Writing Lessons
WRITING LESSON O2:
PLOT, WHAT IS IT?

MOST PEOPLE PLOT LIKE THIS AT FIRST.   THEY:

*   OPEN UP WORD.  SELECT A TITLE AND BEGIN TO WRITE THEIR STORY
*   OPEN UP WORD, BEGIN WRITING THE KEY INSPIRATIONAL SCENE THAT
   POPPED INTO THEIR MIND
*   OPEN UP WORD, START WITH A CHARACTER WITH A PROBLEM AND WRITE

Sometimes they end up with a good story.  Most of the times by the middle of the story or novel, they lose the inspiration, have no idea where the character's problem is going, and so do not know how to continue the problem.   The major problem the character is having is the plot.  Some people say the situation (when the character first recognized the problem) is the problem and the plot is the quest or attempt or journey of trying to provide a solution to the problem.  Plot is most definitely the attempt or journey or quest of trying to solve the irreversible problem the character is faced with.


BASIC PLOTING RULES:

*   WRITE PLOTS YOU KNOW ABOUT OR HAVE PARTICIPATED IN

One major rule is write what you know.  If you've read love stories or science fiction (sf) or mystery or fantasy, perhaps you should start with these as your plot.  A SF story means a problem with technology, or the future use of technology or how technology impacts us.  A love plot means a girl wants a boy and has all kinds of obstacles preventing her from obtaining boy and his love.  If you try to write a genre, you never read, you're going to be frustrated. 


*   RESEARCH PLOT TYPES YOU'RE HAZY ON OR DON'T KNOW ABOUT. 

Another rule is to research what you don't know about, then you'll know how those genre's work in fiction.  This means picking up a romance or SF or mystery or literary novel from the library, book store or laying about your home.. 


*   PLOTS ARE LINKED CHAINS OF EVENTS OR SCENES.

Third rule is respect the linked nature of events in your story plot.  Girl goes on vacation and meets a boy on vacation and they fall in love.  Their vacation last a week and they live across the country from one another.  They have a problem!  What are they going to do about it?  In one week, they say goodbye forever or do they try to work something out?  The problem must be complicated enough for many many linked chains of events to be created and resolved, created and resolved until in the end, they get married.

Another example: Imagine Mary is running the 400 yard race.  She has to win this race to help pay the mortage on their home.  Her opponent a boy (secret son of the mortagage company founder) has hired someone to make Mary's goal difficult.  Each plot segment or scene is about what happens within its 100 yards.

First 100 yards, Mary is 50 yards ahead of her opponnent.

Second 200 yards, the opponent put up a two feet hurdle.  We don't know how they did it, but Mary is sure her opponent's wide grin has something to do with it.  By the end of the 200 yards, her opponent is only 10 yards behind.

Third 300 yards, Mary runs harder.  Her opponent yells threats.  "I'm going to catch you and track dust in your face!"  Suddenly another hurdle pops up, this one three feet high.  Mary jumps it but stumbles.  After all, Mary wasn't expecting this to be the 400 yard hurdles!  The opponent catches up and sure as he promised, he passes Mary.  He's ahead by 20 yards.

The final fourth 400 yards is now being run.  Mary doesn't waste time on threats.  She thinks, I know he's arranged for another hurdle.  I'm prepared now.  At 320 yards her opponents is still 10 yards ahead.  At 440 yards, Mary has caught up!  At 350 yards, Mary looks around for the next hurdle which happens to be a huge tree trunk, five feet high and three feet across.  Mary runs faster to gather more speed and leaps high and outward and she clears the tree and leaning forward her forhead breaks the finish line laser marker before her opponent!



*  PLOT PREVENT CHARACTERS FROM GOING BACKWARDS IN LIFE

Fourth rule is irreversible change.  The couple is now in love, terribly in love and their hearts won't let them forget it.  If the couple, has their summer romance and goes back to separate homes across the country, that was not a plot.  An incident maybe, but not a linked chain of events creating other problems to resolve.  Think of irreversible change as pregnancy.  Many options exist for a woman before pregnancy, but once pregnancy occurs a lot of options are out of the question or improbable.  She can no longer just go around acting like she's not carrying a child and doing her class work or job and expecting the child in the womb will just disappear.  She has to confront other problems and resolve them continually, whether it is how to pay and get an abortion or how to raise a child for eighteen plus years.


*   SHOW THE ACTION, FEELINGS, OPINIONS, THOUGHTS IN YOUR WRITING.

Show, don't tell.  Hmmmm....

Mary had a balloon with her in the park.  She saw children play.  They smiled at her and her balloon.  Then a giraffe stole it.  Sound exciting, right?  = telling


Mary walk in Aziom Park, down the wild white rose lane where daffodils swayed and butterflies flitted back and forth.  She smiled at the other children on swing sets and playing in the pond, who pointed at her big, beautiful red balloon.  And just as Mary sat down in the cool shade, under a huge oak tree, a long yellow and brown spotted snake snatched the balloon string.  Mary swiftly looked up and saw the snake retreating back into the green leaves.  "Come back here," she yelled and gave chase only to realize the snake moved very fast, leaping from tree top to tree top.  "Stop!" Mary yelled, her arms pumping wild as she ran, darting in between tree trunks.  Mary kept thinking to herself that's no snake moving amongst the trees.  It's a Giraffe!  = showing.  

I don't know what's going to happen next, but since little blonde Mary wants her balloon, she going to be busy chasing that Giraffe!


*   EVERY PLOT HAS A BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END

The plot starts out like a little embryo and grows larger and large, bring different problems and circumstances to overcome.  So it is with plot.  As the main character tries to resolve the problem, people, situations, time, environment get in the way.  The forces opposing the main character gather strength and force and the main character must work harder and harder until in the end, giving it all they've got the main character succeeds or fails to solve her problem.  Successes are called positive endings; failures are called negative endings. 

Open any novel, you've read before, into the middle, or divide the final page number of the novel into two.  Read about four pages and you will see how the plot has grown from page one and how it will get even tougher before the last page of the novel.  This plot progression lacks in those unfinished novels.

At the story or novel's end, your main character has to solve her own problems.  No guy can come in and save her offer her a free abortion; no lonely childless couple can suddenly appear who wants to adopt the child all expenses paid.


*  EVERY PLOT HAS CONFLICT, OPPOSITION FORCES

What's conflict or opposition forces?  Mary has a little balloon and a giraffe came and took it away.  Now Mary has a conflict.  Does she forget about the balloon?  Not much of a story if she does.   Does she cry about the balloon and asks someone else to get it?  Again, not much of a story if someone other than Mary solves the problem.  Or does Mary go after the giraffe and recover her balloon?  Yes!  That's a story.  It's Interesting!  It has conflict!  This would be Mary vs the Giraffe.

Suppose Mary is turning 18 and realizes everyone considers her an adult.  What does this mean to Mary?  Is Mary comfortable being accepted as an adult?  Does Mary want to do different things like get her own apartment now that she's an adult?  This would be, Mary vs Society considering her as an Adult.

A character can be against herself.  Perhaps she doesn't like her hairstyle and wants a new one?  Perhaps her conflict is against a machine, time, a place, a situation, a group, history. Every story has to have conflict or there really no reason to read it.  The character, Mary, gains or looses something in the process, but the struggle and problem solving was worth it to Mary so, it will be worthwhile to the reader.


*  NUTSHELL OR CORE OF A PLOT IS?

Writing a good plot in a nutshell is:
Characters = people
In a situation =  when the character first recognized the main irreversible problem
in a Setting = environment place or time

So you have characters with a situation (problem) in a setting and what they want out of that situation.

Scenes fully dramatize the problems and struggle your character has in the plot.  Scenes are connected by narrative normally.  Explaination of Scenes, see L05- Scenes.


*  SUBPLOTS?

1) May or may not involve the main character/s.
2) Are generally shorter than the main plot.
3) End before the main plot ends.
4) Are built just like main plots.
5) May or may not share the same scenes
6) Can refer to other characters and events in the main plots or other subplots.


*  ONLY SURE WAY TO WRITE YOUR STORY

The novel/story won't be written unless you finally sit down and type it OR write it OR
speak it out into a tape recorder or computer and transcribe it.



WAYS TO PLOT YOUR OUTLINE

1)  INDEX CARDS.  Write the first irreversible change that happens on a card.  Then write the next irreversible change that happens.  On and on, write these and then if you don't like the order of events, see if you can rearrange them.

2)  WRITE BRIEF OUTLINE IN WORD.  Write A happens first, then B happens, then C.  Of course in Word, you can rearrange the events A, B, C and so on however you like.

3)  MIND PLOTTING.  In your mind, go over the first event, second event, then third event.  If you don't like an event cross it out in your mind and put in another.  Keep creating new irreversible events for your characters in your mind.  This does save paper, time typing out things.  The drawback would be you mind forget a good plot events after lunch or something.  So when you've got a good plot twist or list of plot events in your mind, go and write them out on paper or in Word.

4)  TAKE YOUR FAVORITE STORY you've read and build a plot similar to it.  West Side Story is basically a revamped Romeo and Juliet.

5)  ROBERT TOBIAS in 20 Master Plots said there are twenty general plots:

1. QUEST
2. ADVENTURE
3. PURSUIT
4. RESCUE
5. ESCAPE
6. REVENGE
7. THE RIDDLE
8. RIVALRY
9. UNDERDOG
10.TEMPTATION
11.METAMORPHOSIS
12.TRANSFORMAION
13.MATURATION
14.LOVE
15.FORBIDDEN LOVE
16.SACRIFICE
17.DISCOVERY
18.WRETCHED EXCESS
19.ASCENSION
20.DESCENSION 

I'm sure, now that you're thinking about it, you remember some of these plots. 


6)  ARISTOTLE TAUGHT plot was:

A BEGINNING
Beginning defines your characters and the wants of your major character (or characters).  Aristotle says a character wants either happiness or misery.  When you ask yourself "What does my character want?" you've begun the journey of plot.  This want or need is called intent.

A MIDDLE
Rising action.  The character purses her goal.  Action grows out of what happened in the beginning.  Cause, now effect.  But the character runs into problems or barriers to the goal.  Aristotle called these barriers reversals.  Reversals cause tension and conflict because they alter the path the protagonist must take to get her intended goal. 
Recognition, which is the point in the story where the relationships between major characters change as a result of the reversal.  Irreversible emotional change within the characters brought about by that event.  Cause and effect again too.

AN ENDING
Climax.  The falling action.  The denouement.  Ending is the logical outcome of all the events in the first two phases.  Everything--who, what and where--is explained, and everything makes sense.


7)  TWO BASIC PLOTS: CRIMES OF VIOLENCE AND CRIMES OF FRAUD.
VIOLENCE:  of the physical body
FRAUD:of the mind.

Dante's Inferno there are only two basic sins in all the levels of Hell. 

One is called forza, crimes of violence and force.
Force is power, strength, physicality.

The other is called forda, which is Italian for fraud.
Fraud comes from wit, cleverness, mentality.

The damned who have been sent to Hell for crimes of violence weren't at the lowest circles of Hell; those were reserved for people who committed fraud, or sins of the mind.  In Dante's mind, anyway, crimes of the mind were far worse than crimes of physical violence.

8)  CHARACTER AND EVENTS:
Some plots grow out of the character's frame of mind, or point of view.  Literary story generally take this approach.

Some plots grow out of the events that happen to the character.  Popular fiction story tend to take this approach. 

9)  PLAN NEW IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE BEFORE MAIN CHARACTER RESOLVES CURRENT IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE THEY'RE STRUGGLE WITH.

Even if we know, Little Mary will eventually catch up with the Giraffe, because there is a lake up ahead, we must plan the the next irreversible change and set it into motion before she catches the Giraffe.  The Giraffe can speak and pays a boat owner to drive him across the lake!   Even if the girl bribes her best gf to drive her up state to get her abortion; we know that the car is going to break down on the highway.  They'll have to hitch a ride from a nice elderly woman who has 99 pro-life stickers on her red truck!

10) MAJOR LONG TERM PROBLEM.  Plot is a major long term problem for the main character to solve that tests her moral code, her physical, emotional and mental abilities. 

11) MAIN CHARACTER CHANGE.  If the main character doesn't change in your story, why write it?  Agreed some story don't involve any major main character change, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  But in general, readers expect the main character to come out of the crucible of events changed or transformed in some way.

12) MAIN CHARACTER SYMPATHY: If you want sympathy for a character, show them struggling against odds.  Soon the odds seem overwhelming; the character is seemly defeated, and then, through her own efforts, emerges victorious.

13) MAIN CHARACTER ANTISYMPATHY: Show the character winning but winning by means of unsympathetic actions, then is cut down at the end.

14) COINCIDENCE: Use coincidence to stop or hinder or hurt your character but never to help your character!


Super Mini-Course in Producing A Great Plot:
Plot: Any kinds of story you want.  (If a structure category is left blank.  This means you decide the contents YDTC.)    Several ways exist to structure a novel or story.  Three acts.  Five acts.  Five acts works the best in my opinion.


Basically divide your how many chapters or scenes you have by five.  If you have ten chapters,
FIRST ACT: Chapter 1-2
SECOND ACT: Chapter 3-4
THIRD ACT: Chapter 5-6
FOURTH ACT: Chapter 7-8
FIFTH ACT: Chapter 9-10

First ACT/Scene: Introduce your characters.  Who they are?  Where they live?  Who they come into contact with?  What's their initial problem they grappling to solve?

Second ACT/Scene: Is where you show your character trying to solve their problem, only the problem keeps getting worse or more complicated as irreversible events take place.  Those early character introductions and scenes now begin to reveal themselves: who are the bad players or good players.  Supporters or Foes.  We understand more about your Main Character (MC) as we see her interacting in her environment and with other characters.  Slowly you are peeling back the onion layers of your character from an unfinished story or novel. 

Third ACT/Scene: This is the biggest scene in your novel or story.  The big revelations, secrets come out.  The things driving your character to hate the world or someone else.  The big reasons behind some of  your characters strange unexplained or unexplainable actions in Acts/Scenes 1 and 2.

Fourth ACT/Scene: This is where things get desperate for your Main Character (MC) or heroine.  It seems the evil characters or Opposition/Impact Character (OC/IC) has won.  They've defeated her.  THIS IS YOUR HEROINE'S WORSE DAY ACT/SCENE!  If they don't do something now!  All is lost.  This is your Main Character (MC) or heroine's "I'LL BE BACK" Act/Scene

Fifth ACT/Scene: This is your Main Character (MC) or heroine's "I'M BACK!  AND I'M MAD AS HELL TOO!" Act/Scene.  Your heroines finds new resources she never thought she had.  She uses her skill from long ago, childhood maybe to win the battle.  She drops a bad habit that's been holding her back and therefore wins the day.



IF YOU GET STUCK IN WRITING PLOT OUTLINE

*  VISUALIZE A CONTINUUM PATH

If you get stuck in your writing you can just visualize it like this.

A-------------------------<b>B</b>---------------------------C

B=a scene in your mind, you know will be in story.
A= is a scene you don't know about but you find it by asking yourself what event caused/came before B?
C= is a scene you don't know about but you find it by asking yourself what event or result/event came after B?  Use the free story developer link at the top of page.  It's
not as good as Storyview but it is adequate for plotting.

*  ASKS "WHAT IF THIS HAPPENED IN MY STORY?"

Another way to keep the plot moving is to asks yourself five what ifs?

Let's say you have B scene. 
Speculate.  Put down five different scenes/events that might or could happen.

What if #1 event happened after B?
What if #2 event happened after B?
What if #3 event happened after B?
What if #4 event happened after B?
What if #5 event happened after B?

Choose which of the five possible events could that contains the riches/most to write about.

In this way, you can continue to write your novel scene by scene until it is done.


*  IF YOU'RE UNSURE WHO SHOULD BE YOUR MAJOR CHARACTER ASKS

1) Which character provides the most conflict?
2) Which character is closest to the bulk of drama?
3) Which character do other characters refer to most often?


*  GO BACK TO OLD UNFINISHED WRITINGS, JOURNALS, NOTES

Another way to keep the novel/story going is to go back into your journal or unfinished stories.  Perhaps you can take scenes, characters, chapters or plot events from those and include in your novel/story?


*  REALIZE YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WRITE THE SCENES IN ORDER YOU CHOOSE!

And you are allowed to write the scenes in any order you want.  A number of scenes make up a chapter or act.  You might decide to write chapter 10 before writing chapter 3 if you know chapter 10 better.  It's all up to you.  If you start each new chapter on a new page in Word, it will be easily to switch the chapters around using the outline form view.

*  YOU CAN DEPART AND COME BACK, OR EVEN DISCARD YOUR PLOT PLAN

Plot is guide, not a plan written in stone. 

*  WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.  WHAT ARE SOME PROBLEMS FOR MY CHARACTERS (NEW ADDED 03.26.09)

1) Remember your favorite movie. Forget the beginning for a second.  Asks yourself, "What happen in the middle of that dang film?"  Go get out the DVD or video tape.  Fast forward to the middle and watch it again!

2) Your MC character's life could become endangered.
3) Your MC character's best friend's life could become endangered.
4) Your MC character find out something they didn't to know.
5) Your MC character discovers they have a major flaw and if they don't get their act together they'll lose or die or miss an big opportunity.
6) Someone the MC character knew from the past returns, hopefully with some damaging memories like participating in a pirate ship robbery.  Now one of the bandits is after your friend, who comes to your MC for help.
7) Let's get the easy ones out of the way.  You have thought of these.  Someone dies.
8) MC gets lost.
9) MC's lover betrays them.
10)  Scene with the MC gets highly emotional for some _______ reason.
11) Your MC realizes the problem is deeper or wider than they expected.
12) Your MC is running out of time.
13) Your MC is running out of options.  There are only so many places to get that Prom Dress at 6 pm on Prom night.
14)  Unexpected barriers confront your MC.  She suddenly has to learn to fly a 747 because, she's the head stewardess and both pilot and copiolt have just been poisoned to death.
15) Your MC's best male friend suddenly confesses he's madly in love with her.  She always say him as a partner not a lover.
16) Any new or old thing that keeps the MC anxious, concerned, confused, or undecided.
17) Something your MC is most afraid of confronts them at the height of the story drama.
18) The MC notices another character acting strangly all of a sudden.
19)  The MC is most confident after having solved a big problem, but the little problem already developing from the past now must be dealt with or else.
20)  Someone asks the MC, "What is wrong?
21) Go grab some plot from a Bible story and twist it around a bit and insert it into your story. 
22)  The setting becomes the MC's obstacle.
23) The society suddenly becomes the MC's obstacle.
24) Something delays the MC and produces major problems.
25) Something inerrupts the MC.  This must be important enough for the MC to deal with or it  probably falls into the "delay" category.
26) Go get some of your half-finished stories.  Blend that plot and character into the story.  Or just rename the characters to your current novel/story/poem/song characters.
27) Use 15,000 Writing Prompts to create complications/problems for your characters.


SO GO START PLOTTING YOUR STORY OUTLINE!




This page was last updated: August 30, 2009
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This page was last updated: August 30, 2009