So...writing essay

[kippurbird]

Of course, anything I say here is purely my opinion on what I think I should be done. You don't have to take my advice at all and you're free to disagree with me on any or all points.



Character, Plot, and Story



Plot and character are intricately entwined. You can't have one without the other. Character informs plot and plot informs character and together they create the story. Plot, for definition and clarity's sake is the series of events that happen in a story, usually told in a liner fashion. Characters are the people to whom the events of the plot happen to. And story is how the events are told, not necessarily in a liner fashion.

Every character has a plot, a series of events that brought them to the place where they enter the story. They don't just appear at the beginning of the story a complete and utter blank slate and disappear at the end off into limbo. They were somewhere else doing other things before the story starts and they'll be doing things afterwards. The beginning of the story is just a point right before something dramatic and life changing happens. But since a person has many dramatic events in their life (even if they don't seem dramatic in large world changing events) it could be considered that the story is starting at a random point in their life. At least to the character involved. It's rather like being a fly on the wall, watching the character.

Because the character has a history, they will react to the events -the plot points- that are placed in front of them in a certain way, based on their experience and the situation around them. And this is how they drive the plot. They make choices and chose to react in away that will cause something else to happen, thus driving events and the plot forward.

Plot needs character because plot is what happens to the characters. It's the first love, that horrible dentist visit when they were fifteen and learned they needed braces. You can have the event, "falling in love the first time" but if they're no characters then nothing happens. Two tables can't fall in love with each other (unless they're sentient tables... but that's another story all together). Events make the character as well. Alec's twin sister, Laruna, is claustrophobic. When she was fifteen she was trapped in the rumble of a building with no way out with a man who was pinned in the rubble. If that hadn't happen to her, she wouldn't have become claustrophobic. Thus the event causes character. After all claustrophobia is a very important character trait, and later on in a story, if Laruna is faced with something that will trigger the phobia we have conflict (which is something that will be discussed later) but it will also inform how a certain event will play out. Which will then inform how other events will happen.

Since character and plot are intricately entwined, if something is wrong with one, it will effect the other. The actions of the characters will seem false if they don't react in a way that is true to their past. And the events of the plot will not work or move smoothly if the characters aren't allowed to react as their past demands. IE. It wouldn't make sense for Laruna to go easily into a small confined space and her reactions will no longer be in character, because she deviated so badly at that one event.

Sometimes, an event may be planed in the original notes of the story, but it will have to be modified when you actually get to that one point in the story, because of previous events that happened in the story. Things that you learned about the characters from writing the story will inform you that perhaps your original idea may not be the best course of action.

When plotting out a story, usually I have the beginning and an end point in mind as well as several major events. The end point may not be the actual end scene, but the closest point I have to it. I know where I start and where I want to end up, as well as the major points in the story that I want to hit. But I recognize the fact that the major events may not happen as I plan them as I get to know the characters better. Or the events may happen, but not in the way I originally planed. The important thing is to be flexible and allow the story flow as the characters and plot entwine.



So... what did you think? Helpful?

Comments

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Definitely a good start if you intend to do more essays. Wonderfully solid advice. :)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

So it makes sense then? I've not done something like this before, so I'm not sure it makes sense.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

It makes sense, yeah, but you might want to be a bit clearer that character plot/story is not necessarilythe plot/story of the book/novel. And that all the details of the character plot/story don't have to be spelled out in total detail.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I'll be getting to that in a latter thingy. But I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

[karma-kalisutah.livejournal.com]

Well, it's clear enough, but it's all really elemetary. There's nothing particularly insightful. I think that most of the people who read your journal already know this.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hate to say it but that was nothing really new to me. Not a bad essay but nothing new. ^_^;

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

When plotting out a story, usually I have the beginning and an end point in mind as well as several major events. The end point may not be the actual end scene, but the closest point I have to it. I know where I start and where I want to end up, as well as the major points in the story that I want to hit.

This is one problem that I tend to have. I have trouble figuring out what my ending should be. And in one rare instance, I figured out roughly what the end should be but then I couldn't figure out what the beginning scene should have been (though at least with that beginning I had some ideas, I just didn't think they were working out very well.)

I usually have no problem figuring out what happens in the points between (even with revisions, I can almost always figure out what I need to drop and change.) And I find it easy to tighten my middle and make it interesting. I think, perhaps, the problem is that my characters will tell me what should happen everywhere else. But they have no idea how to resolve the things I throw at them or that they get themselves into. :I

[chem-nerd.livejournal.com]

I actually found that really helpful. Most of my characters are RP, not story, so I have minimal control over the plot. I'm still feeling out everyone's backstory to determine why they react to things the way they do. T'Selara's obsession with being in her lab all the time, for instance, results from one time when she left on time, and some tech came in alone and made a careless mistake, triggering a fatal explosion. She (illogically, and she knows this) blamed herself; if she had stayed late like she usually did, Eric wouldn't have been alone, and she would have caught his mistake before he discovered just how exothermic a Grignard reaction can be. Consequently, two years later, anytime things on the ship get really stressfull, T'Selara tends to start pretty much living in the lab. Or she did, anyway, before she got in trouble with the captain over the matter.