Tipping Point

If you have read The Tipping Point, it explores some interesting concepts. Since I try to be an independent thinker, I have been watching, recently, gossip and group think as an example of tipping point phenomena. And I have been thinking about it in the context of banal evil--but wait, isn't that an oxymoron?

Example: Two years ago, I was in the company of a large group of women. I would guess there were 35-40. Cocktails were flowing. And one woman stood up on a chair, and began mocking a woman we all knew who was not there. She said, "Doesn't that remind you of her?" And I said no. But interestingly, only one other person there--also a very independent thinker--argued with the woman on the chair. But if you had sat these 40 women down individually and asked "Do you think doing something like that is OK?" I would assume all would have said, "No. For heaven's sake, they teach that in KINDERGARTEN."

But what can seem a moment of banal evil, a moment of gossip, a moment of the "sport" of unkindness . . . when allowed to pass . . . to me adds a bit of that black mucky oil we see in the gulf into the sea of clarity. Add enough oil . . . and soon all you have is black.

In my work-in-progress, anarchy has consumed the end of the world (or what might be the end of the world). It starts with little things as society breaks down. Trash doesn't get collected. The power is intermittent. As people edge toward needing to survive, as crime rises, they feel forced by circumstance to look the other way for their own safety. And before you know it . . . a tipping point happens and suddenly the world is radically unsafe.

Maybe there IS no such thing as banal evil.

People have tipping points, too. They have moments when they "go along," but then a tipping point occurs . . . and there's a radical transformation. In novels, it's not the climax. It's the catalyst. It's the event that drives them to take on the case, to embark on the journey, to save the girl, to win the girl, to fight The Man, to get revenge, to . . . .

I think it has more URGENCY than GMC (goal-motivation-conflict), because tipping points are often about astounding moments of something going "viral." Going out of control.

For Aleks, in my novel, when anarchy literally comes to his doorstep, he sees the world as totally different, I think. The tipping point arrives with a crash--and he knows it's not going to go away. EVER.

Does your novel have a tipping point?

Intuitive

There are a lot of things I do in my life that I have no idea how or why. I just do. Mom things, for example. My kids can come to me time and time and time again with stomach aches, for example. I feel foreheads, press bellies, ask questions, and 99% of the time say, "You'll be fine; it's something you ate." But that 1% when they come to me and I know, I mean REALLY KNOW "something" is wrong, you would think I was the chief of surgery on E.R. I fly into action and just "know" what to do, who to call, etc. Some of this, of course, is the result of years of mothering, or years of reading up on ailments when someone in my family is sick. It's having Crohn's disease and thus knowing a lot about "gut" ailments. And some is intuitive.

Yesterday, for example, I saw a babysitter trying to console a 7-week-old baby. She changed him, he didn't stop crying. I knew he was hungry--it was that kind of wail--and his mom fed him and handed him back to the babysitter. And the baby kept crying. Baby Girl asked about it, and I said, "He needs to be held differently; that's not a Mama Hold." Which I was quite certain was true. Most of the time I can get any baby to sleep. The secret is to project calm and not get ruffled, and the secret to THAT is intuitive.

So it is with writing. I had sold--not kidding--four novels before I ever saw the following three letters on a writers' board: GMC. I thought it was some movie channel akin to AMC. In fact, I didn't bother to look it up or even ask. I sold another two books before I found out they mean "Goal, Motivation, Conflict" and it came from some workshop.

When I write a book, I think in arcs. If you ASKED me, I mean probingly asked, I might be able to tell you, "Character A starts out this way. By the end she has changed to that way." But I really don't ever consciously think of that. It's a journey, and I just tell my story. I pour out the story until it's complete.

Now, really? I wouldn't HAVE this blog if I honestly didn't know anything about process or characters or themes or symbolism. But when it comes to telling my story, I FEEL it more than I explain it. I intuit it.

I have writer friends who are the opposite. They use GMC models and worksheets. They devise all sorts of outlines and character sketch interviews (they really interview their characters!). And it's always whatever works. I just can't work that way. But I am curious . . . what devices do YOU use?

Discuss. :-)