Tag: plotting

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Wretched

You’re still waiting for me to come out and say, “I love this plot. Love, love, love it.” Today’s plot I like well enough, but I find the naming of it a bit in accurate. Wretched excess describes a situation in which a person of normal means finds themselves indulged with great bounty. That bounty could be love, companionship, adoration, money, resources, luck, or whatever, but they find themselves with an abundance of it. Then they discover who they really are.

The book’s author goes an entirely different direction which I’d describe as more Disgusting Extremes. A mundane character descends into a state where they’ll do just about anything in order to survive. The actions depart from the social norms so extravagantly that they are borderline beastial or alien.

I’ll have to remind myself what the happy ending and upsides to this interpretation are according to Tobias. Lovely. There doesn’t seem to be one.

Beat.

I thought about this off and on today. I didn’t really settle on anything good, so instead of hours of germination I’ve still got a cold keyboard.

Let’s see if I can work something humorous and timely and light.

Theme – Wretched Excess

Setup – It’s snowing and a man must shovel his driveway.

Hook – A cold-weather clad man stands on his front step wtih a snow shovel in hand; after he wipes the effects of a flurry of snow in the face from his face snow crashes down on him from the roof.

Plot Point 1 – Admiring his finished driveway he decides to shovel the sidewalk in from of his home as well.

Pinch 1 – So caught up in clearing the sidewalk he doesn’t notice new snow covering the driveway again until he’s at the end of the walk.

Mid-point Twist – After shoveling his way back up the sidewalk and the driveway he sees that the sun has melted his neighbor’s driveway without any human effort.

Pinch 2 – A snowplow comes by to clear the road out front and not only carves a huge wall of snow up onto his clean sidewalk and driveway but also hoses him down with slush (or maybe salt spary/anti-freeze).

Lull – Finally dug out from the snowplow he sips cocoa inside at his neighbor’s home. They remark on some of the irony and the lack of other neighbors shoveling their drives.

Plot Point 2 – So much time passes while at his neighbor’s the snow has returned and covered his drive a third time.

Conclusion – Maniacally shoveling through the snow a third and final time the day ends with the man collapsed on the front step huffing. He watches several neighbors pulling out of their warm garages and easily driving away in the light snow at the end of the day.

I’d say that kind of worked. At least it wasn’t Iago or alcohol. THis is a plot archetype I’d come back to find a different story instead.

486 words on day 676

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Cole: A Singularity Story

I noticed the sensation of my head deep in a barrel with one hand alternating between scraping around and holding me up the first time I read this book. I’m realizing now why I don’t like some of these plots. I understand them as plots, but the author inconsistantly outlines each archetype. Rather than methodically analyze each plot and present a symbolic outline he book-reports a movie matching his idea of that plot. When he draws me into specific characters by name and situation the effort obscures the blueprint not elucidates it.

Sigh.

Theme – Discovery. Personal discovery not adventuring for treasure and glory.

Setup – Cole is everything you’d think a college student would be. Growing up, unsure about the future, trying to find a girlfriend, but wary of how to do any of those things.

Hook – After having a great night at a dorm sponsored end of semester bash, Cole discovers his well-meaning buddies bribed his date to go out with him.

Plot Point 1 – Cole determines to transfer schools so that he can clear the slate and find a girl without the risk of a setup, but he can’t leave till the end of the second semester without forfeiting most of his fees.

Pinch 1 – As the Spring Semester Bash approaches, Cole’s friends badger him about maybe being gay.

Mid-point Twist – Back home for Summer Break Cole meets a nice girl, Anna, working at the coffee shop he frequents. They hit it off.

Pinch 2 – Anna mentions to Cole that his mother encouraged her to befriend Cole because Mom worried he might be gay. Clearly he can’t find a girl on his own or worse.

Lull –

Plot Point 2 – Cole accepts that he’s either gay and too scared to confront that situation or that he’s completely ineffectual at meeting girls and never will without help.

Conclusion – At a 10 year Homecoming Cole and friends gather for a BBQ at Cole’s home. Their married-with-kids lives contrast with his own single-guy life, but he’s comfortable with his choices.

I forced some of this into the plan I had before I wrote the Hook. Usually I save the hook for after or partly through rather than start with it populated. In this instance I populated it and immediately had a nearly different story to head down.

If I returned to this I’d examine the hook and either better craft it for leading into a more appropriate story or I’d redo the hook itself. Make these two parts match up better than they do.

431 words on day 675

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A Conceptual Sacrifice

I did plot through the weekend. I wasn’t pleased with the themes of Love or Forbidden Love; I wasn’t pleased with the effort either. I didnt like some of these plots when I first read the book, and I still don’t like many of them. I’m bothered by that but don’t have time to really analyze that right now.

Theme – Sacrifice. The novel writing book references Casablanca—the movie. Eventually Tobias talks aboutA Tale of Two Cities.

Setup – Describe someone unlikely to sacrifice him or herself in a situation unlikey to generate a need for sacrifice. Sacrifice should have a hierarchical component that allows threshols of giving(up).

Hook –

Plot Point 1 – Have main character make descision to change life which doesn’t at first appear to have sacrificial implications. Falling in love usually does the trick.

Pinch 1 – Tempt protagonist to abandon long held belief or put in position to make mini-sacrifice similar to one required to conclude PP2.

Mid-point Twist – Take away reward or benefit of descision made in PP1.

Pinch 2 – Sacrifice required in P1 resurfaces, but accepting doesn’t win back prize lost in MPT.

Lull – Reflecting on the sunk cost of minor sacrifice made in P2 and the loss of reward in MPT.

Plot Point 2 – Loss in MPT threatens to become permanent. Love cooled becomes love crushed; lover separated becomes lover dead.

Conclusion – Long held belief cast aside with no hope of redemption in order to protect reward’s integrity, but not reunite reward with protagonist.

Yes, conceptual—sorry about that. The effort was helpful to me despite it’s lack of specificity.

I see another version of this now that I’d not considered when I started. The protagonist could be sacrificing willingly all along the course of the plot thinking they’d be rewarded. Give a little to gain the prize; give a little more to gain it; give a lot to get it; give it all, but still get nothing in return. The sacrificer and the reward diverge throughout the story.

350 words on day 674