Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 09:21:36 EST From: a wreath of myrtle? and whee! Subject: EXERCISE: Plot #14: Love: 20 Master Plots [many more exercises available at http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/exercises/exercises.html don't let your writing muse get flabby! exercise regularly:-] Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B. Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8. Master Plot #14: Love [Do you need somebody to love? -- beatles!] (p. 168) "...Since we know conflict is fundamental to fiction, we also know 'Boy Meets Girl' isn't enough. It must be 'Boy Meets Girl, But...' The story hinges on the 'But...' These are the obstacles to love that keep the lovers from consummating their affair." "Sometimes the lovers are within what we might call social normals, but situations arise that aren't conducive to love, and people won't condone it. Unlike the lovers in forbidden love, who usually pay for their 'folly' with their lives, these lovers have decent chancle of overcoming the obstacles that make their affair such rough sailing." Obstacles include confusion, misunderstanding, mistaken identities, gimmicks (one of us is a Ghost!), madness...even the size of certain organs (noses, for example). (p. 171) "The first attempt to solve the obstacle is almost always thwarted. Don't forget the Rule of Three. The first two attempts fail, the third time's the charm...." "The lesson of fairy tales is the basic lesson of all love stories: Love that hasn't been tested isn't true love. Love must be proved, generally through hardship." (p. 172) "What makes a good love story? The answer lies more with the characters than with the actions. That's why the love plot is a character plot. A better way of putting it is by saying that successful love stories work because of the 'chemistry' between the lovers. You can create a plot that has plenty of clever turns and gimmicks, but if the lovers aren't convincing in a special way, it will fall flat on its face. ..." (p. 173) "...If you want to break away from Everylover and write about two (or more) characters who are unique, you must delve into the psychology of people and love. _A love story is story about love denied and either recaptured or lost._ Its plan is simple; executing the plan is not. It all depends on your ability to find two people who are remarkable in either a tragic or a comic way as they pursue love." (p. 175) talking about how to write something original in this well-plowed field... "A sincere work--a work of sentiment--generates its own power; a sentimental work borrows feelings from stock. Rather than create characters or events that generate unique feelings, the sentimentalist merely relies on stock characters and events that already have their emotions built in." (p. 178) Don't forget the down side--falling out of love. "Falling out of love is about people, too. It's about the end rather than the beginning of a relationship. The sucess of your story depnds on an understanding of who your characters are and what has happened to them. By the end of your story, the situation is driven to crisis, which results in some kind of resolution: resignation to perpetual warfare, divorce and death being the most common resolutions." The Structure: Depends on the nature of the plot you intend to use. You are going to have to adapt. One common one: two lovers find each other in the beginning and then circumstances step in to separate them. The phases are: 1. Lovers Found. Present the two main characters and establish the relationship. Deep love, marriage...and disaster strikes. Kidnapping, parental moves, ex-spice, war, disease, accident, the flying fickle finger of fate... 2. Lovers split. One (or both) of the two tries to find/rescue/reunite/rekindle. Usually one is active, while the other is relatively passive. Setbacks, complications, and troubles ensure that the situation gets worse, not better. 3. Lovers reunited! Somehow, someway, when you least expect it--Candid Camera will bring them together! "Opportunity presents itself to the diligent, and the active lover finally finds an opening that allows her either to overcome the antagonist or [overcome] the preventative force..." Checklist: 1. Do you meet the prospect of love with a major obstacle, so that while your characters obviously want it, they can't have it. 2. Do your lovers have the obstacle of being ill-met? E.g., from different social classes, backgrounds, physically mismatched? 3. Do you thwart the first attempt to solve the obstacle? Do you make sure that success doesn't come easily, and that the only way to love is dedication and persistence? 4. Do you show us that one lover is more aggressive than the other, and provide us with good reasons for the difference? 5. Did you force a happy ending when your story really is sad? 6. Did you make your main characters appealing, convincing, real people? Are their personalities and their situation unique and interesting? Do you really feel for your characters? 7. Do you develop a full range of feelings and emotions in your story? Don't focus just on the positive feelings--use some dark to bring out the light of your story. 8. Do you understand the role of sentiment and sentimentality in your story and use the right mix for the market you are aiming at? 9. "Take your lovers through the full ordeal of love. Make sure they are tested (individually and collectively) and that they finally deserve the love they seek. Love is earned; it is not a gift. Love untested is not true love." That's what Tobias has to say...now let's see. How about picking a number from one to six? 1. Work 2. Social/cultural/class differences 3. Disease/addiction 4. Parents/family/friends 5. Sexual desires/experiences (including rape, impotence, etc.) 6. Psychological/Personality differences Stop here and think a bit. You have an issue or topic there, something that could get in between our lovers and cause some problems. Make a list of five (or more! but at least five) specific problems that might get in their way. Now, I pick number four! Yes, that's right, take number four off your list of specific problems. Think about it. Expand on it. Embroider the edges of the difficulty, and consider how to use this problem to make your lovers walk across hot coals to be together. And, if you'll pick yet another one of those wonderful numbers from one to six? 1. I don't want people to love me. It makes for obligations. Jean Anouilh, The Lark, (1955), 2, adapted by Lillian Hellman. 2. To love without criticism is to be betrayed. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, (1937) 3. First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences, gestures, attitudes, a burning phrase with no context. Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris (1935), 2.5. 4. Unable are the Loved to die/For Love is Immortality. Emily Dickinson, poem (c. 1864) 5. We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities. Jacques Maritain, Reflections on America (1958), 3. 6. Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and border and salute each other. Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, May 14, 1904, tr. M.D. Herter Norton. [Quotes taken from The International Thesaurus of Quotations, by Rhoda Thomas Tripp, ISBN 0-06-091382-7] So now you have a quotation about love. That goes with the problem that is going to get in the way of love. One of the simpler plots is to start with this quotation, and a heaping portion of love--but the lovers don't quite understand the quotation yet. Now separate, mix, blend, chop, and let the seasonings simmer...until they learn! and bring them back together, wiser and tougher, with love on high... Our problem right now probably is to pick the characters. How about this? Take your two numbers from above. Multiply together. And find the result below: 1-6: Father and child 7-12: Homosexual males 13-18: Adults, heterosexual 19-24: Teenagers, heterosexual 25-30: Homosexual females 31-36: Mother and child Feel free to elaborate. For example, if you have a pair of heterosexual adults, are they an old married couple (yes, love does happen there too...) or perhaps a pair meeting for the first time at the corner bar? Build up the two characters into full rounded people, who really do have a relationship (where did they go on their first date? What happened? and so on). Pick out the scene you want to use to show us how much they care for each other. It can be their wedding, or maybe it's walking through the National Zoo in Rock Creek Park, throwing peanuts to the chimps and laughing together at one of the outside tables where busloads of kids eat their lunches... Sketch in the disaster striking. Make us feel the pain of that separation, the shock of it. And then show us the struggle. The first attempts to overcome the problem--and the failure. The renewed determination, the refusal to give in, the dark nights of crying and fear...make us sweat! Finally, when it seems as if there is nothing, no way to win...that peanut in your pocket is just the thing that will tip the scale and give you a chance to win through! or maybe not? Your choice as to whether you are going to play it for laughs (two dirty old men, just learning that being dirty together is more fun than being dirty alone?) or for romantic (young love, sweet love...ah, the innocence) or for serious (love, transforming the world, but at what price!). You might like to think about how you would answer the following questions. I've borrowed this list from Barry Longyear's suggestions in Science Fiction Writer's Workshop I, ISBN 0-913896-18-7. Background 1. Where are we? (setting) 2. Who is involved? (characters, strengths, flaws) 3. Where are they headed? (goals, motives) 4. What stops or blocks them? (obstacle(s)) 5. What are they going to do about it? (plans to overcome problems) Story 6. What hook(s) or bait for the reader will I use? (where start) What story question do I pose for the reader? 7. What backfill is needed? (background that needs to be filled in) 8. What buildup do I want? (scenes) 9. What is the climax? - how does the character change? (overcome weakness, etc.) - how is the plot resolved? (overcome problems and achieve goals) - What answer does the reader get to the story question? Higher Level 10. What purpose, moral, or theme am I writing about? Write us a story! tink