BASIC PLOT PRINCIPLES

Hi folks,

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Going back to some basics today--often, it helps to be reminded occasionally of things we already know, but have forgotten...

Thirteen Plot Principles

        

1. Plausible plotting starts with cause and effect. Make sure each step in your plot has a causative event, and one or more effects. Character actions should be caused by motivation, and should have effect on the plot.

2. Your protagonist should save the day (or destroy it). Protagonist is the "first actor,” the character most active in the story. Most importantly, he/she should be the one who resolves the conflict in the climactic scene. No one else should solve the mystery, or discover the secret, or arrive just in time to save the day. The plot should force the protagonist to make choices and take actions, and the course of plot events should change in response to those choices and actions.

3. Give the protagonist a goal, then take it away. The goal-driven protagonist is an active protagonist, but if you just let the protagonist achieve his goal, you'll have a linear or two-dimensional plot.  Have him lose the goal, or sacrifice it, or achieve it and realize he doesn't really want it, and you'll add the complication that makes this a real story.

4. The point of plot is change. The events should cause a change in the protagonist's inner life, to trade her original goal for a more worthy one, to face a personal issue she's ignored before, or to resolve a longstanding internal conflict.

5. Lead readers to the story, but don't drag them. Set up your opening scenes so readers are led to ask story questions like "Who killed the film director?" or "What will happen to John and Sue's  love when Sue learns that John has been lying to her?" The posing of the questions, and the desire to find the answers, keeps readers turning pages. That's called narrative drive. The story question is also an excellent tool to help the writer keep on track.

6. Make the internal come external. Explore your protagonist's internal needs and values, and consider, how will this affect her actions? The external events will cause internal change... and the internal change will cause new external events.

7. Twist a cliché. Do something new with the tried and the true. Use the clichéd plot not as something to reproduce faithfully, but as a classic human drama to explore in a new way.  Show the human depth under the stereotype: the blonde bombshell who walks into the private eye's office is worried because her elderly neighbor won't answer the door.

8. Coincidence kills plausibility. Don't let a one-in-a-million event rescue your protagonist from trouble, or readers will stop believing that this person is truly affecting the course of events.

9. "Exposition is ammunition." Tell the readers what they need to know, but only when they need to know it, and in the most powerful way. Make them beg for it.  An essential question for all plots, but especially mystery/suspense plots, is "What should the readers know, and when should they know it?" Ask that every time you're set to impart some extra information about the characters or events.  Don't tell so much so early that the reader has no reason to keep on reading.

10. Less is more. Don't dilute the power of your story by layering on too many conflicts and motivations, or featuring too many secondary characters and viewpoints. Instead, focus on strengthening what you have.

11. Center each scene. Build it around some irrevocable event that changes the plot, and your pacing problems will vanish; readers won't be able to skip because they'll miss something important.

12. Find the excitement in every scene. Aim for the strongest, most dramatic events that are plausible within the world of your plot and your characters. For example, your protagonist breaking in to an office and reading a file is more dramatic than her just overhearing the same information– but use this only if your protagonist is the sort who would, under these extreme circumstances, break into an office.

13. Always go back to character. The plot should show how these particular people with these particular strengths and values and conflicts react under stress or when pursuing a goal. You'll lose readers as soon as they sense you're forcing your characters to behave in a way that fits the plot instead of their personalities and needs.

Hope this helps remind some of us of basic principles we may have neglected or forgotten!

This has been a busy week! Having just placed three new novels, the hard work is beginning. I've got a tentative release date (in five weeks) for the two novels Stonegate Publishing is publishing--THE PERFECT CRIME and JUST LIKE THAT. Originally, we'd contracted for another novel, THE BITCH, but have replaced it with Stonegate with a road noir novel, JUST LIKE THAT. Portions of this novel have been previously published as short stories, appearing in MURDALAND and FLATMANCROOKED and one was both in HIGH PLAINS LITERARY REVIEW, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize and also included in Houghton-Mifflin's "Best American Mystery Stories, 2001." The other, THE PERFECT CRIME, was originally sold in auction to Random House, and alas, was cut when Bertlesmann purchased RH. Now, it finally gets published! I think readers are going to enjoy both of these, unless they're expecting THE BOBBSEY TWINS--these ain't one of those...

And, I'm deep in edits on the noir novel THE RAPIST, being offered by the new press, BARE KNUCKLES PRESS. I'm  working with the publisher, Cort McMeel and the editor, Eddie Vega, and these guys are fantastic! I've shared early editing notes here from Eddie, and he's a tough one! I'm also getting blurbs for this one already from some real heavyweights. Eddie and Cort and some other folks are also starring up a really exciting magazine, NOIR NATION, and I think I'll have a short story in the first issue. Even if I don't, glom onto a copy, as noir master Paul D. Brazill does have one in it for sure and you don't want to miss anything by this guy!

And, lastly, I've been getting all kinds of emails from those who listened to the radio interview last week with Jennifer Wilkov on her program, Your Book is Your Hook, on WomensRadio. Meeting all kinds of really cool people, mostly writers. Thanks, Jennifer!

Anyway, it's been tres busy! No time for many Jack and waters, alas... In fact, this week we had to forgo our weekly Friday night romantic tryst where I shave my wife Mary's back while we sip Barq's root beer and nibble on Hostess Ho-Hos...

Hope the writers out there who visit here are busy in the same kinds of ways. As that sage philosopher, Red Green, says: "I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice."

Blue skies,
Les