Story ideas to spark your creativity

Of MICE and Ken: Conflict in SFF

12/10/2022

Ken Liu introduced the M.I.C.E. concept in his recent webinar intensive Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing from Gotham Writers.
Ken attributes MICE to Mary Robinette Kowal, who explains the concept in this lecture on Youtube.

In my understanding, story conflict can be described as:

Milieu (focused on the setting)
Inquiry (answering a question or solving a mystery)
Character (inner conflict or transformation)
Event (external catastrophe threatening the world)

Many stories contain more than one conflict element:
In The Wizard of Oz, a tornado upends Kansas (Event) sending Dorothy to the Milieu of Oz.

Stories are often structured by presenting then resolving each MICE element in turn: in Star Wars,

Luke Skywalker hates his life (inner Character conflict)
He’s curious about how to use the mysterious Force (Inquiry)
The Death Star threatens the galaxy (external Event)
Luke & company are captured by the Death Star (Milieu)
They escape the Death Star with the princess (Milieu resolved)
Luke uses the Force to destroy the Death Star (Event + Inquiry resolved)
Luke is the hero of the galaxy (inner Character angst resolved)

Ken also gave us a helpful equation to help guesstimate the appropriate length of a story based on the number of characters, settings, and MICE elements:
((# of characters + # of locations) x number of MICE elements x 750 words)/ 1.5
A story with 2 characters in one location with one MICE conflict would be:
((2+1) x1 x750)=2250/1.5=1500 words.
A story with five characters, eight locations, and four MICE elements:
((5+8) x4 x750)=39,000/1.5=26,000 words. Not a short story!
For novels, each major plot braid can have its own MICE equation.
Ken was clear that this equation is a guideline meant to demonstrate that the more complicated the story (in terms of characters, setting, and types of conflict), the more words it takes to tell. A very helpful tip for writers like myself who tend to overcomplicate with a large cast and multiple subplots!

Power of Practice

12/2/2022

In his recent newsletter, Matt Bell had insightful comments about the practice of writing:

There is no failure, only practice.
You become the writer who can write the book you want to write by writing the book you want to write.
Make your writing practice a source of serious joy and serious play and you will have all the sustenance you need for the long road ahead.

Part of the practice of writing is rewriting. Matt Bell on the revision process:

Revision is one of the ways you stay inside a book long enough to manifest yourself upon the page not once or twice but dozens or hundreds of times
[The] "genius" books we all love really are better than what any one of us could write on any individual day, but that's not how they were written: they were written one small step at a time, just like our books will be.
As we fill our hours and days with the work of rewriting, our fictions become not written by any one self but by the spectrum of selves we're always becoming, even as the novel is becoming alongside us.
In the end, if all goes well, your final book will be smarter and more insightful and more poignant than you are on any given day.

More gems from Matt Bell in his book on writing craft, Refuse to Be Done.

Is all practice equal?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, says it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the violin. But that ‘s not the whole story.

The research of Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, suggests someone could practice thousands of hours and still not be a master performer: the key is practicing with the guidance of an expert teacher (deliberate practice).
“This distinction between deliberate practice aimed at a particular goal and generic practice is crucial, because not every type of practice leads to improved ability. You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”

Hence the importance of critique groups and writing classes/workshops from experts in the field.
Favorite instructors I’ve studied with: Mark Spencer (Writer’s Digest University), Richard Thomas (Storyville), Ken Liu (Gotham Writers), Jane Friedman (Jane Friedman Media), and the crew at Writing the Other.

Of MICE and Ken: Conflict in SFF

Power of Practice

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