20 Master Plots by Ronald B Tobias

Author:Ronald B Tobias [Tobias, Ronald B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-25T07:00:00+00:00

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So that's what we must do with riddles like The Trial: Construct a meaning. No one will tell us how all this fits together; it's up to us to make it work.

When Stanley Kubrick released 2001: A Space Odyssey (based on Arthur C. Clarke's story "The Sentinel of Eternity"), audiences were bewildered. The film was filled with objects and events that seemed to have meaning, and we struggled to put it all together. Many dismissed it as psychedelic babble, a sign of an unhinged mind. Critics were unimpressed. And yet the film was clearly a riddle begging solution. What is the rectangular monolith that keeps appearing from the prehistoric past to the future? What happens to David Bowman at the end of the film, when he's suddenly drawn into a Louis XIV drawing room somewhere near the moons of Jupiter? Why does Bowman transform from a decrepit old man in a Howard Hughes bedroom to a celestial embryo? What does it all mean? Figuring it out was like trying on new clothes at a department store. If you didn't like how it fit, you tried on something else. Who knew what it meant? Maybe it didn't really matter. The fun was in coming up with possibilities. Of course, for some, that's terribly frustrating and unfulfilling, rather like someone telling you a joke without a punchline.

To present a problem supposes an answer, but that's not always how it is. Writers who are serious about dealing with and reflecting the true nature of existence often find it presumptuous to present life as finite and clear. Your decision as a writer is whether you want to deal with a closed system that offers absolute answers or an open system that is uncertain and may not offer answers.

If you're interested in writing for the widest general audience, your options are more limited. The general audience prefers absolute answers. It wants its riddles solved. So decide whom you're writing for first.

CHECKLIST

As you write, keep the following points in mind:

1. The core of your riddle should be cleverness: hiding that which is in plain sight.

2. The tension of your riddle should come from the conflict between what happens as opposed to what seems to have happened.

3. The riddle challenges the reader to solve it before the protagonist does.

4. The answer to your riddle should always be in plain view without being obvious.

5. The first dramatic phase should consist of the generalities of the riddle (persons, places, events).

6. The second dramatic phase should consist of the specifics of the riddle (how persons, places and events relate to each other in detail).

7. The third dramatic phase should consist of the riddle's solution, explaining the motives of the antagonist(s) and the real sequence of events (as opposed to what seemed to have happened).

8. Decide on your audience.

9. Choose between an open-ended and a close-ended structure. (Open-ended riddles have no clear answer; close-ended ones do.)

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? No question captures the spirit of a plot better than this one.

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