Part 4.2 Plot
45 mins
- Explore ways of turning events into plots
- Read writing that focuses on personal concerns
Character and plot
The distinction between story and plot, according to E.M. Forster, is causality.
A story is a sequence of events.
A plot is a sequence of events caused by each other.
According to the course:
‘The king died, and then the queen died’ is a story.
‘The king died and then the queen died of grief’ is a plot.
Because plots have reasons.
We care about the reasons for things, not just what happens next. We are highly sensitive to guessing what effects various causes will have; a writer often does not have to spell this out. I would go so far as to say that readers get annoyed when we do, because it takes away the fun of surmising.
Developing a plot line
As I understand it, there are two ways to establish causality:
- work backwards from an inspiration by asking how someone got there: “why”?
- work forwards from a starting point by asking what would follow: “so then”?
I think this is a microcosm of the larger dance that happens in writing, between the instinct and the intellect.
This section focuses on the first, because we have been encouraged to build up character details, and now we are asking how we got there.
What if?
“What if?” seems like a useful question to use for imaginative work; a literary side-shoot of “yes, and”. The point of “what if” is to allow things to occur to you, so you avoid the strictures of having to find a “right” answer. It provokes the imagination.
In my experience, writing well has to do with “loosening up”. Our writing can suffer when we feel constrained, blocked, tight, and resistant.
[Okay, sometimes, we are too relaxed and careless about what we are producing, and need to “tighten up” our thinking or execution – but writers tend to be over-thinkers, not under-thinkers.]
Exercise I
Build up a picture of a woman from this prompt: ‘A woman on a bus today carried her Pekinese dog inside her handbag. It had a red bow on its head that matched her sweater.’
Use these questions:
> Who might she have been? Death
> Where was she going? To a funeral
> What did her appearance suggest about her mood or state of mind? That she was hungry for her next victim
> How old was she? Ageless
> How did she live? “Deliciously” (thanks to The VVitch film)
You’ll not see her wear the same colour again. It’s new every day. The sweater, and the dog bow. It’s the only change she can make in their appearance. Otherwise, they look the same. She can’t age and neither can the dog.
This bus route goes to the cemetery. That’s where she’ll get off. Before there was a bus, she took the tram. Before the tram, she took a carriage. Before carriages, she walked.
You’ll never see her take the bus back, only the bus there. Each morning she rides, still and hungry, focused on the meal ahead. The grief of the mourners is an amuse bouche, and the soul of the departed is the plat du jour. I never cross her eye-line, and I never touch the dog. I don’t want to think about what happened to those who were fooled by this fluffy familiar.
Exercise
Choose a character from your notebook and develop them, using research and “what if?” questions.
In your notebook, write a paragraph about them, including details such as dress, behaviour, speech, actions.
Reflection
This section felt relatively light, maybe because we only needed to have private thoughts and jot down notes, rather than sculpt proper sentences to share. (I only shared my demon-on-the-bus paragraph because of my antagonistic feelings about small dogs.) It’s nice being invited to think about characters, without needing to “write” write.
Give the course a spin yourself!
www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction