Ideas in Creative Writing – Plotwriting Exercise
An Exercise in Theme and Understanding Plotline
Sep 6, 2008
Nearly all plots, even those written by ghostwriters in the world of pulp fiction paperbacks, contain at least a primary message, if not many relevant themes. The greatest works of literature manage to incorporate theme into a convincing and exciting narrative.
Theme and Message
A great example of this is most likely Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a story set in a dystopic near future that is both compelling and exciting while examining the themes of censorship, addiction, and the loss of emotion and selflessness in an increasingly technological era.
Theme is extremely important to the success and depth of your plot and you should always have a message to impart to the reader – a contemporary contextual issue illustrated and integrated into the framework of your fictional universe. The most difficult part of this venture for the prospective writer, is to allow for this deeper probing at the mysteries of the human condition without a heavy-handed, obtuse, or clumsy approach. Oftentimes a book will be criticised on these previous faults, due to the failure of the author to carry a message without ruining the excitement of the narrative and to maintain suspension of disbelief amongst their readership.
This too will likely pose a great challenge, and so writers should constantly be wary of how much attention to pay to both the fictional narrative and the thematic message. A balancing act is probably the simplest way to explain this duality - depending on the particular skill, genre, and vision for the writing project there is a fairly broad allowance for success.
Plotting Along : A Brief Exercise
A simple exercise to brainstorm a few plots is to create a cast of characters, and begin asking yourself the most basic questions : Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How?
- Who is undertaking the action?
- Who will help him or her?
- Who will antagonize them?
- What is their motivation?
- What are their fatal weaknesses?
- Where do they live, and where will they be travelling?
- When does this take place?
- When was the problem conceived?
- When will the action be resolved?
- Why are you even writing this novel or short story?
- Why should the reader care about this party?
- Why should the readers care about this message and theme – what impact does it have on their lives?
And finally – how will their characters achieve their goals, or how will they fail?
Asking the questions of your timeline, message, cast of characters, plot devices, and finally yourself will strength the foundation of your work. After figuring out the direction – in a basic fashion – that you would like your plot to take you are one step closer to putting pen to paper in creating a personal masterpiece!
Other Creative Writing Articles by Nicholas Morine
Click here for more advice on constructing a timeline, history, and backgrounder
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