Monthly Obscure Trope Series — The MacGuffin

It can be strange to discuss the “mechanics” of a story. Main characters, side plots, motivations, arcs, tropes, plot devices… It almost seems taboo to break a story down into building blocks. It can seem too simplistic. To me, that’s one of the neat things about storytelling, that even using a similar set of blocks can result in wildly different stories. 

I preface with that because today we’re talking about a very broad trope, called the MacGuffin. It’s an object or thing that serves to...