by Ruth Owen
When I wrote my first book, it felt like a huge accomplishment. It was as if I had built a whole house. I showed it to some family and friends, who basically told me, “Cool! I like your house! It’s neat. One of the windows was a little askew, and there weren’t doorknobs on some of the bedroom doors, but I loved it. Let me know when actual real people want to move in.”
So I felt pretty good about myself. Then I got some actual, real beta readers—writing peers who knew more about writing books than my family and friends. They also weren’t afraid of hurting my feelings. Beta readers are like construction workers—they’ll recognize some things you’ve built wrong and give suggestions for how to fix it.
Suddenly I was getting comments akin to “You’ve done your wiring wrong” and “You haven’t put in enough insulation.” Bigger issues. I went back and revised. I tore open walls, fixed the wiring, and added insulation until it was up to code.
Then I joined a writing group. Now, the writers in this group were more experienced than me. Most of them had agents. Some had traditionally published books—even series of books. They knew what they were about. And their comments almost crushed me. If they had been comments about my pretend house, which looked so good at first glance, they would be things like this:
- Your foundation isn’t level.
- Your plumbing doesn’t connect to the sewer correctly.
- Your roof isn’t going to be watertight.
Ouch.
Developmental editors work with authors on these foundational issues, and generally, what you’ll need to do when you get feedback like this—as hard as it can be to take—is to make HUGE changes. I have seen even seasoned writers completely rewrite books. It can feel so frustrating to tear down a house you spent months building just so you can start building it again right. But if you have foundational problems, cosmetic fixes won’t be enough.
What are some of these foundational issues for writers?
- Your book doesn’t have a real plot.
- Your character doesn’t grow or change over the course of the book.
- Your character doesn’t play an active enough role in the plot.
- Readers can’t connect to your character.
- The ending doesn’t work.
- You start in the wrong place.
Most of the time I find that these problems are so closely interrelated that I can’t solve one problem without solving the others. Plot and character create one another. To show you what I mean, let me first define plot.
What Is a Plot? How Do I Know If I Have One?
Doesn’t every story have a plot? Isn’t the plot just what happens?
Actually, no. A plot requires a conflict. And the formula for conflict is
DESIRE + OBSTACLE
Let’s talk about some examples:
- Harry Potter longs for a loving family (desire), but his parents are dead, and his aunt and uncle are abusive (obstacle).
- ET wants to go home (desire), but he’s stuck on a backwater planet with a bunch of kids who don’t speak his language, and he’s dying (obstacles).
- Jim is in love with Pam (desire), but she considers him a friend and is engaged to someone else (obstacle).
Readers are drawn to a good conflict. They yearn for the main character to achieve their goals. They dread what might happen if they don’t. They can’t wait to see sparks fly when desire and obstacle crash into one another and cause all sorts of interesting problems. A good conflict is the heart of a story.
Some Common Plot Formulas
Let’s talk about some formulas that other smart people have developed. These are the basic frameworks you can build a plot around. They tend to be very simplistic so that they can be adapted to fit each individual story. One note: These plot formulas describe/prescribe the structure for typical Western storytelling. Other cultures have different expectations and structures.
The Hollywood Formula
According to the Hollywood formula, there are three essential characters in any story:
- Protagonist: The protagonist must have a definite achievable goal.
- Antagonist: The antagonist places obstacles to that goal in the path of the protagonist. Their goals oppose those of the protagonist.
- Relationship/dynamic character: This character accompanies the protagonist on their journey. Usually this person is a mentor or a love interest. This person typically articulates the theme at some point (often near the end).
According to the Hollywood formula, the story ends when Protagonist achieves goal, defeats Antagonist, reconciles with Relationship Character, and understands Theme. The closer these events occur, the more powerful the ending.
The story takes place in three “acts”:
Act 1 (first 30 pages of a movie script, assuming 120 pages total)
- 10–15 pages in: the inciting incident (the call to adventure, where the main character decides to engage with the plot)
- Asking questions
Act 2
- Still asking questions up to p. 60
- Start answering questions pp. 60–90
- Act 3
- Page 90: low point/dark moment/all is lost. The protagonist is the farthest from the goal it’s possible to be.
- Final battle leading to the climax
- Denouement
Save the Cat
The Save the Cat structure (see the book Save the Cat and the www.savethecat.com for more information) includes a few more plot points:
- Opening Image (1)
- Theme Stated (5)
- Set-Up (1-10)
- Catalyst (12)
- Debate (12-25)
- Break into Two (25)
- B Story (30)
- Fun and Games (30-55)
- Midpoint (55)
- Bad Guys Close In (55-75)
- All Is Lost (75)
- Dark Night of the Soul (75-85)
- Break into Three (85)
- Finale (85-110)
- Final Image (110)
Check out the book and/or the website for more information if this plot structure appeals to you.
The Seven-Point Structure
This one is more complex than the basic Hollywood Formula but less complex (and less specific) than Save the Cat.
Hook (same as Opening Image, the thing that sucks the reader in from the first sentence, the first paragraph, and the first page)
Plot Turn 1 (same as inciting incident)
Pinch 1 (makes things more difficult for the protagonist)
Midpoint (usually a big scene that starts the ball rolling toward the climax)
Plot Turn 2 (same as Bad Guys Close In)
Pinch 2 (other names for this include Dark Moment, Dark Night of the Soul, All Is Lost, etc.)
Resolution
If you want more information on this one, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE
Story Genius
Story Genius is a fair bit different from the others. Lisa Cron’s theory is that a plot is created by the protagonist’s core misbelief, which is the opposite of the theme. Therefore, she talks mostly about discovering your character’s core misbelief and then exploring how that causes conflict that forces your main character to undergo try/fail cycles in order to solve the conflict, and in so doing, learning to correct their core misbelief. There’s a lot more to it than that, and the whole book is fantastic, so I highly recommend you pick it up if you want to create more realistic and dynamic characters and more engaging plots.
Which Is Best?
It depends. I like Save the Cat for its very specific terminology. I find “Bad Guys Close In” more helpful when I’m sketching out a plot than “Plot Turn 2.” I can never remember the difference between a plot turn and a pinch and between 1 and 2. But I feel like, for me, Save the Cat has too many steps after the dark moment. My stories don’t fit it as well as they do the Seven Point Formula or the Hollywood Formula.
I like the Hollywood Formula for its simplicity; it helps me to see the big picture better than any of the others. Story Genius is less of a formula and more of a way of thinking about plot that works really well for me because I don’t like to know all the details of what’s going to happen in my books before I write them. The truth is that I use parts of all of them.
Ruth Owen is an editor specializing in copy editing and developmental editing. She also writes middle grade and young adult fantasy and science fiction. She blogs about writing and editing and reviews middle grade and YA books at www.ruthkayeowen.com.