Writing From Scratch #7: The Event Plot

Year 5: Surviving, Living, Changing

Surviving #TSS changed me. But one turn that I have never talked about is in my politics.

#WhenIWas is trending today on Twitter, and while that is about sexual assault and harassment, it strikes me as particularly, I don’t know, fateful that it would be today, April 19, 2016.  When I was 21, my world changed.  When I was 21, I died.  And when I was 21, I became alive again.  And everything that happened on April 19, 2011, everything that has happened in the five years since, so much…

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Writing from Scratch #5: The Inquiry Plot

The Inquiry Plot

The problem of an inquiry plot involves a question that needs answering for its solution. The classic is Whodunnit? But any who, what, where, when, why, or how style questions can provide the problem for an inquiry plot. Traditionally, try-fail cycles in an inquiry plot come in the form of following clues which can lead to more clues (or questions) or end up being red-herrings that have caused a set back in solving the riddle.

Let’s look at the classic mystery “A Night of Fright is No Delight,” Scooby Doo! Where Are You? Season 1, episode 16. (I went a little overboard on this one, but it’s just too fun!)

If you haven’t seen this classic episode, then a quick background is that the gang has been invited to spend the night in an allegedly haunted house for the chance to receive a part of an inheritance along with four other possible heirs.

The Question: Who is the Phantom Shadow?

First Clue: Cousin Simple disappears and a message from the Phantom Shadow threatens everyone in the house.

First try: the gang mocks up a fake Scooby in bed to tempt the Phantom Shadow into attacking while Scooby and Shaggy hide outside the bedroom window. Fail: No, the Shadow attacks the real Scooby and Shaggy, and they and Velma get separated from Daphne and Fred in a spooky cave under the house.

Second Clue: Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby find some footprints in the cave.

Second try: they follow the footprints in hopes they will lead to the Phantom Shadow. Fail: No, the footprints lead them to a bunch of Civil War memorabilia, and a flying Confederate uniform starts chasing them.

Third try: when they’re cornered by the flying uniform, Scooby tries to intimidate it. Fail: yes, the goose inside the uniform is intimidated and flies away, but they are no closer to discovering the identity of the Phantom Shadow.

Third Clue: the goose chased them into an elevator, which they take up to Cousin Slicker’s bedroom.

Fourth Clue: all the other potential heirs have gone missing.

Fifth Clue: a creepy organ begins to play

Fourth try: the reunited gang follows the sound of the organ. Fail: Yes, they find the organ, but there is no one playing it anymore.

Sixth Clue: a music book with the words “feed the organ and watch the floor” written on it.

Fifth try: Scooby plays the organ to see if the floor does anything. Fail: No, nothing happens to the floor, and the walls start closing in on the gang.

Sixth try: Scooby plays several combinations of keys to stop the walls. Fail: Yes, the walls stop closing in, but the floor still hasn’t changed.

Seventh try: Per Velma’s insight, Scooby plays the notes F-E-E-D. Fail: Yes, the floor opens, but there is a creepy staircase leading to who knows where

Eighth try: the gang follows the trap door to find out what’s happening. Fail: yes, they find coffins that have the bodies of the potential heirs inside, but two Phantom Shadows corner the gang and Scooby faints

Nineth try: the gang runs away and shenanigans ensue. Fail: Yes, they get away, but they didn’t find out who the two Phantom Shadows are.

Seventh Clue: Shaggy touched one of the Shadows and came away with green paint on his hand.

Tenth try: Fred concocts one of his classic traps and Fred, Velma, and Daphne attempt to lure the Phantoms into it. Fail: Yes, the Phantoms’ appear, but Scooby screws up the trap.

Final try: Scooby and Shaggy make due with the screwed up trap and chase the phantoms. Solution: they finally capture the Phantom Shadows and discover they were the lawyers, Creeps and Crawls.

Prompt: write a flash fiction with an Inquiry in which the plot-problem is the question “who ate the last piece of chocolate cake?” The character, setting, genre, and stakes, as well as what is preventing them from easily answering the question is up to you. This simple plot could be the basis of a picture book or a horror story.

If you want to read more, I have over 80 posts on my website theferalcollection.com

Writing from Scratch #4

The Milieu Plot

The problem of the milieu plot involves a problem of location or setting. The character is often either in a place they need/want to escape from or not in the specific place they need/want to be in. The try-fail cycles will involve traveling away from or to the location. Gulliver’s Travels, The Great Escape, and The Hobbit contain milieu plots.

The Lord of the Rings contains one very large milieu – the problem of getting the One Ring from the Shire where its been hidden for a number of years to Mordor where it can finally be destroyed. We can further break this down into smaller milieu plots. Let’s look at one: the problem of crossing the Misty Mountains. (And we’ll use the events as they occur in the movie, since more people have watched that than read the book)

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Structuring a Series: Part IV

Structuring a Series Part IV: Follow-Up

Welcome back to Structuring a Series! This is mostly a follow-up to the rest of the blog series.  If you haven’t yet read Parts I, II, or III, or familiarized yourselves with Dan Well’s 7 Point Plot Structure, now’s a good time to do it! This installment is for structuring a series that is not a trilogy.  Using this structure is best for series with a serialized structure (or mythology arc)…

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Writing from Scratch #1

Welcome to Writing from Scratch!

I’ve been writing a long time, and sometimes it feels like I lose the trees for the forest. Writing from Scratch is a chance for me (and you!) to get back to the basics of storytelling.

If you’ve never written a story before, if you’ve never felt like you could come up with one that would be worth writing, my hope is that if you follow along with me here, you will have the confidence and know-how to come up with an idea, build it into a story, and share it with the world.

These posts will be little, easy-to-digest nuggets. At the end of every post, look for a prompt and share your response in the comments!

What Is a Story?

A story can be defined by what it contains: at least one plot, character, and setting, and a style through which it is told.

Story Bits

To begin, let’s take a look at the second smallest unit of a story – the sentence. A sentence is a set of words that conveys a complete thought. And communication is fractal, meaning each part shares the same pattern as the whole. A story and its components, therefore, will also convey a Complete Thought.

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by Ashton MV

Writing from Scratch #8: Complex Plots, Part 1

Complex Plots, Part 1: Dependency

Now that we have gone over the four simple plot-problems (1, 2, 3, 4) and how they are solved through try-fail cycles, we’ll take a look at how to make complex, compound, and compound-complex plots through the same devices as sentence creation.

The first way we’ll try complicating a plot is by making the solution of the first noted plot-problem dependent on the solution of a second plot-problem, which stands in for easy solution prevention. We’re typically going to use dependent plots to strengthen audience satisfaction when the character is finally able to succeed. Or, like in the case-study we’ll look at today, they can be used to draw what appeared to be disparate plots together in longer works.

Let’s look at an example from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter Seventeen, “Cat, Rat, and Dog.”

The first plot-problem to arise an Event. Ron has been tackled by a large black dog that has been stalking Harry all school year and dragged underground. Harry succinctly gives the stakes as, “That thing’s big enough to eat him; we haven’t got time.” And what’s preventing them from going directly after Ron to save him is the Whomping Willow, which triggers an Inquiry plot – How does one get past the Whomping Willow to the tunnel?

First Harry tries to dodge through. He’s unable to get to the tunnel entrances and is thrashed by the branches for his trouble.

Then, Crookshanks appears and places his paw on a knot on the Whomping Willow’s trunk, which temporarily stills the whomping. This answers the question, and Harry and Hermione take the opportunity to dash beneath the stilled branches and into the tunnel.

Now, we return to the Event plot; Harry and Hermione will try to reestablish the status quo by rescuing Ron from the dog. If you’ve read the book, you know how that try-fail cycle continues on.

As we begin to add plots together in various ways, it is always important to remember that the plot-solutions should come in reverse order to the introductions of the plot-problems. The first plot problem introduced should be the last one solved (even when they are right on top of each other).

We’re going to continue with writing flash fiction. Using the Eighteen Sentence Story breakdown, we’ll expand just a little out from there. In the two sentences introducing the plot-problem, you’ll create a second plot-problem to prevent the first from being solved easily. Add 5-10 sentences for a try-fail cycle and plot solution to this second plot-problem, and then continue with the 5 sentence try-fail, 5 sentence solution, and 3 sentence wrap-up for the original plot-problem.

Prompt: write a flash fiction with a Milieu plot involving a treasure hunt; complicate the Milieu plot by first requiring an Inquiry plot answering “where” before moving onto the Milieu plot solution.

This was first published in July 2020, and I’ve written much more since on my website theferalcollection.com

Disney Princesses at their Current Ages

Review of The Dresden Files: Peace Talks (spoilers ahead)

This review is gonna be slightly different than my normal reviews as I am the only Paules Sibling of Awesome who reads The Dresden Files, so I have not talked through my thoughts with B beforehand. I also don't see the necessity of providing a rating for a book that is the sixteenth in a series (not counting the short story collections) - clearly I enjoy the books. Spoilers ahead!

So, the peace talks in question went about as disastrously as expected knowing Harry Dresden was involved, but obviously I didn't expect that. Years ago, Jim Butcher promised us an apocalyptic trilogy to end the series (titled Stars and Stones, Hell's Bells, and Empty Night, in case you missed it), but I never figured we'd actually get to a point where that ending seems in sight.

My big fear going into this was that Karrin Murphy would not survive. I was pleased to see that a) she did and b) she was as badass as ever, despite her injuries from Skin Game. Of course, who knows what will happen in Battle Ground, but really my only hope is that Murphy makes it to the end of the series. Just Murphy and Harry at the end of things, just as they were at the beginning.

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How fucking annoying is it when you feel so restless with creative energy but you can’t decide what to do with it and when you finally try to create something it comes out shit so you just give up and sit there being all creatively annoyed and jittery.