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Exercise #1007: Craft
Posted 9/1/23
The plot of a story is important. Without it, the reader has no sense of purpose for the characters. Think about yesterday: did your day have a plot? Or was it merely a rambling between chores or fun activities or simply “being?” For life, having a day that has no plot is fine. We actually enjoy them. For a written work, it’s rather boring.
Way, way back when I was younger and in book stores a lot, I relied on the blurb on the back of a book and the cover picture to primarily decide if I wanted to buy it. Rarely I would flip the book open and read a section. Times have changed and I haven’t been in a book store in ages. (I still read a lot and have a book “going” all the time but I purchase them differently now.) We watch a lot of movies and I was surprised to see one of my favorites, “Hitch,” touted as something like “a dating expert falls into his own trap.”
Say what? While that is sort of correct, it doesn’t come even close to the actual plot line and it certainly wouldn’t make me rent it.
So today, let’s work with plots.
To do this one “right” will take a bit of work:
1. Decide on a well-known plot line. (Your favorite book, movie, etc.)
* If you want to help your critiquers, find the synopsis online for this plot and include the link in your post.
2. Write the short blurb for your chosen plot which would appear on the back of the book, if this were a novel.
* If using an actual book, you may paraphrase the one that’s on it. If you copy verbatim, cite the source for copyrights.
3. Draft the outline of a short story which would use the original plot line but not be the same story.
* For instance, “boy meets girl” happens in a coffee shop in the film, but your draft has them colliding on college campus at a building corner.
4. For your SUB, post the following information:
* The title and identifier of your chosen plot. (For a book, title and author; for a movie, title and year, etc.)
* The link to the synopsis if you did that.
* The short blurb for your chosen plot.
* Then, either your draft outline or a written scene from your draft outline which shows at least one difference from the original.
Critiquers, along with the usual grammar, spelling, etc, review, consider these questions:
* Could you relate to the piece? Why or why not?
* Was this helpful to you as a writer? Why or why not?
Word limit: no limit; each SUB should have 3 or 4 sections
Please use the subject line
SUB: Exercise #1007/yourname
Hitch, 2005, from imdb.com: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386588/
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