In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to perhaps the most elemental and often the most challenging element of story: plot. We will learn what keeps it moving, how it manipulates our feelings, expectations, and desires. We will examine the choices storytellers make to snag our imaginations, drag them into a fictional world, and keep them there. We will learn how to outline and structure a plot, discuss narrative arc, pacing and reversals and reveal the inevitable surprise: connecting the beginning, middle and end.
Character + Action = Plot
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Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot
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Plotting a Course
In this module, we'll learn essentials about plot definitions and mechanics. What is plot? How does plot shape a narrative? What makes a strong plot? How is plot different from a story? We'll also discuss how plot works in actual books you're probably familiar with, such as the Harry Potter series, how character and action equals plot, and the five key questions you should ask yourself when creating a dynamic character.
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Brando SkyhorseVisiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
English
[MUSIC]
Welcome to Segment three, Character + Action = Plot.
John Gardner, an American Novelist, once quipped, there are only two plots
in all of literature: someone goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town.
Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan's most celebrated animators,
director of Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, and
many others, said that what drives animation is the will of the characters.
You don't depict fate, you depict will.
In both these examples, character is an integral component imply.
In this section, we're going to look at how character and
action can work together to create an exciting plot.
Crafting great characters is covered in any Bloom's course on character here on
Coursera, but here's a supplement to her thoughts on the five key questions
you should ask yourself when creating a great dynamic character.
What do they want?
This is the first and
most fundamental question you have to answer when creating a good character.
All great characters want something.
Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse Five and many other great novels and
stories wrote that the first step in writing a good story
was creating a character that wanted something.
Even if that something was a simply a drink of water.
Desire is a crucial component in creating a believable that we can follow.
This is different from a character that needs something.
A character that needs something is fate.
A character that wants something is will.
What are their weaknesses?
Many writers give their characters traits that make them honorable, virtuous, and
in many cases invulnerable.
Now while you may want to hang out with someone who's honorable or virtuous
in real life, we don't really make for interesting characters on the page.
Think of the list of the greatest characters in fiction:
J Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye,
Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series.
Each of these characters were more interesting to follow and
to read about because of their weaknesses, not their strengths.
Superman isn't an interesting character because he's invulnerable,
Superman's an interesting character because he's vulnerable to kryptonite.
So when compiling a list of traits for your characters,
make sure that their weaknesses are more interesting than their strengths.
Where are they from?
There's both a literal answer for this and a deeper, more emotional answer.
First the literal.
What are your characters biographical information?
What city, state, town, or country are they from?
Did they grow up as a kid on the streets of New York City or were they born and
raised in a farm in Indiana?
Understanding this biographical information helps inform us
of what a character wants because it can help us understand where they came from.
Then, there's the more emotional answer.
Where are they from?
As in, what is their emotional background?
Did they have two loving parents?
Or were they raised by a single, overworked mother?
Did they lose a sister when they were very young?
Were they bullied in junior high?
Where are they from emotionally helps us understand a character's motivation for
acting the way that they do.
And it can be instrumental in helping us understand
why a character desires a particular thing.
It's also crucial in helping us answer the next question.
Where are they going?
Pairing this question with where are they from gives you a complete character arc.
That is, if I know why a character wants a particular thing and
I understand where they're from, I have an understanding,
not only of how hard they're going to try to get what they want, but how resilient
they'll be when rising actions are put in their way to obstruct their path.
I'll get to rising actions in a second.
Last, what can your characters do to surprise you?
Now this may sound weird, but characters sometimes don't do what
we expect them to do when we put them on the page.
They act in a more resourceful way than you imagine.
Or if they suspect they were walking into an ambush in a dark room,
they might decide, just like an actual person, not to go into that room.
Look for places in your story where your characters do things you didn't expect
them to do, and
encourage your characters by following them instead of trying to lead them.
Now that you have a rough idea of what a character should look like,
it's time to give that character something to do.
That's where rising actions come in.
Here is a simplest way to define what exactly is a rising action.
Your main character wants something.
Some obstacle, it can be another thing another character,
your main character's own flaws, gets in your main character's way
of getting that one thing your character wants.
Those obstacles are rising actions.
Your character overcomes these obstacles, these rising actions
only to encounter even larger obstacles on the next level or in the next chapter.
That's the next rising action.
So, like levels in a video game,
your character has to keep overcoming obstacles.
They have to keep overcoming rising actions
until they reach the place where they can try and get what they want.
Once you have your character and
your action, you essentially have the plot of your novel.
Here's the best way I know to summarize plot, or
the best way to answer someone when they ask what your book is about.
For this you'll need the inciting incident,
a character, the obstacle, and the quest.
Now how do you put it all together?
When an inciting incident happens to character,
they have to overcome conflict slash obstacles, to complete quest.
Now there are a lot of different ways of structuring these basic elements, but that
set up right there is the most efficient way that I know to put them all together.
This sentence construction is also often called a pitch.
That is the shorthand way to describe what your book is about to an agent.
A process outspreading a lot more about in the capstone.
Now, it's time to complete module A, so head on over to the written assignment in
the next segment and I'll show you how to put everything we've learned together.
[MUSIC]
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