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More notes: The FINAL CRISIS should be a direct outgrowth of the previous crises. This one is a crisis that makes a satisfying outcome seem utterly impossible (The BLACK MOMENT). The FINAL CRISIS must be dramatic - THE MOST DRAMATIC CRISIS OF YOUR STORY! NOT ONE which your hero COMES TO REALIZE after reading a letter or thinking things over. PAPALPAK ITO. A dramatic event must occur to MOTIVATE THE Hero's FURTHER ACTION. If that action can solve his problem and enable him to conclude his mission, so much the better. Additional info: The hero must solve the final story problem, NOT A MINOR CHARACTER, such as an ALALAY. Papalpak sigurado iyan. Relationahip of the story characters must not be the same at the end as they were in the beginning. The end should never be predictable in any kind of story. Answer your THEME question conclusively. Even if your story has an unhappy ending, give your audience a satisfying emotional experience. It must prepare them for the inevitable and no story can be a success without it. Halimbawa: if the main character has accomplished his goal by evil or selfish means, then he must be defeated in SOME WAY. Use of SYMBOLS work really well. Here's some examples, and I'm going to use classic films that make sense: The BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY: Bridge represents
eternal love
THE RED SHOES: the shoes represent the dancer's obsession with her art. I REMEMBER MAMA: her small bank account symbolizes security for her family. also: The shorter the lapse of time in a story, the easier it is to affect unity, hold interest and maintain a swift tempo. TRY TO BEGIN YOUR STORY AS CLOSE TO THE FINAL CLIMAX AS POSSIBLE. Ito ang example na IBINIGAY sa atin ni ROMY T. Mas malapit sa anding ang simula mo, mas maigi, dahil talagang mahigpit ang dating ng story. TIME LIMITS: time limits in your story can greatly AUGMENT the drama, suspense and excitement. Halimbawa: "Fess up by noon or you hang!" "Five million in exactly three days or we'll bump up your kid!" A time limit gives your story a professional ZING. It adds urgency, suspense, and it motivates your character into action. And one of the best way not to go out of bounds in your story is to write it in one sentence, and again, let me give classic examples: GONE WITH THE WIND: Scarlett O'hara desires the love of fragile Ashley, until at last she can have him and finds him undesirable. THE GOOD EARTH:
Telling your story in one sentence keeps
you on the track. It will be invaluable to you in formulating a sound construction.
Keep your ONE SENTENCE story in front of your computer until you finish.
PLOTTED STORY Yung nagtatanong kung ano ang mga rekado
sa kuwento?
1. Witholding information (ilabas lamang
ang dapat malaman ng mambabasa sa tamang panahon. )
Ngayon naman, let's tackle PLOTTED STORIES. A plot is a road-map that leads the writer straight to his destination and prevents him from wandering off on side roads, across fields or into wayside bogs. Beyond getting emotional mileage from your story, you minimize the drudgery of re-writing. Despite the recent popularity of unplotted character stories, the plotted story is beginning to return to literature, the stage and the screen in increasing numbers. Time-proven plots are often borrowed from the classics. The original skeleton is fleshed out with new form and features: new characterizations and dialogue, new atmosphere and premise -- anything that will update an old favorite and arouse audience identification. Such modernization of classics is not plagiarism! If we could program a computer to analyze every story written since the dawn of time, they would probably fall into no more than a dozen basic plot categories: Coward regains courage • love versus duty • person mistaken for someone else • feuding families • the strong destroying the weak • self-destructive greed or ambition • the man-marked-for-death • "miracle" made by experts • the man born out of his era • self-sacrifice by an evil man • return of the has-been • the king and the beggar-maid Plots are public domain and, as noted earlier, an audience feels comfortable with the old familiar songs --if the adaptation speaks from the realities of today. If your story contains fresh insights, engrossing plot twists and three-dimensional characters, your audience will probably never recognize the classic plot underneath -- or be pleasantly surprised if they do! 2. CLASSIFYING THE PLOTTED STORY The primary difference between plotted and unplotted stories is that, in the plotted story, the main character from the very beginning has an important purpose to pursue or an important problem to solve or a serious decision to make. This element, along with good characterization, is the driving force behind the story. Just to touch base, remember that all types of stories, plotted or otherwise, must contain: 1. Someone to root for
PLOTTED STORY 2 IDENTIFYING THE TYPES OF PURPOSE ACCOMPLISHMENT STORIES The Hero accomplishes his purpose in one of the following ways (several means may sometimes be considered during the progress of the plot, but one solution will always outweigh the alternatives and will determine the focal point of your story): a) Purpose accomplishment by means of Courage
b) Purpose accomplishment by means of Ingenuity
c) Purpose accomplishment by means of Special
Capacity
d) Purpose accomplishment by means of a
Special Weapon
PLOTTED STORY 3 PURPOSE ACCOMPLISHMENT STORY LINES
b) Ingenuity
c) Special Capacity
d) Special Weapon
PLOTTED STORY 4 A DETAILED EXAMPLE OF THE PARADIGM OF A PLOTTED STORY: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington BEGINNING:
First Obstacle: The respected Senator Paine has a bill in the hopper to give Montana a new, unneeded dam-- a bill which will return him rich real estate profits. Saunders, Smith's good-looking secretary whom Smith has not met, suspects Senator Paine's ill-intent. MIDDLE:
Temporary Triumph: Smith makes headlines in his first press conference by explaining the value of the Boy Rangers for every boy in the land -- and by eagerly demonstrating his repertoire of bird calls and Indian sign language. Second Obstacle: The cynical, worldly-wise Washington press corps picture him as an "incompetent clown". Embarrassed, Smith wants to resign. Temporary Triumph: Senator Paine, who knows that Smith's pet idea is to build a national boys' camp, persuades him to stay and sponsor a bill for a camp on a certain site in their state of Montana. Smith, enthused, gets Saunders to help him draft the bill for the campsite. Third Obstacle: Saunders learns and informs Smith that the state machine's unneeded dam is going to be built on the same land that he has unwittingly picked for his camp site. Temporary Triumph: Saunders finds that, against her better judgment, she has fallen in love with Smith -- she tells him, determined to help him. Fourth Obstacle: Smith appeals to Senator
Paine but Paine explains the political facts of life. "You've been living
in a boy's world...This is a man's world....You have to check your ideals
outside the door like you do your rubbers. I've had to compromise. I've
had to play ball....That's how states and
Temporary Triumph: Smith's desire for the national boys' camp site will not let him give up. He decides to expose the fraud. Fifth Obstacle: The wily Senator Paine beats him to the punch. Before Smith can make his charges, Paine tells the Senate that Smith ouns the very land Smith has proposed for his boys' camp. Paine says that Smith is on the verge of making a huge personal profit from the deal. He produces a deed to the site with Smith's name forged on it. Temporary Triumph: Smith proclaims emphatically that he has been framed. Sixth Obstacle: The Senate will not believe him and his expulsion seems certain. Humiliated, Smith starts to leave town. Temporary Triumph: Saunders intercepts Smith and calls him a fraud; not because of Senator Paine's allegations, but because Smith does not really care enough about the boys' camp to fight for it. The next day in the Senate Chamber, Smith piles his desk with books and food and rises to fight back. He tells the Senate about the corrupt dam scheme that Senator Paine has engineered. In one of the film's greatest virtuoso scenes. Smith launches into a filibuster, forcing the Senate to listen to him. Seventh Obstacle: The machine-controlled press and radio in Smith's home state will not carry what he says. Temporary Triumph: Smith keeps talking hour
after hour after hour -- finally appealing to all that remains honest in
Senator Paine. "You think I'm licked -- well, I'm not licked!" Smith rasps,
barely able to stand after twenty-three hours. "I'm going to stay
Final Obstacle (Crisis) - THE BLACK MOMENT: With the Senate still steadfastly unconvinced. Smith finally collapses from exhaustion, grunting and groaning, appearing near death. Senator Paine stalks out of the room. END:
Climax: When Saunders stops Paine, he bolts into the Senate, saving Smith who is now wheezing, choking out words. "Everything that boy said is the truth," Paine shouts, "every word about me and the graft and the rotten political corruption of my state!" The Senate and gallery stand and applaud the prostrate but elated Smith. Theme: Man's benevolence can triumph over
corruption when he fights for a cause.
UNLPLOTTED STORY UNPLOTTED STORIES - Character Story, Atmospheric, Thematic Basically, there are five distinct types
of stories:
CLASSIFYING THE UN-PLOTTED STORY
Sometimes, identifying an unplotted story is difficult because the main character may often have a purpose and have to reach a decision. The unplotted story must also contain the basic elements of all other types of stories: Rule 1: Someone to root for.
The difference in an unplotted story is: the purpose (goal, decision) of the main character is not the focal point of the story, and often is not present at the very beginning of the story. What is important is the reaction of the main character to the unique situation in which he finds himself, or into which he is pulled, which is used to illustrate some truth-of-life that the author wishes to convey. There are five main types of unplotted character stories: a) Character defeated because of circumstances:
b) Character defeated because of weakness
or obsession
c) Character prevails because of great sacrifice:
d) Character Regeneration:
e) Character Degeneration:
To put it succinctly, all unplotted character stories contain strong characterizations, an interesting problem that builds to a crisis, where the end consists of one or more of the following: a) revelation of the unjust or pathetic
cause of the problem.
THEMES OF UNPLOTTED CHARACTER STORIES - (Classics) * The Grapes of Wrath - a family's struggle against destitution and death, which strengthens its spirit to fight for what is right. Death of a Salesman - an average man's hopeless sense of failure in American society as he discovers himself aging. The Old Man and the Sea • Man's inevitable defeat in his struggle with existence -- in spite of which, Man can fight with dignity, courage and stoicism. Casablanca - a hardened self-centered man becomes vulnerable to self-sacrifice when moved by affair of the heart. UNPLOTTED STORY 2 Sige, tuloy lang kuwentuhan ninyo, isisingit ko na lang ang ilan pang tips: Example of UNPLOTTED STORY: The Grapes of Wrath Beginning: Returning from prison after serving four years for killing a man in a brawl, Tom Joad finds that dust storms and modern farming equipment have forced his family to pack up and move. Pa has seen a handbill saying that thousands of workers are needed in California: "Good pay for 800 fruit pickers." Middle: The Joad family of twelve pack their meager belongings into an old jalopy and, with their $150 savings, set out for the Promised Land. The rattling, overloaded pickup truck bumbles along US Highway 66. The engine wheezes and, although the kids find it a joy ride, the old people cannot take it. Grampa dies first and they bury him at night by the side of the road. Casey, the renegade preacher, resists making a speech -- they know the authorities are sometimes more interested in a dead body than in a live one. Then Grandma dies. Ma holds her in her arms, pretending she is only sick, so the agriculture inspectors won't stop them at the California border. California turns out to be a far wail from the land of milk and honey. 1933: the depth of the Depression. Their end-of-the-rainbow is cheap labor: 800 jobs, yes, but 10,000 migrants. For the few jobs open, orchard owners slash wages to starvation level. At the camps, hungry children beg for food and armed guards see to it that no one gets out of line. At the Joads' camp in an Okie settlement, a fight breaks out when the recruiting agent won't say how much he'll pay. In the melee, a deputy gets clobbered -- shoots a woman acci dentally, and the police ride off with the preacher, Casey. That night, someone burns down the camp. The Joads finally stop at a decent government settlement where they get work picking peaches. One night, Tom wanders out and runs into Casey who has not been locked up, only run out of camp. He is now leading a strike for higher wages. He tells Tom that the police call him an "agitator". As they talk, vigilantes raid the strikers' camp. One of them crushes Casey's skull with a pick. Tom strikes back, killing Casey's assailant -- catching a cut in the face before he can get away. Police chase Tom -- with his scar, he knows he can no longer stay with his family. End: Tom, in his farewell to Ma, tells her
that Casey had made him understand life more clearly. People shouldn't
be living like pigs with good farmland lying fallow. Why does
Ma protests that "they'd cut you down just like they done to Casey." Still, Tom knows this must be his mission. When she asks him how she will know where he is«, he replies, quoting Casey, "Fella ain't got a soul of his own. Just a little piece of a big soul ..." and assures her that wherever there is a fight so that people can eat the food they raise and live in the houses they build, he'll be there too. With Tom on the road, the family pushes on hopefully. Despite hardship, homelessness, hunger and even death, Ma carries them on with her indomitable spirit. "Rich fellers.... die out. But we keep a-comin. We're the people that live."
INTRIGUING NEW THEMES Although the libraries bulge with good books carrying good themes, there are hundreds and hundreds of themes not yet used and worth exploring. As society changes rapidly,certain aspects of it more rapidly than others, some of these changes adversely affect groups of people. An alert writer can spot these modern inequities and, from them, get an idea(theme) for a good story. Observant writers, motivated by concern for the society in which they live, have not only won ovations but produced innovations in the society itself. Consider, among others: Moliere, who satirized the degenerate affectation of the court life of his time. Ibsen, whose plays shocked the western world of the late 1800's into recognizing the rights of women. Upton Sinclair, whose literate anger effected a reform of the packing industry in America. Winston Churchill, the American novelist whose The Inside of the Cup instigated the socializing of the church in the United States. 0. Henry, who awakened the tired business soul of America to the sturdy glow of romance in the heart of its cities. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin planted one of the seeds of the Civil War: emancipation. More recently, in Future Shook, Alvin Toffler warns of the downfall of mankind under the deluge of industrial change. As you read the newspapers and listen to
other people's problems, learn to tune yourself in to current problems
as an excellent source of themes for your stories. Think seriously about
such questions as:
Then ask yourself: • Do I really believe in this problem enough
to probe it in story form with wholehearted sincerity?
Never start a story without consciously planning it around a theme.
FASCINATING SCENES: MAN AGAINST NATURE You will notice that unplatted stories usually
contain a blend of man against himself, man against another human being
(or beings) and man against nature. In the last case, always try to impute
human motive to this opposing
A man's own fear is more vengeful than a
tiger or a tidal wave. If you can construct an identifiable thrashing action,
it will heighten the drama of your hero fighting his
BUILDING FASCINATING SCENES
Build strong emotion between your two characters.
One is for some action or decision for logical reason; his oppo-
In a scene, people would rather watch one man and one woman together (preferably in conflict) than pairs or groups.
BRINGING YOUR CHARACTERS TO LIFE Create a CHARACTER WORKSHEET. Write a biography on each of your other main characters, including your villain or opposing force. The importance of making these character analyses cannot be over-stressed. Like an iceberg, only one-ninth of a character is visible when you first think of him or her --or when he or she is introduced to your audience. If you take the time to plumb the remaining eight-ninths beforehand, the visible, audible portion will ring true. You must know more about your story characters than you know about anyone in real life. You also want to see them objectively, particularly if you are basing one on yourself. From the mass of biographical material that you set down, you will be able to select the most interesting and illuminating highlights of each character and accentuate them in your story. Among his particular mannerisms, you will be able to select those that will enrich your character (see Chapter Three, Lyrical Phrases and Adages). If you do your biographical studies thoroughly, each of your characters will become a real entity and will speak for himself without you having to force his words out. Do not skip this preparatory step before beginning to write the first draft of your story. Professional writers "research" their characters before each and every one of their stories. To create living, vital characters who reflect the depth of their being, explore their roots! So make your characters as different from each other as possible -- in appearance, in attitude, in speech or in action, and otherwise. As your characters must contrast with each other, so must your scenes. If you have written a highly intense and emotional scene, make your next scene lightly humorous, and the next one, perhaps, foreboding. Each scene will accent the other, giving them all greater emphasis. Contrast is the key to vivid and exciting scenes, characters and stories. TO SUMMARIZE: FORMAT FOR A WELL STRUCTURED, PLOTTED STORY (Purpose Accomplishment). BEGINNING:
MIDDLE:
ADD MORE TRIUMPHS § FAILURES IN BODY
OF STORY AS LENGTH
END:
c) Solution must come from Hero deliberately,
Climax: Solution must overwhelm the Villain dynamically completely defeating him for audience satisfaction. (exception: Not necessary in character stories where unhappy ending needed to move your audience) a) Tie up all loose ends. b) Answer moral (premise) stated in BEGINNING of story. c) Show change of attitude of Main Character
and preferably of others involved, as a result of your proven premise.
(Never end with your
d) If possible, write a better-than-hoped-for ending--an added twist. THE LAST TYPE OF STORY : MULTI-PHASE MULTIPHASE:
These are called Multi-Phase stories. Plotting a Multi-Phase story is clearly an exercise of advanced literary technique. The novice writer who attempts this task deliberately usually produces an obvious and artificial story. The best thing to do is to master first the tecgniques of Plotted & Unplotted Stories before attempting to write a multiphase one. A very good example of this type is the series: LONESOME DOVE. And believe it or not, George Lucas' STARWARS series were actually written like a WESTERN (MULTIPHASE type). A writer will automatically produce a Multi-phase story by accenting Character as well as Decision - perhaps with the underlying principles of Villain Defeats Himself " or other combinations of the techniques that we are exploring individually. Once you have mastered each of the formats
, you may decide to investigate the possibilities of this more complicated
style. As an advanced writer, you will then be able to give your story
double emphasis, which can be highly effective. Meanwhile, practice the
techniques carefully, one by one, and let the
Examples of MULTI-PHASE STORY LINES - SHE ( Purpose Abandonment) Leo Vincey determines to find the legendary fountain of life-giving flame in the lost Kingdom of Kor, so that he can live eternally; in so doing, he falls in love with a simple mountain girl and, just before stepping into the Flames of Life, decides that he prefers to live briefly and happily with a mortal woman. (Character; Villain Defeats Himself) She, the beautiful ageless ruler of the
exotic Kingdom of Kor, falls in love with the new visitor, Leo, who resembles
her lover of centuries past whom she had killed in a jealous rage; she
commands Leo to bathe in the Flame so he can spend eternity with her
B. THE BAD NEWS BEARS
Morris Buttermaker, a former baseball player but now a beer-sodden bum, needs money and takes on the job of coaching a bunch of Little League misfits, then wants to quit when the team keeps hopelessly losing; when he is fired, he angrily applies himself and a few clever ploys to shape up the team until they make a heroic showing. Multiphase has been a useful format for writers of westerns for years: One man vengefully sets out to murder another but, just before they are both overwhelmed by an opposing force (Indians, stampeding cattle, posse, bandits, etc.), they band together to fight for their lives " only to face, near the end, the original problem: the pending murder of one by the other. The solution varies according to the context of the story: Purpose Accomplishment or Purpose Abandonment with emphasis on Character(s) and Theme. There you go. Tapos na po.
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