Plotter or panster – and is it ever really than simple?

 

 I’m probably right in the middle on this one. I do plan – in detail. I’m a fan of McKee’s story theory:

• Hook / inciting incident
• Growing complexities
• Crisis point
• Climax
• Resolution

I’m also aware of the three act structure and that sometimes elusive mid-point. I take suggestions from Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey and Jospeh Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces. I usually know which of Christophe Booker’s seven basic stories I’m dealing with. For my current work in progress, I’ve even mapped out all my subplots and which chapter deals with which one. And I know to make sure there is a cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter.  

People ask should a story be plot or character driven. I think it has to be both. Indeed the plot comes out of the tension between the characters. Before I start writing, even before I start planning, I spend a long time with my main characters. What are they like physically? Intellectually? Emotionally? What is their personality like? What is their greatest fear and what is their greatest wish? What do they want and what do they need? I also give some thought to the setting which I find as important as characters and plot. All of this I do when I sit in a café on my own. Ah, will those days be with us again soon?  And when all of this is complete, still in that café situation, I being to shape the plot. When I start to write, it’s all there ready. I don’t have to stop to think too much.

Even when I edit I look back to these ideas of Booker, Campbell, McKee and Vogler, to see if something needs sharpening. If something’s not working it’s often because one of the patterns isn’t established. I guess we have to use those patterns because everyone is familiar with them. Not that it has to be too exact.  It always works a lot better if it’s skewed a little.

And yet.  In my current a work, as early as the third chapter, in walks a character I’d never thought of. Despite all of the planning, huge sections of the story come from nowhere and characters don’t always do what I’d expect them to.

I suspect planners temper their work with some panstering and pansters do a little planning despite themselves.

In the end, though, what really matters is a good story.     

Image by free stock photos from www.picjumbo.com from Pixabay 

     

  

Story Theory

I work with story theory a lot. I’m a planner and I establish the spine of the story before I start writing. I instil ideas about how stories work in my students on two of the modules I teach – Intro to Children’s Literature and Writing Novels for Young Adults. I also use it as an editing tool.  If a story isn’t working what’s missing? What isn’t strong enough? 

Many writers say that their stories come from the conflicts between characters. This is where I start anyway. I establish four basic characters: the hero, the friend, the mentor and the enemy. Only the hero has to be a sentient being. The enemy, for example, could be a set of circumstances. The mentor might be a computer programme. I put these elements together and see what happens. I can then get the two line description of my story: Cinders’ life is transformed when she meets the prince, they fall in love and he marries her.

I then flesh it out, along the lines of Robert McKee’s Story:

1.                  hook

2.                  3 or more incidents

3.                  crisis

climax (this is the gap between the crisis and the resolution) 

4.                  resolution

5.                  stasis

I recommend reading the whole book and then going back and reading Chapter 14. 

I’m also quite keen on three other story theories – those of Joseph Campbell, Vladimir Propp and Christopher Vogler. Vogler has in effect adapted Campbell’s ideas for the film industry. Vogler says that it works better if it is slightly skewed.  

Andrew Melrose brings us the idea of plot pyramids and tells us of the relationship between plot and sub-plot.  I’ve refined that even more and suggested that sub-plots are not separate plots but part of the main plot. All plots resolve at the same moment.  Melrose talks of an “Aha moment”.  The prince tries the shoe on Cinders’ foot. Will it fit?  

Christopher Booker tells us that there are only seven stories:

• Overcoming the Monster
• Rags to Riches
• The Quest
• Voyage and Return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

.                        

I find it useful to decide which mine is and look at that particular shape. Do I have it there? Booker also offers us an overarching shape:

• Initial phase
• Opening out
• Severe – constriction
• Dark power dominant
• Reversal and liberation

  (Note that this is in fact very similar to McKee’s story theory and to what I call the Canpbell, Propp, Vogler amalgamated theory)      

Then we have more from the film industry:

• The three act structure
• Beat sheets

Even “pansters” – those who don’t plan in advance – might find all this useful as an editing tool.

I recently attend a SCBWI NW meeting and we worked with Vogler’s theory. Even though I’ve worked with this material for years, I had a few new ideas. 

I’ve frequently noticed as an editor and as an academic who marks hundreds of scripts that stories often fail between the crisis point and resolution. We sometimes get melodrama, a damp squib or a deus ex machina.  

Suddenly, though, the other week I saw it. The Ordeal in Vogler’s theory is our crisis point. He then gives us several extra steps to take before the story resolves. And didn’t I then go and see all of this in the BBC’s production of The Worst Witch?

My Intro to Children’s Literature students will be submitting their second assignment soon. They’ll either be producing a story or analysing one critically. Later today I’ll be working on a spread sheet for them that aligns all of these theories. I’ll also make to available to my followers here. Watch this space.   

Meanwhile, recommended reading:                       

Writing Novels for Young People

I really enjoyed my session yesterday with this group. They are a Level 6 (second year) group of very motivated students. We are in our second week. Last week’s task was to create two characters, one of them the main character of the proposed novel and one of them the friend, the mentor or the enemy. They have to really know their characters well – physically, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and they must also know the motivation that this character has in the story they have created. I was pleased that although not all that many students had written their scene, they had given considerable thought to the characters they had created. There was also some discussion about the characters needing to be rounded. Rounded and whole.
We then looked at several story theories. The first thing they need to do is put their story into a sentence – two lines maximum. Then they need to give their story a shape. The Robert McKee structure is a good starter: inciting incident, growing complexities, crisis, climax, reversal resolution (epilogue). Then they can look at other complexities- Freytag’s or Melrose’s, or my own plot pyramid. There are also the various hero’s journey theories Joseph Campbell, Vladimir Propp and Christopher Vogler. Add in also a handful of Jungian archetypes.
We discussed the character and the plot shapes in their set books.
They’ve been sent away to write their opening scene and work out their plot. I have great hopes for next week.