- The way a story is told is the responsibility of the author.
- One parameter is how directly the story is told (ranging between too straight to the point or too purple prose).
- Another is pacing, how the story beats are laid out in a logical, engaging, and refreshing manner.
- The plot structure should suit the emotion you want to convey.
The Classic
- All stories follow a Quest described as such (see McKee Ch. 8)
For better or worse, an event throws a character’s life out of balance, arousing in him the conscious and/or unconscious desire for that which he feels will restore balance, launching him on a Quest for his Object of Desire against forces of antagonism. He may or may not achieve it.
- Start with a hook to draw the reader in. Justify why the reader should continue reading.
- Then introduce the goal, the conflict, and how the characters address these. Show the reader progress or incite tension. Importantly, make sure actions happen in a logical fashion, and make the readers care about this progress by caring about the characters.
- Build towards a climax where the characters appear to fail or succeed.
- Then tie it all up with a resolution to conclude everything.
Sanderson’s Approach
- Begin with a promise to set the tone, characterizations, potential conflict and overall premise of the story to the audience.
- Set promises in an interesting way by inverting existing, conventional promises and plot structures (see more on tropes). But more importantly, set the promise with interesting characters and setting.
- The goodness of a promise is in part attributable to taste, and in part attributable to the skill of the writer.
- Show the reader the progress the characters take towards the plot.
- This is the meat of the story. Always give the reader a sense of progress in line with what was promised.
- Boring stories are those where the progress towards the goal is not felt at all.
- Finally, show the payoff the characters receive after going through the plot.
- Plot archetypes evoke emotions; Plot structure refers to how the plot is told. Generally, structure implies rigidity.
- Outline the type of story / stories that will be told. Focus on promise, progress, and payoff
Hero’s Journey
Act 1: Departure
- Call To Adventure - The hero begins in a situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.
- Refusal of the Call - Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it due to personal reasons.
- Supernatural Aid - A magical mentor figure gives them the tools and inspiration they need to accept the call to adventure.
- Crossing of the First Threshold - The hero embarks on their adventure and ventures into the Unknown.
- Belly of the Whale - represents the final separation from the hero’s known world and Self. The hero shows a willingness to undergo a metamorphosis (symbolic death and rebirth). Often at this stage they encounter a minor setback.
Act 2: Initiation
- The road of trials - the series of tests that the hero must undergo to begin their transformation (usually in threes).
- Meeting with the goddess - the hero gains items that will help him in the future.
- Woman as temptress - the hero faces temptations that may lead them to abandon or stray from their quest.
- Atonement with the father - the hero must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in their life. Usually, they also confront the reason for their journey.
- Apotheosis - the point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved. Armed with this new knowledge and perception, the hero is resolved and ready for the more difficult part of the adventure.
- The ultimate boon - the achievement of the goal of the quest, fulfilling the call to adventure.
Act 3: Return
- Refusal of the Return - having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto their fellow beings
- The Magic Flight - Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon if it is something others wish to reclaim. This is just as dangerous as the quest itself.
- Rescue from Without - the hero meets a guide to bring them back to everyday life, especially if they have been weakened by the experience.
- The Crossing of the Return Threshold - the goal of the return is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest and to integrate it into the Ordinary, Known world.
- Master of the Two World - the hero balances between who he was before the journey and who he is now. That is, balancing the Material World with Spiritual Enlightenment.
- Freedom to Live - mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. The hero is at peace, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
MICE Framework
- Milieu Story - the focus is on the place or setting. The conflict is on how the character survives in this setting
- Inquiry Story - begin with a question posed by the character, and end with the character answering this question. The conflict is on how the character arrives at the conclusion.
- Character Story - driven by a shift in the perceived identity of the character and end with the character’s identity solidifying. The struggle is on how this internal character change comes about or is prevented.
- Event Story - begin with the introduction of a new status quo due to an external threat or event, and end with the resolution of this event. The struggle is disrupting the status quo further.
- Resolve the stories in the reverse order that they were introduced (i.e., start M, start I, end I, end M).
- The rationale for this is that (1) it will fill weird for the audience to close something so abruptly and (2), since the order in which the stories are introduced is reflective of their importance, we want to spend time on the important, core stories so they must span the longest time in the storyline.
- Rule of thumb. The number of words needed for a story, given
characters, scenes, and mice threads is
Kishotenketsu
- See here
- Involves four phases
- Ki - an introduction to the characters and setting that is required to understand the plot.
- Sho - development that leads towards the twist. No major changes.
- Ten - the story turns toward an unexpected development. The biggest twist.
- Ketsu - ending that wraps up the story.
Other Rules of Thumb
- The TFC — Try Fail Cycle - for conflicts, show what the characters are trying to do and why that didn’t work. Imply they have gone through TFCs in the past.
- The Yes But / No And approach - for conflicts, there are two approaches:
- Yes But - the character does succeed but a new problem arises.
- No And - the character fails and is driven further away from resolving the conflict.
- This avoids phrasing the story as “This happens AND this happens AND this happens etc…”
- The Yes And / No But approach - for resolutions there are two approaches
- Yes And - the character succeeds in resolving the conflict, and the character moves towards the goal.
- No But - the character fails in resolving the conflict, but the character still moves towards the goal.