TEN POINTS ON PLOTTING
- Everything that
happens in the story should be justified. Every character, event, setting,
dialogue and all other elements should serve a purpose. Even the names
of the characters and their actions should be though of carefully. They
could either be there in order to make something appear true or real,
to contribute to a planned climax or to interest the reader’s mind
through symbolism. You can ask these questions to yourself in order
to test the significance of an element: Why does this have to occur
in this place and not another? Why give this character this particular
name and not another? Why should the character do this? Or why does
the character have to say this kind of dialogue?
All the details in the story should help convince the reader of the credibility of your story, put across the theme of the story and set up the climax so that it will be both believable to the reader and in line with the theme.
- The plot arises
from the character who undergoes a conflict. The characters’ responses,
both dialogue and actions, should correspond to the personality you
have designated the character from the beginning of the story. However
you could illustrate a character displaying paradoxical responses in
different situations if you have prepared the readers for this, by illuminating
a hint of some concealed aspects of his personality. To make the story
sound plausible, choose the appropriate circumstances when this can
be emphasized or stressed.
- You must make your
character as realistic as possible. Just like every one of us, we have
our own agendas. We have our own personal reasons why we love the things
we do. You need to instill this aspect in your character so that the
readers will be convinced that he has real motivations for doing his
actions. Avoid making your characters appear melodramatic. You should
illustrate your character as someone who does every feat he does for
rational reasons and not just because he wants to excite the readers.
- The plot of the
story is composed of the individual plots of the each character. Every
character has his own personal matters to take up, which is modified
in accord with the agendas of the other characters in the story. This
can also be altered by an encounter that the character faces. To give
excitement to the story, neither the hero nor the villain gets everything
his way all the time. There should be instances in the story when both
take turns upsetting the other who must then find a way to cope with
the difficulties. The direction of the characters should go in diverse
directions until such time when the two meets in the plot and the other
acquires a more advantageous position.
- The story is actually
just part of the plot. It begins when events take a crucial and irreversible
twist at the latest possible moment before the climax. You can demonstrate
events that occurred before the beginning of the story through literary
techniques such as flashbacks, exposition or inferences.
- All important elements
such as character, setting and object should be presaged at the first
phases of the story. However remember to put some mystery and surprise
in your story by putting the element in the story without making it
appear as significant as it really is. Adding chance and coincidence
in your plot is also a good way of making a stirring novel, but it needs
careful preparation and thinking on how it should have some bearing
on other parts of the plot.
- We should take note
of the kind of story we are telling and think of creative ways on how
to make it unpredictable for the readers. The premise of the story is
the relationship of an individual to society. For instance, a comic
story tells of a secluded individual who ends up gaining acceptance
to society or forming a society of his own. The individual’s inclusion
in society is commonly symbolized by a wedding or a feast. A tragic
story tells of an individual who is established in society and later
on finds isolation which often in symbolized by death. These are set
configurations on how these literary genres go, but it your challenge
as the author to give suspense to the readers on what kind of story
your is. Even though readers already get the idea that yours is a comedy,
the comic climax should be something unusual and unexpected. If we know
that the hero is in a disaster, the cause should be something we thought
was insignificant.
- Incorporating ironic
event in your plots will add a flavor to your story by sabotaging the
initial emotions and thoughts readers obtained. Examples are: The hero
marries, but the girl he chooses makes his life a tragedy. Or the hero
dies, but in the end his martyrdom becomes known to society.
- At the first stages
of the story, the hero is submissive, just reacting to the occurrences.
However, at the point called counterthrust,
the real story begins and the hero starts to take charge. The counterthrust
gives the readers the idea of the character of the hero and sets him
for more grave tribulations on the later stages. For most cases, a series
of problems start to come across the hero’s path. The way the hero
reacts to these problems is his counterthrust. Often the counterthrust
occurs after the hero fails and then decided to get on his feet with
the new lessons he just learned. He will make use of these lessons in
dealing with the events that will lead to the climax of the story.
- One of the goals
of every writer is to successfully give each of his characters their
own distinctive identity. You should include in your plot events that
will reveal the personalities the characters whether they are courageous
or gutless, generous or greedy, stupid or brainy. It is important that
you know how to provide the appropriate opportunities for the emphasis
of your characters’ identity without being deviating from the theme
of your story. Avoid including events in your plot that do not contribute
to the emphasis of the identity of your characters. A sudden display
of an attribute that has not been dramatized in the other parts of the
plot, will make your story sound questionable.
