TECH: Meandering Our Way through Plot and Structure (2)

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[for anyone just tuning in - I'm wandering through a book called Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. We're just getting started, so you haven't missed much at all.]

So where were we? I jumped right into the introduction without discussing the structure of the book. Looking at the table of contents, Bell starts with the introduction where he argues that the Big Lie that writers are born not made should give way to the Truth that the craft of writing can be learned. Then we have:

1. What's a plot, anyway?
2. Structure: what holds your plot together
3. How to explode with plot ideas
4. Beginning strong
5. Middles
6. Endings
7. Scenes
8. Complex plots
9. The character arc in plot
10. Plotting systems
11. Revising your plot
12. Plot patterns
13. Common plot problems and cures
14. Tips and tools for plot and structure

In appendix A, we have a checklist of critical points. While B has creating your own back cover copy. And of course there's the index.

So about 16 more pieces, depending on whether I get excited and do a chapter per posting or more than one posting per chapter. We'll see how it goes. Just  a glance at Chapter 1, though, suggests that there may be multiple postings per chapter. There's just a lot of good stuff in this book, so we may do more postings to give ourselves time to think about it.

For example, Chapter 1 starts out with the question of what is a plot. Bell points out that writers vary. Some work their stories in detail before they write, mentally, on index cards, in a computer database, or some other way. Others sit down and just start writing, letting the story flow. And there are those who are in between, with a bit of planning and surprises and spontaneity. But no matter which approach you take, when the manuscript is done, there is some kind of a plot there. It may be good or it may be bad, but we need to ask does it work. And Bell has a simple definition for working -- does it connect with readers? Obviously some writers don't care about readers, and that's okay. But if you want to be published and sell, agents, publishers, and readers want to know things like, "what's this story about?" Or "why should I keep reading?" Or "why should I care?" And these are all plot questions!

So the plot is what happens. And that's what this book is all about.

Bell has a quote from Jean Hanff Korelitz. Apparently as a young editorial assistant in New York, she and her colleagues felt the plot -- telling a good story -- was simply not desirable. But then she wrote her own novels. And here's what she says:

"When you get right down to it, there's something uniquely satisfying in being gripped by a great plot, in begrudging whatever real-world obligations might prevent you from finding out what happens next. And it is especially satisfying to surrender to an author who is utterly in command of a thrilling and original story, an author capable of playing us like fish, of letting us get worried, then riled up, then complacent and then finally blowing us away from the final shocks are delivered."

Korelitz concludes that glorious prose without an enthralling story is just verbal tapioca.

And Bell suggests, "But if you want readers, you must consider plot, whether you sniff at it or not."

Believe it or not, that's just the first two pages of Chapter 1, and there is still plenty more. But I think I'll stop here for this posting.

What do you think? Why do readers, along with the agents and publishers, focus on what's happening, the plot of the story? When we describe a book that we really liked to someone, we usually start out by giving a little plot sketch, perhaps along with a tiny comment about the leading character. Why?

But the key question, I suppose, is simple. What do you consider a plot? When I ask you to describe the plot of your story, how do you answer me?