Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday's Writer's Tip --Plot continued

Finally through all my mail, contest scores in two contests sent off and I'm back to blog posts. This is the final one on Plotting.

I'm into saving plots these days and here's the final segment. These are the things to check.
The Framework - Now those are the five things mentioned in the beginning, the who, what, when, where and why.

Though Motivation is the why of a story, not only your hero and heroine's motives need to be checked but also those of your secondary characters and also yours as the writer. Just what are you trying to bring to light in your story.

The Significant events are important to see if their function works in the story. Sometimes the writer skips over what should be a significant point in the story. Make sure this doesn't happen in yours. Another thing is over-playing the event.

The vital ides is sometimes called the theme. This can be tailored to fit the story.
When I wrote Obsessions when I reached the third draft, I realized not only did the villain have an obsession but so did many of the other characters. I had to go back and strengthen the viewing of these,

These two come together. Action and Reaction. Every time an event occurs, the characters react in a certain way and the action they take is based on their reaction. Happens to us in real life.

Goals are the what but the final goal a character seeks may not be the one he wants at the end of the story. So make sure if the goal has changed the reasons are shown to the reader and that they make sense.

Subplots- Often there are other characters who have events occurring that may mirror those of the main characters or be in opposition to those of the characters. Check these to see that they make sense.

Conflicts are the rocks in the character's paths to reach their goal. There are internal conflicts rising from the character's nature and there are external conflicts. Those are imposed on a character from outside. Conflicts, particularly internal ones are often based on secrets. Check to make sure the main characters have secrets that make sense and those that can't be cleared up by a single sentence of paragraph.

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