How to write plot, nr. 1
Jul. 7th, 2004 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I have, at various times, mused on the challenges of writing actual plot. Here are some tips gleaned from creative writing books.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
I have, at various times, mused on the challenges of writing actual plot. Here are some tips gleaned from creative writing books.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
I have, at various times, mused on the challenges of writing actual plot. Here are some tips gleaned from creative writing books.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
Figure out the plot through writing. Test your characters in action. Give them a world to come up against. Structure comes later.
The beginner jumps in excitedly with plot bunny and strings events together until they overload the narrative. Only text, not experience, is being made, and plot ends up governing character: not good.
How will the sequence of events allow the characters to change?
How will it affect them?
How many events do I need to address the issues I wish to explore?
Don't create too many situations. Dwell on characters: see those situations that dramatise the conflicts that lie hidden within and between them.
Plan as far ahead as you can to get a feeling of progression towards points that lead to new points.
Consider each situation before you write.
Are the events grounded in character context?
If not: rework or scrap.
Is this leading to another scene where it has a pay-off?
Is it deepening character?
Are we learning things that make us want to continue reading?
Are we repeating information that the reader already knows?
Maintain a rhythm of active and meditative scenes.
Maintain momentum in the middle where there is a tendency to over-complicate.
Don't use a scene that acts only as a precursor to a second scene. Drive suffers. Start in the second scene and backfold.
Do you start at the chronological beginning so it takes too long to get to the meat of the issue?
Look for first moment of confusion or change in novel and use it as an opening gambit.
See what happens if you cut the first 2 pages. There's often too much explanation at the beginning.
What provokes the protagonist into motion?
The initiating event can be anything but we need to see it happen in front of us, not offstage.
See a moment of choice occurring before us. Difference between a crucial event and catalyst (can happen as flashback) and an act of will, a decision, what someone chooses to do (must happen before us).
Remain rooted in choices and their acting out to give you a spine for the story.
Create resistance to provoke characters into choices. Gradually, they will formulate objectives and goals. These set the stakes for the character: what he wants, and how badly.
Resistance can be an antagonist or another benign character or the character himself. It can have many forms.
Best form of resistance: mutually exclusive goals for protagonist and antagonist.
Make both characters actively want something, rather than having opponent wanting to prevent protagonist achieving goal.
Make both characters move forward simultaneously: collision becomes inevitable.
Don't be scared of time jumps.
Don't invent sub-plots or material just to pass time realistically. 'Get on with it'.
Think of other combinations or outcomes before writing the scene. Are they more interesting than what you at first intended?
Only focus on what we are not likely to expect.
Cut the familiar and commonplace. Make strange.
Always go with your hunches.
Plotting is a safety mechanism that goes hand in hand with the imaginative wordplay of actual writing.
Plot is guide rail into cavern but readers want the dragon in the grotto. They wait for pay-off.
You have to promise readers two things: to guide them carefully, and to take them somewhere worthwhile.
Keep hinting that this is a journey worth going on. Eventually, you'll get to see the dragon.
Build up their expectations and pay them off, bit by bit.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
I have, at various times, mused on the challenges of writing actual plot. Here are some tips gleaned from creative writing books.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
I have, at various times, mused on the challenges of writing actual plot. Here are some tips gleaned from creative writing books.
(Note: Offered in a critical spirit! I am no slave to the prescriptions of writing courses, as all who have followed my pro-adverb crusade will well know... *g*)
From J.Bell and P.Magrs, eds, The University of East Anglia Creative Writing Coursebook
Figure out the plot through writing. Test your characters in action. Give them a world to come up against. Structure comes later.
The beginner jumps in excitedly with plot bunny and strings events together until they overload the narrative. Only text, not experience, is being made, and plot ends up governing character: not good.
How will the sequence of events allow the characters to change?
How will it affect them?
How many events do I need to address the issues I wish to explore?
Don't create too many situations. Dwell on characters: see those situations that dramatise the conflicts that lie hidden within and between them.
Plan as far ahead as you can to get a feeling of progression towards points that lead to new points.
Consider each situation before you write.
Are the events grounded in character context?
If not: rework or scrap.
Is this leading to another scene where it has a pay-off?
Is it deepening character?
Are we learning things that make us want to continue reading?
Are we repeating information that the reader already knows?
Maintain a rhythm of active and meditative scenes.
Maintain momentum in the middle where there is a tendency to over-complicate.
Don't use a scene that acts only as a precursor to a second scene. Drive suffers. Start in the second scene and backfold.
Do you start at the chronological beginning so it takes too long to get to the meat of the issue?
Look for first moment of confusion or change in novel and use it as an opening gambit.
See what happens if you cut the first 2 pages. There's often too much explanation at the beginning.
What provokes the protagonist into motion?
The initiating event can be anything but we need to see it happen in front of us, not offstage.
See a moment of choice occurring before us. Difference between a crucial event and catalyst (can happen as flashback) and an act of will, a decision, what someone chooses to do (must happen before us).
Remain rooted in choices and their acting out to give you a spine for the story.
Create resistance to provoke characters into choices. Gradually, they will formulate objectives and goals. These set the stakes for the character: what he wants, and how badly.
Resistance can be an antagonist or another benign character or the character himself. It can have many forms.
Best form of resistance: mutually exclusive goals for protagonist and antagonist.
Make both characters actively want something, rather than having opponent wanting to prevent protagonist achieving goal.
Make both characters move forward simultaneously: collision becomes inevitable.
Don't be scared of time jumps.
Don't invent sub-plots or material just to pass time realistically. 'Get on with it'.
Think of other combinations or outcomes before writing the scene. Are they more interesting than what you at first intended?
Only focus on what we are not likely to expect.
Cut the familiar and commonplace. Make strange.
Always go with your hunches.
Plotting is a safety mechanism that goes hand in hand with the imaginative wordplay of actual writing.
Plot is guide rail into cavern but readers want the dragon in the grotto. They wait for pay-off.
You have to promise readers two things: to guide them carefully, and to take them somewhere worthwhile.
Keep hinting that this is a journey worth going on. Eventually, you'll get to see the dragon.
Build up their expectations and pay them off, bit by bit.
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