THE STORY SPOT

It has occurred to me that with all this talk about story that it might be useful to clarify the differences between STORY and PLOT. After all, we casually use the terms interchangeably but they are indeed very different and that difference is everything.

It’s probably easiest to begin with plot. After all, when we talk about writing, we’re often focused on that thing that might happen next. That’s plot. It’s the what happens. A UPS driver is attacked by deranged alien globs of goo seeking to absorb human life in order to save their own species. The events of the attack make up the plot: aliens come to Earth; aliens eat hero’s best friend while they nibble donuts; hero retaliates and saves the planet. Events. Actions. They are the physical happenings that get us from one end of the book or film to the other. They can be as small as a quiet break-up or as overblown as our alien friends here.

Now, to story.
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Always a source of great writing advice and inspiration, screenwriting coach Michael Hauge offers us this short nugget of wisdom on his site (www.screenplaymastery.com) that I’m sharing with you here.

EVERYTHING I KNOW IN 100 WORDS OR LESS

Q: Can you describe some of the things writers need to think about in writing a salable story?

A: Since my entire career has been built on answering this question for writers and filmmakers, it’s pretty hard to reduce it to a single answer. But the best advice that comes to mind to cover all situations is to suggest that writers ask themselves three questions about every screenplay they write:

1. What is each character desperate to achieve?

2. What makes that goal seem impossible?

3. What terrifies each character?

Writers willing to dig deep enough to answer these questions are well on their way to a commercial screenplay. For much, much more, refer to my book Writing Screenplays That Sell or my CDs Screenwriting for Hollywood or The Hero’s 2 Journeys.

These seem like simple questions but I challenge each of you–new and experienced writers alike–to come up with solid, easily communicated answers for your current projects. If you can, consider yourself well on your way to creating a clear and compelling story. If you have some work to do, well, what are you waiting for?

This morning, the Obama Administration launched www.serve.gov its program to encourage and support each of us to contribute to the health of our local communities. Here are a few ways in which we literary types might share our wealth:

• provide escape and hope by teaching children living in shelters to read adventure novels
• record audiobooks for the visually impaired
• introduce kids to the world of creating comic books and graphic novels
• work with adults in need to improve their literacy skills
• mentor middle-schoolers who, with your help, could make it to college
• put your perfectionism and love of books to good use

There’s a search engine powered by ALL FOR GOOD to help you find activities in your area. Or maybe you want to create something of your own. Just because the art of the word comes easy to us doesn’t mean it does to others. Reading and writing shaped your lives. Let’s give someone else a shot at the same good fortune.

We writers are imagineers. We are seers. We create emotional experiences for tomorrow’s readers, viewers, and listeners through our stories today. Inventor Jay Walker is the curator of the Library of Human Imagination. The private library is his personal monument to human ingenuity — without which we writers would be lost. It is, without doubt, glorious.

This TED talk offers not only an interesting bit of history about the printed book but also Walker’s take on creativity:

So how do we create? [...We] create by surrounding ourselves with stimuli, with human achievement, with history, with the things that drive us and make us human. The passionate discovery, the bones of dinosaurs long gone, the maps of space that we’ve experienced, and ultimately the hallways that stimulate our mind and our imagination.

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The sometimes brusque Flannery O’Connor is quoted as having said that you cannot create emotion by using emotion. More precisely, from Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose:

The fiction writer has to realize that he can’t create compassion with compassion, or emotion with emotion, or thought with thought. He has to provide all these things with a body; he has to create a world with weight and extension. [...] The reason is usually that the student is wholly interested in his thoughts and his emotions and not in his dramatic action.

For writers of all forms, this is a point not to be overlooked. Practically, it means that we may want to rethink a character–let’s call her Mia–uttering the words, “Gee, Larry, I’m just so terrifically sad” if we actually want the audience/reader to feel Mia’s sadness. The same goes for the narrator, I’d say, unless used very, very carefully. We’ve all read an intensely personal blog post or watched a film where this happens, haven’t we? Our most likely response was in opposition to the author’s intent; perhaps disbelief. Or perhaps we laughed. Ouch.

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