2o Master Plots Lesson 2.1 Effective Tension

[ScienceGirl]

The Lowest Common Plot Denominators

Tobias starts off chapter two with a great quote from Edgar Allen Poe, "And much of madness, and more of sin, and horror the soul of plot." 

In other words, plot has components. They'd better be interesting components, or the plot is not going to resonate with readers. A romantic plot is completely lost on my soccer-loving, manly-man, therapist husband, but if you give him a good dog story, he's all in. So some of that depends on interests, sure. 

Except my husband LOVES the book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (and the movie, but the book more). The plot of this book is boy meets girl, they fall in love, and things are great until baseball season starts and she realizes boy loves baseball more. Boy has to choose between his love of baseball and the love of the girl, and the end result is an entertaining and quirky story full of elements that keep us both happy.

The Princess Bride is the same way. I'm probably not your typical romance fan. In fact, I much prefer the fighting and the gore. Marvel AND DC for me, please. And Star Wars, and anything else that has fast-paced action and quick-witted humor that the average population might overlook. The story of The Princess Bride is so over the top with rich characters and shocking plot twists that it's a timeless relic, perfect for showing in my classroom during testing no matter what personality mix I have. 

So, what makes those plots work and others fizzle? 

In chapter two, Tobias turns our minds from plot bieng a force to considering plot as a container that holds everything and dictates the overall shape of the story. Then, he likens plot to a road map that keeps the writer from drifting aimlessly. Knowing all these rules helps us know where we are headed. However, he also quotes Pablo Picasso, who says:

We must first learn the rules to know how to break them.

So, even if you don't intend to use any of these plots, it's important to study them.

Tobias offers 8 common denominators to good plot:
1) Make tension fuel your plot. 
2) Create more tension through opposition
3) Make tension grow as opposition increases
4) Make character change the point of your story
5) When something happens, make sure it's important
6) Make the causal look casual
7) Leave Lady Luck and Chance to the lottery
8) Make sure your central character performs the central action of the climax

So we'll spend the rest of this post looking at denominators 1 and 2. 

1) Make Tension Fuel Your Plot

Tobias is very frank with us. No tension = no plot. It might be "story" but we've already discussed how plotless story gets us nowhere. This article from MasterClass.com helps us understand the distinction between tension and conflict. The writer explains that tension is that ominous sensation that something terrible looms around the corner. You use strategies such as foreshadowing, inner conflict, and a time limit to keep the stakes super high for your protagonist.

Conflict, however, is an active opposition. It could be a physical fight or a seemingly insurmountable barrier. In The Princess Bride, for example, the Fire Swamp is a source of conflict. But it's not enough to just make the Fire Swamp exist. This conflict works because it's drawn out with a good mix of flirty banter and normal things one might do while taking a stroll through a swamp. Imagine if William Goldman had just written it as: In this swamp, there were fire spurts, quicksand, and giant rats. And that's all we ever saw of them! But he didn't! That battle with Wesley and the giant rat is one of the most epic moments of the movie, especially when Buttercup takes the rat out with the fire spurt. It's those unexpected moments where Wesley saves Buttercup from the first fire spurt and they move onward that keep the tension going. 

And poor Wesley! He can't catch a break. The moment he makes it past one conflict, another one appears. This pattern creates tension in itself. 

Tobias gives us a simple way to create this tension. Simply deny whatever it is your main character intends. Again, and again, and again, until finally they reach it at the end of the story.

2) Create More Tension Through Opposition

This idea of denying your character's goal over and over again is opposition. To better explain this, Tobias delves into the role of the protagonist and antagonist. If you do not have someone or something cutting your main character off at every pass, then you don't have a true antagonist. 

It's like me and my dog (which my daughter named Lilac). She's part Jack Russell, part King Cavalier Spaniel, and all determination. And she LOVES to eat q-tips, which my kids love distributing all over our house. So every morning, it goes pretty much the same. I wake up around 6-ish and she comes bouncing into the bedroom. She notices the bathroom door is open. There's sure to be a q-tip there. But I jump up and close it. Denied! No Q-tip for Lilac. 

I carry her down the steps and put on her leash to take her outside. She notices a Q-tip has been left on the coffee table where my daughter had been using it to mix some sort of concoction. She leaps toward said coffee table. I tug on the leash. Denied! 

Remember that your path from start to finish in a novel should never be an easy, straight line. The more opposition you have, the more tension. And the more tension, the more fuel to keep the story going. 

It's important to note, as Tobias says, that opposition can present itself in many different ways: 

The antagonist may be external in the form of a separate person, place, or thing, such as an enemy, a rival, or a competitior. Or, it may be internal--within the character of the protagonist, who may be trying to overcome some doubt, fear, or flaw. 

He distinguishes local tension, which is related to the "conflict of the moment" and fundamental tension, which is related to the overall plot. For example, lets say a boy proposes to a gir. She says no because he's a drunk (Tobias elaborates on this example more in the text). The local tension would be in the moment of her saying no and his reaction to that. The fundamental tension is that he's got a drinking problem to overcome. 

Just like in Fever Pitch, where Ben's love of baseball is tied to a larger fundamental conflict that's central to the story, there are several little arguments along the way that lead him and Lindsay to a place where they can't continue if his obsession with baseball continues. It's in this larger, overall tension that you find your climax and resolution for the story.