posted
I read one of those inspirational posters a couple weeks back. Normally I roll my eyes, this one I found profound. It shows a flipping coin, and the caption reads. "When faced with a tough decision, flip a coin. The outcome doesn't matter because in the moment the coin is in the air, you know what you really want."
In other words, in the risk of loss, we find what it is we value. I find this applies to all things. You're not sure if you like a girl, imagine losing her. Not sure if you want to make up with an estranged father? Imagine them dying without amends made.
Anyway plots...does anyone else find that sometimes they get on hear "asking" for advice about a plot only to find planting stakes on one plot choice or another. As if in inviting other writers to "attack it", you find which plot choice you really want. And more importantly, face why you want it?
I want MC to make this choice. Others say that's lame, but I really want this. The story isn't me unless it's this. Why? What is the element in that that I truly desire? In examining it, you find perhaps its not so important. The allure gets lost. "I really wrote that because it looked cinematic in my head." Or perhaps, you find "I want the character to do this because what resonates his going through such and such because I went through such and such and no one knows my story which I can tell through him." Etc...
posted
I can't say that I go through what you're referring to. The first thing I let guide me in plot is my characters. Whatever the decision it has to be something the character would actually do. The second thing I do, if the character could take either action, is I play if-then. If she does X, the what happens? Where does that path lead? I usually give myself three options to follow, but one is usually ruled out pretty quick. Then I determine which path leads to the most interesting outcome or dilemma. I don't believe in forcing the characters to do things to make certain things happen, no matter how cool something seems. Cool is fine as long as it fits with your characters. Let them lead.
Posts: 1993 | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sometimes the best idea is to plot the story from the end backwards. Instead of thinking what could follow this event which could be a thousand things try to think about what led to some particular outcome. Look for cause instead of consequence.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Good point Martin. Once you said it, I realized I sometimes do that too. Sometimes you have something that needs to happen and by working backward you can make sure the line of reasoning to get to that event is sound.
Posts: 1993 | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Philip K. Dick once said he threw the I Ching to work out some of the plot of The Man in the High Castle, I think. (Certainly it was prominently featured in the novel.)
I liked the idea well enough to try it out in working out the end of a long-ago-and-unpublished novel...and I thought it worked pretty well. Maybe I should have used it again. Maybe I should've dug out my guide and some coins and tried it with my last failed novel, which stopped 'cause I couldn't think of where to go from where I stopped.
Aside from that...in real life, I've learned [or decided] that, when somebody pressures me to make a yes-or-no decision then-and-there, the answer is no.
posted
So this really isn't about flipping coins. It's what to do when your writing doesn't produce the effect you were hoping for in readers. You were probably looking for the shock of recognition, but instead got the shock of incomprehension. You should NOT have your MC do something which makes no sense to you just because readers suggest that. That's not the right way to listen to critiques. What you should be listening to is what the readers took away from the story that was wrong.
There are two possible causes for this problem. Either (1) you failed to conceive a good reason for the MC to act as you want him to or (2) you've failed to portray the MC as you've conceived him.
I had both experiences on *The Wonderful Instrument*.
Problem: Readers complained that the female lead is manipulated into doing something by a trick she's too intelligent to fall for. Solution: Give her a stronger motivation to do the inadvisable. Have her raise the same objections an astute reader would, then show her motivation overwhelming her better judgment.
Problem: Readers complained the male lead was too obnoxious. Solution: Make him *more* obnoxious. It worked like a charm. The problem was that readers didn't understand he was *supposed* to be shallow and self-centered. His story arc is about him starting out believing that he's a wonderful person, then being forced to admit he's nothing more than an charming schmuck. The story's theme is the narcissism of fascists, so as Maximilian's self-esteem drops, he becomes an increasingly admirable person.
posted
Good suggestions all, but I think Matt got what I was actually getting at.
I wasn't so much talking about how to decide where the plot goes, I agree with Genevive and Martin, I use both methods initially. But I was more talking about 'proving/testing' your plot. Like Matt was saying, you could have a complaint in a critique and you could change your story to something you wouldn't recognize that rides like a burr in your sock (were you expecting saddle?).
Or you could ask, firstly in the coin toss illustration, is this important to me? Did I just have the MC do X because I wasn't really thinking it through and it doesn't change who he is? Was it incidental?
That's what I was first talking about, but then once you've determined that it is something that resonates with you (better than 'want' for them). Something that somewhere inside rings profound. And to change it would change something profound.
So then, because its important you find out why it is important? I had the MC do this, why? What did it show? That he was noble, that it was a sacrifice, that it was friviolous. Futile. Grand! Whatever.
I'm saying that sometimes I find that its in the critique that I find out what parts pass the test. What is the story I'm really trying to tell and how to do that. What it's weaknesses might be. What rules you are disregarding and why. All that sort of thing. Things you didn't realize until you 'tossed the coin.'
Printer-friendly view of this topic
