The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 30 April 2010

Writer's Digest, October 2005, pages 27 to 31, had an article by James Scott Bell with the title, "Pull it together." The subtitle was rather long, "You don't have to start from scratch when determining the best framework for telling your tale. Here are five classic plot patterns that will give your novel good form." Maria Schneider wrote the introduction, comparing the plot to a pattern that pulls "all of the pieces together into some meaningful whole." A plot gives your novel structure and lets you focus your imagination on other parts of your writing.

The five plot descriptions are excerpted from Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. Quest, revenge, love, adventure, and one against. A little description, essentials, and structure. So let's take a look at one...

The quest:

"a hero goes out into the dark world and searches for something." Physical items, people, knowledge, anything and everything.

Essentials:

• The main character is someone who is incomplete in his ordinary world.
• the thing searched for must be of vital importance.
• there must be huge obstacles preventing the protagonist from gaining it.
• The quest should result in the protagonist becoming a different (usually better) person at the end. A fruitless quest may end in tragedy.

Structure:

• the lead character shows some inner deficiency that the quest will help to remedy.
• There are often a series of encounters, giving the plot an episodic feel. The character encounters setbacks, struggles to overcome them, moving step by step closer to the objective.
• the final act often has a major crisis or setback, with a discovery or major clue transforming or providing a revelation.
• "The quest is a powerful pattern because it mirrors our own journey through life. We encounter challenges, suffer setbacks and victories but move on."

Revenge:

Revenge is an old plot pattern. You killed one of mine, I will kill one of yours. An eye for an eye, heroic revenge. Revenge is emotional.

Essentials:

• the lead character should be sympathetic, because revenge is often violent.
• the wrong done to the lead that initiates things usually isn't his fault or is out of proportion.
• desire for revenge affects the inner life of the lead character.

Structure:

• Act I introduces the protagonist in his ordinary world. It's usually comfortable, making the violent disturbance sharper.
• the initiating incident is the wrong, breaking the ordinary world.
• following the wrong, the protagonist has a period of suffering, which helps the readers empathize.
• the wrong often occurs through betrayal by an ally, and may involve framing the protagonist unfairly.
• the protagonist needs to discover who did it and how they can punish them.
• the obvious motive is revenge, but the deeper motive is to restore order. To try to return to the ordinary world.
• Act II focuses on a series of confrontations, frustrating the protagonist by circumstances or opposition, leading up to an opportunity to punish the opponent. But the protagonist is defeated.
• achieving revenge can be satisfying, although sometimes sacrificing the desire for the greater good can restore the balance.
• revenge plots explore human nature. You need strong characters.

Love

Either one of the lovers is the protagonist, or you can have parallel plots with both lovers alternating. Winning love, or overcoming obstacles to love, there's always opposition. Rivals, family, etc.

Essentials

• one or two people have to be in love.
• something has to separate them.
• do they get back together or not?
• one or both of the lovers grows because of the conflict.

Structure

• the structure changes a little bit based on what kind of story you are telling.
• Act I may have the lovers meet for the first time, and one falls in love. Act II then becomes the struggle to convince the other to love them in return.
• Or Act I may have both of them falling in love, while Act II introduces something that forces them apart. The lovers struggle to get together against opposition.
• sometimes lovers hate each other when they first meet. Then the challenges of act two teach them to love.

Adventure

"Adventure stories are among the oldest in literature. They originally created a vicarious thrill for the listeners or readers, who were typically stuck in one physical location for life. These stories were also used to inspire and encourage acts of discovery for the benefit of the community."

Even with travel much easier now, most of us live predictable lives. So we still wonder, what if I went looking for adventure? These stories answer that. The core of an adventure story makes the reader wish they were the protagonist.

Essentials

• The protagonist sets out on a journey. There is no particular quest for an object, just a desire for an adventure.
•  There are encounters with interesting characters and circumstances.
• the protagonist usually gain some insight because of the adventures.

Structure

• Act I briefly introduces the life that's being left behind, and then the protagonist leaves in search of adventure.
• Act II often consists of a series of mini plots or adventures, with colorful characters and settings.
• the challenge of the adventure plot is avoiding simple episodic stories without any relationship.
• often the character change or reflection, the new understanding, ties it together

One against

"There are times when we must stand up for what we believe, even if most people are against us. This takes a lot of inner strength -- more than in most other plot patterns. We value reputation. The one-against story is powerful because the lead carries off that moral duty, and we admire him for it."

Essentials

• the protagonist embodies the moral code of the community.
• There's a threat to the community from the opposition, who is much stronger than the protagonist.
• the protagonist wins by inspiring the rest of the community.
• that inspiration may come through self-sacrifice.

Structure

• Act I presents the protagonist as hero. It also presents the threat by the opposition, or the declaration of their fight.
• Act II develops the conflict, with characters passionately committed.
• Act III is where the community stands up to the opposition.

"Plot patterns free up your writing. When you have structure, you can be more creative because you don't have to worry about having a cohesive plot."

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:


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