20 Master Plots Quotes

“Plot is a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that constantly create a pattern of unified action and behavior. Plot involves the reader in the game of “Why?”
― Ronald B Tobias, 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

“o “You can always tell propaganda because the writer has a cause. The writer is on a soapbox lecturing, telling us who is good and who is bad and what is right and what is wrong. Lord knows we get lectured to enough in the real world; we don’t read or go to the movies so someone else can lecture us some more. If you use your characters to say what you want them to say, you’re writing propaganda. If your characters say what they want to say, you’re writing fiction. … If you have a score to settle or a point to make, or if you’re intent on making the world see things your way, go write an essay.”
― Ronald B. Tobias, 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

“Hemingway said write first and then take out all the good stuff and what’s left is story. (By “good stuff” Hemingway meant all the material that the author has fallen in love with—not everything that was proper for the story.)”
― Ronald B Tobias, 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

“This shared common experience is the basis for fiction. The plot of transformation deals with the process of change in the protagonist as she journeys through one of the many stages of life. The plot isolates a portion of the protagonist’s life that represents the period of change, moving from one significant character state to another. The key word”
― Ronald Tobias, 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them