Lesson 8: Plot

Note: the schedule says we would spend four weeks on character. However, everyone who has been participating is already very good at them, and I don't feel like we'd benefit from another week. So, on to plot!


Lesson 8: Plot

The essence of drama is that man cannot walk away from the consequences of his deeds. - Harold Hayes

Plot serves as the framework, or nervous system, of your story. It holds all the characters, places, and events in the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons.

The Function of Plot

At its most basic, a plot answers the following question words: what, how, what next, and why.

what: What happened? As scenes and characters move about, they move by means of events. Events are the answer to the question, "What happened?" They define the action of the story, no matter how passive or active that action is. If water boils over on the stove while someone is talking on the phone, that is an event, just as much as the death of a character in a bomb attack.

how: How did it happen? You can break this into several sub-questions. For example, what circumstances surrounded the event? Who was involved, and what did they do to make the event happen? Did anyone try to prevent the event from happening? What happened before the event to lead up to it?

what next: I added the quote at the top of this lesson for a reason. Events without consequences are not only unrealistic - worse, they don't move a plot forward! Ask yourself, What events or reactions does this event trigger? Who is affected? Who hears about it?

why: Why did it happen? This digs into the fundamental reason for an event. In our lives this is often very hard to answer. But as a writer, you should have a reason for every event in your story. If a character is caught in the wilderness with no food or water, why did it happen? Note that this is not a how question. You could answer the previous example with, "Because he was an idiot and went on a week-long hike in the dead of winter with a sandwich and a half-filled water bottle", but that would be an answer to "how did this happen". The answer to Why? gives the reason for your event existing in the story. Here are a few answers to why:

• because it has to happen as a basis for another event (i.e a car wreck leads to a character and a nurse meeting up)
• because it will be a great platform to show characteristics of your characters (i.e. the water boils over and the character becomes irritated with the person on the phone for it)
• because it will change characteristics (i.e. being lost in the wilderness makes the character change from being weak-willed to being driven)
• because it will change perception (i.e. being lost in the wilderness leads to gratitude for the basics of life)

There are many more good answers to this question.


Creating a Plot

JA good plot is the difference between a story that people can't stand to put down, and a story that people can't stand to pick up again. How can you create a plot which is interesting enough that people want to stay with your story?

There are many ways to do this, but here are a few steps that always need to be done in one form or another:

* We talked about the seed of a story at the beginning of the course. It's time to pull that out again. The first action to take when approaching a new story is to find its seed — the barest, rawest reason why this story is being written. What single conflict in a character makes you so interested that you want to write? What single nuance of a situation is so intriguing that it cries out to you to become a story? Strip away everything that isn't absolutely exciting to you about the seed of your story. If you're done stripping it down and find that you're not truly, deeply excited about anything there, then find something that does move you!

* The most difficult part comes next. When you know for sure what you're really interested in, make this the centre of your story. To be powerful, it should involve a character conflict, as described in Lesson 6, and the resolution of that conflict. This is the core of your plot: a single conflict, a single event that resolves that conflict. There are times when it's necessary to spread the resolution over several events, but every event you add dilutes the impact of that resolution, and thus your entire story.

* After defining the climax moment (or moments) in your story, answer the question, How did this event happened? (or, How did these events happen?) If you go up to the preceding description of how, you'll see several sub-questions. Answer them, and you will have started creating a plot moving

* Now look to the preceding discussion of what next, and answer the sub-questions there. How does this central event relate to the future in your story?

After that, creating a plot is a process of stretching the answer to "how" and "what next" backwards and forwards, using the events you define in answer to these questions. You don't need to include your entire plot in your story, but when defining it, go backwards far enough that someone reading your plot outline can have a perfect understanding of the central story event. Go forwards enough that the reader feels that this event and its consequences are at least partially resolved. Sometimes it's best not to spell everything out, but you should write enough to give your reader a feeling of closure on the main event.


That Said...

There are many, many ways to create plots. I've outlined a centre-outward approach. Some authors prefer defining the initial scene of the story first, then exploring forward in the same manner. Some authors like a scattered approach, creating scenes and events at random and then coming up with intriguing ways to stitch them together. In any method, answering the four questions what, how, what next, and why will be indispensable.

We'll use the exercise this week to explore these different approaches.


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Assignment 8: Due before you go to sleep on Tuesday, 24 June

Length: One to two pages

Think of two intriguing events or situations. Boil them down to the core of why you think they are intriguing. This may seem abstract, but I can't help you define what's intriguing to you. Read a newspaper or look on an internet news site for ideas, or just take a walk down your street and wonder about the people who live there.

In the following exercises, don't worry about answering why. That's not something we can exercise very effectively.

1. Use one of your events/situations as the beginning of a plot outline. Answer what and what next, but specifically don't answer how. Write down the characters involved, and the event(s) flowing from this core event/situation you've identified. Now answer all the four questions discussed in the lesson for the event(s) you defined by answering "what next". Keep doing this until you have at least one three-event chain stemming from your core event.

2. Use the same event/situation as you used in #1, but use it as the very end of a plot outline. Answer what and how but don't answer what next. As in #1 above, proceed onward answering all questions, but move backward, using the answers to how to create your event chain. Again, go at least three steps away from your core event.

3. Switch to your second event/situation and build from the centre outward in both directions, as described in the lesson material. Answer what, how, and what next for your core event, then answer the same questions for events both before and after your core event. Do this until you have a chain of two or three events in both directions.

4. Though it would be interesting to see your event chains, this is a point where electronic hand-in will be a real nightmare. So, unless you did the above electronically and can post it easily, what I want to see is your impressions of this process. Which method worked the easiest for you? Why? Did your core event seem pre-disposed to flow more easily one way than another? What advantages and disadvantages did you find in the different methods? What annoys you about one method, or did they all seem helpful?

Thanks for participating!