Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 09:43:11 EDT
Subject: EXERCISE: Plot #12: Transformation: 20 Master Plots
Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B.
Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8.
Master Plot #12: Transformation
(p. 153) "The plot of transformation deals with the process of change in
the protagonist as she journeys through one of the many stages of life.
The plot isolates a portion of the protagonist's life that represents
the period of change, moving from one significant character state to
another."
Some "standard" points of change: becoming adult; war and combat; search
for identity; divorce and other family shifts; facing violence; deaths;
and learning something new (remember Pygmalion?).
But the large-scale change is only one kind. Consider small events that
may build and shake lives...
Structure:
Phase one - an incident that starts a change in the protagonist's
life. Be sure the reader knows who the protagonist is before the
change!
Now let the ripples of the incident begin to stretch out..."There
are lessons to be learned, judgments to be made, insights to be seen."
Phase two - show us the full effects of the transforming incident.
What hidden parts of the main character are stirred up in the wake of
the storm?
Phase three - show us (often via another incident) the results of
the transformation. What does the protagonist (and the reader) learn?
"It's common for a protagonist to learn lessons other than what he
expected to learn. The real lessons are often the hidden or unexpected
ones. Expectations are baffled; illusions are destroyed. Reality
overtakes fantasy."
Checklist:
1. Does your plot of transformation deal with the process of change
as the protagonist journeys through one of the many stages of life?
2. Does the plot isolate a portion of the protagonist's life that
represents the period of change, moving from one significant character
state to another?
3. Does the story concentrate on the nature of change and how it
affects the protagonist from start to end of the experience?
4. Does the first dramatic phase relate the transforming incident
that propels the protagonist into a crisis, starting the process of
change?
5. Does the second dramatic phase depict the effects of the
transformation? Does it concentrate on the self-examination and
character of the protagonist?
6. Does the third dramatic phase contain a clarifying incident
representing the final stage of the transformation? Does the character
understand the true nature of the experience and how it has affected
him? Does true growth and understanding occur?
7. What is the price of the wisdom gained? a certain sadness?
Thus spake Tobias (along with some paraphrasing).
Transformation, change...what could be more appropriate for our little
Halloweenies contest? (Don't know what I'm talking about? Take a look
at http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/hall97/hall.html !)
Let's pick a number! From one to six, or thereabouts?
1. amphisbaena -- serpent having a head at each end (Greece)
2. dybbuk -- dead person's evil spirit that invades a living person
(Jewish folklore)
3. ghoul -- evil being that feeds on corpses
4. lamia -- monster with the head and breast of a woman and body of a
serpent that lured children to suck their blood
5. phoenix -- immortal bird that cremates itself every 500 years, then
emerges reborn from the ashes (Greece)
6. windigo -- evil spirit, cannibal demon (Native American folklore)
[taken from the section on Mythological and Folkloric Beings in Random
House Word Menu, ISBN 0-679-40030-3]
Now, back up and consider your character(s). How old are they? What
change or shift in their life are they facing? For example, someone who
is just starting high school has a little different viewpoint from
someone who is about to graduate from college and face the world of
work, or from the young couple about to have their first baby, or the
slightly older parent thinking about their child leaving home, or...
And don't forget, if you don't want to go with the big shifts, a little
dabble do you! So think about the change they were facing...
Then mix in that delightful creature you picked up in the first part.
Offhand, I'd recommend making a couple of lists. First, a list of
points about the change--what's good, what's bad, what are we going to
learn from it? Second, a list of points about the monster in our
midst--what's good, what's bad, what are we going to do about it? Now,
look at the linkages between the lists. Can defeating the monster be
turned into a sort of metaphor for the change we are dealing with? What
if we don't defeat the monster, but learn from it something about
ourselves? Could defeating the monster be an "anti-metaphor,"
contrasted to the change which we cannot defeat?
What if we are transformed into the monster? Or what if there is no
monster, just poor sad humanity, hiding behind the cloak of the monster?
Let's see. How about something borrowed, and perhaps blue? Pick a
number, one to six, and let's see what you got:
1. a yellow highlighter
2. a red papiermache pepper
3. a 5 pound bag of sugar
4. a spoonful of hot fudge
5. a two year old comic book from a dentist's waiting room
6. a clipboard
There you go. Now you have a prop, a little bit of physical setting
which you are going to cleverly weave into the story. And don't forget,
if you mention hot fudge in the first scene, someone should have a
sundae before we get done...
Put it all together, it spells...
Well, that's up to you!
Write!
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