Ten Points on Plotting
- Nothing should happen at random. Every element in a story should have
significance, whether for verisimilitude, symbolism, or the intended
climax. Names, places, actions and events should all be purposeful. To
test the significance of an element, ask: Why this place and not
another? Why this name and not another? Why this action, this speech,
and not others--or none at all? The answers should be: To persuade the
reader of the story's plausibility; to convey a message about the theme
of the story; to prepare the reader for the climax so that it seems
both plausible and in keeping with the theme.
- Plot stems from character under adversity. A mild-mannered person
cannot achieve his goals by an out-of-character action like a violent
assault, unless we have prepared the reader for it by revealing a
glimpse of some suppressed aspect of his personality that can be
plausibly released by stress. And the stress itself must also be
plausible, given the circumstances of the story.
- Each character has an urgent personal agenda. Too much is at stake to
abandon that agenda without good reason. We may not share the
character's urgency, but we should be able to see why he cares so much
about what he's doing. A character who acts without real motivation is
by definition melodramatic, doing outrageous things for the sake of the
thrill it gives the reader--not because it makes sense for the
character to do so.
- The plot of a story is the synthesis of the plots of its individual
characters. Each character has a personal agenda, modified by conflict
or concordance with the agendas of others. The villain doesn't get
everything his way, any more than the hero does; each keeps thwarting
the other, who must then improvise under pressure. If the hero is
moving northwest, and the villain is moving northeast, the plot carries
them both more or less due north--at least until one or the other gains
some advantage.
- The plot ``begins'' long before the story. The story itself should
begin at the latest possible moment before the climax, at a point when
events take a decisive and irreversible turn. We may learn later,
through flashbacks, exposition, or inference, about events occurring
before the beginning of the story.
- Foreshadow all important elements. The first part of a story is a kind
of prophecy; the second part fulfills the prophecy. Any important
character, location, object should be foreshadowed early in the story.
The deus ex machina is unacceptable; you can't pull a rabbit out of
your hat to rescue your hero. But you can't telegraph your punch
either--your readers don't want to see what's coming, especially if
your characters seem too dumb to see it. The trick is to put the plot
element into your story without making the reader excessively aware of
its importance. Chance and coincidence, in particular, require careful
preparation if they are going to influence the plot.
- Keep in mind the kind of story you're telling. Any story is about the
relationship of an individual to society. A comic story describes an
isolated individual achieving social integration either by being
accepted into an existing society or by forming his own. This
integration is often symbolized by a wedding or feast. A tragic story
describes an integrated individual who becomes isolated; death is
simply a symbol of this isolation. The plot should keep us in some
degree of suspense about what kind of story we're reading. Even if we
know it's a comedy, the precise nature of the comic climax should come
as a surprise. If we know the hero is doomed, his downfall should stem
from a factor we know about but have not given sufficient weight to.
- Ironic plots subvert their surface meanings. Here, an ordinarily
desirable goal appears very unattractive to us: the hero marries, but
chooses the wrong girl and turns his story into a tragedy. Or the hero
may die, but gains some improvement in social acceptance as a
result--by becoming a martyr or social savior, for example.
- The hero must eventually take charge of events. In any plot the hero
is passive for a time, reacting to events. At some point he must try to
take charge. This is the counterthrust, when the story goes into high
gear. In some cases we may have a series of thrusts and counterthrusts;
in the opening stages of the plot, the counterthrust helps define the
hero's character and puts him in position for more serious conflicts
(and counterthrusts) later in the story. You could even say that every
scene presents the hero with a problem; his response is his
counterthrust. In the larger structure of the plot, the counterthrust
often comes after the hero's original plan of action has failed; he has
learned some hard lessons and now he will apply them as he approaches
the climax of the story.
- Plot dramatizes character. If all literature is the story of the quest
for identity, then plot is the roadmap of that quest. Every event,
every response, should reveal (to us if not to them) some aspect of the
characters' identities. Plot elements dramatize characters' identities
by providing opportunities to be brave or cowardly, stupid or
brilliant, generous or mean. These opportunities come in the form of
severe stress, appropriate to the kind of story you're telling. A plot
element used for its own sake--a fistfight, a sexual encounter, an
ominous warning--is a needless burden to the story if it does not
illuminate the characters involved. Conversely, the reader will not
believe any character trait that you have not dramatized through a plot
device.
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