I wrote this talk for the Vermont College Novel Writers' Retreat in March, 2009, where the theme was "Surprise." It is not the talk I actually gave at the retreat -- that turned out to be a quarter-improvised salmagundi of about four other speeches, which I assembled half an hour before my talk to try to address the points made by the wonderful previous speakers that weekend. But there are, I hope, some useful points in this original speech, so here it is.

·        My name is Cheryl Klein

·        I'm a senior editor at Arthur A. Levine Books

·        And I have to confess, when Sarah and Elise and Kathi and I started talking about our topic for the retreat

·        And agreed to focus on surprise

·        I kept thinking, "But I don't believe in surprises!"

·        "I believe in carefully constructed novels that add up to a narrative point,

o       Where the plot flows smoothly from the actions of the characters     

o       Where the characters themselves grow and change in response to the actions of the plot

o       And where the whole thing is pleasing aesthetically and satisfying emotionally"

·        "Where's the room for surprise in that?"

·        But as I thought about it further, I realized that surprise could in fact play very well into all those things.

·        Because, even more than I believe everything I just said about novels,

o       I believe art is about creating emotional effects in the reader or viewer,

·        And surprise is a technique that creates a definite effect.

·        It is not a required technique:  There are lots of perfectly good narratives that function perfectly well without any surprises.

·        But it is an immensely useful technique when used at the right times and for the right purposes

o       To create drama and pain for your character

o       To force your character, and your reader, to see another character or situation in a new way.

o       To enhance whatever narrative or emotional point you're trying to make.

·        So in this talk, we're going to look at how to construct and spring a surprise

o       And especially WHY to construct and spring a surprise

·        In the course of considering how to improve your work.

·        So as I said, I started out thinking I was philosophically opposed to the idea of surprise.

·        And then I realized this philosophy was stupid.

·        Because if you go back in time, to the very first literary critic, Aristotle

o       Writing in The Poetics in the fourth century B.C.

·        His entire theory of dramatic action turned upon surprise

·        To wit, he said:

·        "Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude; . . . represented by people acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions."

·        And I want us to focus here on that last clause:

o       Accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions.

·        ·"Catharsis" is a Greek term that means "purgation or purification of the emotions through art"

·        ·And according to Aristotle, it was meant to lead to renewal and restoration

o       You'd identify so closely with the main character, all the terror she was experiencing in her situation, all the pity you had for him

o       That when the drama was over, those feelings were purged right out of you

o       Leading to a renewed sense of appreciation for living and for the possibilities of the world

o       Which in turn was supposed to lead to the actual moral improvement of the world--the world would become a better place, as we would transfer those practices of identification and compassion to the real world.

·        While Aristotle was thinking of the great Greek tragedies here, particularly Oedipus Rex

o       The principles and forms he identified still apply to comedy, to our modern age--and even to children's books.

·        And more importantly for us today, he believed strongly that in the best dramas, that initial pity and terror came about through surprise.

·        Springing one of these surprises properly for him came about through a four-step process.

o       Or rather I'm taking his principles and turning them into a four-step process.

 

·        Step 1:  Get the reader interested in the characters.

·        The common term for this is "identification"--that the reader sees something of him or herself in the character

o       But I worry that people can sometimes hear this a little bit too literally or reductively--that I, as a thirty-year-old white woman, would never see anything of myself in a boy in Borneo, or a senior citizen in Zimbabwe

·        The truth is--we are all human, with more or less the same needs, desires, and feelings

o       Needs:  Food, shelter, clothing, human companionship, stimulation

§        Stimulation could be art, spirituality, adventure

o       Desires:  More of the above, in different ways

o       Feelings:  Joy, amusement, sadness, anger

·        And we are all unique, as we feel those feelings and have those desires in vastly varying degrees,

o       Dependent upon our inborn natures and our upbringing

·        So when I first encounter a character in a book, I'm looking for both that humanity and that uniqueness

o       I'll identify with the humanity--something in him or her that rings true to my experience of the world

o       And I'll be interested in the uniqueness, as seeing the way that this person lives in the world can change or expand the way I myself live. 

·        So how can you show that humanity and uniqueness?

·        First of all, you do have to show these things

·        You'll note that part of Aristotle's definition of tragedy was "represented by people acting, and not by narration."

o       This would be that same "show not tell" principle writ 2400 years ago

§        Not just the writer telling us what the characters were thinking and feeling, and not the writer inventing incidents or disasters to spur the action

§        But rather an unbroken chain of the characters' actions and reactions following to their logical emotional conclusions

·        So when Jane Austen says of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, "She had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous," I believe that partly because she's telling me,

o       But more because, in the next chapter, she teases her sister about her new admirer--she says, "You have liked many a stupider person"--and is reported to tell everyone the story of how she was rejected as a dance partner by the odious Mr. Darcy.

o       That shows me the qualities JA had just told me about. And they are the very qualities that eventually get Elizabeth in trouble.

·        You all know P&P, right? Because I'm going to be talking about it a lot here.

·        Or in A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett:  We hear that Sara Crewe is "an odd-looking little girl," with "a queer old-fashioned thoughtfulness in her big eyes";

o       And then we see this thoughtfulness in action: "Principally, she was thinking of what a queer thing it was that at one time one was in India in the blazing sun, and then in the middle of the ocean, and then driving in a strange vehicle through strange streets where the day was as dark as the night."

·        That showing does an important thing for us readers psychologically:  It verifies that what this writer is telling me is true, we can trust it, we can settle in.

o       I believe that Sara is queerly old-fashioned and thoughtful because she just thought that.

·        And the showing also proves her humanity in a way that the author's mere assurance of those qualities never would.

o       I've thought things like Sara has. I've teased my friends like Elizabeth has.

o       And as a result, I believe in these people. I want to see what more they'll do.

·        How else can you get a reader interested in the character,

o       And show the character's humanity and uniqueness?

·        1. Have them show some kind of energy or do something

o       It doesn't have to be doing something exactly--it's true Elizabeth Bennet never does anything the whole novel besides talk, play the piano, and take walks.

o       But there is energy in her sense of humor--a warmth to it, a personality. Readers respond to that.

o       Likewise, with Sara's strange thought there--that shows she has curiosity

o       Action is inherently attractive because it makes things happen in the novel.

·        Bad guys are often sexier than good guys because they do things, they cause trouble, in going after what they want.

·        Flip that around and have your good guy do something in going after what he wants.

·        2. Give the character a cause readers can root for

o       Defeating the mean girls, saving the planet, finding out the truth (detective novels).

·        We readers mostly want to be on the side of justice and right. So we will gravitate towards that

o       A substrategy here:  If your character is a hero. In Chapter 1 of the first Harry Potter book, baby Harry is called "The Boy Who Lived," the boy who brought down Voldemort. Don't you want to know more about such a child?

o       Sometimes this can be just that your character is a good person.

·        3. Put them in pain or jeopardy (anticipated pain).

a.    Pain, rendered well to a character readers are interested in, is inherently sympathetic.

b.    It is usually not good to actually start the novel with pain

·        Chapter 1, line 1:  << "Ow!" I cried as Mama's belt rained down upon me. >>

·        I mean, I am wincing already, but I don't really know the character enough to thoroughly identify with them, and I'm as likely to be turned off by the in-your-faceness of the violence as I am to want to keep reading.

c.     But once you have the reader hooked a little bit, once we've seen enough of the character to believe he or she is a real person--then putting them in pain or jeopardy will get us to sympathize with them, connect to them immediately, because we've all been there.

·        Harry Potter is a good example again because the first thing you find out about him is that his parents have died. And then that he has to live with the Dursleys, where he is mistreated and misunderstood and secrets are kept from him . . . Don't you feel sorry for him?

 

·        Another word on pain:  To be a writer, you need to be able to both feel with and kill your characters at any moment. I mean this absolutely.

o       You have to give them free rein to run around and be stupid, to have awful things happen to them, to have them make awful things happen to others. You are not your characters' mother. You have to have a heart of stone.

·        But you also have to show how they feel when awful things happen to them, or when the effects of their actions rebound upon them, or when they make dumb decisions.

o       Don't protect them from those effects, because nobody in real life would protect them from those effects; and that is the way they will learn and grow.

·        I love suffering in a novel. I am a total pain junkie for bad things happening to good characters. It is, in fact, the way some writers plot a novel:  Come up with a character, think of the worse thing that could possibly happen to him--and do it.

·        4. Make the character new

d.    I read a lot of manuscripts, and I have to say, oftentimes the character's desire, his or her voice, the entire character just feels so familiar and been-there-done-that, even from Chapter 1, that I quickly lose interest.

·        I do not want any more manuscripts about children wanting a puppy-- unless they wish to sauté it with onions.

·        I am KIDDING! But that would be fresh, it would be interesting. Creepy, but I would keep reading to find out where that comes from.

e.    And that is the point here:  to keep the reader reading.

f.      There is no point in writing a character or a story that already exists. You want to be the FIRST person to do something in literature, whatever it is.

·        Finally, this doesn't really show either the character's humanity or uniqueness, but it's a great strategy for connecting readers and characters

·        5. Make your main character the viewpoint character--first person, his point of view

o       Readers have to depend on that character to show them your fictional world, either through first person or a limited third-person point of view.

o       So they will cling to that character with all their might.

 

·        So once you've used one of those strategies--or something entirely different--to get the reader interested in the character--you've shown their humanity and uniqueness,

·        It's time to go on to Step 2:  Lay the Groundwork

 

·        < At this point, I stopped and ran at the audience while shouting "SNOOGLEOOGLEDEEOO!!!" >

·        < Then I returned to the podium and asked the audience, >

·        Were you surprised?

·        Okay, remember that for later.

 

·        So yes, Step 2, Laying the Groundwork

·        Also known as plotting.

·        The thing about plot, when I talk about it, it's mostly a line that moves forward

o       From Inciting Incidents

o       Through Escalating and Complicating Events

o       To the Climax and Resolution

·        Each event building on another until the novel's conflict is worked out or its mystery resolved or its lack fulfilled.

·        In order to spring a surprise properly, you have to work backwards

·        You have to know what you want the surprise to accomplish

·        And then you have to set it up so that when it springs, it will do that.

o       I'm using the term "springs" here to mean "the moment at which the protagonist discovers whatever the surprise is"

·        I think I can best talk about this through examples

·        And I'm going to continue to use A Little Princess and Pride and Prejudice

·        In A Little Princess, Sara Crewe is the thoughtful and imaginative daughter of a man who has invested in diamond mines in India. She becomes the most pampered pupil at Miss Minchin's school in London, where she develops an imaginative game that she is actually a princess, while her father returns to India.

o       Until:  Surprise! The diamond mines go belly-up

§        The subprime mortgages of their day

o       Captain Crewe dies of brain fever.

o       And Sara becomes a servant in the house, instead of its princess.

·        In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is the witty and mostly wise second daughter in the five-girl Bennet family. At a ball, a rich nabob named Mr. Darcy calls her "not handsome enough to tempt me," and she responds by disliking him. He appreciates her sense of humor, though, and her fine eyes, and her failure to kowtow to him; meanwhile, events (and a disgruntled Darcy employee named George Wickham) conspire to make her like him less and less.

o       Until:  Surprise! Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth

§        A moment that made me gasp out loud the first time I read it

§        And still sends a frisson:  "In vain I have struggled. It will not do . . ."

o       And Elizabeth turns him down, of course, and explains why.

o       And in his response to her explanation, he shows her where she has misjudged him;

§        So we could say that this is a second surprise or a continuation of the surprise:  unexpected information that changes what we thought we knew about a character

o       And this leads her to reevaluate everything she knows about him, as well as her own character.

§        "She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd. "How despicably have I acted!" she cried. "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! . . . Till this moment, I never knew myself."

 

·        If you actually read these books, you'll note that both of these surprises are very carefully prepared.

·        For instance, if I ask you from whose perspective Pride and Prejudice is told, you'd most likely say . . . (Elizabeth)

·        Yes. But there are a number of passages early in the novel where we slip into Mr. Darcy's head.

o       P. 25:  But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.

o       P. 49:  Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.

o       P. 56 < right before Elizabeth leaves Netherfield > He wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him.

o       And the last one on p. 85, before he himself leaves the area, and after the two of them have quarreled:  "They . . . parted in silence, on each side dissatisfied, though not to an equal degree, for in Darcy's breast there was a tolerable powerful feeling toward her, which soon procured her pardon."

·        And if I'm not mistaken, that's the last time we see out of Darcy's eyes or hear directly what he's thinking for the entire rest of the book.

·        We can see hints of what he's thinking in his actions, of course

o       When Elizabeth stays with some friends near his aunt's, he visits her a lot, for reasons she can't understand

o       And his cousin tells her that for some reason he's in no hurry to leave.

·        But we spend so much time out of his head, and so much time looking solely out of Elizabeth's eyes--and she thinks he dislikes her, remember

o       That when he finally proposes, on p. 165, it's the What the Hell of the century.

§        "Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression."

§        And so was this reader's

o       Even though it's been carefully set up all along

·        Likewise, in A Little Princess, we hear early on that Captain Crewe was "a rash, innocent young man and wanted his little girl to have everything she admired and everything he admired himself."

o       Setting up his character as someone who maybe isn't all that good with money

o       And he writes as much to Sara:  "You see, little Sara, your daddy is not a businessman at all, and figures and documents bother him. . . . Perhaps if I was not feverish I should not be awake, tossing about, one half the night and spend the other half in troublesome dreams . . ."

·        Ten pages later, he is dead.

·        Neither one of these things might be surprises to the reader who's paying careful attention

o       But most readers aren't. We're just along for the ride.

·        So when these things shock the main character whom we took such an interest in, they shock us too.

 

·        Which brings us to the questions:

o       Why surprises? Why these surprises? What purpose do they serve?

·        They deliver dramatic frissons to the readers on behalf of the characters, certainly

o       If we agreed above that art was about creating emotional affect,

§        Or, as Aristotle had it, "pity and terror"

o       Sudden death and declarations of love will certainly do it.

§        And in fact, there's going to be a book that combines both:  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, out in April. I cannot WAIT.

·        But more importantly, in plot structure terms, they cause reversals

o       "Reversal" is another term from Aristotle, and it means simply "a situation by which the action veers round to its opposite"

·        Sara Crewe literally loses her fortune.

·        With Elizabeth Bennet it's more subtle: 

o       First she undergoes what Aristotle calls a Recognition--going from ignorance of herself, how proud and rude she has been, to knowledge of her faults

o       And then a reversal:  Because if Mr. Darcy is good, and her wit is not always right--what else has Elizabeth not seen?

·        And both of these reversals-slash-surprises are integral to what I call the point of their respective novels.

 

·        The Point of the novel is not its theme--though it can be.

·        And it's not its moral--though it can be that too, if the point of your novel is to teach something.

·        What I call "the point" is the idea or the experience that the novel is built to convey.

o       It might be to scare the bejeezus out of your reader.

o       It might be to make them roll on the floor laughing or crying.

o       It might be to teach a lesson, like, say, hitting cats with baseballs is bad.

o       Or it might be to explore an idea:  why people have to suffer, what happens after we die, whether the joy caused by love is worth its pain.

o       And it might be--indeed, probably ought to be--more than one of these.

·        Every decision that you make as an author should ultimately be in the service of the novel's point.

o       Going toward the end you want to achieve for yourself and for the reader

·        There are really two types of points here:

·        The first is what I'll call the emotional point.

o       What you want your reader to feel as a result of the book, what kind of emotional experience you want her to have.

§        Terrified? Exhausted? Exhilarated?

§        Do you want them to have learned something? Thought about something? Or just to have had a good time?

o       The dramatic frisson we readers get from surprises, that we talked about earlier--that is part of the emotional point, contributing to the whole emotional package of the book.

·        The second is what I'll call the thematic point.

o       This is, to put it bluntly, what your main character (and thus your reader) learns as a result of the action of the plot

§        Often the character will learn many, many things, some of which will contradict each other.

·        "Life is complicated":  The ultimate thematic point.

§        But the overall way in which they change and grow:  That is the thematic point

o       Or the protagonist might learn nothing at all. And in that case, the thematic point would just be what all the events of the plot mean--which the reader gets even if the character doesn't

§        You all know the plays "No Exit" or "Waiting for Godot"?

§        No learning or growth takes place there. That is the point.

o       But either way, the plot generally comes together in a way that forces your character, or the reader, to recognize a central truth

o       And that direction is the thematic point

·        There are lots of books that have emotional points but not particularly deep thematic ones

o       Almost any genre book is built to take the reader on a certain emotional ride

§        A Nora Roberts romance will take you through the highs and lows of a new romantic relationship

§        A John Grisham novel will put the reader and protagonist through familiar legal and thriller paces

§        A Captain Underpants novel will make kids laugh

§        A Goosebumps will make them scream

o       And that is all fine. Well and good and delightful.

o       It gives pleasure to the reader, which is the first thing a book must do.

o       And it is hard to write a novel that accomplishes an emotional point, never mind the other stuff.

§        You'll notice that all of the titles I cited are bestsellers

§        Again:  pleasure is the number one thing most readers are looking for.

·        But I think the other stuff, the thematic point, is what makes a book literature.

o       Why are we here? How should we live? What really matters?

o       People have been seeking to answer these questions for millennia

§        From Homer to St. Paul to Lao Tzu to Beowulf to Lady Murasaki to Shakespeare to Jane Austen to Chinua Achebe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez

o       And as a result, there are not many original answers to these questions, I admit.

o       But whatever answer you have for them would be uniquely yours

o       And that point you can come up with--the one you can make and share--is your contribution to that conversation

·        So I'm going to give you all a few minutes here and I want you to write out, tentatively, both the emotional and thematic points of your novel

o       Again:  the experience you wanted your reader to have

o       And the thing that your character or your reader learns as a result of the action of the plot

o       Here you go:

 

·        I'm talking at such length about point partly because it relates a lot to surprise--I'll get to that in a moment--but also because, in revision, it is a yardstick by which you can measure everything else in the book.

o       And I emphasize "in revision" there because I think most writers discover the point as they go. Which is as it should be.

·        This is almost always the first thing I do with my authors once I sign them up:  I ask them "What did you want to do here? What did you want this book to be?"

o       As I said in your critiques:  "What was your intention for this piece?"

·        Because once the author and I know that--what the machine of the book is built to do--then we can look at the individual parts of the book and see how each is contributing or not contributing to both the emotional and thematic points.

o       Or, in some cases, we figure out what IS working and adapt the point to fit.

·        If your point is to write a rip-roaring action adventure, but your main character is a wet noodle (literally or metaphorically)--that's not going to work

·        Or you want to write a deeply sad novel about a girl whose best friend is dying of leukemia, but you can't help cracking jokes every four lines--again, you're going to either have to adjust your point, or adjust your voice

§        Point is easier, I think, but that's a whole other discussion

 

·        So how does all this relate to surprise?

·        Well, back at the beginning, I said that surprise is a technique among a whole universe of literary techniques you can choose from.

·        And what it is really good for is making your character learn the point quickly

o       Or quickly setting up the circumstances in which the character will learn the point eventually.

·        In A Little Princess, I would argue that Frances Hodgson Burnett's ultimate thematic point here is that a girl can be a princess whatever her circumstances;

o       That she can be giving, and forgiving, and generous, and good

o       Whether she lives in the heights of luxury or the scullery of a dank London row house

·        The next to the last chapter is called "I Tried Not To Be"

o       After Sara's fortune has been restored to her, by means of another surprise, the nasty Miss Minchin says, "I suppose that you feel now that you are a princess again."

o       And Sara replies, "I--tried not to be anything else, even when I was coldest and hungriest--I tried not to be."

·        So in order to illustrate that principle, Frances Hodgson Burnett had to take her protagonist from those heights to those depths, and yet never have Sara lose her dignity.

·        She could have done this gradually, of course--have Sara be reduced from a parlor boarder, to a regular boarder, to a work-study student, to a scullery maid

o       How many of you have read The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton?

§        That's ultimately the path that the protagonist there takes--a long slow tumble down the social ladder

·        But Ms. Burnett followed Step 3:  Spring the surprise quickly.

o       She knocked off the dad, took away the diamond mines, bam, Sara's fortune is done

·        Which created those cathartic emotions of pity and terror

o       in a way The House of Mirth never does as it grinds along.

·        And this surprise sets up the circumstances in which the thematic point emerges

o       As Sara gives away her food, keeps her friends, studies, works as a maid

o       And yet somehow remains human and loveable

§        It's her struggle to remain a princess in the terrible circumstances that's so moving, I think.

·        There's one more significant surprise in A Little Princess

o       Really two, but they both ultimately serve the same purpose

o       Anyone know what it is?

·        The Magic brings her luxuries in her attic room--food, clothing, a fire, books

·        And then she discovers that the friend who got her father into the diamond mines has grown rich again and is looking for her--in fact, he's right next door.

o       These are surprises that reward her patience and princess-like behavior by making her more or less a real princess.

o       Implicitly promising the reader equal rewards of sorts.

 

·        Jane Austen's thematic point in Pride and Prejudice is more or less that when clever people have too much belief in their own cleverness, they do stupid things.

·        Thanks to the surprise of Darcy's proposal, and the Recognition and Reversal that followed, we left Elizabeth at a point where she was having to grapple with the realization:  She wasn't as clever as she thought she was.

o       The writer Zadie Smith says "The biggest crime in an English comic novel is thinking you are right." And that seems true.

·        So in the rest of the novel, she doesn't make those same assumptions.

·        P&P functions a lot like A Little Princess, actually, in that there are several other surprises later

o       Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy again unexpectedly

§        Where she can tell from his behavior that he took everything she told him about being proud, snobbish, and rude seriously.

o       Elizabeth's sister runs away with the wicked Mr. Wickham

o       And Mr. Darcy rescues her and pays Wickham's debts

·        That all eventually reward Elizabeth for learning her lesson

o       Giving her a happiness that could only have come about if she turned Mr. Darcy down.

 

·        So these are both surprises that served a point and helped advance the themes of the novel.

·        And they both fulfill Step 4:  Make the surprise resonate.

·        When I stopped the talk and ran at you and shouted "OOOGEDY-BOOGEDY"

o       I was actually being very intellectual there

o       Because you were filled with pity and terror, right? (Right)

·        But it wasn't prepared for--so it broke the mood because it came out of nowhere.

·        And it didn't really help advance the themes of my talk. Until now.

·        Where my point is:  surprises should always have points.

o       They should be true to the rules of the world.

§        You could turn a page in A Little Princess and read, "Then aliens kidnapped Sara Crewe from her attic, and she was happy."

§        It would be a surprise, but one from outside the genre

o       They should advance the plot

§        If you spring a surprise and everything goes back to normal--no good. You will have gotten the reader excited for no purpose.

§        Which will weaken the effect the next time you want to spring a surprise

·        Author who cried wolf syndrome.

·        If I ran at you again and shouted "BOMBITTYBOMBITTYBOMB"--not quite so effective, because now you know I do crazy things.

o       The drama of a surprise should be proportional to its effects.

§        Save your biggest surprise for the biggest change you need the reader or character to experience.

·        And now:  I am telling you, so there's no surprise,

·        I am going to end this talk and say thank you.

·        Thank you.

·        Any questions?