Is there an EXACT number of PLOT "TEMPLATES"? DO PLOTS EVEN HAVE TO FOLLOW A TEMPLATE OR PATTERN??? Yes?? No?? Maybe??
If not, how do writers "arrive" at a plot?
As a writing
teacher I have had many students ask about PLOT and how to develop it. They
wanted to create a plot and then plug in whatever characters might move through
the episodes of their stories.
In the beginning, I didn’t know how to turn that notion around,
although I sensed that starting with PLOT was not the answer. As I analyzed the stories that touched me most profoundly -- the novels and stories that were keepers, I discovered that plot was not the primary tool used.......Unfortunately, I
now believe some writers think that if they can just get hold of the right
kind of plot – or set up a series of actions/events that will make their story exciting -- that the work involved in developing a good story might also come easily.
I sincerely believe this is a mistake. I also believe that even if there was such a thing as the most PERFECT plot -- it would NOT
make the act of writing any easier at all!
In the quest to understand plot, I have picked up a number
of books over the years. In 20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them), Ronald
Tobias asks that very question: “How may plots are there?” He then lists a
number of possible answers, including: Thousands or maybe millions? Sixty-nine?
Thirty-six? OR Two, period?
I had to laugh the first time I read that….I knew that
Aristotle had ascribed to the two basic plot theory, but the other responses
were new to me. I learned that Rudyard Kipling ascribed to the idea of
sixty-nine plots (WHY 69??), and Carlo Gozzi (who?) felt there were thirty six
(Okay….).
Honestly, I don’t know if there IS an absolute answer to the
question of plots, but I do recognize that in life, there are universal
questions that seem to come up every day, no matter where we live or who we are.
These are the deep, deep questions that each of us has to answer for ourselves
about our life. I now see those deeper questions as being the force or energy
behind any great story.
Plot, then, seems to grow out of those questions, and those
are the same questions that our characters must confront and resolve. So for
me, the POWER in story comes out of character (NOT plot); that is, Plot IS
Character. OR – another way to say it is
that “character + conflict = plot”.
So does that mean there are two or thirty-six or sixty-nine
or thousands of plots out there? I’m still not sure. There is an unlimited
number of possible complications and conflicts, but how many ways can a
character resolve his/her conflict? Interesting question, right?
There is, of course, tragedy. There is also comedy and
adventure, etc., but those are actually genres – which do, in fact, carry
certain plot elements that become part of a reader’s expectation. They are the patterns
that most writers instinctively or deliberately follow.
Writers recognize that readers expect a number of
predictable elements to be present when they pick up their preferred genre.
Break those unwritten “rules” and you may have some very frustrated readers.
For instance, in a romance, a reader generally expects a “happy ever after”
ending; if not entirely “happy,” the ending must at least be satisfying – or
else that story/novel may end up thrown against the wall.
Of course, readers of “literary” fiction are often looking
for those less predictable elements – even the less than satisfactory ending. I
always found it amusing when my students would tell me that literary fiction
was just boring fiction and that’s what made it literary!
What matters most to a writer should be that he/she
understand the elements of a particular genre (if a commercial genre is the
goal), and along with that the patterns that lend themselves to the selected
genre. However, that does not mean a writer can lean on those prescribed
elements and forsake deep character and the questions that arise from a
character’s internal struggle. No matter how simple a plotline a writer may
employ, it is character that makes a story unforgettable.
So how do we arrive at those deep character questions?
We all face similar issues in life and great stories reflect
those issues, eg: What complex choices can we then set up as obstacles that our
hero or heroine must face and overcome? What dilemmas can we forge, which force
our readers to recognize that there are no easy solutions in life, that
sometimes doing the right thing actually means doing the “wrong” thing? Or what
sacrifices will our protagonists have to make in order to get or have or achieve their
goals? What losses are required in order to “win?”
This kind of thinking, this kind of character development
is, in my opinion, what takes an average story into the better and best
category of story. So, the challenge should be to take our characters on a
journey that causes our readers to cheer or cry or scream!
As in the words of Willa Cather, “There are only two or
three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they
had never happened before.”
These are the kinds of dilemmas I played with when
creating the characters that people my newly re-released WILLA Award-winning
novel, ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS from Prairie Rose Publications. It’s more than just a romance. It’s the
story of a man, a woman, and a people – all pitted against the terrifying and
historical drama of the little-known Baker’s Massacre of the Blackfeet in 1870.
Questions of loyalty, sacrifice, love, and forgiveness are the questions each of
the characters must answer for themselves.
In appreciation and gratitude,
I’d like to offer TWO free downloads of ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS! Leave a
comment and I’ll enter your name into a drawing.
TWO winners will be selected
on WEDNESDAY of this week!
