however, lies in having these arcs play out naturally while following along with the plot. I feel like the characters would be overwhelmed with having to deal with grief, and the Big Bads, and each other. I'm also worried about the times when I write the "grieving scenes" that it might be too abrupt in the change of pace. This might be because I came up with the grief later than I came up with the plot, it might also be me overthinking things (as I have a tendency.) I appreciate any and all responses!
Okay, Plot is external events that block your character from advancing in their goal. Often, these events leave the character with some type of Dilemma where they have to make a choice. You show character development through the choices the character makes. Let me give you a brief example, Let say your character is trying to get a promotion at work (goal), but their boss is a real asshole (Conflict). Next, the boss says that anyone can stay late and help with a certain project will be award (A chance at Victory!), but there is a problem; for the character to stay late and finish the project he has to miss his daughter's dance recital (Dilemma). What does he choose? (This choice will develop and show your character.)
Six grieving scenes? One for each character? That's a no-go. You might get away with two at the max. Any more than that would be self-indulgent and bordering on saccharine. Might be best to lump them together under a theme of grief and save the reader the laundry list of sob stories. Don't get me wrong--grief is a powerful narrative device--but too much can be cringe-inducing.
Also keep in mind that people grieve in vastly different ways. Some may wail and sob, some may become angry and take it out on those around them, some will be stoic and not shed a tear, some will try to find the deeper meaning in it. You can show grief through simple actions without having an entire scene dedicated to it. "His jaw clenched and he straightened in the saddle, then turned his horse away from the gravestone."
Yes, you can do that. But beware of doing it all the time. Somebody could clench their jaw, straighten in the saddle and turn their horse away from a gravestone ...and be really really angry. Or they could be thinking, 'okay, this is finished, and I'm moving on now.' If this is your POV character, you can let us in, via his thoughts and feelings, as to what is actually happening in his head. You don't need to just stick to visual clues. You don't want to overdo either tool, but beware of just using only one. The 'visuals only' thing not only can create distance between the reader and the character, but it is open to misinterpretation as well. The 'internal thoughts' thing can get gooey and melodramatic if it's used too much. But it also helps the reader identify more strongly with the POV character's feelings, and nuances of feeling. It's a mistake, in my opinion, to assume that all feelings and thoughts are conveyed via our physical activities. I'm sure you can think of many times when you felt something but didn't let on? If somebody had been watching you at that moment, they wouldn't have had a clue? So giving the reader only visual clues can hamstring your ability to portray a story. It doesn't always fail, of course, and if the visual clues truly match the inner thoughts of the character, fair enough. But beware of using these visual clues too often, or to the exclusion of unspoken thoughts and feelings. The clenched jaw/frown/pacing/arm waving can all read like clichés if they're used more than once or twice in a story. They become a shorthand for emotions, and can be very annoying. Use the fact that you are portraying a story from somebody's Point of View. Your POV character is doing more than just sitting on a horse and clenching their jaw. They are also thinking and feeling. Don't be afraid to actually write about the emotions and thoughts. Just don't get all gooey about it.
I've been thinking about this a lot as well. I'm working on a sequence in which my MC is traveling alone, so most of it is pure narration, with a couple of flashbacks including some dialogue. But my issue is this: How can I convey my MC's experience using the "show, don't tell" method using only narration and inner thought?
My interpretation of "show, don't tell" is stepping a layer (or several layers) away from the obvious. For example, I wrote this scrap for a past show-don't-tell discussion: Henry opened the fridge and studied the sticky, empty shelves. Half an inch in the milk jug. Broccoli browning on the edges. And that nervous-making smell that signals bad happenings in the depths of the crisper. If Jane were here, this would be the signal for "Grocery time!" in that terrible chirpy Scarlett O'Hara voice. He'd never have to hear that chirp again. Thank God. But he really wouldn't mind a slice of her meatloaf. Feh. Who needs meatloaf with a restaurant on every block? He shut the fridge and studied the window, watching as the rain ran down behind the...yeah, yeah, fine, so the glass was dusty, so what? A man has better things to do than chirp "Cleaning time!" and bustle around with lemon oil and a feather duster. Feh. Feh. Don't you dare cry. It's my belief that this "shows" that Henry is mourning the loss of his relationship with Jane, and that it's doing so with narration and inner thought.
I'd suggest trying to tie these events into their grief, so it's not split between Plot and Personal Stuff. Where possible, try to develop both with the same scene. For example, maybe one of them finds out that a villain started on their path when they suffered a similar loss and realises that maybe they're not so different, or that's where I could end up if I let the lust for revenge consume me.
Character and plot aren't two separate things; characters DRIVE plot. If your story isn't driven by your characters, you don't know them well enough yet. Ask yourself the following questions about the characters: What is their biggest fear? What is the line they won't cross? What's their value system: (nothing is more important than...list three) What's their goal? What do they need to learn? What drives them at their core? What's the single biggest defining moment in their life and how did it make them the person they are today? (be as detailed as possible on this in your notes.) Once you get to know them better in a 'what's my motivation' type of thing, then you'll know exactly how your plot should play out.
I very much agree with Devlin. When your character is set in your head you'll know how they will respond to thier world. People certainly do grieve or deny grief in very different ways so when you decide what each character is like you can see how they are going to deal with loss. Are they ' just get on with it' people? Are they going to sink into a bottle of whiskey, do they always go to a new town when things get difficult? Nick Hornby wrote a story which sees four separate characters trying to commit suicide on the same day in the same place but it is who they are that prevents the suicide being the central plot. Does that make sense?
