As I have been working on becoming a better writer, I’ve been looking at the basics of plots.<\/p>\n
A good story has to have a good plot, so what is a good plot?<\/p>\n
A few minutes on the Internet gave me the basics<\/p>\n
It starts with leaving. You have to leave the normal world and go on a journey.<\/p>\n
A Quest.<\/p>\n
Or a flight. If we are fleeing, we are not really questing.<\/p>\n
But a journey.<\/p>\n
And, at the most basic level in the plot, that journey will lead the hero to a place of transformation.<\/p>\n
Which means there is a new normal world.<\/p>\n
As you see, I find it very easy to imagine reasons and details about leaving the normal and going on a journey.<\/p>\n
But the transformation is hard.<\/p>\n
And really, that sounds like a personal problem.<\/p>\n
But it’s not just me! Transformation is hard, or it wouldn’t be the big payoff in the plot.<\/p>\n
I suppose I’m not the only one trying to find an upgrade on normal.<\/p>\n
In these stories, normal has to kick you out to get the upgrade. Maybe that’s the way transformation happens.<\/p>\n
Wouldn’t it be nice if the transformation happened as easily as changing your bath towel? It would be nice if life’s upgrades happened that way.<\/p>\n
But it wouldn’t make a very good story.<\/p>\n
Here, Cinderella. You’ve always had a closet full of shoes. Pick any of them to go to the ball and don’t worry about staying up late.<\/p>\n
No story here.<\/p>\n
It’s human nature to want the transformation. Pretty much all the stories have it.<\/p>\n
And it’s human nature to curse the stone–the boulder in our path and the pebble in our shoe.<\/p>\n
But that’s the trade-off. No trouble, no transformation. We’re not meant to sit around being normal. Normal is always changing.<\/p>\n
That’s what our stories warn us about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I have been working on becoming a better writer, I’ve been looking at the basics of plots. A good story has to have a good plot, so what is a good plot? A few minutes on the Internet gave … Continue reading