Plot

Plot is important to any story. It drives characters and their development, it provides situations to react to, it tells the story, and it provides conflict to be involved with. The standard storytelling plot is the introduction and exposition, where the conflict, characters and setting are introduced; followed by the rising action which comprises most of the action of the story. The rising action leads up to the climax, which is the most important moment or instance of the story. The climax solves the conflict, and provides the major turning point of the story. The falling action leads into the resolution, and essentially, they wrap up the story or set up the sequel, sometimes both.

The difficulty with plot is that over time, many plots get recycled with new coats of paint. For example, the rags to riches story, one of the most prominent examples being Star Wars, now also known by it’s subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie starts out with the introduction and exposition, with the hunt for the stolen Death Star plans by the Empire, and then cutting to introduce the hero of the story: Luke Skywalker, living on a desolate desert planet. The rising action is the attempt to return the droids to rescue Princess Leia from the Empire, and get the plans back to the Rebel Alliance, with Luke learning how to take action on a much more impactful scale than his life back at home, which was destroyed by the Empire in search of the plans. The climax of the story is Luke taking the shot to destroy the Death Star in a last ditch effort to save the Rebel base. The falling action shows Luke and the rest of his fellowship being rewarded, showing Luke going from a farm boy to a hero of the Rebellion. Star Wars, as with many rags to riches stories, shares many of the same tropes: dead parents, home being destroyed, a mentor who gets killed right before the hero faces their greatest challenge, etc.

The problem is, that numerous movies and stories with the same ideas as Star Wars have been produced in the last several decades. It’s become predictable to audiences who have seen any number of stories like that, so the question I have found to ask lately is how I can invert the expectations. For example, instead of having a hero who needs to learn to use their skills, have them be competent off the bat, that way, the conflict is not about if they are strong enough, but how they will beat the villain. Romance subplot, especially in non-romantic focused stories, is important to many action movies and so on, and the romance typically follows the action girl meets hero boy, they have unresolved tension and bicker and argue constantly, there is a quiet scene where they realize their feelings for each other, they act on them, then do something stupid and it almost ends, they beat the bad guy, and then they kiss at the end and are together going forward. The way I try to resolve this is by having the characters get together sooner than later and their romantic subplot is about them navigating being heroes while still having a relationship, because it is not done as commonly.

Exploring plot is a good idea for writers, but the biggest question to ask is how can someone write something different than the “standard,” what can they do to differentiate their story from the commonly known tropes and habits.