Let’s talk about plot  /  Developing plot  /  Exercise your plot muscle

Let’s talk about plot

…human beings love to be told stories. It’s a powerful force so why not use it.(Debra Oswald)

The plot is the story. It’s the “and then what happened?” in your play.

A lot of plot is about manipulating both surprise and action. (Verity Laughton)

There has to be one. Even Waiting for Godot  has one. (Michael Gow)

Scenes are the building blocks of your plot. And ideally each scene moves the story of your play forward. Some playwrights break their plot down into “beats”. These are like moments of action, moments where something happens to move the story forward. A scene may have just one beat or several.

Make sure you know the function of every scene…(Jane FitzGerald)

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Sometimes it is helpful to write out your plot as if it were a list. Write it as if it were a sequence of events and don’t worry about whether it’s a scene or a beat. Try to fit it all on one page so you can have an overview of your play. See if the list gives you a sense of forward momentum. Are there scenes that possibly take your play in the wrong direction? Just like a person telling a story at a party can become a bit long winded and boring and go off on weird tangents so too can a play. Ask yourself ‘why is this (scene or dialogue) here?’ You should strip your writing back until everything in it has a good reason for being there, and helps to drive your play forward. (Jane FitzGerald)

For some playwrights, deciding on the plot is the starting point for their play. This might happen if your play is based on a true event or perhaps is an adaptation of an existing story. In this case you have an idea of how your plot might start and end.  But for others, the plot is something that emerges only after you have created your characters.

Characters determine plot in plays, plot determines characters in films. (Louis Nowra)

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If you do have a plot worked out before you begin writing make sure your characters are not “prisoners” of the plot. By this I mean that you force them to act and speak for the purposes of telling your story. As Donna Abela points out “it might not ring true at the end of the day unless you make sure the motivations of the characters are authentic.”

… If a speech isn’t also an ‘action’ (i.e. an element of driving the plot forward… ) then it probably doesn’t belong in the play.  (Verity Laughton)

One of the ways that plots can become boring or stories fail to move forward is when a writer introduces a great juicy slab of ‘vital information’.

At the beginning of the Star Wars films there’s a bit of reading that you always do. 

Remember all that “In a galaxy far far away…” stuff?

It gives you all the information you need to bring you up to speed before the real story starts. That’s called ‘exposition’.

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Sometimes, when a character launches into a speech that tells the other characters (and the audience) Vital Information about another character or an event that has happened elsewhere or something that has happened in the past ….zzzz see, we’re falling asleep just thinking about it. Why is exposition so dull? One reason is that the process of revealing large amounts of information generally slows down the forward movement of your play. And another is that it can sound contrived and unnatural for the character who has to deliver this information which is, basically, a message from the playwright to the audience. Sometimes there is important information that the audience needs to know. See if you can find an interesting and dramatic way to share that information. Can it come out in a conversation? A seduction? An argument? Try not to state things too obviously; incorporate them into the dialogue and allow the audience to discover things bit by bit. (Jane FitzGerald)

Some other things to bear in mind about your plot: If something important happens, don’t have your character tell us about it. Show us. Let it happen on stage in front of us.

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An exception to this would be in Nick Enright’s play A Property Of The Clan (also Blackrock, based on the same material) where an unseen (but important) character is raped and murdered offstage. In this instance, the play is about the effect that this event has on the other characters in the play, the action revolves around their response to that and their conflict with other characters as a result.

What about misunderstandings and secrets? These are time honoured plot devices and used in any number of brilliant plays including those written by our playwrights. Every play has moments where a character learns something or discovers something or some mystery is revealed.

Some of our playwrights warn against relying too heavily on the dramatic value of the secret:

An audience does not sit on the edge of their seat waiting for withheld information to be revealed by a writer. They sit on the edge of their seat because of suspenseful action.(Tommy Murphy)

This is not to say that you can’t have characters deliver vital information or hide secrets until the end of the play. Just try not to substitute this for the action or forward momentum of your story.

And of course there’s the old “it was all a dream” ending. Eek. Avoid that one if you can. Apart from anything else, it’s been done before. That Shakespeare guy for instance…

Developing plot

As you write you will find that your plot starts to change, characters start to move in their own direction rather than the one you carefully planned for them, things happen that may surprise you. That’s great. Be prepared to be flexible.

For me having an idea, a feeling, for what you want to explore and say is really important. Then dream up the plot that allows you to say this BUT be prepared to change it, add to it, build it, love it, and hate it. ( Suzie Miller)

Practically speaking you can do a lot to clarify exactly what should happen in your story and in what order. Some writers create charts, highlighting scenes where certain characters should appear.

Caleb Lewis and Debra Oswald give some good advice on developing your plot.

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Timelines help.  I think it’s useful to know how long (hours, weeks, years?) your story takes place over and what period of time passes between each scene. (Caleb Lewis) Don’t assume that your initial plan for the sequence of events is the best option. I write each plot beat – even tiny ones – on a scrap of paper. Then I spread the scraps of paper out on the dining table in the order I think they’ll go. Once I see the plot laid out, it’s often easier to diagnose problems – eg it’s taking too long to get going; there are too many bits clumped together. I can swap beats around, remove scraps and see what happens. (Debra Oswald)

 

Exercise your plot muscle

Another helpful thing with plot is to tell the story aloud to someone else. We are all natural storytellers and I often find that when I TELL someone the story, I can hear where it sags, where it’s confusing. I find myself rewriting it even as I’m speaking, to make it hit the listener with more impact and clarity. (Debra Oswald)

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As an exercise, try taking a leaf out of Debra’s book. Write out on your plot in units or beats of action. This means breaking it right down to a series of step by steps. First this happens, then THIS happens, then THIS happens and so on. Write them out on index cards or small pieces of paper and then lay them out on your floor or a table and look at it carefully. What happens if you move around events? What happens if you start with the final moment? If you remove beats here or there, does this affect the flow of the story? It’s a good way to get an overall, dispassionate look at your play and change things about without too much trouble.