Hatching a plot

We all now what it's like when you put down a book and feel really satisfied with the story you've just read.
When it comes to writing a good story, we've al had the feeling – well I have anyway - that for some reason our story sags, or fails to satisfy fully.

But how do you identify the problem in a saggy story?

Telling a good story is a real skill and not many people are lucky enough to be born with it.

But the ingredients of those satisfying stories can be discerned. Looking at plot structure can illuminate how the best ones are made and maybe help identify problems when you feel your story sags a little.

Plot is the foundation of narrative structure, the skeleton without which your story won’t stand up.

There are considered to be only seven plots in the world(!). These can be broken down into:

TASK: Overcoming a specific evil in order to save the world. (St George and the dragon. Any Hollywood action movie.)
QUEST: Going in search of something that is needed to make the world a better place, usually something quite spiritual – the holy grail, or some other expression of perfection, such as the truth (murder mysteries are quests).
JOURNEY: Leaving home, returning as a changed person as a result of challenges faced and overcome. (Any coming of age story.)
THE FALL: Tragedy. Begins at top and falls to the bottom. Tragedy, loss of paradise because of a fatal flaw. (Any Shakespearean tragedy.)
RAGS TO RICHES: Begins with nothing and receives everything (Cinderella).
REBIRTH: Begins in oppression and ends in freedom. (Any prison break story.)
COMEDY PLOT: Not necessarily funny! A complex difficulty, possibly a misunderstanding, separates two characters but in the end they are brought back together. (War and Peace. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Any romantic story.)

An alternative suggestion is that there are two basic plots:

Here we begin with a closed circle – containing the place of safety, like a family or small community – and the circle is broken and redrawn in one of two ways:
(1) The adventure plot, in which the character leaves the confines of the circle to confront a threatened evil and then returns, having preserved the sanctity of the circle;
(2) The siege plot, in which the circle is invaded by evil which has to be expelled before safety is restored to the inhabitants of the circle.

Every plot has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

In the beginning (after we have established our character) comes the event which upsets the order of things and so requires a reaction. The middle consists of our character reacting to that event. The ending is where order is restored.

The danger is that the plot sags in between the beginning and the ending – creating what publishers refer to as a doughnut. What is needed is a series of turning points in the course of the story, which act like tent poles supporting the centre of the plot structure.

Joseph Campbell, an expert in comparative mythology, distilled the central story that underpins all famous myths and legends, and called it The Hero’s Journey.

Interestingly, Hollywood plots also follow The Hero’s Journey. see Conquering Plot structure by Michael Hauge

SNOW WHITE broken down into the classic Hollywood plot structure:

Set-up: Happy princess, beautiful stepmother
Turning Point 1 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall scene
New situation, step-mother want to kill Snow White, asks hunter to do it
Turning Point 2 Hunter can’t do it and abandons Snow White in wood
Progress, Snow White searches through wood and finds a cottage. Sleeps, wakes up, and meets seven dwarfs. Frightened but makes friends (finds out friends and enemies).
Turning Point 3 Snow White agrees to live happily with the dwarfs and mind their house. Can't go back home.
Trials and tribulations, queen tries to kill her – the poisoned stays?
Turning Point 4 Queen kills Snow White with poisoned apple
All is lost. Dwarves bury her in glass coffin.
Turning Point 5 Prince kisses her. Apple falls out of mouth. Hooray.
Aftermath, marriage and queen dies of mortification.
Next: Thickening the plot