by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
Orson Welles as The Shadow
For years, classic radio audiences thrilled to this opening: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” This was followed by a sinister laugh. (Orson Welles played the role for a couple of years.)
The Shadow was a good guy, a vigilante who stopped bad guys. It was the secret identity of one Lamont Cranston, a wealthy young man who spent time in the Orient and learned a hypnotic power “to cloud men’s minds.” Thus, he could make himself “invisible” to the criminals, who could only hear his haunting voice.
There’s also an invisible part of every novel you write. And once again, the Shadow knows!
I refer to what I call the “shadow story.” That’s what’s happening off the page. Meaning that when a scene is unfolding before us, characters who are not in the scene are still active. They are reacting to plot developments, and planning and carrying out counter moves.
You may choose not to know about any of that, but in your story’s world, it’s happening nonetheless.
Why not harness its power?
When you identify the shadow players and track their moves, it offers abundant fodder for shocks, red herrings, and twists in the plot that is “onscreen.”
Now, I know many a successful mystery writer has “pantsed” a plot. That was Sue Grafton’s method, though each day she “interacted” with her unfolding story by writing notes to herself before she worked on the WIP. She’d ask questions and list possible answers. In other words, she was developing the shadow story alongside her developing plot.
Another well-known “discovery/intuitive” mystery writer said he will pants along and find himself writing something that comes to him on the fly. For instance, a potted plant in a fancy vase will jump into his imagination, and he’ll put it in, not knowing how or when it would pay off.
This author also admits he’s had many novels that stalled and were discarded. Yet he still produces successful books.
Be that as it may, I’ve found that plotting the shadow story early is indispensable in my own writing. Knowing who the villain is from the jump, I can drop in all sorts of happenings that deepen the mystery and how it will all be wrapped up at the end.
As I plot the book, I include scene squibs that won’t show up in the finished product, but are there to suggest mysterious happenings that won’t be explained until the end.
That’s one of the nifty things about Scrivener.
Scrivener lets you write a scene (or chapter) and record a summary of it on an “index card.” You can look at the cards on a corkboard, and also in the outline view.
Further, you can color code the cards. I have colors for the main plot and subplot(s).
I also have a color for the shadow story. These are index cards with squibs on what the offscreen characters are doing. In the “Inspector” pane I hit the “Metadata” tab, then uncheck the box that says “Include in Compile.” That way, when I compile the manuscript for editing, the shadow story doesn’t show up in the manuscript.
But at any point I can print the outline view, with the shadow story scenes showing. This gives me a nice overview of the proceedings, and I can tweak things and get ideas for upcoming scenes.
Here’s how it looks in the Binder View (click to enlarge):
And in the Outline View (click to enlarge):
As I write, one of my scenes might need a twist or surprise. I can then turn to my shadow story outline, and add to it, and use that for the twist.
Yes, there are many ways to write a novel. I offer the shadow story as a tool, and a powerful one. If you use it, as you write feel free to hum the old standard, “Me and my shadow/Strolling down the avenue…”
What about you? Do you ever give thought to what characters are doing off-page?
Jim, thanks for this excellent discussion of the “shadow story.” Terrific tern.
In my early (unpublished) novels. I didn’t know about the shadow story. After I learned about it from your craft books and here at TKZ, it elevated my stories from rave rejections to publishable.
What’s happening behind the scenes/offstage can be more important than what’s shown onscreen. To keep track of the shadow story, I write scenes from the villain’s POV . Sometimes those scenes appear in the final draft, other times not. But they keep me mindful of how the villain plans to thwart the hero.
Wish I could master Scrivener (sigh).
Indeed, Scrivener does have a ton of bells and whistles, half of which I never use but makes it seem like a hugrly complex program to master.
I wrote about simpler approach here:
https://killzoneblog.com/2014/12/getting-started-with-scrivener.html
Thanks for that link, Jim. That post was before I discovered TKZ.
After two classes, Scrivener still overwhelmed me so I gave up on it for fiction. However, my WIP is a nonfiction book, The Villain’s Journey. I’m finding it difficult to organize the many resources and examples. Your post encourages me to give Scriv another try.
I’ve taken 3 workshops on using Scrivener, bought the Scrivener for Dummies book (one of the workshops was from the author), and still can’t figure out how to make it do what I want. I’ve been using Word for so long, and it works for me. I’m a pantser/planster, and after 30+ books, I go by the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” process. If I could use the index cards without having to have the chapter they’re summarizing up there somewhere, maybe I’d give it another try. But I’ve found that scene summaries after I’ve written them, and a Word file of notes gets me through the book.
You can always use just the index cards on Scrivener, but like you say, if you’ve got a way that works for you, keep on typing.
I seem to recall a function in old versions of Word called Notebook. I think I usd that once or twice.
I’ve never been able to just use the index cards. They wanted to be connected to something else, not just the corkboard.
But you can…just open up the corkboard view and make sure you have “Draft” selected in the binder, then just hit the + sign and add as many cards as you like. Then you can write whatever you want on the cards and move them around!
Terrific post, Jim. Figuring out the shadow story is essential for me, especially in mystery, where it sets everything up beforehand, and then intersects (likely more than once) with the sleuth’s during the investigation, and colliding during the reveal/confrontation.
Yes, Dale, especially useful for a traditional cozy mystery writer. Dame Agatha’ started her plotting with the murder, the method, the murderer and the motive. She sold a few books.
This is fascinating, Jim. I haven’t written shadow story scenes, but I should give that a try. I love Scrivener. I use the index card feature to summarize each chapter. Then I export the outline with the summary and word count to an excel spreadsheet.
Btw, great timing about The Shadow. My middle grade novel, The Other Side of Sunshine, is due to be released soon, complete with the mysterious “Mr. Shadow.”
That Shadow is everywhere!
When I read a new writer’s story, I often notice the shadow plot or the bad guy’s plot makes no bloody sense. I tell the writer “because I want them to” is not an adequate reason for their characters to behave as they do. I always suggest they write an outline of the story from the bad guy’s point of view. It’s a good learning tool.
Excellent advice, Marilynn!