Writing the Reaction Section

In The Marshall Plan®, the basic units of story are the action section and the reaction section. In my previous post I discussed writing the action section. In this post I’ll discuss writing the reaction section.

To recap . . . We’re writing a vampire romance in which our heroine, Sidora (a vampire), has the overall story goal of turning Damion, the human man she loves, into a vampire too, so that they’ll be together for eternity.

When the action section we created opened, Damion was missing, so the first thing Sidora had to do was find him. In her previous section she’d learned Damion had last been seen with a notorious warlock pirate in a bar near the piers. So Sidora’s logical short-term goal of the action section was to find out Damion’s location from someone at the bar. After making a number of unsuccessful inquiries, she spots an old woman wearing Damion’s scarf. Eventually the old woman admits she and a male companion found Damion drunk on the street and robbed him. Then she drops a bombshell. After robbing Damion, they sold him to a slave ship.

That’s how the action section ended.

After an action section, you have two choices: to continue with another action section, or with a reaction section. A reaction section should be your choice when the disaster at the end of the previous action section is especially devastating or shocking and needs some protracted thinking and planning on the part of the character. I think what Sidora has learned is pretty devastating, so I’m opting for a reaction section next.

A reaction section is a unit of story action in which the section character reacts to the failure she experienced in the preceding action section. The section character may be alone or with another character, most commonly the confidant. If the section character is alone, her reaction is shown through her thoughts and actions. If she is with another character, her reaction is shown primarily through dialogue, though it can be shown through thoughts and actions as well.

The first phase of the reaction section is the emotional phase, in which the section character could be said to respond with her heart to the failure. She is angry, outraged, insulted, frustrated, embarrassed, or whatever emotion would be natural in the situation.

After reacting emotionally, the section character pulls herself together, cools down and is able to react with her head—rationally.

In the rational phase of the reaction section, you first show the section character trying to analyze the failure and understand exactly what transpired. Then you show her trying to decide what action to take to solve the new problem brought about by the failure.

Finally she settles on a new course of action, setting a new short-term goal—the goal of the next section, an action section. A reaction section is always followed by an action section.

So here goes. This reaction section is set in the room Sidora has taken at the local inn. Sitting in the corner of the room is Patras, Sidora’s cat—a sort of familiar visible only to her. Patras has been with Sidora since she was a little girl. They care deeply for each other. Patras often counsels Sidora, though she doesn’t always take his advice.

She tells Patras what she’s learned. She’s devastated because Brutonius, the owner of the slave ship, is notorious, a ruthless, brutal man no one has ever been able to bring down. Neither Sidora nor Patras can recall anyone ever rescuing someone from Brutonius.

In the emotional phase of this reaction section, Sidora basically gives up all hope. She tells Patras that she’s doomed never to have love in her life because Damion is the only man she will ever love, her soulmate, and he’s gone forever. After a lot of ranting and crying, Sidora finally calms down enough to listen to Patras. Calm down, he tells her, and think. She’s never been known to give up on something she wants; why should this be any different? She’s got to find out where Brutonius’s ship is headed, get onto the ship and rescue Damion.

But how can she possibly find out where Brutonius is headed? Sidora asks Patras.

Easy, Patras tells her. There must be dock workers who helped load the ship; who would have heard where the ship was headed. They must hurry down to the docks and see what they can learn . . .

The next section would be an action section set down at the docks.

And on we go . . .

Reread this post and the previous one together to see how action and reaction sections fit together.