Interesting writing tool.

[emmagrant01]

In this month's Wired, there is an article about Dan Harmon, who is the creator of the TV show Community. The article is about him and his career and the show, but there was this interesting little gem as well. Dan Harmon's basic structure for the plot of an episode looks like this:



I couldn't have put it into such a succinct form, but yeah, this basically summarizes the plot of a good story, IMO. This is what happens in every good fic I think I've ever read.  Of course, the something is usually another person, or the getting-in-the-pants-of another person, but that bit about paying a price for it is definitely part of a good story for me. When I think about the fics of mine that I'm proudest of, that's exactly what happens.  Parts 7 and 8 are usually done in the form of an epilogue in my fics, a glimpse into what "normal" life is going to look like once the characters have returned back to the rhythm of ordinary life again.

I'm thinking this might be a good tool to use when writing, especially when I feel stuck. What do you think?

Comments

[inell.livejournal.com]

That's pretty nifty! And you're right. Most things I enjoy seem to fit that basic formula.

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

OT but I love that icon so much - it just fits with this one. :)

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

When I talk about my writing, I pose this circle of events as a dilemma that has to be solved. And although this isn't stated, I think that tacitly the protagonist has to change on some fundamental level. There has to be an epiphany, a tragedy, a disallusionment, a chain of events that moves a character from A to B.

I think ultimately this is why I found the last HP book so disappointing because all that world building couldn't mask the fact that Harry at nearly 18 wasn't any different than Harry at 11. Except that he was taller. Harry and most of the Gryffindors were static throughout the whole series. In fact, I would say that only three characters emotionally "moved" through seven books: Dumbledore, Snape, and Draco. Dumbledore when he realizes his arrogance had become so profound that his sister ended up dying because of it. Snape because his fury and anger resulted in the death of the only woman he loved (perhaps the only person he loved period). And Draco in Malfoy Manor when he doesn't out Harry, when in doing so would save his family from destruction. All these were cataclymic shifts in a character's M.O., epiphanies of the soul.

I'm thinking this might be a good tool to use when writing, especially when I feel stuck. What do you think?

I think this needs to happen at the beginning of a fic; basically what is the driving force behind your story. I always pose it as a question and then I have to answer it. I think that helps keep me relatively focused. All plots points, characterization points, etc. need to be in service of answering that question. That's how I do it.

[zhonnika.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is cool! Looking at NaNo in 2 weeks, this was a very welcome thing.

[alchemy]

This is actually pretty standard for screenwriting. We didn't have the nifty graph, but that's almost exactly what I was taught in my first screenwriting class. I've always thought it could be a really useful guide for fiction, though, so yeah. Puts things on their most basic terms so you know at least where to start.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

We learned the three-act structure for screenwriting, which is a little different in terms of the points where things happen in the story, but asks essentially the same questions.

I found it kind of helpful to actually make myself a little poll to fill out with those questions on it, and I'd sit down and fill it out (or mostly fill it out) before I started writing. (On rare occasions I didn't - if the story was all just THERE in my head already, as sometimes happens, but even then if it was a longer story I'd take the time to write things down just as checkpoints.)

(I was in a very film-oriented program and did screenwriting as a sort of supplement to producing, so that might account for some of the difference. I'm also bummed that we never had any writing-for-TV classes offered as electives because I suspect, but do not know, that the introduction of commercials requires you to tweak the story structure slightly so that there are natural 'pauses' where the commercials can go. It would have been interesting to talk about that issue in a class/workshop setting.)

[sorion.livejournal.com]

In TV shows they tend to go through all of those steps except for 8... XD

[winnett.livejournal.com]

In my current novel the 'get what she wants' never quite happens the way she expected it, and the price she pays had been paid a long time ago. I don't fit! But I guess I'm just out of order.

it is nifty, though.

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this - and linking the article. I'm addicted to Community. And this chart is really an invalubale tool. Sometimes the most simple things are the most powerful. :)

[sugareey.livejournal.com]

Definitely a nice tool to use to kind of guide you and remind you what you should be writing towards, certainly.

[kitty_fic]

This is really interesting! I'd love for you to share it at hd_writers!

<3