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This Issue:
Plot Elaborations
How do you build plots? It is easier (and harder) than you might expect. |
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Hi all!
I'm currently in line edits and so my eyes are swimming and I'm increasingly less certain of how sentences are formed by the hour, but I thought I'd take a quick minute to talk about Plot.
I've spent a lot of time at this whole "be a writer" thing and recently I've struggled--I can pick out plot elements all over the place in someone else's stories, as an editor, but I'm... honestly not great at organically forming them myself, which is a difficult place to find oneself as a writer.
There are lots of resources on this available; lists of master plots, online courses, lots of different resources with different parameters. Whether or not you are skilled at forming your own plots, it can be a good refresher to look at some of the different suggestions out there, if only to remind yourself of the possibilities!
I think one of the most interesting, if dated, lists of master plots is Ronald Tobias's 20 Master Plots, most of which are self-explanatory:
1. Quest
2. Adventure
3. Pursuit
4. Rescue
5. Escape
6. Revenge
7. The Riddle
8. Rivalry
9. Underdog
10. Temptation
11. Metamorphosis
12. Transformation
13. Maturation
14. Love
15. Forbidden Love
16. Sacrifice
17. Discovery
18. Wretched Excess
19. Ascension
20. Descension
Each of these have different expectations, and depending on the genre of your work, there may be specific expected conventions or tropes that are common to the types of stories you'd like to write!
As there's an entire book on the subject, I don't want to simply repeat all of the information here, but I think this list is a great jumping-off point for an exploration of plot concepts. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory--in attempting to write a rundown of each of these, I literally wrote 'does what it says on the tin' several times and decided that it was maybe better to just present the list as written for our reference here. 
Any of these plot forms can be modified to suit your purposes--a Quest story need not only be Arthurian fantasy about a grail, for example--it's possibly the most common plot of any story: a character has a driving want or need for an objective and struggles to get to that objective, either succeeding or failing after a series of trials and tribulations. A Revenge story could fall into any genre I can envision--"who is seeking the revenge, why, and how?" can be applied to nearly any set of characters with the right attributes! Stories of Ascent or Descent likewise fit into all kinds of existing literary conventions, and I think stories of "Maturation" are everywhere--the bildungsroman, and the entire genre of YA, for starters... building with these plots can make very meaningful work.
I found a helpful checklist for how to use the Master Plots list on Writer's Digest here:
http://www.writersdigest.com/wp-content/uploads/Master-Plots-Exclusive.pdf
I know that I personally bristle at anyone telling me how to write or not to write--it's a natural impulse many of us have, I think. I have long struggled with simplifying plots, in part because sometimes I have a great deal of difficulty parsing out what parts of the story are the most important. I often find myself resisting advice to simplify my plots because I want to write something no one's ever read before--but in all honesty, "what no one else has read before" is easier to read if it's unique because of design elements like characters and setting, rather than overly-elaborate plotting!
One of the things that keeps readers on the hook turning the page is that they can anticipate some part of what will happen next--they don't need the entire thing spelled out, but hints, suggestions, pieces, all help the reader to follow along and feel smart (you always feel smart when you figure out what a story is trying to do, right? You want that for your readers as well). A small part of that anticipation is seeing well-used plots that already exist--but done in a way that introduces new elements or shows them a point of view they hadn't thought of before.
A thing I struggle with in trying to simplify my story plots is that I get very hung up on the idea that "I've read that story before" and I think a lot of us who read a lot can get stuck on this hangup as well. I think it's very important to remind ourselves in crafting stories that there are truly very few unique ideas under the sun. It's how we tell them that makes them unique! Focus on what parts you are doing differently, if you keep running into this concern--I suspect it's a common affliction, especially if you're a heavy reader. Reinventing a story you already know can be a great start and is a very common way of crafting something new, when it comes to storytelling.
I think, if you are struggling the way I have been for the past few months, it wouldn't hurt to pick one of the plots listed up above and see if you can't simplify and craft something that catches your audience's attention. While readers crave the new and different, if something is too new and different, it won't hold their attention or meet their expectations; stories with simpler plots can still be intricate and well-shaped and appealing to read.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
Jay
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As I'm coming up on one of my busiest creative times of year, I'm definitely looking for suggestions on what topics around short stories and publishing would be most helpful for you!
If you have a question about the art of short stories or the nitty-gritty of short story publication, please drop me a line! I'll be happy to address them in upcoming issues of the Short Stories Newsletter. Please don't be shy: if you have a question, rest assured it's a question others are likely trying to find answers for as well.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
Jay |
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Short Stories: October 10, 2018 Issue [#9168]
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