Ahad, 15 Mac 2009

Twenty Basic Plots


Masa Anugerah Skrin 2008 yang lepas, tahniah kpd yang menang.

Twenty Basic Plots

IDEAS, PLOTS & USING THE PREMISE SHEETS
After you generate ideas, the next step is to put them in some recognizable story form (the basic plot idea), build your central conflict (the story premise sheet), then build your character and underlying themes (the thematic premise sheet. #1 QUEST - the plot involves the Protagonist's search for a person, place or thing, tangible or intangible (but must be quantifiable, so think of this as a noun; i.e., immortality).

#2 ADVENTURE - this plot involves the Protagonist going in search of their fortune, and since fortune is never found at home, the Protagonist goes to search for it somewhere over the rainbow.
The difference is that in the quest, we are watching a person making a journey; in the adventure, our attention is on the journey. Exotic, strange, dangerous, new! A venture into the unknown, a look at the unexpected or unusual...

#3 PURSUIT - this plot literally involves hide-and-seek, one person chasing another.
The basic premise of the plot is simple: One person chases another. All you need is a cast of two: the pursuer and the pursued.Since this is a physical plot, the chase is more important than the people who take part in it

#4 RESCUE - this plot involves the Protagonist searching for someone or something, usually consisting of three main characters - the Protagonist, the Victim & the Antagonist.
The rescue plot is perhaps more formulaic than most of the other plots. It has standard characters and situations. But don't underestimate its immense appeal. Like the revenge and temptation plots, it is one of the most satisfying emotionally. It confirms the moral order of the universe by overcoming evil; it restores order in a
chaotic world; and it reaffirms the power of love

#5 ESCAPE - plot involves a Protagonist confined against their will who wants to escape (does not include some one trying to escape their personal demons). Escape plots tend to revolve around unfair imprisonment (the innocent imprisoned for a crime they did not commit; prisoners in war; witch, ogre, or other evil creatures seem to love to imprison hero(in)es), but it doesn't have to--sometimes it is a test of wills between two strong personalities--the gaoler and the jailee.

The escape plot is physical, and as such, concentrates its energy on the mechanics of capture and escape. ... Escape in this plot is literal: The protagonist is confined against her will and wants to escape.

#6 REVENGE - retaliation by Protagonist or Antagonist against the other for real or imagined injury. In literature the dominant motive for this plot is loud and clear: retaliation by the protagonist against the antagonist for realor imagined injury. It's a visceral plot, which means it reaches us at a deep emotional level. We bristle against injustice and we want to see it corrected. And almost always, the retaliation is outside the limits of the law At the heart of the story is the protagonist, who is generally a good person forced to take vengeance into her own hands when the lawwon't give satisfaction. Then there's the antagonist, the person who has committed the crime, who for some quirk in the natural progress of events has escaped punishment for his crime. Last, there's the victim,the person whom the protagonist must avenge. As a character, the victim obviously is expendable; his purpose is to arouse our sympathies, for him and for the protagonist (who has been denied love, companionship orthe like). Sometimes the victim is the protagonist himself. The more heinous the crime (rape, murder, incest), the more the protagonist is justified in seeking vengeance



#7 THE RIDDLE - plot involves the Protagonist's search for clues to find the hidden meaning of something in question that is deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous. A riddle is a deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question." The answer should have both surprise and cleverness. This has evolved into the mystery. "A challenge to the reader to solve the problem.

Your mystery should have at its heart a paradox that begs a solution. The plot itself is physical, because it focuses on events (who, what, where, when, and why) that must be evaluated and interpreted (the same as the riddle must be interpreted). Things are not what they seem on the surface. Clues lie within the words. The answer is not obvious (which wouldn't satisfy), but the answer _is_ there. And in the best tradition of the mystery, the answer is in plain view
Clues! Not too obvious, and ambigious ones do well...avoid the red herrings, the clues that don't add up, the throw-away clues...work on clues that must be understood _correctly_. Give the reader a chance.

#8 RIVALRY - plot involves Protagonist competing for same object or goal as another person (their rival).
A principle rule of this plot is that the two adversaries should have equivalent strengths.
May be the classic struggle between good and evil, or both parties may be deserving. "The tension comes from their opposition. Whether it's a pitcher facing a batter or two politicians squaring off to run foroffice, two people cannot occupy the same space. One must win, one must lose



#9 UNDERDOG - plot involves a Protagonist competing for an object or goal that is at a great disadvantage and is faced with overwhelming odds.
In the underdog plot, the strengths aren't equally matched. The protagonist is at a disadvantage and is faced with overwhelming odds
This plot is near and dear to our hearts because it represents the ability of the one over the many, the small over the large, the weak over the powerful, the 'stupid' over the 'smart.

#10 TEMPTATION - plot involves a Protagonist that for one reason or another is induced or persuaded to do something that is unwise, wrong or immoral. To be tempted is to be induced or persuaded to do something that is either unwise, wrong or immoral
There are those of us who sometimes are attracted by things which we probably shouldn't indulge in, whether they are strictly illegal or just undesirable...yes,it is true, some of us feel tempted.

#11 METAMORPHOSIS - this plot involves the physical characteristics of the Protagonist actually changing from one form to another (reflecting their inner psychological identity). If any one plot is truly magical, metamorphosis is it. Most of the master plots are grounded in reality: They deal with situations and people whom we readily recognize because they're based in ourexperience. Even good science fiction and fantasy stories are ultimately as real in their portrayal of people and events as anything by Henry James or Jane Austen. Science Fiction author Theodore Sturgeonpointed out that a good science fiction story deals with a _human_problem and a _human_ solution. Fiction, whether it happens in Middle Earth or in a galaxy far, far away, is always about _us._ Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures
In the metamorphosis plot, the physical characteristics of the protagonist actually change from one form to another. ..." animal to human, human to beast, etc. with change that is physical and emotional. metaphor, allegory, and mixes...wolfman, vampire, beauty and the beast,etc.

Checklist


1) Is your metamorphosis the result of a curse?


2) Is the cure for the curse love?


3) Which form of love? Love of parent for child, lovers,teacher-student, love of God, etc.?


4) Is your protagonist the metamorph?


5) Does your plot show the process of transformation back to humanity?


6) Does your story show us the nature of the metamorph, emphasizing the character over the actions?


7) Is your metamorph an innately sad character?


8) Is your metamorph's life bound by rituals and prohibitions?


9) Does your metamorph want to find a way out?


10) Do you identify a way out of the predicament, a form of release?


11) Does the antagonist carry out the terms of the release?


12) Why is your protagonist barred from hurrying or explaining the events or actions which the antagonist must perform to reverse the curse? (psssst...put your protagonist to sleep, don't let them talk, do something to keep them quiet)


13) Does your first phase show the metamorph in the midst of the curse?


14) Is the beginning of the story a reasonable point leading to the resolution of the curse?


15) Does your antagonist act as the catalyst that forces the protagonist toward release?


16) Does your antagonist start as one of the intended victims and then end as the 'chosen one'?


17) Does your second phase concentrate and reveal the evolving relationship of the two?


18) Do your characters move towards each other emotionally?


19) Does your third phase fulfill the terms of the release, freeing the protagonist from the curse, either returning him to his original state or killing him?


20) Does the reader learn the reasons for the curse and the root causes?



#12 TRANSFORMATION - plot involves the process of change in the Protagonist as they journey through a stage of life that moves them from one significant character state to another. Some "standard" points of change: becoming adult; war and combat; search for identity; divorce and other family shifts; facing violence; deaths; and learning something new (remember Pygmalion?).

Checklist:


1) Does your plot of transformation deal with the process of change as the protagonist journeys through one of the many stages of life?


2) Does the plot isolate a portion of the protagonist's life that represents the period of change, moving from one significant character state to another?


3) Does the story concentrate on the nature of change and how it affects the protagonist from start to end of the experience?


4) Does the first dramatic phase relate the transforming incident that propels the protagonist into a crisis, starting the process of change?


5) Does the second dramatic phase depict the effects of the


6) transformation? Does it concentrate on the self-examination and character of the protagonist?


7) Does the third dramatic phase contain a clarifying incident representing the final stage of the transformation? Does the character understand the true nature of the experience and how it has affected him? Does true growth and understanding occur?


8) What is the price of the wisdom gained? A certain sadness?

#13 MATURATION - plot involves the Protagonist facing a problem that is part of growing up, and from dealing with it, emerging into a state of adulthood (going from innocence to experience). The maturation plot--the plot about growing up--is one of those strongly optimistic plots. There are lessons to learn, and thoselessons may be difficult, but in the end the character becomes (or will become) a better person for it



The protagonist of the maturation plot is usually a sympathetic young person whose goals are either confused or not yetquite formed. He floats on the sea of life without a rudder. He often vacillates, unsure of the proper path to take, the proper decision to make. These inabilities are usually the result of a lack of experience
in life--naivete...



This coming-of-age story is often called the _Bildungsroman_, which is German for 'education novel.' The focus of these stories is the protagonist's moral and psychological growth. Start your story wherethe protagonist has reached the point in her life at which she can be tested as an adult. She may be ready for the test, or she may be forced into it by circumstances.



Checklist:


1) Is your protagonist on the cusp of adulthood, with goals that are confused or not yet clear?


2) Does your story clearly show the readers who the character is and how s/he feels and thinks before the event occurs that begins the process of change?


3) Does your story contrast the protagonist's naive life (childhood) to


4) the reality of an unprotected life (adulthood)?


5) Does your story focus on showing the protagonist's moral and psychological growth?


6) Does the "precipitating event" clearly challenge the beliefs and understanding of the world that you have shown?


7) "Does your character reject or accept change? Perhaps both? Does she resist the lesson? How does she act?"


8) Does your story show your protagonist undergoing the process of change? Is the change realistically gradual and difficult?


9) Is your young protagonist convincing? Does she display adult values and perceptions before she has developed them?


10) Does your story try to convert someone to "instant adulthood"? Or does it use small lessons and major upheavals to reflect the long process of growing up?


11) Does your story accurately show the psychological price that this lesson demands, and how your protagonist copes with that cost?

#14 LOVE - plot involves the Protagonist overcoming the obstacles to love that keeps them from consummating (engaging in) true love.




1) Lovers Found. Present the two main characters and establish the relationship. Deep love, marriage...and disaster strikes. Kidnapping, parental moves, ex-spice, war, disease, accident, the flying fickle


2) finger of fate...


3) Lovers split. One (or both) of the two tries to find/rescue/reunite/rekindle. Usually one is active, while the other is


4) relatively passive. Setbacks, complications, and troubles ensure that the situation gets worse, not better.


5) Lovers reunited! Somehow, someway, when you least expect it—Candid Camera will bring them together! "Opportunity presents itself to the diligent, and the active lover finally finds an opening that allows her either to overcome the antagonist or [overcome] the preventative force..."



6) Checklist:


1. Do you meet the prospect of love with a major obstacle, so that while your characters obviously want it, they can't have it.


2. Do your lovers have the obstacle of being ill-met? E.g., from different social classes, backgrounds, physically mismatched?


3. Do you thwart the first attempt to solve the obstacle? Do you make sure that success doesn't come easily, and that the only way to love is dedication and persistence?


4. Do you show us that one lover is more aggressive than the other, and provide us with good reasons for the difference?


5. Did you force a happy ending when your story really is sad?


6. Did you make your main characters appealing, convincing, real people? Are their personalities and their situation unique and interesting? Do you really feel for your characters?


7. Do you develop a full range of feelings and emotions in your story? Don't focus just on the positive feelings--use some dark to bring out the light of your story.


8. Do you understand the role of sentiment and sentimentality in your story and use the right mix for the market you are aiming at?


9. "Take your lovers through the full ordeal of love. Make sure they are tested (individually and collectively) and that they finally deserve the love they seek. Love is earned; it is not a gift. Love untested is




7) not true love."

#15 FORBIDDEN LOVE - plot involves Protagonist(s) overcoming obstacles created by social mores and taboos to consummate their relationship (and sometimes finding it at too high a price to live with).




1. Social separation -- family? position? class?


2. Religious differences


3. Racial differences


4. Adultery


5. Homosexual
two lovers with feuding families... teacher and student... the ugly or grotesque and the beauty... Adultery is the most common form of "forbidden love."


Checklist:


1. Does the love go against conventions of society? Which ones? What are the explicit or implicit forces that will be exerted on the lovers?


2. Do your lovers ignore or flout social convention and follow the dictates of their hearts? Are the results disastrous?


3. Are you writing about adultery? Is the adulterer the protagonist or antagonist? What about the offended spouse?


4. Does your first dramatic phase define the relationship between the lovers and frame it in its social context? Do you clearly show the taboos that they have broken? Do they have trouble accepting that they have broken the taboos? How do people around them react to the broken taboos? Are the lovers trying to ignore the problems or are theydealing with the reality of their situation?


5. Does the second phase clearly show the development of the relationship? Do you show the love, and the social/psychological pressures? Is there dissolution, denial, or what?


6. Does your third phase bring the lovers to the end of their relationship and play out the moral imperatives? Do you separate (andpunish) your lovers through death, force, desertion, etc.?

#16 SACRIFICE - plot involves the Protagonist taking action(s) that is motivated by a higher purpose (concept) such as love, honor, charity or for the sake of humanity.


1. Fulfilling a duty


2. Seeking to protect another


3. Wanting to be the best


4. Gaining redemption


5. Paying a debt


6. Gaining power

Checklist:


1. Does your story show the great personal cost of the sacrifice? Is your protagonist playing for high stakes, either physical or mental?


2. Does your protagonist undergo a major transformation during the course of the story, moving from a lower moral state to a higher one?


3. Do the events force the protagonist to make a decision?


4. Is there an adequate foundation of character so that the reader understands his progress on the path to making the sacrifice?


5. Do all events in the story reflect the main character? Do they test and develop character?


6. Does the story show clearly the motivation of your protagonist so that the reader understands why he would make that kind of sacrifice?


7. Does the line of action show through the line of your character's thought?


8. Does the story have a strong moral dilemma at its center?

#17 DISCOVERY - plot that is the most character-centered of all, involves the Protagonist having to overcome an upheavel(s) in their life, and thereby discovering something important (and buried) within them a better understanding of life (i.e., better appreciation of their life, a clearer purpose in their life, etc.)




Checklist:


1. Does your story focus on the character making the discovery, not the discovery itself? Does it show understanding of human nature?


2. Does your plot give us an understanding of who the main character(s)are _before_ circumstances change and force the character into new situations?


3. Does your story start as late as possible, with the character on the very cusp of change?


4. Is the catalyst that forces the change significant and interesting enough to hold the reader's attention?


5. Does your story move the character into crisis (the clash between the new and the old) as quickly as possible?


6. Does your story maintain a sense of proportion? Are action and emotion balanced and believable? Are the "revelations" of the character in proportion with the events?


7. Do you exaggerate emotions or actions to "force" emotions from the character? Avoid this melodramatic lure...


8. Do you preach or force the character to carry messages for you, the author? Or do you let the characters and their ircumstances show the reader whatever they will, with the readers drawing their own conclusions about the story? (My gloss: could you imagine several readers having a long discussion about the "moral" of your story, eachasserting what they got--and none quite sure that the others weren't just as accurate?)

#18 WRETCHED EXCESS - plot involves a Protagonist who, either by choice or by accident, pushes the limits of acceptable behavior to the extreme and is forced to deal with the consequences (generally deals with the psychological decline of the character). The wretched excess plot is about people who have lost the veneer of civilization either because they are mentally unbalanced orbecause they have been trapped by circumstances that made them behave differently than they would under 'normal' circumstances
The scary thing about wretched excess is that it can happen to anyone under any circumstances. It doesn't just happen to people who are on the edge; it can happen suddenly to people who seem to be the rock of respectability. It doesn't really take much to unravel someone.



Checklist:


1. Does your story show us the psychological decline of a character?


2. Is the decline of the character firmly based on a character flaw? What is it?


3. Does the story show the three phases of the decline: before events force a change; during successive deterioration; and at/after the crisis, with the flaw overcoming (in tragedy) or with heroic recovery?


4. Do you develop the character fully enough so that the decline evokes sympathy? Do you let the reader know what the character really feels, giving us enough information early enough?


5. Have you spent extra effort on developing the character, making sure that he will be real to the reader and worthy of their feelings for him?


6. Do you avoid melodrama? Make sure the emotion(s) you are trying to evoke are matched to the scene.


7. Are you straightforward with information that allows the reader to understand your main character? Did you hide something that would help your reader empathize with the character?


8. Have you scaled the crimes to match the reader's understanding of who and what the main character is?


9. Does your crisis get resolved? Does the character move toward complete destruction or redemption?


10. Does the action in the plot relate directly to character? Do "things happen _because_ your main character does (or does not) do certain things"?


11. Do you understand (through personal experience or research) the excess you are writing about? Make sure that what you show the character doing is realistic for someone suffering from this excess or madness.

#19 ASCENSION - rags-to-riches plot deals with the rise (success) of Protagonist due to a dominating character trait that helps them to succeed.



#20 DECENSION - riches-to-rags plot deals with the fall (destruction) of Protagonist due to dominating character trait that eventually destroys their success. (Note: Sometimes #19 & #20 are combined into rags-to-riches-to-rags (or vice versa) of a Protagonist who does (or doesn't) learn to deal with their dominating character trait.) Real_ drama, they've been telling us, is a story about a person who falls from a high place because of a tragic flaw in character. These days there aren't a lot of kings and queens to choose from, but still we have a fascination for stories about people who fall from high places." We have an equal fascination with people who rise from humble beginnings to great prominence, the so-called rags-to-richesscenario...


Checklist:


1. Is the focus of the story about a single character?


2. Is the character strong-willed, charismatic and seemingly unique?


3. Do the other characters "revolve" around this one?


4. Is there a moral dilemma at the heart of your story? Does the dilemma test the character of your protagonist/antagonist, and is it the foundation for the catalyst of change in their character?


5. Are character and events closely related in your story? Does the main character make things happen? Is she the force that drives events, instead of being driven? (There may be events that affect the main character, but the main focus must be on how the character acts upon the world)


6. Does your story show your character as she was _before_ the major change that alters her life? Do you show us bases for comparison?


7. Does the story show the character progressing through changes as theresult of events? Do you show us the character suffering horrible circumstances, and then overcoming those circumstances--and show us how that looks? Do you show us various states of the character, withmotivations and intents?


8. Does your story show us that reasons for a fall are the result of the character, not gratuitous? And if the character overcomesadversity, make sure you provided solid character-based background for that ability...


9. Do you have some variations in the rise or fall? Vary the tempo, do two steps forward and one back, then one down and two up...keep the reader guessing!


10. Does your story focus on the main character? Do all the events andcharacters relate to the main character? Do you show us that main character before, during, and after the change?


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