20 Master Plots (37 page)

CHECKLIST

As you write, keep these points in mind: who overcomes horrible circumstances, show the nature of that character while she still suffers under those circumstances. Then show us how events change her nature during the course of the story. Don't "jump" from one character state to another; that is, show how your character moves from one state to another by giving us her motivation and intent.

7. If your story is about the fall of a character, make certain the reasons for her fall are a result of character and not gratuitous circumstances. The reason for a rise may be gratuitous (the character wins $27 million in LottoAmerica), but not the reasons for her fall. The reasons for a character's ability to overcome adversity should also be the result of her character, not some contrivance.

8. Try to avoid a straight dramatic rise or fall. Vary the circumstances in the character's life: Create rises
and
falls along the way. Don't just put your character on a rocket to the top and then crash. Vary intensity of the events, too. It may seem for a moment that your character has conquered her flaw, when in fact, it doesn't last long. And vice versa. After several setbacks, the character finally breaks through (as a result of her tenacity, courage, belief, etc.).

9. Always focus on your main character. Relate all events and characters to your main character. Show us the character before, during and after the change.

I
am obliged to remind you that this book is not gospel. It is a guideline for some of the most common applications of major plots. In no way does this forbid you from violating what might be loosely called groundrules for each of the plots. Remember, plot is a process, not an object, and as you fashion your plot, think of it in terms of a wad of clay that needs constant molding.

For some writers, plot comes easily. If that were true for you, you probably wouldn't be reading this book. But since you did, it must mean you are still put off by the prospect of creating a plot. That's good news and it's bad news.

It's good news because every writer should worry about his plot. Don't ever take it for granted. Fashion it now or fashion it later, but it must be fashioned. We envy those who have a strong intuitive sense of structure and understanding of the human dynamics of plot. For the rest of us who worry to death that our form is mangled, lopsided or no-sided, we constantly survey what we have done and ask ourselves, "Is it right?"

As you fashion your plot, ask yourself how you want to go about it. There are two main ways that I know of. The first is to bulldoze your way through the work without ever looking back.
Get to the end and then worry whether or not you got it right.
Don't let intellectual concerns about plot get in the way of the emotional thrust of writing a book. Lots of writers work that way. They put full stock in the power of rewriting. Write it first and then figure out what's wrong with it. If you worry along the way, you can't focus on the real guts of the work.

But there are those who say this approach wastes too much time and invites major disasters. It may end up so cockeyed that you can't fix it. This school says,
Know along the way what you're doing and where you 're going.
That way you will avoid major midair collisions by making constant corrections during your writing.

Ask yourself which approach you would feel comfortable with. If you think that constantly applying the elements of plot will stunt your expression of ideas, just get it all on paper. If you know which plot you want (and that may change in the middle of writing your story as you become aware of other possibilities), read over the guidelines and see if they stick in the back of your mind while you write. If not, don't worry.

If you are a control freak and must have your flight plan filed before you taxi down the runway, you will have your markers all along the way. Feel free to veer off course some if it feels right to you, but keep your final objective in mind. Wander too far off course and you may not find your way back, ending up with two or three competing plots grafted onto each other. You should only have one major plot—that's your master flight plan. Any others that you include should be minor plots that support the major plot. But if you aren't sure of your major plot, you'll spend page after page wandering from one to the next, until you find it. By then you'll have wasted weeks or months and have only a rat's nest of ideas to unravel. Knowing your major focus early is important. Then you'll understand how to better include other plots in support of your major plot.

The idea of this book is to give you a
sense
of what each plot looks and feels like. Don't feel you must copy any of them down to the smallest detail. Apply the standard sense of the plot you have picked to the particular circumstances of the story you want to write. On the one hand, don't force your story to fit, and on the other hand, don't get so loose that nothing fits. Plot is the form your idea will take; give it shape and substance as you write. Whatever you do, however, don't be a slave to the plot. You are not in the service of it; it is in your service. Make it work for you.

There are twenty plots in this book. You could spend your life recalculating other plots that you could argue belong in the base twenty. I've picked the most common plots, that's all. The
major-

ity
of the writing that's out there will fall into one of these twenty plots. But not all. So just because it isn't here doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Also, don't be afraid to combine plots. Many great stories have more than one plot. But make sure that you have a major or primary plot and that any additional plot is minor or secondary. You can stack plots to your heart's delight, but don't get too complicated or you won't be able to effectively juggle all of them. Keep one plot foremost in your consideration. The other plots are just satellites.

I have seen plots for books and screenplays sketched out on a napkin. Nothing elaborate. Maybe fifty words. Sometimes that's all it takes if you have a solid sense of your story. When you can get to that point—where you can lay out your story in fifty words or less—you have all you need to create a plot. Sometimes coming up with those fifty words is easy and sometimes it stubbornly resists you. If it does resist you, keep trying to discover it.

STRAYING FROM THE PATH

Some people feel locked in once they plan their plot and are afraid to make changes. It would be nice if I could say, "Don't feel locked in. Make whatever changes you feel like making." But I can't. I also can't say, "Stick with the plan 100 percent." A tension always exists between staying on the path and wandering off it. Try to find a middle ground to travel on. If you stray too far off the path laid out by your plot, you may end up altering the story in fundamental ways that will require you to totally rethink your story. (This may not be such a terrible thing. If you discover the plot isn't working for you, you should get off the path.) If you hold absolutely to the plot path and resist any temptation to change or add, you may be denying yourself some powerful ideas.

So how do you know when to yield and when to resist? There is no hard-and-fast rule. I would say that if you are writing and you feel good about how your story is developing, don't jeopardize it by wandering too far off course. If, on the other hand, you don't feel satisfied with its development, you ought to start looking for other ideas.

Many times I've had the experience of writing pages that I knew were brilliant but didn't really fit into the scheme of things as they were developing. I said to myself, "This is really good, I'll find a way to
make
it fit." I was right in one respect: The pages would be really good. But I was totally wrong in my thinking that I could find a way to make them fit. Those brilliant pages had no more home in the work than a worm in a bird's nest. No matter how much I tried to make them fit, they always stuck out.

Feel free to push the envelope of the boundaries of these plots if you think it's important to do so for your work. (I wouldn't suggest, though, doing it solely for the purpose of being different.) Every work has its own demands, and you can't artificially impose rules on a work that can't accommodate them. If you feel the desire to be creative and different, plot may not be the place to start. It's hard (if not impossible) to create a story that hasn't yet existed. The cast of characters remain the same (because people are fundamentally the same) and the situations remain the same (because life remains fundamentally the same). Where your creativity comes in is in the
expression
of your ideas. If you use painting as an analogy, it should be clearer. Paint is paint. It hasn't changed much over the centuries. But look at what painters have done
with
paint. The expression is new; the fundamental tools remain the same. Words are words. But look at what you can do with them!

A FINAL CHECKLIST

As you develop your plot, consider the following questions. If you can answer all of them, you have a grasp of what your story is about. But if you can't answer any of them, you still don't know what your story is and what you want to do with it.

1. In fifty words, what is the basic idea for your story?

2. What is the central aim of the story? State your answer as a question. For example, "Will Othello believe Iago about his wife?"

3. What is your protagonist's intent? (What does she want?)

4. What is your protagonist's motivation? (Why does she want what she is seeking?)

5. Who and/or what stands in the way of your protagonist?

6. What is your protagonist's plan of action to accomplish her intent?

7. What is the story's main conflict? Internal? External?

8. What is the nature of your protagonist's change during the course of the story?

9. Is your plot character-driven or action-driven?

10. What is the point of attack of the story? Where will you begin?

11. How do you plan to maintain tension throughout the story?

12. How does your protagonist complete the climax of the story?