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warped_pearlContinuing on with the discussion of 20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias.
Part one proclaimed that without tension, there is no plot. Now we'll expand on that a bit, and discuss the eight Lowest Common Denominators of every plot.
LCD One: Make tension fuel your plot
As discussed in part one, a story just ain't right unless it has some tension. Without tension, it's just a retelling of events: dry, boring, factual. Add in a bit of tension ("I won't marry you because you are a drunk!"), and you've got the makings of plot.
LCD Two: Create tension through opposition
I previously attended a screenwriting workshop in which the presenter defined Mainstream American films as "The story of a person in pursuit of an objective who overcomes opposition to reach the resolution".
This sentence is LCDs One and Two in a nutshell. First, your protagonist has to want something. His desire is the kindling of the tension in your story (LCD one). If your character didn't want anything, then what was the point of the story? Why would we be interested? Your character doesn't have to want anything grand (the workshop presenter used a pacakge of Twinkies as an example), but he has to want something.
Next, your character must face opposition. He wants Twinkies, but ack! the vending machine is all out of them. That's the ignition fluid of tension. Once we introduce opposition, the plot takes off and we're rolling right along in our story, and the readers are turning the pages as fast as they can.
You might be tempted to think that the opposition has to be in the form of an antagonistic character -- some evil person who is dead set against your protagonist getting what they want (they saw you going for the Twinkies, and stole them before you could get them!) -- but it doesn't have to be. It can be a situation (the vending machine is out of Twinkies) or an internal conflict (you really want the Twinkies, but you are trying to stick to a diet). Just make sure there is some kind of opposition, or your plot will go nowhere and your readers will fall asleep or throw your fic down in disgust.
LCD Three: Make tension grow as opposition increases
For a story to be effective and compelling, the opposition needs to grow as the story continues.
One way to do this is through local tension, which is basically the person, item, or situation that is affecting your protagonist at the present moment. Boy asks girl to marry him; girl says no. That's local tension.
Stories have strings of local tensions that carry the plot along, but they can't rely on local tension alone, as local tension hardly ever increases. It can also lead to boredom, or the absurd.
Let's go back to our Twinkies. If we only had local tension, the plot might go something like this: Character wants Twinkies. He searches his pockets for change, but finds none (local tension #1). He borrows change from a friend. He goes to the vending machine, but alas, the machine is out of twinkies! (local tension #2). He decides to go to the sundry shop next door. But the shop is closed because of a fire that occured there last night! (local tension #3). He decides to get in his car to go to the grocery store, but gets stuck in traffic because the circus is coming in town, and the elephants stampeded during the parade. (local tension #4).
Tension-filled plot? Heck yeah. And it might even make a successful action story. But notice how as the story goes on, we get more and more into the fantastical, which can increase disbelief in a story. This is the last thing we want to do. We want our readers to trust us, and to be so involved in the story they lose track of time. So instead of relying solely on local tensions, we introduce deep tension.
Think of deep tension as the story's purpose for being. It is the underlying drive for the story or character. In our Boy Meets Girl story, the deep tension is his struggle to overcome achoholism. It's personal, and tough, and cannot be resolved easily. In fact, your character might have to undergo a paradigm shift in order to resolve the deep tension, which leads me to LCD Four.
LCD Four: Make change the point of your plot
We could decide that our story is simply about a man's quest for a package of Twinkies. It might be possible to come up with a humorous story based on this scenerio.
But for a story that really packs the wow, make your plot about change. How do the events of the story change your character or world?
Change goes hand-in-hand with deep tension, as there's not a lot to be learned from local tension. Patience and strength in the face of adversity, maybe, but not much more. Back to the Twinkies. If we relied on local tension only, then at the end of the story we might have a character who has decided he really hates Twinkies because of all the obstacles he faced in getting those Twinkies. A change, yes, but not a very compelling one.
Now let's introduce some deep tension. Our story is now about a man who is struggling to lose weight, but finds himself one day really longing for some Twinkies. He struggles with himself over whether or not to give in and get the Twinkies. Maybe he decides he really doesn't need to be on a diet, or that it is okay to "be bad" sometimes, and gives in and gets the Twinkies. Or maybe he decides that his long-term goals (the weight loss) are more important than immediate desires (the Twinkies) and decides not to purchase any. Either way, he has gone through a change of his convictions, which is much more satisfying as a story than a character who has simply survived a frustrating day.
LCD Five: When something happens, make sure it's important
Your job as a writer is to keep the reader engaged in your story. Far too often, beginning writers (and some published folks, too!) let their stories take unnecessary side trips. As Tobias put it: "Your intended for [your character] to be at a board meeting in New York and suddenly they're at a pig farm in Green Sleeve, Mississippi." The pig farm may be fun--the smells! the laughter when the pig chases your character!--but if it's not important to the plot, your readers are going to get bored. So, you have one thing to do: cut it out! Yes, it may be some of the best writing you've ever done, but if it doesn't advance the plot, it does not belong in your story. Cut it, and keep it in a clip file, and take it out to read every now and then, but don't keep it in your story.
Know who's important to your story. Just about every story has a main character; the majority of the scenes should involve that character somehow. Don't let your supporting characters become too big. The H/D fic I am musing over was originally going to open with a scene from Harry's childhood, that explains why Harry is the one who can answer Draco's questions. It's a lovely little scene, and very important to Harry's characterization. Yet I have decided not to include it in the story, because the story is really about Draco, and not Harry. I still might write the scene for reference, and I'm pretty sure Harry will end up mentioning this experience to Draco, but we will not see the scene as a whole, either as a prologue or a flashback, because this isn't Harry's story.
This LCD is actually one of my biggest complaints about Cassie Claire's Draco trilogy. Draco's name is in the title of each fic, but yet Harry seems to have just as many scenes as Draco, which leads me to confusion as to who this fic is really about. And Cassie has written some really lovely scenes with other characters as well (Tom, Ginny, etc), and yet I still question their inclusion in the story. The plot could use some definite tightening, as the third part of the trilogy is already obscenely long and shows no sign of ending soon. Still a great story, but yeah, it needs tightening.
LCD Six: Make the causal look casual
So we've trimmed our plot and gotten rid of any extraneous scenes. And we have this item the character needs to use in the climax, and we need to somehow introduce it earlier in the plot. This is the infamous "If you show a gun in scene one, make sure it goes off in scene three" LCD.
The question is, how to go about introducing the gun? We could make it really obvious ("LOOK! HERE IS A GUN!! OH MY MB ISN'T IT SCARY?"), but if we do so, we risk losing our readers as the plot would then be obvious as well. Why should the reader keep reading if they know what is going to happen?
Instead, we do this in a very sly manner. All casual-like. Mention the gun as being just one item of many items in a room: blend it into the scenery so that it does not jump out at the reader. Now, you may be worrying that your reader will not pick up on the mention, and totally forget about the gun and be all confused when it comes up later. Readers are often more intelligent than writers think, though--in most cases, they are going to remember the gun (there are a few clueless folks, alas, who cannot pick up on anything). Trust your readers to follow your clues, and you'll write a compelling, interesting story.
This is an area in which I feel nocturne_alley particularly excels: the character's posts are often packed with information or casual lines that appear to be throw-aways and unimportant, but turn out to be very important. Making the connections and remembering references when the climax finally occurs is a big part of the fun in following the RPG.
LCD Seven: Make sure you leave Lady Luck and chance to the lottery
This is the LCD that warns against Deus Ex Machina.
Your character is in dire straits. He is backed against a rock wall, facing a large dragon, with no chance of escape, when suddenly a rope ladder appears out of nowhere and he climbs to his escape!
How very lucky and convenient. Which is exactly the two things you don't want your readers to be thinking.
The resolution of the character's issues or obstacles should arise from the character, not from chance or "magic". We want to root for the character, and believe that she has the skills, talents, and strength to overcome her opposition. Using a plot device is, well, cheap, and much less satisfying than if she worked things out on her own.
Which explains my dissatisfaction with the climatic scene in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Little Anakin Skywalker is told to go sit in the cockpit of a ship to stay safe during the battle with the droids, except the ship is set for autolaunch (convenient plot device #1) and he soon finds himself hurtling towards the space battle. While there, he appears to magically move through dense enemy fire, as his dialogue ("Let's try spinning! That's always good!") shows that he is not flying out of skill or natural ability, but implies that he's not sure what to do in this case (convenient plot device #2). He then ends on the droid control ship, where he accidentally presses a button or something, which fires a shot into the control ship's core, in turn blowing up the ship and causing the droids on the surface to go "dead" at the the most critical time of the battle (convenient plot device #3).
Yeah, I was disgusted.
Maybe George Lucas was trying to imply that Anakin had the Force flowing through him during the battle, and that's why he was able to do these things. But really, it felt like magic and convenience, whereas Luke's trench run on the first Death Star in the original Star Wars did not. Then, it was about faith, courage, and natural talent and ability; here, it's just about luck.
Do not rely on luck to save your characters. You will lose your audience.
LCD Eight: Make sure your central character performs the central action of the climax
Imagine if Wedge Antilles had blown up the Death Star instead of Luke Skywalker. Would the audience have been as satisfied? Probably not. The victory is hollow if the character we have been emotionally connected to (Luke) is not involved. Your main character must be present at the climax of the story, and must be an active part in it.
This one also ties back to my comments in LCD Five about knowing who's important in your story. If you do not properly identify a main character, your readers will be confused or feel like something is "off".
I felt this way about the movie "Jerry Maguire". The movie attempts to focus on Jerry, but I found myself being much more drawn to Renee Zwelleger's character. To me, she appeared to be the one who was undergoing the most change, and who was driving the plot. This makes me feel like the movie did not properly identify its main character. Either she should have been the main character, or the plot should have been more advanced by Jerry's actions than hers.
Next up: The strong force, and the two major types of plot.
Part one proclaimed that without tension, there is no plot. Now we'll expand on that a bit, and discuss the eight Lowest Common Denominators of every plot.
LCD One: Make tension fuel your plot
As discussed in part one, a story just ain't right unless it has some tension. Without tension, it's just a retelling of events: dry, boring, factual. Add in a bit of tension ("I won't marry you because you are a drunk!"), and you've got the makings of plot.
LCD Two: Create tension through opposition
I previously attended a screenwriting workshop in which the presenter defined Mainstream American films as "The story of a person in pursuit of an objective who overcomes opposition to reach the resolution".
This sentence is LCDs One and Two in a nutshell. First, your protagonist has to want something. His desire is the kindling of the tension in your story (LCD one). If your character didn't want anything, then what was the point of the story? Why would we be interested? Your character doesn't have to want anything grand (the workshop presenter used a pacakge of Twinkies as an example), but he has to want something.
Next, your character must face opposition. He wants Twinkies, but ack! the vending machine is all out of them. That's the ignition fluid of tension. Once we introduce opposition, the plot takes off and we're rolling right along in our story, and the readers are turning the pages as fast as they can.
You might be tempted to think that the opposition has to be in the form of an antagonistic character -- some evil person who is dead set against your protagonist getting what they want (they saw you going for the Twinkies, and stole them before you could get them!) -- but it doesn't have to be. It can be a situation (the vending machine is out of Twinkies) or an internal conflict (you really want the Twinkies, but you are trying to stick to a diet). Just make sure there is some kind of opposition, or your plot will go nowhere and your readers will fall asleep or throw your fic down in disgust.
LCD Three: Make tension grow as opposition increases
For a story to be effective and compelling, the opposition needs to grow as the story continues.
One way to do this is through local tension, which is basically the person, item, or situation that is affecting your protagonist at the present moment. Boy asks girl to marry him; girl says no. That's local tension.
Stories have strings of local tensions that carry the plot along, but they can't rely on local tension alone, as local tension hardly ever increases. It can also lead to boredom, or the absurd.
Let's go back to our Twinkies. If we only had local tension, the plot might go something like this: Character wants Twinkies. He searches his pockets for change, but finds none (local tension #1). He borrows change from a friend. He goes to the vending machine, but alas, the machine is out of twinkies! (local tension #2). He decides to go to the sundry shop next door. But the shop is closed because of a fire that occured there last night! (local tension #3). He decides to get in his car to go to the grocery store, but gets stuck in traffic because the circus is coming in town, and the elephants stampeded during the parade. (local tension #4).
Tension-filled plot? Heck yeah. And it might even make a successful action story. But notice how as the story goes on, we get more and more into the fantastical, which can increase disbelief in a story. This is the last thing we want to do. We want our readers to trust us, and to be so involved in the story they lose track of time. So instead of relying solely on local tensions, we introduce deep tension.
Think of deep tension as the story's purpose for being. It is the underlying drive for the story or character. In our Boy Meets Girl story, the deep tension is his struggle to overcome achoholism. It's personal, and tough, and cannot be resolved easily. In fact, your character might have to undergo a paradigm shift in order to resolve the deep tension, which leads me to LCD Four.
LCD Four: Make change the point of your plot
We could decide that our story is simply about a man's quest for a package of Twinkies. It might be possible to come up with a humorous story based on this scenerio.
But for a story that really packs the wow, make your plot about change. How do the events of the story change your character or world?
Change goes hand-in-hand with deep tension, as there's not a lot to be learned from local tension. Patience and strength in the face of adversity, maybe, but not much more. Back to the Twinkies. If we relied on local tension only, then at the end of the story we might have a character who has decided he really hates Twinkies because of all the obstacles he faced in getting those Twinkies. A change, yes, but not a very compelling one.
Now let's introduce some deep tension. Our story is now about a man who is struggling to lose weight, but finds himself one day really longing for some Twinkies. He struggles with himself over whether or not to give in and get the Twinkies. Maybe he decides he really doesn't need to be on a diet, or that it is okay to "be bad" sometimes, and gives in and gets the Twinkies. Or maybe he decides that his long-term goals (the weight loss) are more important than immediate desires (the Twinkies) and decides not to purchase any. Either way, he has gone through a change of his convictions, which is much more satisfying as a story than a character who has simply survived a frustrating day.
LCD Five: When something happens, make sure it's important
Your job as a writer is to keep the reader engaged in your story. Far too often, beginning writers (and some published folks, too!) let their stories take unnecessary side trips. As Tobias put it: "Your intended for [your character] to be at a board meeting in New York and suddenly they're at a pig farm in Green Sleeve, Mississippi." The pig farm may be fun--the smells! the laughter when the pig chases your character!--but if it's not important to the plot, your readers are going to get bored. So, you have one thing to do: cut it out! Yes, it may be some of the best writing you've ever done, but if it doesn't advance the plot, it does not belong in your story. Cut it, and keep it in a clip file, and take it out to read every now and then, but don't keep it in your story.
Know who's important to your story. Just about every story has a main character; the majority of the scenes should involve that character somehow. Don't let your supporting characters become too big. The H/D fic I am musing over was originally going to open with a scene from Harry's childhood, that explains why Harry is the one who can answer Draco's questions. It's a lovely little scene, and very important to Harry's characterization. Yet I have decided not to include it in the story, because the story is really about Draco, and not Harry. I still might write the scene for reference, and I'm pretty sure Harry will end up mentioning this experience to Draco, but we will not see the scene as a whole, either as a prologue or a flashback, because this isn't Harry's story.
This LCD is actually one of my biggest complaints about Cassie Claire's Draco trilogy. Draco's name is in the title of each fic, but yet Harry seems to have just as many scenes as Draco, which leads me to confusion as to who this fic is really about. And Cassie has written some really lovely scenes with other characters as well (Tom, Ginny, etc), and yet I still question their inclusion in the story. The plot could use some definite tightening, as the third part of the trilogy is already obscenely long and shows no sign of ending soon. Still a great story, but yeah, it needs tightening.
LCD Six: Make the causal look casual
So we've trimmed our plot and gotten rid of any extraneous scenes. And we have this item the character needs to use in the climax, and we need to somehow introduce it earlier in the plot. This is the infamous "If you show a gun in scene one, make sure it goes off in scene three" LCD.
The question is, how to go about introducing the gun? We could make it really obvious ("LOOK! HERE IS A GUN!! OH MY MB ISN'T IT SCARY?"), but if we do so, we risk losing our readers as the plot would then be obvious as well. Why should the reader keep reading if they know what is going to happen?
Instead, we do this in a very sly manner. All casual-like. Mention the gun as being just one item of many items in a room: blend it into the scenery so that it does not jump out at the reader. Now, you may be worrying that your reader will not pick up on the mention, and totally forget about the gun and be all confused when it comes up later. Readers are often more intelligent than writers think, though--in most cases, they are going to remember the gun (there are a few clueless folks, alas, who cannot pick up on anything). Trust your readers to follow your clues, and you'll write a compelling, interesting story.
This is an area in which I feel nocturne_alley particularly excels: the character's posts are often packed with information or casual lines that appear to be throw-aways and unimportant, but turn out to be very important. Making the connections and remembering references when the climax finally occurs is a big part of the fun in following the RPG.
LCD Seven: Make sure you leave Lady Luck and chance to the lottery
This is the LCD that warns against Deus Ex Machina.
Your character is in dire straits. He is backed against a rock wall, facing a large dragon, with no chance of escape, when suddenly a rope ladder appears out of nowhere and he climbs to his escape!
How very lucky and convenient. Which is exactly the two things you don't want your readers to be thinking.
The resolution of the character's issues or obstacles should arise from the character, not from chance or "magic". We want to root for the character, and believe that she has the skills, talents, and strength to overcome her opposition. Using a plot device is, well, cheap, and much less satisfying than if she worked things out on her own.
Which explains my dissatisfaction with the climatic scene in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Little Anakin Skywalker is told to go sit in the cockpit of a ship to stay safe during the battle with the droids, except the ship is set for autolaunch (convenient plot device #1) and he soon finds himself hurtling towards the space battle. While there, he appears to magically move through dense enemy fire, as his dialogue ("Let's try spinning! That's always good!") shows that he is not flying out of skill or natural ability, but implies that he's not sure what to do in this case (convenient plot device #2). He then ends on the droid control ship, where he accidentally presses a button or something, which fires a shot into the control ship's core, in turn blowing up the ship and causing the droids on the surface to go "dead" at the the most critical time of the battle (convenient plot device #3).
Yeah, I was disgusted.
Maybe George Lucas was trying to imply that Anakin had the Force flowing through him during the battle, and that's why he was able to do these things. But really, it felt like magic and convenience, whereas Luke's trench run on the first Death Star in the original Star Wars did not. Then, it was about faith, courage, and natural talent and ability; here, it's just about luck.
Do not rely on luck to save your characters. You will lose your audience.
LCD Eight: Make sure your central character performs the central action of the climax
Imagine if Wedge Antilles had blown up the Death Star instead of Luke Skywalker. Would the audience have been as satisfied? Probably not. The victory is hollow if the character we have been emotionally connected to (Luke) is not involved. Your main character must be present at the climax of the story, and must be an active part in it.
This one also ties back to my comments in LCD Five about knowing who's important in your story. If you do not properly identify a main character, your readers will be confused or feel like something is "off".
I felt this way about the movie "Jerry Maguire". The movie attempts to focus on Jerry, but I found myself being much more drawn to Renee Zwelleger's character. To me, she appeared to be the one who was undergoing the most change, and who was driving the plot. This makes me feel like the movie did not properly identify its main character. Either she should have been the main character, or the plot should have been more advanced by Jerry's actions than hers.
Next up: The strong force, and the two major types of plot.
