User blog:Paperluigi ttyd/The Writing Class, Part 1: Creating a Plot

Hello and welcome to Week 1 of 10 in The Writing Class. Our topic today will be creating plots. I am your teacher, Mr. Paper.

What Defines Plot?
If you look it up in the dictionary, you get the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.. In terms of writing, this is basically what events occur throughout the stories. There are three things that we look at when we groups different works by plot: the type of plot, the plot devices used, and obviously the genre.

Types of Plot
Plot can be very simple or very complex. It can also be somewhat quick, very lengthy, or even unending in some cases. These are just a few things that describe plot.

Plot Devices
Many times, different plot devices are used to enhance how the story is told. Novels are almost always divided up into either chapters or parts. Chapters usually cover one minor event throughout a story. Major events sometimes need multiple chapters to be told. One common ending to a chapter, or even sometimes a book, is the cliffhanger. This is generally an easy device to use, but you don't want overuse it. Use it only when there is a lack of other devices at that point in the story.

Another common plot device is the foreshadowing of other events through the use of anecdotes, which will be covered more during Week 5 of this class. Foreshadowing is when something within the story could possibly allow the reader to predict how the story will end. If the ending is either very unpredictable or the opposite of what you would expect, then the ending is said to be ironic. This stems from another common plot device irony.

Lastly, plot devices can be character specific. A character's own actions may influence the story or enhance how the story is told, especially when considering the absolute most important plot device, point of view, which will be covered in Week 7 of this class.

Forming a Plot
''So far to this point, the topics covered are general to any work of writing. For the sake of length, I will only be focusing on short, somewhat simple plots.''

In order to have a simple plot, the author must start out simple and eventually build on piece after piece until they combine into one. The pieces should fit together easily and shouldn't leave the readers/viewers thinking ''What did happen? That doesn't make any sense.'' If you are making a more complex plot, then the pieces may not all be there, may not fit together, and are generally longer, giving the reader/viewer more time to figure it our for themselves.

Say you think you have the best idea in your head. It's been forming in your head for a few days and you finally decide to write it down. In your head, it looks like an epic, 800 page novel or 3 hours long movie, but once you write it down, it looks like this:

An alien beast attacks Earth and there is a big battle. The alien beast eventually dies.

There! You have your entire story! Well, it's a start. At the start of every story, the main characters are introduced, often followed by a separate scene introducing the villain. Then we have the Initial Conflict, which starts the A Story of the book. The A Story is most important and is often connected to an overarching plot. The most important sub-story is called the B Story. For example... the B Story of your idea might look like...

People need to be evacuated due to the alien beast, but not everyone gets out in time...

Not only does this make sense, but it adds another layer to the plot. But your story is still a measly 3 sentences. Starting out simple, you may want to add a paragraph for each. In the first paragraph, you can describe the setting and character. At the end the alien could arrive and begin its attack. The second paragraph could focus on evacuations and the fight against the alien. In the last paragraph, the alien could be defeated and the character could talk about how successful they were. 3 paragraphs is better than 3 sentences, but we're not even close.

The number one rule of writing: include any and all important details. While you want your story to have good length, you don't want it to be as long as the UN Charter. Give a brief description of characters at the beginning and even briefer after every major change. Same with characters. Any detail that has to do directly with the plot should be focused on more, but there is a thing as too much description. Limit your descriptions to be 15 percent of your work. For the other 85 percent, you want about 20 percent action, 60 percent plot, and 5 percent other stuff, such as humorous scenes. In terms of length, the beginning, or exposition, should be 10%, the rising action 60%, the climax 5%, the falling action 15%, and the ending, or resolution, 10%.

Summary

 * Plot devices are important, as are types of plot and parts of plot
 * Ideas are not as important as execution. A terrible idea that is well executed is better than the best ideas with written horribly.
 * The harder your work, the better your work will be. That doesn't mean you have to spend as long on the exposition as Nelson Mandela spent in jail.
 * Don't abuse cliffhangers
 * Have fun and put some creative humor into your work. No one wants to read a boring story with absolutely no humor in it.

Stay tuned next week for Week 2: Quick Write, with Sci.

--Paper Out!