Plot Study: Introduction

The introduction ‘act’ of your story is where you give the reader all the information about the world they will be entering, along with background to explain the upcoming conflict. It’s your opportunity to lay the foundations for the rest of the tale.

Characters

It is during this section that you introduce your characters, giving an insight into their personae, allowing the reader to familiarise themselves with your cast before you throw them into the ‘meat’ of your story. Often, characters will come and go within a story, and this is your opportunity to introduce the core group of characters who will be playing the lead parts.

Obviously, the protaganist is introduced here directly, but what about the antagonist? Should he/she be explicitly introduced? I suppose this is entirely dependant on personal taste. For me, I like to only hint at the main protaganist during the introduction: That way, you can build some tension as the reader tries to figure out who is the main bad-guy.

The World

The introduction gives you a chance to introduce your world: Its people, the governmental structure, and the current situation it is in. It also is a chance to put into context where your characters stand within the world - which can be of utmost importance to the story.

History

As in the real world, the history of your created realm often will have shaped how it now stands. Your introduction gives you a chance to tell part of that history, and your readers will have a greater understanding of the world.

The origins of the protagonist, antagonist or any other character could well be inter-mingled with the history of the world, so you can also explain their background - And legends are always a nice way to give hints to what will happen later on in the story.

Atmosphere and Tone

The atmosphere and tone of your story could well stay the same throughout, and the introduction is a nicely convenient place to put them in place, giving your reader a taster of what to expect throughout the story.

However, the tone and atmosphere could also change by the end of the story, but you need to set the initial tone so the reader can see the changes. What better place to do it than here?

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I mentioned I would be using the ‘Lord of the Rings’ as an example throughout this theme, so let’s take a quick look at what Tolkien did in his ‘introduction’ to do that which has been discussed above.

Starting off in Hobbiton, we are introduced to the race of Hobbits, who are a friendly, happy-go-lucky race of people who have no care of the outside world. It is also here that we meet our main protagonists: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. We see their attitudes, ideals and personalities quite well - Frodo, the adventure seeking young man who feels bogged down by responsibility; Sam, the duty-driven gardener who loyally serves his master (Frodo) well; Finally, Merry and Pippin who are both very similar: cheeky, mischievous friends who haven’t a real care in the world.

We’re also introduced to Gandalf, who plays a big part in the story, and get an insight into his position and power. But, his main ‘purpose’ during this part of the plot, from a storyteller’s viewpoint, is to give us, the reader, an insight into the history and world. He tells the story of the One Ring, and its creator, Sauron, while also giving us an idea of the world outside Hobbiton.

Overall, the tone and atmosphere are happy, cheerful and bright (Just about all Hobbits’ speech is ended in exclamation points!), yet during Gandalf’s telling of the story and legend surroudning the Ring, we get a hint of the darkness that will later prevail the story.

The introduction ends quite nicely as Frodo is charged with leaving Hobbiton to take the Ring to Rivendell so the elves can choose what to do with it.

Tolkien gives us a nice example of how Freytag’s analysis actually works in literature, and we’ll take a look later at how the other sections are utilised.

Your Introductions

What do you like to see/put into the introductory phases of stories? Do you like the way Tolkien makes his introduction? What other introductions have you enjoyed? Share with us!

Elements of Plot

We all know what a plot is, it’s the development of a story. Its progression from start to finish. But, what parts make up a plot? What themes are present in all stories if you look closely enough? That’s what the next few posts will be looking at; but for this introductory post to the theme of plot, I’m going to be giving an overview.

Dramatic Structure

While originally designed as an analysis of dramatic works like plays and screenplays, Gustav Freytag’s study of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama is probably the most readily noticeable structure for plots - both for plays and ’standard’ literature.

It incorporates five acts: Exposition (introduction), Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Conclusion (listed as ‘denouement’). Each of these ’sections’ will be looked at in more detail over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be giving a brief overview now.

Introduction

This is the beginning of the story, where characters and the world are introduced, background information is offered, and your readers are made ready for the next sections. Your introduction gives the setting and reasons for the upcoming conflict.

Rising Action

The build-up to the climax, the Rising Action ‘phase’ takes all the information from the Introduction and moves it forward towards the Climax. Other side-plots are generally introduced here and add to the final conflict.

Climax

This is the point at which the story has thus far been reaching towards - the key point in the story where there is a turning point in the situation.

Falling Action

This shows the immediate effects of the Climax, and generally finalises the victory - or loss - of the protagonist against the antagonist.

Conclusion

The final, closing section of a plot, the Conclusion ends all ‘loose ends’ and shows the changes from the start of the story. “And they lived happily ever after…”

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Obviously, these are only scant offerings of explanations, but all will be explained in more detail as we continue on. I’ll be making reference to Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ when writing my more detailed articles on plot. Hopefully a lot of you would have either read the books or seen the movies, so will have at least a rough knowledge of the general plot involved.

Feedback?

Do you know of this structure already? If so, what are your thoughts? If not, what structures do you use, or notice, when looking at plots? Your thoughts, methodologies and ideas are all welcome, and part of my own writer’s journey. So, give your input!

A Return and A New Theme

Firstly, let me apologise for my distinct lack of activity on the blog. Having started a new job after several months of being unemployed, it has taken some getting used to; especially with such strange hours. For anyone who is interested, I’m working for a telesales company - where most of my work-life experience lies - and am selling insurance. Working from 10:30am until 8:00pm, I’ve found myself with not a whole lot of time to do a great deal besides working and sleeping.

But, having started to finally adjust once more to the world of work, I am happy to announce that I will once again be posting on a regular basis here at A Writer’s Journey! So, you can all look forward to seeing regular writing related articles from me once more.

On that note, let me firstly make comment about the loss of a great fantasy author, someone who propelled me into the realms of reading fantasy, and inspired me to write more prolifically - David Eddings. I first read his Elenium trilogy back in Year 5 of middle school (which would have made me, what, 9 or 10 years old - I think) and was gripped by the world of Sparkhawk and his companion knights. Ever since, I have been a massive fan of Eddings’ work, and must express a sadness at his passing.

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On a more positive note, however, we will have a new theme for the next couple of weeks here at A Writer’s Journey. Following on from the theme of characters, I think the next logical step would be to look at plot. As such, we’ll be discussing the elements of a plot, how to plan your plot, along with ways to make otherwise ‘generic’ or ‘cliched’ plots original and different.

I’m hoping for lots of discussion here, as I know everyone has different views, preferences, and methodologies.

In terms of post schedule, I’ll be looking at posting three times a week from now on: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That should be much more manageable for me in terms of time, and means I’ll be able to focus properly on the content. Any feedbacks on the new schedule is welcome, by the way.

Disbelief? Suspend it!

Following on from my previous post on realism, I was reading an article by Vicki Hinze on the Fiction Factor website. It discusses suspension of disbelief when writing fiction.

But, what is this idea of suspending disbelief? It’s all about making your readers be able to believe that what you are writing is, or could be, real. Whether it’s a romance, action-adventure or fantasy piece you are writing your readers need to be able to believe in what they are reading. Elves? Not in the real world, that’s for sure? Don’t be silly! If you can suspend their disbelief, however, then it could well be possible that elves do exist in reality.

It’s all in the detail.

How do we do that for a novel without an atypical or unusual element?
In a word, details.

And in that quote, Vicki sums up the concept perfectly. It is the tiny, seemingly unimportant details that are key to suspending your reader’s disbelief. From making sure your characters are believable and relatable through giving them ‘real’ personalities, to giving enough prior background for an event to be plausible.

An example by Vicki speaks of snow in Florida. Sure enough, a snow storm in Florida wouldn’t happen in real life (I think. Do feel free to correct me if otherwise), in your novel it could well be. A change in weather fronts and well developed plans by Organisation X to affect weather against the natural order? Sure, that could well make snow fall in Florida.

Consistency is key.

Throughout your novel or fictional piece you need to be consistent to maintain the suspension of disbelief. To continue the the ’snow in Florida’ example: Suddenly throwing in this Organisation X and all related factors in the chapter immediately before or after the snow storm will look very much like a desperate ’saving grace’ attempt that will make the reader stop, think and still believe it couldn’t happen.

Before and after the event, you need to continue suspending disbelief. As another extreme example: There is snow in Florida for the above-stated reasons one day, on the next, blistering heat once again. No, doesn’t sound real to me either, considering the information we’ve been given already. “Boo!” at the writer!

Informative delivery.

Vicki goes on to speak about how you give this details and ‘facts’ to the reader, and brings up an interesting point:

It’s widely accepted as fact that a reader believes what one character says to another far more readily than the reader believes what an author says to them.

And that, I think, gives point enough on how best to deliver the information that builds believability.

Over to you.

What methods to you use to suspend disbelief as a writer? As a reader, what are you most likely to notice that will reinstate your disbelief? Or what do you like to see to enable suspension of disbelief?

My First E-publication

Having seen George Angus’ review of the e-book publishing service Smashwords over at Tumblemoose Writing Services, I knew I just had to give it a try. E-books, while still only making up a very tiny percentage of book sales, are a growing industry. The proliferation of such gadgets as the Sony Reader and the iPhone’s Stanza application will only help the e-book industry to grow.

A free service that takes your Word document and converts it into various e-book formats, then, sounds very enticing. Especially to a writer like myself, trying to get into the industry beyond hobbies. I was itching to give it a try.

A Decision Had To Be Made

What, exactly, would I make an e-book out of? As a first attempt, I knew it best to follow George’s “An Inspired Query Letter” and make my ebook free. I didn’t, however, want any of my ‘real’ work to be readily available for nothing. So I had to decide on a subject matter.

I finally decided to compile an anthology of various roleplaying posts I had written. I did this for two reasons: Firstly, the content was readily available and required very little work on my part. Secondly, it would serve as a great way to display my writing ability.

So off I went, finding various roleplay posts from the two and a half years I’ve been taking part in the past-time. Organising them by date order, I made the rest of the content: An introduction to the e-book, and a small paragraph of background to each post.

The Process

I typed everything up in the Ubuntu equivalent of Notepad, then formatted the e-book as outlined in the Smashwords Style Guide. Or so I had thought (more on that later).

Registration was quick and easy, taking all of about three or four minutes including ‘account activation.’ The easy-to-use navigation gives a nice “Publish” link that, you got it, is where you publish your ebook. Allowing you to add a synopsis (400 or so characters long), tags, and categorisation the first page is nice and simple. You can also add an image to act as the front cover; something I opted out of.

Uploading your Word document is as easy as you’d expect: Browse to the relevant file, click okay, then click upload. Then your file is run through what is fondly referred to as the ‘Meat Grinder’ to be converted into the various e-book formats on offer. This took a couple of minutes for my 33 page e-book.

The Value of Proof-Reading

A greatly important lesson was taken from this little outing into the e-publication world: Proof-read, proof-read, proof-read!

I did have some initial formatting issues that meant the HTML Reader on Smashwords didn’t recognise any paragraph returns in my book; making it just a single block of text! This was my own fault, for not fully following the Style Guide, but I managed to fix it.

Then, the worst thing happened when I re-checked the HTML Reader (which thankfully was now working)! My actual roleplay posts, some of which were from as far back 2006, were riddled with various errors: Typographical, missing or added words, spelling errors etc.

I knew that none of my ‘new’ content in the e-book had any errors, and I had been sure that all my older stuff was proof-read back when I originally wrote them. Not the case. I had to read through everything once more to correct any mistakes, and then re-upload the e-book once again.

For this, it is really easy: There is an “Upload new version” option in your ‘dashboard’ on the site, and takes only a minute or so; needing only to upload the file and convert it - After all, the rest of the information is still there.

Finally, I’d Finished!

“Excerpts From Role Playing Endeavours” was at last published and suitable for being read.

Overall, the process was an enjoyable, and my own errors aside, the Smashwords service is fantastic. Simple, easy to use, intuitive and most all… Free to use! I expect that I will be using it again in the future. Perhaps to even publish some of my work non-free.

Thanks must be given to George, though, for sharing such a great discovery with us all.