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Writing A Story
Once
Upon A Time......
and
so on and so on and so on and so on.............
BEGINNING
1. A character,
2. in a situation,
3. with a problem,
MIDDLE
4. Makes an intelligent effort to solve the problem, and
5. fails.
(Repeat as necessary to build
tension, suspense, etc.)
END
6. The character finally succeeds (or fails ultimately) in
solving the problem.
7. Validation. ("He's dead,
Jim." "The Force will be with you, always."
"Tomorrow is another day.")
NOTE:
When writing about an anti-hero, replace steps 4 and 5 with
"Protagonist keeps getting closer and closer to victory;"
and
step 6 with "Protagonist goes down in flames." Validation for
the anti-hero may be a triumph of spirit, as with Randle
Patrick
McMurphy in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.
This
seven-point structure doesn't mention setting, but that's assumed to be
part of the character's situation.
Conflict,
perhaps one of fiction's most important qualities, springs from the
character's inability to solve his problem. Conflict
also
springs up between characters with different outlooks, goals and
temperaments ("Your actions are not logical, Dr.
McCoy."
"I'm a doctor, not a computer, Spock!").
You'd
be surprised how often the seven-point structure applies to stories,
from classics like HAMLET all the way up to the
movie
DIE HARD.
Compare
the seven-point structure above with Dean R. Koontz's Plot Pattern:
1. The author introduces a hero (or heroine) who has just been
(or is about to be) plunged into terrible trouble.
2. The hero attempts to solve his
problems, but only slips into deeper trouble.
3. As the hero works to climb out of
the hole he's in, complications arise, each more terrible or daunting
than the one before, until it seems that his
situation could not be blacker and more hopeless--and then one final,
unthinkable complication makes matters even
worse. In most cases, these complications arise from mistakes or misjudgments
the hero makes while he is struggling to
solve his problems, mistakes and misjudgments which result from the
interaction of the faults and virtues that make him
a unique character.
4. At last, deeply affected and
changed by his awful experiences and his intolerable circumstances, the
hero learns something about himself or about the
human condition in general, a Truth of which he was previously ignorant,
and having
learned the lesson, he understands
what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in which he has
wound up. He takes the necessary actions and
either succeeds or fails, but more often than not he succeeds, for
readers tend to greatly prefer fiction that has a happy ending!
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