Got Plot?

Issue 4: April 2012

Got Plot?

One of the issues I’ve dealt with as a writer is whether the piece is a vignette or a story. So let’s examine some of the details of each.
We can always start with the dictionary definition of vignette: “a short descriptive literary sketch or a brief incident or scene”. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vignette) And though this may be a good definition, when we sit down to write, it may not provide us with the information we need. I really liked the way Pinckney Benedict put it in his blog, “Vignette VS Story: The Apocalyptic Arc”: a story “involves apocalypse”, whereas “in a vignette, nothing much changes.” (http://redroom.com/member/pinckney-benedict/blog/vignette-vs-story-the-apocalyptic-arc) Apocalypse might seem like an extreme word to use, one more appropriate for science fiction writers, however Benedict does point out the word means “lifting of the veil.” We can also call this an external change or the internal epiphany, though most escapism stories do not include the “ah-ha” moment. Here’s a simplistic table to show the difference:

Elements of Fiction	Vignette	Story
Protagonist	Yes	Yes
Antagonist	Maybe	Yes
Setting	Yes	Yes
Plot, Including:
Conflict	Maybe	Yes
Climax	No	Yes
Resolution	No	Yes
Apocalypse/Change/Epiphany	No	Yes
Stands Alone as a Reading	No	Yes

So a true story must have conflict and change. Something needs to happen, whether it’s an internal conflict for the character resulting in a fundamental paradigm shift or an external conflict with outside forces which cause the character to react to stimulus. That’s all fine and well on paper, but how do we get there from the starting point? How can we track that, yes, we have conflicts and changes? These questions about my own writing nagged at me until I came up with a possible solution.

A good story, I thought, should have at least three conflicts which lead to a climax, then a resolution. This led to another question: How long (how many words) should it take for the story to have those conflicts? So I came up with a guess-timation based on a 500 word flash fiction I was working on at the time. Thank heavens for the modern computer, which counts your words as you type. Make this tool work for you as much as possible.

First of all the opening must have some kind of “grabber”. This is where you give your reader a reason to keep reading beyond the first paragraph. I allowed ½% of the total word count for this portion, because it has to happen right away. In a flash fiction piece, this means by the time my word count reaches 25, I better have said something interesting. Once you’ve gotten your reader’s attention, you can give some background on the character or set the stage for your story in an introduction, which probably shouldn’t be a lot more than 10% or 50 words out of the 500. Now by 40% (200 words)  you should have your first conflict which will take the story where you want it to go. The second conflict should in progress by 325 words (another 25%), the third by 450 (another 25%) and the climax by 475 (25% again). That leaves just 5% or 25 words to resolve and close the 500-word story.

Word Count	Beginning	Grabber	Introduction	Conflict 1	Conflict 2	Conflict 3	Climax	Resolution
	0	0.05	10%	40%	65%	90%	95%	5%
500	0	25	50	200	325	450	475	25

This can also work for longer pieces. In a short story of 4,000 words the distribution looks like this:

Word Count	Beginning	Grapper	Introduction	Conflict 1	Conflict 2	Conflict 3	Climax	Resolution
	0	0.05	10%	40%	65%	90%	95%	5%
4000	0	200	400	1600	2600	3600	3800	200

As you read the last Writing Challenge you will notice periodic numbers in superscript. This is the word count for this short piece. It’s what I used to try out this method. And I have to say, thank heavens for the modern computer, which counts your words as you type. Make this tool work for you as much as possible.
Thanks again for reading and sharing!

Rhodes Fitzwilliam

Results from Writing Challenge #3: Awake

It’s 3:00 o’clock in the morning and you’re still awake. Write a 500 word story explaining why you are awake and describing the scene around you. This could be the potential opening paragraph of a short story, so make it interest-catching.

Edge of Night, Middle of Dark

Karen sat under the bushes, shivering against the cool night air. Her knees and the butts of her hands were scuffed with grass stains from the hard fall she’d taken just after midnight, just after the police broke in her door and her boyfriend, Jimmy, pushed her off the second floor balcony. ⁵¹

She curled into a tight ball, hugged her aching knees to her chest under the bush as flashing blue and white lights slid down the quiet street. Karen wasn’t sure where she was right now or where Jimmy had gone. She only knew she couldn’t run anymore.¹⁰⁰

A bark from the yard next door startled Karen. She held her breath as the deep-throated barking continued, broken only by the irritated, “Shut up, already!” from the house. Chains strained against a jumping mass of dog as it pulled the chain anchor out of the ground with a definitive, woomph! He was on his way at a gallop, toenails clapping on the driveway as he headed toward her. Karen rolled from under the bush and took off from a sprinter’s stance, 100 pounds of red mastiff right behind her dragging his clanking chain.¹⁹⁴

Karen ran around the corner of corner of another house and slammed into a cop sneaking around from the opposite direction. She fell back on her butt and the mastiff barreled past her into the cop. The cop fell on his back and the mastiff stood on his chest, barking and slobbering into his face. The mastiff clamped his huge mouth over the cop’s hand. Karen regained her senses, jumped and ran while the mastiff kept the cop pinned. She slid through the alley behind the houses and over two streets to the playground, where she hid in the tunnel under the statue of a mammoth.³⁰⁰

Another police car drove slowly past the playground, creating grotesque shadows while shining a searchlight left and right. Light filled half the tunnel under the mammoth and Karen retreated further into the jowls of the tunnel, feeling along the steel rippled walls. Her hand slide in a puddle of slime and she felt hot breath on her face. The blackness of the tunnel, the hotness of the breath against the chill night and the slime dripping from her fingertips after her harrowing run through bushes which scraped her legs all worked against Karen’s nerves. She screamed out in a long, high-pitched screech and was answered by a deep-throated howl so close it rattled her eardrums. She scrambled from the tunnel and ran into a muscle hard body which wrapped its arms around her. She started to struggle and scream again.⁴⁴⁰

A warm chuckle vibrated the chest against which Karen’s cheek and Jimmy’s reassuring voice said, “It’s okay, hon!” She looked into Jimmy’s impish eyes knew she was the focus of his pranks. The drooling mastiff trotted out of the tunnel and greeted a laughing cop. “I got the job in the sheriff’s office,” said Jimmy. “Surprise!”⁴⁹⁶

 

Writing Challenge #4: To Be or Not to Be?

I’m going to give you the first line and the climax for this fourth writing challenge. We’ll extend the word count for this challenge to 1,000 words so you can build a decent story line.

Ken stood on the roof of the Carew Tower in Cincinnati. It was almost midnight and the full autumn moon frowned down from a partially overcast sky.²⁷

Climax: Does Ken jump or not?

You have the first 27 words now finish the “grabber” within 100 words. Remember this is the part where you connect to your audience and give them a reason to keep reading. Then your challenge is to create the background which led Ken to the critical point of considering suicide, which will include Ken’s first conflict at about the 400 word count, the second conflict at around 650 words and the final conflict that leads to the climax at 950 words. After that it’s all downhill (no pun intended). The last 50 words will close the story with some resolution and make your audience glad they read your work.