From: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca (Crawford Kilian)
Subject: Fiction Advice 6: Plotting
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 04:20:59 GMT


TEN POINTS ON PLOTTING

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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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