Plot & Portfolio

Today, please read this blog post and complete the class note questions. Our test next week will cover plot, setting, POV, description, characterization, and character. You should be familiar with all the various terms (see post above this one for a list from which to study for the test). 

PLOT

Plot refers to: the actions or incidents occurring in a story (usually in chronological order, but not always). Stories can be plotted in other ways. See below for details.

Without plot, we do not have a story. A plot is a plan or groundwork of human motivations, with the actions resulting from believable and realistic human responses. In simple terms, plot deals with CAUSE and EFFECT.

E.M. Forester:
“The king died, and then the queen died.”

To have a good plot, a sequence of events must include motivation which is based on reaction to action.

“The king died, and then the queen died of grief.”

Events and time in a story are not important in and of themselves but because one thing happens because of another thing (i.e. cause and effect).

Conflict is the essential element of plot because this is where human responses are brought out to their highest degree.

Once two (or more) forces are in opposition, there is doubt about the outcome, thus producing tension and suspense as well.

There are typically four types of conflict in literature, the last three could also be added in contemporary fiction:

• Person versus person
• Person versus self
• Person versus nature
• Person versus society
• (Person versus God is also another common conflict used in literature.) 
• (Person versus machine) (that which is unnatural)
• (God or "fate" versus everybody) 

Plot Structure: The arrangement and placement of materials (characters, etc.) or events within a narrative or drama. Plot structure unifies a story so that it all comes together.

• Plot: Describes the conflicts in a story or narrative.
• Structure deals with the way a work is laid out and given form to bring out the conflict.

Categories of Plot Structure:

• Exposition
• Rising Action/Complication
• Crisis or turning point
• Climax
• Denouement/falling action/resolution

Typical Plot Arrangements

• Linear (a story that focuses on a specific cause and its effects; this is most typically created when the author uses chronological time to organize the plot events; e.g., one moment or scene or day followed by the next and so on)
• Non-linear (a story that is not organized by chronological time; a story that uses flashbacks or flashforwards, skipping from one time or event to another) 

How to improve your 1st drafts and their plots:
1. Choose a story you have written in which you are dissatisfied with the plot.
2. Rearrange the plot so that it is not linear. Use a non-linear structure by using a flashback or flash forward technique.
3. Examine one of the weakest points of your plot. Is your story weak because of a crisis, a climax, a conclusion or denouement, or perhaps you did not include an exposition. Rewrite the story by adding any one or more of these details.
4. Examine your story for conflict. Is the conflict appropriate for the story?
5. According to E.M. Forester, to have a good plot, a sequence of events must include motivation which is based on reaction to action. Does your story have this? Rewrite to include character motivation as a reaction to the action of your story.

Lab: Write. Prepare your portfolio. Turn in your questions by the end of class today.

HOMEWORK: Your portfolio is due next class. Please catch up and complete your work. Please bring your short story collections to class on Tuesday. We will be using them in class.

There will be a unit test on Thursday, covering fiction elements. Please come to class on Tuesday with any questions you have on character, characterization, tense, POV, plot, setting, or description.

The Fiction Portfolio & Assignments

This marking period we have been working on the craft of fiction. Specifically, we have covered a variety of topics including: character, characterization, POV, setting, description, and will follow all this up with plot.

Today, please write. Your portfolio should include a variety of fiction (both first drafts and some second drafts). I will be grading you on your ability and crafting, as opposed to "is everything there." Your work in your portfolio should reflect the hard work and effort you put into the marking period. If you have little writing (only one or two stories that are not well written), you have not met the requirements of this course for this marking period. The portfolio should show me what you have done in the last six weeks.

Missing Assignments: On your grade report, any score of a "1" indicates that you have not turned in or completed this assignment. You are more than welcome to make up any score of a "1" for more credit, but realize that late and missing work will affect your overall grade. What are you missing? If you cannot tell, then you are either: A). not reading the blog posts each class and noting what assignments are due as HOMEWORK (posted each day at the end of a blog entry) or B). not paying attention (I remind the class verbally each day what homework was due), or C). unable to understand directions. If this is the case, please ask questions about the assignment.

LAB WORK: Please use the time today in the lab to write. If all the homework and story drafts have been completed at this point, please begin working on creating second drafts of your earlier drafts (include what you have been learning in class, and show that you understand this material by including it in your second or third drafts). Keep track of draft numbers, as always.

Finished and there's still time?
Go on to work on one of these setting exercises. This is BRAINSTORMING and should be treated as such. Don't label these exercises yet as a draft ONE. You may complete as many of these exercises as you wish. Change anything you feel you need to as this is just BRAINSTORMING - the first step in the writing process. When you have written one or more of these things, you may use what you've written to start a new draft of a story, or add details to your previous drafts.

HOMEWORK: Select one story from your collection and examine the story for the author's use of SETTING. Write down your observations on an index card and turn in next class. Please also read the handout on Setting and Description.

Setting

You are ready to put your characters in a setting. Before you begin, make sure you understand the following. Take notes on SETTING.
Setting: The natural and artificial scenery or environment in which characters in literature live and move.

Setting is the when and where your story takes place.
Apart from Character and Plot, Setting is one of the most important elements in your writing.

Setting includes:

• Artifacts or Props (the things characters use)
• Clothes (the things characters wear)
• Time of day, conditions of the weather
• Geography and location
• Trees, animals, and nature
• Inside and outside sounds, smells
• All physical and temporal objects

So that means setting refers to:

• The location (locale) or place the story is set
• The weather (including the season)
• The time
• The time period (historical period)

In short: setting refers to all the places and objects that are important in the work, whether natural or manufactured.

Types of Settings:

1. Natural
Nature shapes action and directs and redirects lives.

2. Manufactured
Manufactured things always reflect the people who made them.
Possessions often enter into character motivation and development.

3. Interior: locales INSIDE. Symbolically often refers to private/domestic issues.

4. Exterior: locales OUTSIDE. Symbolically often refers to societal issues.

What is a regional writer?
• A regional writer chooses to set all of his/her stories in one general place or time period. This place usually reflects how the author grew up.

Regional writers include:
• William Faulkner
• Stephen King
• H.P. Lovecraft
• Flannery O’Connor
• Bharakti Mukerjee
• Eudora Welty

Function of Setting:

1. Setting as Antagonist.

• Settings can cause problems/conflict for characters

2. Setting as reflection of mindset or ideology of one of your characters (often your protagonist)
3. Setting as character portrait

• Settings reflect or contrast character’s wants/desires, goals

4. Setting as quality of narrative vision

• Setting establishes trust between storyteller and audience
• Description of setting helps reader visualize the fictional world

5. Setting as reflection of theme or idea
6. Setting as reflection of conflict
7. Setting as mood or atmosphere
8. Setting as foreshadowing of plot
9. Setting as beginning and ending (establishing and closing shot…or frame)

Now, (THIS IS STILL BRAINSTORMING AND SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN YOUR JOURNAL): choose 1 or more of your characters that you created a character sketch for. This character will be your protagonist. The story should at this point revolve around this character. Put your character in your setting and write a short scene (1-3 pages).

Finished and there's still time?
Go on to work on one of these setting exercises. This is BRAINSTORMING. Don't label it yet as a draft ONE. You may use as many of these exercises as you wish. Change anything you feel you need to as this is just BRAINSTORMING - the first step in the writing process.

Character Design & Questionnaire; POV; Writing Exercises

Today we will play around with some exercises to build and create characters. Please complete at least two of the following tasks during the lab. You should keep these brainstorming/idea gathering exercises for future stories you will write. You may keep these assignments and notes in your notebook/writing journal.

1. Complete the character questionnaire. The questionnaire includes information and questions for supporting minor characters and antagonists.
2. On an index card, draw a picture of a character (you may choose to complete this exercise more than once, each time creating a new character.) On the back of the card, write any important details that go along with the character. You may also choose to color your picture if you'd like. Keep these character cards for future stories.
3. Using a magazine cut up photographs or words found in the magazine and arrange these pictures and words to create a character collage. Please pick up scraps around your area if you choose this. Keep the classroom tidy for other students.
4. Choose a character from one of the stories you have read from your short story collection. In your notebook, sketch or design a character that would either be a friend of this character, or a character who would be an enemy or antagonist to this character. Give this new character a description, name, personality, background, etc.

IN THE LAB: Please read the article on POV. On a sheet of paper to turn in, please answer:

• 1. What are three things you think are important for you to know as a writer about Point of View from this chapter?
• 2. Explain the difference between 3-Person limited and objective POV.
• 3. What is meant by "Omniscience"?
• 4. What are multiple viewpoints?
• 5. What is skeptical point of view?

When you have completed this article and played around with character design, check out:
HeroMachine. Play around with this website to create a hero/villain/anti-hero character. You can even base one on yourself.

HOMEWORK: Read your short story collection. If you are behind, please use the break to get caught up. Not sure what you had to do in the last six weeks? Check the blog.

POV and Character

Take notes on the following, to turn in today as participation credit:

1. What goes into choosing a POV (point of view) for a story (see below for the answer)?
2. What are the strengths/weaknesses of each POV form (see below for the answer)?
3. Read the chapter on Character. After reading, answer the following questions:

A. According to the article why is character and characterization important?
B. What is meant by hamartia?
C. Why is it important to give your characters a flaw?
D. What is the difference between "round" and "flat" characters?
E. Where do authors find inspiration or ideas for their characters?
F. What are some ways in which an author can portray a character?

When you have read the article and answered these questions, please turn in your answers for participation credit.

Characters, Characterization, & Point of View

Choosing a POV for your character:
Major Question for the author: Who is my story about?

• --Someone who is most interesting
• --Someone who is involved in the action of the story
• --Someone who has the most to gain or lose from the event 

There are three different types of point of view.

1st Person POV: Main character is the narrator (good subjectivity, but lacks objectivity, limited to one character’s mind). 1st person POV narrators can either be RELIABLE (what they say can be trusted) or UNRELIABLE (what they say is often a lie or obfuscates (clouds) the truth). 

2nd Person POV: Main character is the “reader”, used through an objective and omniscient “I” narrator (difficult to maintain for a long time, reader must be willing to play the part, difficult to reach into reader’s mind)

Third Person POV: Omniscient or Limited
Omniscient narrators can tell the story of many characters, but this can be confusing. The reader may not know who the story is about or whose conflict is important.
A limited POV allows the writer to focus on one particular character. The story told is the story of that character. Consistent POV gives a story coherence. Inconsistent POV confuses the reader.

LAB ASSIGNMENT: POV exercise. Please complete the following lab assignment AFTER you have read and answered the questions posted above.

1. Choose one short story from your collection. Choose either the opening line or the ending line of the story. (If you have a favorite line INSIDE the body of the story, you may select that as well.)
2. Using this line as a beginning (you may change any names or details as you deem fit to change, but keep the structure of the sentence) write a story in NO MORE THAN 100 words. Your story should have a beginning, middle, and end--and develop a single character.
3. Write your first story in 1st person POV.
4. Write the same story (still 100 words or less) in 2nd person POV.
5. Write the story a third time (100 words or less) in 3rd person POV (either limited or omniscient, your choice).

HOMEWORK: Choose one of the exercises in the chapter Character and complete it for Tuesday, Nov. 20. Indicate which # you chose when turning in your homework.

Short Story Forum Response

During 7th period, please respond and complete the question/critique on the forum regarding your short story collection (A-M). During 8th period we will be returning to the library and checking out our second short story collection.

Lab: Complete draft 2 of any or all of your stories. If you finish early, you may:
1. Read your chosen short story collection, looking specifically for the author's use of characterization (this is homework, as well)
2. Write a new story
3. Write a new poem
4. Revise an old poem from your portfolio, considering persona or speaker and use characterization.

NOTE: Our coffee house performance is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater. Any one who attends AND reads will be given extra participation credit for this marking period. Hope to see you there.

HOMEWORK: Prepare for the coffee house; Read 1-3 stories in your chosen collection and bring your books with you next time to class.

Characterization: Draft #2

After our quiz, please go to the lab and complete the assignment assigned last class. Directions are posted in the post below. Please read the directions VERY CAREFULLY, one sentence at a time. Then complete the assignment.

Please turn in your homework from last class.

HOMEWORK: Complete your short story collection for Wednesday, Nov. 14. Read as many stories as you'd like.

Character Exercises (Draft #2)

After our writing exercise, let's discuss characterization and character building in fiction.

Characters are an essential element to poetry, fiction, and plays.

How your characters act, react, handle obstacles and think or feel in a story IS the story. Readers want to connect with a character who thinks, feels, acts, reacts. A character that does not think or feel or act or react to a situation is a boring or static, flat character.

Today, please rewrite your stories (those you have completed a first draft for so far) to include more characterization and character development. There are a myriad of ways to do this. Here are some options:

1. Young writers often forget to have their characters think. Find scenes in your story where you have omitted (left out) this essential character-building element and have your character/protagonist THINK about what is happening, what someone just said, or what he/she just did.

2. Find a scene in your story where your character needs to FEEL something. Either show how the character is feeling by a character's actions, or directly through prose by stating...this character was feeling sad because his dog was run-over this morning by a delivery truck. Either way, FEELINGS help a reader identify and understand a character's motivation.

3. Find a scene in your story where you character is not reacting to the events of the story. Slow down the scene's narrative and get the character involved physically, emotionally (feeling), or intellectually (thinking).

4. Find a scene in your story where your character is not reacting to something another character said or did--find a scene in which an event just happened. Now describe how the character REACTED to this information, event, dialogue, etc.

If we were to break down description in a story into parts, we might divide it into:

A. Details of physical setting or physical character
B. Thoughts and feelings of a character reacting, or acting (often an internal monologue)
C. Details of a subject or idea (often reflective and rich in imagery)
D. Details of an action or event
E. Dialogue

 Examine your story for its use of description. Increase the amount of detail in your 1st draft.

Lab: Complete draft 2 of any or all of your stories. If you finish early, you may:
1. Read your chosen short story collection, looking specifically for the author's use of characterization (this is homework, as well)
2. Write a new story
3. Write a new poem
4. Revise an old poem from your portfolio, considering persona or speaker and use characterization.

HOMEWORK: Please read and select a story in your short story collection and examine the author's use of characterization in the story. How does the author develop character by using dialogue, description, and details? Would you consider the protagonist of the story to be flat, round, stereotypical, dynamic, etc.? Defend your answer with textual details. Please write out your answer and turn it in next class (Friday, Nov. 9)

Character & Characterization

Characterization: An author uses characterization to develop character in a story. They do this by using:

• Dialogue (what a character says)
• What a character says about him/herself
• What other characters say about the character
• Internal thoughts (what a character thinks about another character, him/herself, or an event)
• Actions (what a character does)
• Details (description of character's personality, physicality, spiritual or mental state)

Character Key Terms: When referring to characters, we should refer to them correctly.

• Hero/Heroine: The main character of a story (term often only used in epics or fantasy genres)
• Villain: The character who opposes the main character (term often only used in epics/fantasy)
• Antihero: A normal, ordinary character
• Protagonist: The main character of a story (term preferred for most literature)
• Antagonist: The opponent of the protagonist (term preferred for most literature)
• Foil: Either one who is opposite to the main character or nearly the same as the main character. The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the main character by contrast, and perhaps by setting up situations in which the protagonist can show his or her character traits. A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character but, in so doing, highlights various facets of the main character's personality.

Characters can be either major or minor, round or flat.

• Major characters are characters who are important to the conflict and plot of the story. They often have motivations linked with the main conflict
• Minor characters are characters who are not necessarily important to the story. They often are used to develop the main characters or to provide rising action or complications to the plot.
• Round characters have a distinct motivation and personality or “voice”; Often they are complex and dynamic (they change through the conflict of the story)
• Flat characters are characters that do not change significantly through the conflict of the plot. Sometimes the reader knows or cares little about them because of lack of detail or purpose.
• Stereotypes: Characters who are generally recognized as a “type”; These characters lack individuality and often can be boring because we already know how they will act and why.

Ways to develop character:

• Characterization: Physical characteristics and personality characteristics which develop the individualization of a character.
• Motivation: reasons for the character to act in the story
• Dialogue: What characters say helps to develop them
• What other characters say about a character also helps develop them
• Action: Describing the actions of a character helps develop them (allows writer to show not tell)

Structuring a Story

Today, to begin class, please log on to our forum. Post a comment in the Craft of Writing folder for Short Story Collection #1, and answer the question posed there. Your reply should be completed by the end of today's class.

Many of you have not yet completed the following assignments:

• 1. The baseline fiction short story.
• 2. The short story draft for the chapter: Ideas For Fiction
• 3. The two short story sheets from short stories you have read from your collection.

To those of you who have completed this work, thank you. We are currently writing fiction stories. For each new story you write, you will be gaining skill in writing fiction. All drafts of your stories should be printed out and saved in your portfolio. I have asked for no revisions at this time, but we will be getting there soon.

Writers use a variety of techniques to structure their stories. Take a look at these 8 options, choose one that you haven't used before, and use the technique to write a new story. Genre and length is up to you.

1. Write your story with a beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning, define what your protagonist wants and why he wants it. In the middle, create obstacles the protagonist must overcome in order to accomplish his goal. In the end, resolve the situation in a believable or logical way.

2. Work organically. Make a few notes about your character(s) and scenes. Decide what you want your story to be about and begin writing. Allow one situation to lead to the next. Start by putting your protagonist in a situation and complication, then write until you are stuck or come to a stopping point. Stop to analyze what your character is thinking, doing, or wanting to do. Stay open to a character's choices. Listen to your characters. Put yourself in their shoes, minds, etc. Let them come up with a solution to their main problem or situation.

3. Start a story with your protagonist in a specific scene. Write only this scene. When done consider what the logical sequel to this scene is. Write the sequel as a scene. Then continue to write scenes and sequels until you have a coherent story. Sometimes it's helpful to work from action to action. Try to pull the reader into the next scene by planting a hook, using suspense, or promising more to come.

4. Create an outline of your plot first. Break down the plot scene by scene. What events occur and in what logical order? Write these down as a standard outline. Then place your protagonist in the outline, write the scene as you envisioned it, and keep writing step by step until the entire story is resolved. This form often is useful to writers of the mystery genre. ALTERNATIVE: you can write backwards as well. Start with the ending and write an outline going backwards.

5. Create a visual map or story board of your story. Break down your scenes in images. Include your protagonist and write from your drawings. You may find it useful to use the drawings as "key" moments in your story. Write until you arrive at one of these key moments, then select the next picture or visual and write toward that. Continue until you are done.

6. Write your scenes on 3x5 cards and arrange them on a wall or table or desk. Change the cards around, adding some, tossing out others, until you are satisfied with the arrangement of the plot.

7. Use the standard story structure: create a hook, inciting incident, include exposition, create rising action, rise to a crisis, reach a climax, include falling action, find a resolution or denouement.

8. Mix-n-Match. You may complete any of these techniques to create a story. You may also make up your own path. Creativity has no boundaries. Just write...

IN THE LAB: Use one of these techniques to structure a story (pick one you never or haven't used before), choose a specific genre (take a look at your brochures for options), and write a new draft of a new story. Use any techniques discussed so far in class to come up with an idea (the first step in the writing process).

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter on Character. In your journal, complete one of the exercises in the chapter. If this creates a draft of a story, please write that and put it in your portfolio.