 Drama: July 24, 2013 Issue [#5767] |
  Drama
This week: Plot Logic Edited by: Joy  
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“He (the writer) must shape simultaneously (in an expanding creative moment) his characters, plot, and setting, each inextricably connected to the others; he must make his whole world in a single, coherent gesture.”
John Gardner, The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.”
Khaled Hosseini
"Grand ideas kill first efforts. Begin with something in your range. Then write it as a secret."
Louise Erdrich
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about plot logic; in other words, the credibility of a story and its components in relation to one another.
Your Drama Newsletter Editors: zwisis NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Have you ever read or written a piece of fiction, then felt that something was amiss and not believable?
This may occur even after a writer plans a story extensively and puts it down on paper or types it on the screen. I have experienced this mishap several times, and I cannot guarantee that it won't happen to me again. For example, in one of my short stories, I ended a very serious conflict between a father and daughter with the father watching a deer and doe in the woods and changing his mind suddenly. Now, this is as flimsy as flimsy gets. How could the father's strong inner pressures that held him in a certain position for so long settle down so easily in an abrupt shift and with such a lightweight catalyst? True, human nature is not an absolute, but even in all fallibility, the reader deserves a more tangible reason from the fiction writer.
Fiction writing can be flexible and vast, concerning types and characters, pacing, plot rhythms, chapter or scene structures, limitations or freedoms of the point of view. Moreover, other features exist that cross the genre lines like symbols and patterns. Finding the cognitive order in all these aspects takes a lot of thinking and a good amount of planning ahead of time. This accomplishment of truth in characters in relation to the action and to their story world constitutes the plot logic.
For example, can you put Dorothy of Oz on a raft on the Mississippi? Or can you make Huck Finn follow the yellow brick road in the company of The Tin Man, The Scare Crow, and The Cowardly Lion? Can you switch Jane Eyre's character with that of Alice in Wonderland? Maybe you could, but then, you would have to make considerable changes inside the story world.
No matter the genre, satisfactory action in a story is directly proportional to clear thinking. Many choices exist in a turn of action, but usually, there is only one choice for each turn that is the most credible and right for the story's time and place, which should not be mistaken for the writer's or the reader's time and place. A writer can arrive to that perfect choice by trying out several possibilities in the twists and turns the plot takes.
As to the characters, they are usually chosen by the writers for their capabilities to change and develop, or else, to end up enlightened about an issue. Since a story begins in a character's ordinary world, in deciding how a character relates to the plot, the questions to ask are:
 Is this character suitable for the story's action, thought, and outcome?
What needs to happen to a person like this in agreement or against his greatest desire, no matter what that desire may be?
How persuasive is the inciting event that brings about the consequences of the character's desire and its related actions?
Can the inciting event and the character be tricked, lured, or forced into the special story world?
Is the character developing and has developed logically to fit the theme of the story?
It is puzzling that some writers do believe obscure writing is clever and thought-provoking; however, I wonder if those intellectually pretentious ideas are are of any use for a vibrant and readable story.
In short, logic should take dominate the plot of a story, even though logical processes may not seem as important to a creative writer than they would to a factual writer. Since the relationship between character and plot reverses endlessly, these reversals deserve lucidity and sound reasoning to make the story clear to the reader.
Until next time. 
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This Issue's Tip:
Make sure the beginning of your story has action. Action is an activity, an endeavor, or any significant motion a character takes. For example, "Alice jumped off the bridge before the shots rang."
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AngelFire 
First person point of view has always been tricky for me; thanks for this information.
I'm glad you liked the NL.
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mkivad
A very useful and informative newsletter. As a general rule, I write in First Person POV - helps me to maintain consistency between protagonist narrative and dialogue. True, I probably disregard too many rules of grammar and style. Most of my dialogue is "real time/real speak" as opposed to "proper" but much less starch in the collar.
Thanks for the excellent newsletter.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you are comfortable with the first person POV.
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pietroschek
I enjoyed 1st person POV in my ASOIAF-Awakening. I solved my conflict with the 3rd person+dialogue POV easily, I will write another story in that mode one day so both get their due. Your article was motivating, thanks!
So nice that you solved the problem with the POV change.
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Red Barron 
This was a helpful newsletter. I like to write in first person. Thanks.
Good to hear. Thanks for the input.
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beemweeks
Excellent piece on the use of first person POV. My novel Jazz Baby is a first person POV. My second novel is a third person, but it's told from a single POV. I wrote a blog piece on POV recently at Goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4273089-what-s-the-pov Take a read, if you have the time.
It is a very good article you have at Goodreads. I especially appreciate your mentioning the flaw of the POV shift inside a scene. Most novice writers fall into that trap.
Thanks for the feedback.
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