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Discovering the Plot

The average plot is constructed around three basic elements:

  1. Conflict. Something happens to disturb the status quo.
  2. Character response and evolution – the character may be strengthened in their resolve, or they may change.
  3. Resolution of conflict.

Sometimes we begin with a very clear idea of 1 and/or 3, but only a hazy idea about our characters and their environment. Sometimes the reverse happens – a character or a place grabs our attention then gradually begins to tell us their story. Whatever our starting point – plot or character, the narrative process should gradually unfold as a complex interaction between the two. Plot cannot work where its demands go against the nature of the characters. Characters become uninteresting and lose their authenticity if tailored to fit the demands of the plot. Both storyline and characters can seem to assume a life of their own at times, suddenly taking unexpected turns ‘all by themselves’.

Once we are aware of these processes we can make them work for us, so that we can follow a plot as it develops, rather than struggle to think what should happen next.

WHOSE STORY IS IT ANYWAY?

When characters and/or setting are vague we can get to know them better by using various ways of ‘tuning in’. When characters and/or setting develop first, they can help us to discover the plot. The following guided visualisations help to enhance character–plot interaction. They can be used to develop a new plot, or to work on a current one.

Record all three sets of instructions first with appropriate pauses (as in Chapter 2).

– EXERCISES –

Guided visualisation (1)

Bring your character fully into your awareness now. What mood is their face and their posture expressing? Ask them what has happened to them today. Where have they been? Who have they met?

Was it an unusual, or an average day? How has it left them feeling?

Become this person now. Step into their skin, their clothing. Begin to move as they move, and speak as they speak. What can you see around you? What can you hear, feel, smell, taste? Notice the qualities of the light, the temperature and humidity. How does it feel to be in that place?

Find somewhere to sit quietly and reflect on your day and the events which led up to it. Gradually let your mind move backwards over your life, so that the events leading up to what happened here, today in this place become clear to you. Notice your feelings as you do this.

How do you see today in terms of your life as a whole? What do you think might happen next? How are you feeling now?

When you are ready, open your eyes.

  • Write as your character in the first person. Make these experiences the subject of a ten-minute timed writing. Begin ‘My life has been …’

Guided visualisation (2)

When you are ready, close your eyes and return to the place where you met your character.

Your character is not here. Spend some time exploring on your own.

Someone is approaching. You can see them nearby. They want to make contact. This person likes to gossip. They are eager to tell you their version of the events which your character described earlier. Listen to what they have to say. Ask any questions you want to ask, but do not argue.

When you are ready, draw this conversation to a close, take your leave of the gossiping person, and open your eyes.

  • As the gossip, in the first person, write your version of the events you have just described. Record your feelings as you write. When you are ready, close your eyes and return to that place.

Guided visualisation (3)

Almost immediately a person approaches. They are anxious to talk with you. It becomes clear that this is a person in whom your character has confided. They can be trusted. They have news of what is happening to your character now. Listen carefully. Ask whether your character needs your help in any way. The trusted friend wants to put the record straight about what the gossip told you. Discuss this for a while. Make sure you now have the correct information. When you are ready, draw this conversation to a close, thank the trusted friend, take your leave of them and open your eyes.

  • So what is the ‘real’ story? Write a dialogue between the gossip and the trusted friend. Use two different coloured pens. Try writing with both hands.

Outlining the plot

Write a brief resume of the story so far. What overall theme is developing? Choose three words to describe the key theme(s) of your story. Imagine a snappy description on a book-jacket: ‘This is a story of ---,---and---’

Here are some suggestions:

adventure

anarchy

avarice

betrayal

bitterness

brutality

chaos

confusion

constancy

courage

devotion

disintegration

discovery

disempowerment

disgust

enmity

envy

escape

fanaticism

fear

friendship

frustration

greed

growth

gullibility

hardship

hatred

hedonism

inequality

innocence

integrity

intimidation

intolerance

jealousy

justice

loss

love

mayhem

mystery

obsession

opposition

power

pride

punishment

purpose

pursuit

rebellion

recovery

release

rescue

revenge

sacrifice

sacrilege

search

secrets

selfishness

shame

temptation

transformation

trickery

victory

vulnerability

wisdom

youth

Precisely identifying the theme(s) in this way keeps your writing focused. This is particularly important when writing a short story. Keep returning to the theme and checking it out: ‘This is a story about x, y and z – am I making this clear? Am I reinforcing this theme, or am I losing the impact by getting side-tracked?’ In a longer narrative, staying focused on the main theme is important for developing sub-plots which enhance rather than distract from the main action.

Checklist

– EXERCISES –

If you are stuck for ideas, try using the list of words above as a starting point.

  • Pick two or three words at random and take them as the basic themes for your story.
  • Use random words from the list to complete the sentence ‘This is a story about---,---and---’. Make it the beginning of a piece of timed writing.

You could also make a plot grid, similar to the ideas grids we looked at in the previous chapter. This time, divide your page into four columns and label them: CHARACTER, SETTING, CATALYST, MOTIVE. Draw ten horizontal lines and number them 0–9. Proceed as follows:

For example:

 

Character

Setting

Catalyst

Motive

0

spy

hotel

power cut

desperation

1

sales rep

the vets

balloon bursts

envy

2

blonde

county court

new car

power

3

actress

back yard

war

self-hate

4

bully

Berlin

a death

love

5

darts player

cathedral

bath time

ambition

6

gardener

kitchen

illness

greed

7

prince

launderette

lost jacket

revenge

8

nurse

tunnel

birthday

pride

9

judge

runway

puppy

humour

Now choose a random 4-digit number. This could be a pin-number, the year of your birth or any other historical event, or any combination you choose. Use this number as you used the dates in the previous chapter, to provide you with a skeleton plot. For example, the year 1066 would give you a sales rep in an hotel with an illness and motivated by greed.

INVENTING AN AUDIENCE

As soon as all these preparations are complete and the real story telling begins, we need an audience; initially one specific person to whom we can convey our thoughts. Without this externalised third party, our writing can become a private conversation with our characters. Our reader may feel like a late arrival at a party, bewildered and excluded. Increasing introspection can also cause us to lose sight of our ideas – as if they have disappeared into a black hole. This particular manifestation of so-called ‘writer’s block’ can be reversed by focusing our thoughts outwards again.

Who would you like to be the recipient of your story? Will it be someone you know, or someone you invent? What do you need from them?

If your story is intended for a specific market, say a particular women’s magazine, visualise one representative of that audience. Use a guided journey, left-hand writing, webs, 10x10, etc. to become fully acquainted with this person, then deliver your story just to them.

If your priority at this stage is to tell your story clearly, invent (or remember) your listener as one of those irritating people who asks a question after every few sentences.

If style and quality are your main concern, invent someone who is not easily satisfied, who expects the best from you and wants you to get it just right. Remember – whoever you choose, they are there for your benefit. Select the audience which you will find most stimulating and enabling – or the one which is most challenging, if that is what you feel you need.

Checklist

Inventing an audience enables you to:

PLAYING ALL THE PARTS

Swiss psychoanalyst and mystic, Carl Jung, suggests that everything we dream represents an aspect of ourselves. If we dream we are having tea with a cat in a pink swimsuit, we are the cat, the swimsuit, the tea itself, the place where the tea is served and so on. When we work with a dream, insight can be obtained by communicating with or becoming each of the parts in turn (see Chapter 7 for further information). Communicating with or through all aspects of our visualisations gives us insight and also many new viewpoints to work with. Either record your responses to the following exercise, or make them the subject of timed writing.

– EXERCISES –

Checklist

Playing all the parts enables us to:

LETTING FATE TAKE A HAND

Games of chance

Introducing an element of chance injects new life into our characters, our plot – and us.

Scrabble

  1. Play a 15-minute game, either by yourself or with a friend. At the end of that time, write a story using every word you have made.
  2. Or instead of recording the scores, record each word. Use them in the order in which they appeared.
  3. Alternatively, use only the nouns or only the verbs which appeared. Make each the focus of a stage in your plot. Suppose the verbs you made were:
    plan    pack    doubt    arrange    saw    spend

A sample plot outline could read:

Boggle, Lexicon, Jitters and other word games – such as Target Words, found in various newspapers and magazines – can be used in the same way.

Snakes and Ladders

Throw the dice and move a counter accordingly. Whatever number you land on, take a dictionary or choose a book at random and open it at that page. Close your eyes and point to a word. Use it in your opening sentence. Continue in this way for each sentence. If you go up a ladder, let something positive occur in your character’s life. If you go down a snake, introduce an obstacle or misfortune. The story ends after a set number of throws, or when you reach the last square.

Any dice and counter board game can be adapted in this way. Or you can invent your own board game to suit your plot production needs.

Dice

  1. Use a pair of dice and a dictionary. Devise your own word finding rules. For example, the first throw gives you a page number, the second tells you where it comes on that page (1st, 2nd, etc.) Or choose a word at random and throw the dice count forward that number of words and use the word you land on. Throw again to find the next word and so on. Use the words as in the games described above.
  2. Use a single die and tarot cards. Shuffle the cards and select 30 unseen. Deal face down into six adjacent piles of five. Throw the die. The number thrown indicates the number of the pile from which to choose the first card. Throw and choose six times. Each card reveals the next stage of the plot.
  3. Dice are traditionally used for divination and insight. The meanings attributed to their scores can also be used in storymaking (see next section).

Checklist

Use games of chance:

Predictive and ‘inner wisdom’ techniques

The techniques described are ancient systems for attuning ourselves to archetypal energies and experiences, hence the term ‘inner wisdom’. They are used for divination, personal insight and guidance and – as I have already said – must be treated with care and respect. Approached in this way, they can also give insight into our characters and their stories.

Tarot spreads

The patterns in which the cards are laid are known as spreads. Many different spreads are described in the books and leaflets which accompany tarot packs. We can use these spreads to ask questions about our own lives and about the lives of our characters. The answers can also be read as an unfolding story. ‘The Flying Bird’ spread (Figure 5) works particularly well with the Osho Zen Tarot, which depicts concepts rather than characters. A recent Flying Bird spread read:

  1. Here and Now: Turning inwards
  2. Resistance/fear: Participation
  3. Response to the fear: Stress
  4. Inner support: Healing
  5. External support: Innocence
  6. Relaxation/acceptance: Experiencing
  7. New awareness: Inner voice

It gave rise to this story outline:

A woman in her forties has always wanted to dance (1) but is afraid of making a fool of herself (2). She finally psychs herself up to join a dance class, but when she gets there she feels unable to go in (3). A little girl (5) watching at the door tells her she longs to be in there dancing. The woman remembers feeling like that when she was young, and this gives here the courage she needs (4). Dancing at last, she feels positively euphoric (6).

Later she tells the tutor how hard it was for her to take that first step. The tutor says ‘I know – I saw you talking to yourself out there’ (7).

The I Ching

This ancient Chinese system involves asking a question, throwing three coins six times to obtain a hexagram, and interpreting this by consulting the I Ching – or Book of Changes (available in numerous editions, translations and interpretations). The answers are rich in metaphor. For example, from Hexagram 59 HUAN: Clear what is blocking the light. Call a glass of water a pond if you like, but do not drown in it or from Hexagram 64 WEI CHI: A decisive new move but not if you behave like the centipede who, looking at his moving feet and analysing their order of movement, ends up on his back waving his thousand legs in the air. The most useful answers result from sincere and well-formed questions. The answer to such questions can reveal new aspects of a character, or change the plot dramatically. Many of the hexagrams offer a whole plot in themselves.

Runes

Norse in origin, each rune-stone bears an ancient alphabetical symbol. Bought sets include an accompanying booklet which gives the meaning of these. There are also many books on the subject available separately. Stones can be used singly or in spreads. As with the I Ching, answers can be interpreted in many ways. (The word riddle – raedel in Old English, comes from the Germanic raedan or ‘reading’.) Some examples of runic food for thought are: from 1 THE SELF: Not a time to focus on results look inside for the enemy of your progress and from 5 TERMINATION/ NEW BEGINNINGS: In deep water become a diver.

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Fig. 5. Flying Bird tarot spread.

Dice

Dice, traditionally three, can also be used as tools of divination and inner wisdom. There are many systems, some very complicated. For use in creating plots it is enough to know the basic meaning traditionally attributed to each score. These are:

  1. A wish unexpectedly fulfilled.
  2. Disappointment.
  3. A stranger brings joy.
  4. Loss – may bring spiritual gain.
  5. Gossip causes unhappiness.
  6. Ill-considered action may cause injustice.
  7. Success, forgiveness, reunion.
  8. Domestic contentment. Promotion.
  9. Someone is ill.
  10. A letter demands an answer.
  11. Long-term sorrow.
  12. A stranger becomes a close friend.
  13. Temptation to make unjust deal.
  14. A pleasant and profitable journey.
  15. Foreigner gives good advice.
  16. Excellent omen – promotion, profit, joy.

Dominoes

To help carry your plot forward, draw up to three dominoes (tradition says that more makes the dominoes tired!) Meanings are given as follows:

 

6/6:

All round success.

6/5:

Good works.

6/4:

Litigation.

6/3:

Short profitable voyage.

6/2:

A useful gift.

6/1:

Ending of an old trouble.

6/0:

Be alert to treachery.

5/5:

A good move.

5/4:

Profit. Avoid speculation.

5/3:

A helpful visitor.

5/2:

Child-birth.

5/1:

New love, sad ending.

5/0:

Comfort a friend.

4/4:

Stranger’s party.

4/3:

Disappointment. Courage.

4/2:

A swindler is about.

4/1:

Debts to be paid.

4/0:

Attempt reconciliation.

3/3:

A rival in love.

3/2:

Do not tempt fate.

3/1:

Surprising and useful news.

3/0:

Jealousy causes trouble.

2/2:

Happy marriage.

2/1:

Loss of money or property.

2/0:

New relationship. Joy.

1/1:

Act now.

1/0:

Useful visit from stranger.

0/0:

Bad omen. Loss, unhappiness.

 

 

 

 

Checklist

Inner wisdom techniques:

There are also workbooks and computer programs for generating plots. Tom Sawyer and A.D. Weingarten’s Plots Unlimited comes in both versions, and there is now an upgraded version of the software called Storybase. (See Useful addresses and websites.)

WORKING WITH ASTROLOGY

This is a brief introduction to a highly complex and comprehensive system, which bears little relationship to the familiar sun-sign ‘horoscopes’ found in the newspapers. These deal in an abridged and generalised way with just one aspect of our birth-chart – the sign the Sun was in when we were born. The word horoscope means ‘map of the hour’. Our horoscope, or birth chart, shows the exact position of each planet at the moment of our birth, and is as unique as our finger-print. The science of Astrology has been painstakingly researched and refined over thousands of years. It charts the movements of ten planets, through twelve signs and twelve houses. It looks at the relationships of the planets to each other and to the system. It looks at the positions of planets now, in relation to their positions at the time we were born.

Each planet is associated with the characteristics of the deity after which it is named. For example, Neptune is seen as dreamy, creative and sometimes confused. Each Zodiac sign is also associated with one of the four elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water) and demonstrates the qualities of that element. Each sign also has its own distinctive qualities. These factors ‘colour’ the attributes of planets found in the sign, for example, warlike Mars in fiery Aries might behave aggressively, whereas Mars in watery Pisces might fizzle out. Poetic Neptune might feel ‘like a fish out of water’ in practical Capricorn.

The planets could be seen as actors on a stage and the signs as costumes, some of which fit well, and some quite the opposite. Planetary energies are also affected by their position in relation to each other and to areas of Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable energy. Then there are twelve Houses, representing the various stages of our journey through life and the way we interact with our environment. To borrow a phrase from psychology, the signs could be said to represent ‘nature’ and the houses ‘nurture’. The appearance of planets in particular houses may either help or hinder our passage at that point.

Whatever our opinions regarding the validity of astrology, there is no doubt that it is a marvellous tool for writers. Once the basic principles are understood, we have only to choose a time, date and location for our character’s birth – and endless possibilities for their development are revealed to us. Nowadays we do not even have to face the laborious task of drawing up a chart, as there are numerous software packages which will do it for us (see Useful addresses).

There are also specialised branches of astrology geared to specific purposes. Of particular interest to writers are:

  1. Age-point astrology used by the Huber school (see page 165 Astrological Software) to chart significant periods in an individual’s life.
  2. Horary astrology which answers questions by drawing up a chart for the moment when the question was posed (great for crime writers).
  3. Synastry which compares the chart of two individuals to discover the strengths and weaknesses of their relationship.
  4. Decumbiture which was used hundreds of years ago by physicians and herbalists as a guide to prescribing remedies (useful for historical novelists).
  5. Astrocartography advises on a choice of location, and the experiences we might have there at certain times.

Checklist

Astrology is an excellent tool for writers. Among other things it helps us to

All ‘inner wisdom’ techniques, including Astrology, work in conjunction with our own energies. Your birth-chart, your dreams, your reactions to words, images, people, places, situations are just that – yours. A good astrologer, like a good dream worker or good Tarot consultant, will not ‘tell you what it means’.

He or she will explore the territory with you and facilitate your discovery of what it means to you. A similar journey of discovery is involved when using these techniques to enhance your writing. Some of my students have been concerned that the use of such methods is somehow ‘cheating’. Not so – the wisdom is yours, the journey is yours, the work is yours. In this chapter you have been considering some of the ways in which you can access and make use of your own creative power.

Using these methods, we are reminded that our ‘inner workings’ are reflected in the outside world when we find ourselves drawing the same cards, numbers and symbols again and again during certain periods of our lives, or while engaged with a certain character. Some we might never draw, while a friend seems to draw them constantly. Deep inside we know the answers. These systems act as powerful tools, enabling us to contact that place of knowing for ourselves, for our characters and ultimately – if that is our intention – for our readers.