Plot #4: Rescue: 20 Master Plots

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 11:06:13 EST

Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B. Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8.

(p. 86) The hero(ine) of the rescue plot must go out into the world, searching for someone or something, and often involving chases. It is usually a physical plot, depending heavily on action. But this is also a plot that relies heavily on three characters and the dynamic among them. The hero(ine), the antagonist, and the victim (oh my!)

[note the variation that Tobias suggests--eschew the ordinary black-hearted villain and stark-white hero(ine). instead, make both antagonist and hero(ine) equally good, with solid reasons for taking different approaches, and see what kind of rescue plot you end up with...let that percolate while we look at the classic roles]

Protagonist: has an attachment to the person who is sought (love, or sometimes something a bit less lofty--money will do in a pinch) and therefore sets out to find and rescue the victim. Almost always has to go somewhere that they are not familiar with, putting them at a disadvantage. [a grand old plot--newlyweds, and *crash* the bad guy(s) steal the wife! now the lone groom must go out into the world, confront whatever comes, and rescue her...you could always have someone steal the groom, if you wanted something a little different? and for something completely different, try a man with three buttocks.]

Antagonist: (boo! hiss!) The evil magician who kidnaps the beauty...the more power, the better. Also, if at all possible, the schemer should be trying to make our protagonist fail, setting up traps and nooses, deadfalls, all kinds of little problems...

Don't forget, though -- "The antagonist is a device whose purpose is to deprive the protagonist of what she believes rightfully belongs to her."

Victim: The real conflict lies between the other two. As a result, the victim often is just a shadowy embodiment of what the hero(ine) seeks. There may not be much if any detail here. [one twist that is often fun--after the victim is rescued, a bit of byplay to show that the hero(ine) doesn't know what they just rescued.]

Structure? Glad you asked.

Act one: Separation. That antagonist separates the protagonist from the victim, thus motivating the action. Establish the relationship of the protagonist and the victim, then let the abduction begin!

Act two: Pursuit. Which way did they go, which way did they go? I must follow them! Traps, tricks, diversions, red herrings, rotten cheese, no matter what stands in the way, I will follow! [Note: this is the chance to test and build the character into a real hero...]

Act three: Confrontation! Often an action-packed clash, of cliche proportions. So be witty, wise, and surprising. Think about how you can finish without getting bogged down in syrup! One twist--the victim isn't a victim after all.

(p. 92) "The rescue plot is perhaps more formulaic than most of the other plots. It has standard characters and situations. But don't underestimate its immense appeal. Like the revenge and temptation plots, it is one of the most satisfying emotionally. It confirms the moral order of the universe by overcoming evil; it restores order in a chaotic world; and it reaffirms the power of love."

Checklist?

1. Do you have more action than development of character?
2. Do you have a hero, a villain, and a victim? Does the hero rescue the victim from the villain?
3. Do you have a moral argument? Is it black and white? (note: the norm is good vs. bad. feel free to vary if you like)
4. Is the focus of the story on the hero's pursuit of the villain?
5. Does the hero go out into the world to confront the villain? Does the confrontation take place on the villain's home turf?
6. Is your hero defined by her relationship to the villain?
7. Does the antagonist deprive the hero of what he believes is rightfully his?
8. Does the antagonist constantly interfere with the hero's progress?
9. Does your victim force the hero to confront the antagonist? Does the victim take too much of the story?
10. Do you have well-developed phases of separation, pursuit, and confrontation and reunion?

Suppose we wanted to write such a story (if you can imagine that, for just a moment). Where to begin? How about...

Pick a number from one to six? (you've played here before, haven't you? I thought I recognized the sparkle on your terminal screen...)

1. spouse (significant other? spice? you know...)
2. parent-child
3. mister (mistress? sexual involvement, anyway)
4. teacher-student
5. doctor-patient
6. friend (really, we're just friends)

There you go. We have a relationship! So our protagonist and our victim are related. Spend a little time thinking about how long they've had their relationship, how deep the bonds are, how well (or poorly) they know the other person...

[please don't feel too constrained by these. If you want your victim to be a nose or some other bodily organ--taking advantage of the urban legends of organ thefts and making a kind of literary statement about our separation from ourselves in the process--feel free to slice and dice. After all, most of us have some kind of relationship with our bodily parts. You might consider an animal, a pet car, that supercharged pure-bred rock, or some other thing to be rescued, too. The reunion scene can be a bit more complicated in these cases of course--having a surgeon connecting up nerves can be somewhat distracting.]

Stop here and contemplate a blank pad. List five reasons an antagonist might have for making off with...

[Whoops! Flip a coin and decide who is going to be the victim. Sorry about that, you can't just kidnap anyone that's wandering around, now can you? Although the mistaken kidnapping plot is always good for a chuckle or two...]

So, list some reasons an antagonist might have for depriving our protagonist of their beloved. Then pick the one you are going to use, and embellish it. Decide where the antagonist met the victim, and why no one else will do (a what kind of sacrifice? at the full moon, on top of the Aztec pyramid Xzchalipecktoids? well, it's your story...)

Now, take a moment and sketch out a scene that introduces us to the protagonist and the victim, and shows us the relationship that is going to pull the protagonist along, waterskiing the rapids of life behind the fleeing antagonist...feel free to have the antagonist break into the primordial splendor at the point that will cause the protagonist the utmost agony.

Next? Pick a number...

1. quicksand
2. beartraps
3. a frame (for a crime)
4. deadfalls
5. a maze
6. burnt bridges

Pad ready? Good! Write down the category of blockages that you have just selected, then think about at least five different kinds of traps or blocks that are related. I.e., quicksand, flypaper... you can put down characteristics of the category, if you like (sticky stuff, dirty, etc.) just make some notes about what this category (or thing) stirs up in your mind.

Now go back over those notes and pick out or make up some of the tricks and problems that your antagonist is going to put in the way of your protagonist. You should probably list or sketch out at least five scenes, then pick the best two or three.

Finally, do the confrontation and resolution. Where does it take place? What revelations, surprises, and other delights will we provide to send the reader off with a grin, looking for more writing by this author?

Try this...a number from one to six?

1. ... Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (Shakespeare, Macbeth)
2. ... A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life. John Milton.
3. ... The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants. Bertrand Barere.
4. ... You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.--Publius Syrus: Maxim 262. John Heywood
5. ... Who goeth a borrowing/... Goeth a sorrowing. Thomas Tusser
6. ... The falling out of lovers is the renewing of love.--Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 2.

There's a quote, courtesy of the good people behind http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/

Take that quote, and let it act as the crystal sinking into your final scene, focusing and refracting the white light into a veritable rainbow of understanding...

Refine, pump up the backdrops and fill in the connections, make the sun shine down, don't forget the lashes of lightning and mutters of thunder, put a bit of music into it, and the next thing you know...

You'll have a story!

and we'll be here to read it...

Plot #5: Escape: 20 Master Plots

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 10:20:48 EST

Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B. Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8.

(p. 93) "...The escape plot is physical, and as such, concentrates its energy on the mechanics of capture and escape. ... Escape in this plot is literal: The protagonist is confined against her will and wants to escape."

This is a kind of mirror to the rescue plot--instead of waiting patiently to be rescued, here the victim is their own hero and frees themselves.

Escape plots tend to revolve around unfair imprisonment (the innocent imprisoned for a crime they did not commit; prisoners in war; witch, ogre, or other evil creatures seem to love to imprison hero(in)es), but it doesn't have to--sometimes it is a test of wills between two strong personalities--the gaoler and the jailee.

The broad strokes (not the broad arrow, for those of you who follow such historical references):

Phase One: The protagonist is imprisoned. The crime may be real or not, and the punishment suitable or not.

Phase Two: Imprisonment and plans for escape. Attempts at escape, especially during phase one, should fail, be foiled, or only allow the temporary illusion of success before recapture and return to prison.

Phase Three: The Great Escape Attempt! Don't forget the lesson of Mission Impossible: even the best plans have to have something go wrong so that the stars can improvise a brilliant save. Or as someone military put it, the most careful battle plans only last until the first shot is fired. (p. 96) "Wild cards come into play. Enter the unexpected. All hell breaks loose. To this point the situation has been tightly controlled by the antagonist, but suddenly the situation becomes fluid, out of control either by gratuitious circumstance or by design of the hero. The hero, who has been at a distinct disadvantage, finally gets the upper hand, and if there's a moral score to settle, the time has come for settling it."

Checklist:

1. Escape is literal, so -- how is your hero(ine) confined? Is it unjust or just unwillingly?
2. How clearcut (black and white) is the moral argument? Usually it should be clear why this escape is really a triumph for good.
3. The hero(ine) should be the victim.
4. How does the hero(ine) become imprisoned? Are there some initial attempts to escape which fail? (I.e., do you have a phase one?)
5. How does your hero(ine) plan to escape? Are there several attempts which are thwarted? (i.e., what's phase two?)
6. What is the real attempt to escape? Is there a real chance for it to succeed? Is there a real chance for it to fail? (phase three!)
7. Does the antagonist have control during the first two dramatic phases? How do they lose control or how does the hero(ine) gain control during the final phase?

[boy, I hope someone is reading these...]

Onward to consider plotting a tale of escape. Pick ye olde number from one to six, please?

1. false imprisonment
2. prisoner of war
3. locked in (a store? a school? a locker room? someplace...)
4. kidnapped
5. captured by terrorists
6. taken hostage during a crime (bank robbery? car wash robbery? etc.)

If you think about it, there are lots of opportunities now to be captured by inanimate "guard" systems, as well as all kinds of groups that might feel better with an unwilling guest or several. There are also so many different fantasy and fiction evil captors--feel free to pick another one if you like.

[and lest we skip lightly past it, consider that "imprisonment" or "caging" means different things to different folks. One might even be cast out--and want to somehow escape back into that society and fellowship that means so much! One might even consider the age-old tension between teenager anxious to try out things and parental desires to limit the damages to be a variant on the escape plot...]

Stop here and consider your characters. There should be a fairly strong captor to make our protagonist work to get away. The POW camp director should make our day grim. And our protagonist needs to have some strength of character, some moral drive to make sure they don't break, although they will certainly bend, twist, and ache.

Now take a blank sheet and write one character's name on one side, the other on the other side at the top. Underneath, write the kind of imprisonment that the protagonist is facing.

Think of three to five different ways to put them into that captivity. Perhaps one of the more interesting ones is to start with an aborted attempt to escape, just as they are being shoved into the gates. A flurry of action, some exchanges of words, and the character of the protagonist can be revealed, often along with some hints at the raw power that the antagonist wields.

Pick the one you like, though, and sketch that scene out.

Now think of several different ways that the protagonist might try to escape. Take the one that you are going to really use and set that aside. Take two or three others and use them as attempts that fail. It is often helpful to think through how these failed attempts are going to contribute to the final attempt. You can also go back and revise to work some threads in (e.g., perhaps during one of the early attempts the protagonist picks up a two-foot piece of monofilament, which becomes critical during the real attempt--you might not have written it in during the first pass, but you can go back and revise it in easily when you realize that he really needs that).

How about a number from one to six?

1. monofilament fishing line
2. a clothes hanger
3. an eight inch square of aluminum foil
4. a papiermache red pepper
5. a 5 pound tub of margarine
6. a cockroach

Okay? There you have an object. It could be art, it could be trash, it could be just the magic needed to make one of your escape methods take off. In any case, toss it into your mental grinder and let it simmer.

One more number, one to sixish?

1. anger
2. love
3. fear
4. desire
5. hatred
6. moral righteousness

Just for fun, feel free to sprinkle a bit of this emotional sauce into the mix. I suggest that one of the characters should probably feel driven by this emotion, perhaps towards the other one.

Go back and answer the questions in the checklist.

That should put you well on the way to writing an escape plot. Take your imprisonment, your object for meditation, and a heaping scoop of emotional spicing, knead well, and let it rise. Bake in the oven of your own talents until golden brown with an aroma that invites the reader to partake of the feast, slather on a dab of butter and honey, and watch for smiles...

a quick start for those who are in fear of blank pages? How about:

The door closed quietly behind her, until the lock clicked home with a metallic chuckle. That's when she spun and threw herself against the door.

For those who wonder, this beginning is provided for your use, abuse, or even discarding. Feel free to start here and go on to an ending, if that helps.

[a hot-air balloon escape? why not! but having a troll talk during the whole escape would be awfully boring, don't you think? oh, that was no troll, that was your boss? I think I see...]

Plot #6: Revenge: 20 Master Plots

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 00:32:39 -0500

Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B. Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8.

Master Plot #6: Revenge

(p. 99) "In literature the dominant motive for this plot is loud and clear: retaliation by the protagonist against the antagonist for real or imagined injury. It's a visceral plot, which means it reaches us at a deep emotional level. We bristle against injustice and we want to see it corrected. And almost always, the retaliation is outside the limits of the law."

(p. 100) "At the heart of the story is the protagonist, who is generally a good person forced to take vengeance into her own hands when the law won't give satisfaction. Then there's the antagonist, the person who has committed the crime, who for some quirk in the natural progress of events has escaped punishment for his crime. Last, there's the victim, the person whom the protagonist must avenge. As a character, the victim obviously is expendable; his purpose is to arouse our sympathies, for him and for the protagonist (who has been denied love, companionship or the like). Sometimes the victim is the protagonist himself. The more heinous the crime (rape, murder, incest), the more the protagonist is justified in seeking vengeance. "

Phases:

1. The Crime. Establish the hero and his loved ones, and terminate their happiness with an awful crime. The hero cannot defend. Either he is not present or he's restrained (may be forced to watch).

Sometimes the crime is committed before the beginning of the story. This may weaken the reader identification--their emotional experience.

The hero may try to get justice from other sources. But these should not provide satisfaction.

2. Revenge. Planning, perhaps spiced with a little pursuit, and preparation. There may be some resistance, some friends or others who point out what will happen and try to dissuade the protagonist from this mad pursuit.

3. Confrontation. If there are more than one criminal, the biggest, baddest, and worst must come last. Make the punishment fit the crime, and make it a real struggle, where the protagonist has to work to triumph.

Classical revenge revolves around violence. But there are also the con man conned and other non-violent possibilities.

(p. 108) "Revenge is an emotionally powerful (and one might say dangerous) plot to work with. You manipulate powerful emotions in your reader by creating a situation that cries for justice. We respond at a deep level when someone violates us or anyone else who doesn't deserve violation. In many cases, victims are like Everyman. It's as if you say to the reader 'If it could happen to this person, it could happen to you, too.' Chilling. And to protect ourselves from that kind of outrage (murder, rape, mayhem, etc.) we demand swift and complete justice. You put yourself in a strong moral position as you write this plot. You say what is proper and what is improper behavior. Be careful. What you recommend may be wild justice, but that too may have it's price."

Checklist

1. Does your protagonist seek retaliation against the antagonist for a real or imagined injury?
2. Do you focus on the act of revenge? Have you really provided some motivation, some depth to your characters?
3. How "wild" is the hero's justice? How far outside the limits of the law does your vigilante justice go?
4. Did you engage the feelings of the reader by showing them a man or woman of action forced to avenge the injustices of the world by events when the institutions that normally deal with these problems prove inadequate?
5. Does your hero have moral justification for vengeance?
6. Does your hero's vengeance equal by not exceed the offense?
7. Did your hero try to deal with the offense through the traditional means, such as the police, and fail?
8. Does your first phase establish the hero's normal life and the disruption that the crime made? Show the audience the full impact of the crime, what it costs in physical and emotional terms.
9. Does your second phase show the hero planning the revenge and pursuing the antagonist? Does your antagonist escape early attempts by chance or design?
10. Does the third and last phase show the confrontation between the hero and the antagonist? Are there holes in the revenge plan that force the hero to improvise, some good twists and shocks to make the reader's heart thump?

Most modern revenge plots don't require the hero to pay too high a price (emotionally or otherwise) for revenge, thus allowing the audience the luxury of a cheap cathartic release.

[since I am on vacation, let's recycle some pieces from previous exercises...]

1. Let's start with a character. Your choice.

2. Now write one sentence about what this character needs to learn. Perhaps they haven't found out that other people hurt? Or maybe they just need to learn that what they want doesn't come by wishing?

[pssst? Having trouble? Pick a number from one to six, grab one of these oldies, and refine it.

1. The best things in life are free
2. The bluebird of happiness is sitting in your own backyard
3. Parents are people too
4. Home is where the heart is
5. Don't burn your bridges until you get across them
6. Learning grows out of the broken shells of mistakes

well, some of them are kind of strained, but maybe you'll figure out what I meant.]

3. and a bit of fresh stuff--pick a number from one to six, okay?

1. Because they lied
2. Because they hurt someone
3. Because they scared someone
4. Because they destroyed it (the sacred object)
5. Because they betrayed the trust (revealed the secret?)
6. Because they upset/enraged/angered you...

This is our reason for revenge. But right now it's pretty sketchy, so take a few moments to think about five to ten possible detailed expansions of this motivation. I.e., who are "they" and exactly how did they lie? What did they say, and what did it do to the protagonist (or their proxy, if there is a separate victim)?

Pick the best of those, the one that makes you really want to do something to the antagonist.

4. Pick a number from one to six? (you've played here before, haven't you? I thought I recognized the sparkle on your terminal screen...)

1. spouse (significant other? spice? you know...)
2. parent-child
3. mister (mistress? sexual involvement, anyway)
4. teacher-student
5. doctor-patient
6. friend (really, we're just friends)

There you go. We have a relationship! So our protagonist and our victim are related. Spend a little time thinking about how long they've had their relationship, how deep the bonds are, how well (or poorly) they know the other person...

5. Now, go back and answer the questions in the checklist. Fill out the basic plot outline with details. Work with it, revise and correct, then when you're ready, show us what you've done.

[Quick start? How about this one:

There was blood in the tracks.

If you want to start your work with that line, please, feel free to borrow.]