It's All About the Plot
Last week I discussed some of the elements of writing fiction, and today I'll start sharing what I've learned about one of them.
For some writers the most fun part of writing is creating the plot, the actual series of events that take place in the story. The basics seem so simple. A good plot starts with conflict and ends with resolution. So the first thing you need to know is, what is the central conflict? What is it that my protagonist wants? And what are the obstacles to him or her getting that thing. For example, in the film Rocky, the title character wants to be a successful boxer. The current champion wants to stop him. That’s where the plot begins.
The plot starts with someone who wants something important, and follows them as they strive to get it. They need to do that striving themselves, and they need to learn something from the effort. What matters in plot, unlike football, is not whether you win or lose but how your hero plays the game.
In a really good plot, each of the lead character’s successes leads to another failure, and each of the character’s failures is somehow caused by his own flaws. You can see these points in every bible story, every fairy tale, and most classic long poems like, say, the odyssey.
The protagonist is the lead character whose plot we’re following. The antagonist is the person or force trying to stop our protagonist from getting what he so dearly wants. it could be Goliath or Goldfinger or Mt Everest if your hero feels the need to climb it. The antagonist – the bad guy – has to offer serious competition, maybe appear from the beginning to be too much for our hero. And the barriers our hero faces have to be logical and believable.
How does a writer make sure his novel captures all those elements? For me, the only way is to outline the plot before I being writing.
But my outlines are not like the ones they taught me to make in junior high school. I’ll walk you through my style of outlining next week.
For some writers the most fun part of writing is creating the plot, the actual series of events that take place in the story. The basics seem so simple. A good plot starts with conflict and ends with resolution. So the first thing you need to know is, what is the central conflict? What is it that my protagonist wants? And what are the obstacles to him or her getting that thing. For example, in the film Rocky, the title character wants to be a successful boxer. The current champion wants to stop him. That’s where the plot begins.
The plot starts with someone who wants something important, and follows them as they strive to get it. They need to do that striving themselves, and they need to learn something from the effort. What matters in plot, unlike football, is not whether you win or lose but how your hero plays the game.
In a really good plot, each of the lead character’s successes leads to another failure, and each of the character’s failures is somehow caused by his own flaws. You can see these points in every bible story, every fairy tale, and most classic long poems like, say, the odyssey.
The protagonist is the lead character whose plot we’re following. The antagonist is the person or force trying to stop our protagonist from getting what he so dearly wants. it could be Goliath or Goldfinger or Mt Everest if your hero feels the need to climb it. The antagonist – the bad guy – has to offer serious competition, maybe appear from the beginning to be too much for our hero. And the barriers our hero faces have to be logical and believable.
How does a writer make sure his novel captures all those elements? For me, the only way is to outline the plot before I being writing.
But my outlines are not like the ones they taught me to make in junior high school. I’ll walk you through my style of outlining next week.
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