A plot is formed by your character's motivations.
Put a lot of emphasis on the creation of your character.
You need to develop your character’s personality
You need to know how your characters will react to events in your story?
The girl in the story is beatiful, has a wonderfull voice,
creative and heroic, yet sensitive and breaking.
give villain a motivation.
Think about the unmarried untie of the girl,
who want's the girl to stop singing (like step-mom of Cinderella story).
Think about a teacher who does not like beautiful girls
as she her young life had been disaster of beauty,
and she likes to break the hearts of beatifull and talented girls.
Put yourself into the characters shoes
What would they say in a situation?
What would the do or how would they react in a situation?
pace your story - flow like a river
A dramatic event after dramatic event makes story boring and repetitive
Use emotions to surprise your audience.
Use range of emotions because human emotions are like rollercoasters
We dont feel the same thing for years after years do we?
We feel happy sometimes and upset at others,
Consider your characters humanity.
Bring anger, happyness, jelousy, depression in the plotting
Emotions are the various bodily feelings associated with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. Motivations direct and energize human behavior. Emotions provide the affective component to positive or negative motivation
Some imotions.
Affection, Anger, Annoyance, Anxiety,Arousal
Boldness, Boredom, Contentment, Curiosity,
Depression, Desire, Disappointment, Disgust, Distrust, Dread
Ecstasy, Embarrassment, Excitement
Fear, Fearlessness, Frustration, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt
Happiness, Hatred, Hope, Horror, Hostility, Hurt
Indifference, Interest, Jealousy, Joy, Loneliness
Love, Lust, Misery, Panic, Passion, Pity
Pleasure, Pride, Rage, Regret, Sadness, Satisfaction, Shame,
Shock, Shyness, Sorrow, Suffering, Surprise
Terror, Trust, Wonder, Worry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion
Learn to write better
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Teaching Ideas
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com
Glen C. Strathy's 8 Steps Plot
Glen's emotionally compelling plot structure incorporates 8 plot elements.
1. Story Goal
The plot of any story is a sequence of events that constitute an attempt to solve a problem or attain a goal.
Story goal is about what the protagonist wants to achieve or the problem he/she wants to resolve.
2. Consequence
Ask yourself, “What would happen if the goal is not achieved? The Consequence is the negative situation or event that will result if the Goal is not achieved. Avoiding the Consequence justifies the effort required in pursuing the Story Goal,it is an important part of your plot outline. The combination of goal and consequence creates the main dramatic tension in your plot and makes the story meaningful.
3. Requirements
Requirements, describes what must be accomplished in order to achieve the goal. This is a checklist of events. As the Requirements are met in the story, the audience will feel the characters are getting closer to the goal.
Ask yourself what event(s) might need to happen for the goal in your story to be achieved. List as many possibilities as you can think of.
4. Forewarnings
Forewarnings are the counterpart to requirements. While requirements show that the story is progressing towards the achievement of the goal, forewarnings are events that show the consequence is getting closer. Forewarnings make the reader anxious that the consequence will occur before the protagonist can succeed.
In the plot outline for our story, events that could constitute Forewarnings might be...
* the company loses one of its key employees to another firm that was more family-friendly.
* the protagonist has a series of bad dates that make it seem like she will never find the right guy.
* the protagonist meets a woman at a singles club who tells her that at their age all the good men are already married.
* one of the protagonist's friends goes through a messy divorce, showing that marriage may not be the source of happiness it's purported to be.
While the Story Goal and Consequences create dramatic tension, Requirements and Forewarnings take the reader through an emotional roller coaster that oscillates between hope and fear. There will be places in the plot where it seems the protagonist is making progress, and others where it seems that everything is going wrong. Structure these well, and you will keep your reader turning pages non-stop.
For example, here's how our plot outline might look so far ...
"A female executive in her late 30s has been married to her job. But she has a wake-up call when her elderly, spinster aunt dies alone and neglected (consequence). The executive decides that she needs to have a family before she suffers the same fate (goal). In order to do this, she hires a dating service and arranges to go on several dates (requirements). But each date ends in disaster (forewarnings)."
As you can see, using just these four elements, a story plot is starting to emerge that will take the reader on a series of emotional twists and turns. And we're only halfway through our 8 plot elements! (Of course, we started with the four most important ones.)
Notice too that these elements come in pairs that balance each other. This is an important secret for creating tension and momentum in your plot.
Before moving on to the remaining elements, list some possible events that could serve as Forewarnings in your story. For now, just choose one. See if you can create a brief plot outline like the example above using just the first four elements.
5. Costs
Generally speaking, good plots are about problems that mean a lot to the characters. If a problem is trivial, then neither the protagonist nor the reader has a reason to get worked up about it. You want your readers to get worked up about your novel. So you must give your protagonist a goal that matters.
One sign that a problem or goal matters to the protagonist is that he/she is willing to make sacrifices or suffer pain in order to achieve it. Such sacrifices are called Costs.
Classic examples of Costs include the hard-boiled detective who gets beaten up at some point in his investigation, or the heroic tales in which the hero must suffer injury or give up a cherished possession to reach his goal. However, Costs can come in many other ways. Protagonists can be asked to give up their pride, self-respect, money, security, an attitude, an idealized memory, the life of a friend, or anything else they hold dear. If you make the costs steep and illustrate how hard the sacrifice is for the protagonist, the reader will feel that the protagonist deserves to achieve the goal.
In the case of our female executive, perhaps she must give up a promotion she has worked hard for because it would require her to travel so much that she would have no chance of settling down and raising a family.
Make a list of possible Costs your protagonist might be forced to endure in order to achieve the Story Goal. Again, just choose one idea to include in your plot outline for now.
6. Dividends
The element that balances Costs in your plot outline is Dividends. Dividends are rewards that characters receive along the journey towards the Story Goal. Unlike Requirements, Dividends are not necessary for the goal to be achieved. They may be unrelated to the goal entirely. But they are something that would never have occurred if the characters hadn't made the effort to achieve the goal.
In the case of our executive, perhaps her efforts to meet men give her an idea for creating a business of her own – a kind of executive dating service, for instance, that will lead her to a happier career. Or perhaps the quest for love and family forces her to become more compassionate towards her co-workers when their family responsibilities interfere with work.
List possible ways to reward your characters and choose one that feels appropriate for your plot outline. Then move on to our final pair of elements.
7. Prerequisites
Prerequisites are events that must happen in order for the Requirements to happen. They are an added layer of challenges to your plot outline. Like Requirements, as Prerequisites are met, the reader feels progress is being made towards the goal. For instance, in order to free the Princess, the hero must recovery the key from its hiding place, but first (Prerequisite) he must defeat the dragon guarding it. In order to win the maiden's hand, the gallant suitor must show he would not risk losing her for anything. But before he has a chance to do that, he must show he is willing to risk everything to win her (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice).
If the Requirement for our novel about the executive is that she must go out on several dates, perhaps the Prerequisite is that she must sign up at a dating service, buy a new wardrobe, or get a make-over.
Take a look at your chosen Requirement and make a list of possible Prerequisites that must be accomplished before the requirement can be met. Choose one.
8. Preconditions
The last element to balance your plot outline, Preconditions, is a junior version of Forewarnings. Preconditions are small impediments in the plot. They are stipulations laid down by certain characters that make it more difficult for the Story Goal to be achieved.
A classic example is Pride and Prejudice in which Elizabeth's quest for happiness is made more difficult by the terms of her grandfather's will, which state that the family property can only be inherited by males. This means that, upon her father's death, Elizabeth and her sisters will be penniless unless they find good husbands first.
However there are many other ways characters can impose conditions that impede the attainment of the Story Goal. They can make their help conditional on favours, insist on arduous rules, or negotiate tough terms.
For instance, perhaps the company where our female executive works has a rule that executives must attend meetings very early in the day - say 6AM on Saturdays. This rule makes it very hard for her to go on Friday night dates and be alert in the meetings. Or perhaps the singles club she joins has some seemingly unfair rules that cause her problems.
You know what to do by now. List possible Preconditions your characters might encounter, and choose one you like.
Organizing Your Plot Summary
Once you have chosen your eight elements, the next step is to arrange them into a brief plot summary. It doesn't matter what order you put them in, so long as all eight are included. In fact, most of the elements can be repeated or included in more than one way.
For example, here's how we might put together all eight elements for our executive story together into a one-paragraph plot outline...
“A female executive in her late 30s has been married to her job. But she has a wake-up call when her elderly, spinster aunt dies alone and neglected (consequence). The executive decides that she needs to have a family before she suffers the same fate (goal). So she buys a new wardrobe and signs on with a dating service (prerequisites). Her boss offers her a promotion that would involve a lot of travel, but she turns it down, so that she will have time to meet some men (cost). She goes on several dates (requirements). But each one ends in disaster (forewarnings). On top of that, because the agency arranges all her dates for Friday nights, she ends up arriving tired and late for the company's mandatory 6AM Saturday morning meetings (preconditions). Along the way, however, she starts to realize how the company's policies are very unfair to people with families or social lives outside work, and she begins to develop compassion for some of her co-workers that leads to improved relationships in the office (dividend).”
Glen C. Strathy's 8 Steps Plot
Glen's emotionally compelling plot structure incorporates 8 plot elements.
1. Story Goal
The plot of any story is a sequence of events that constitute an attempt to solve a problem or attain a goal.
Story goal is about what the protagonist wants to achieve or the problem he/she wants to resolve.
2. Consequence
Ask yourself, “What would happen if the goal is not achieved? The Consequence is the negative situation or event that will result if the Goal is not achieved. Avoiding the Consequence justifies the effort required in pursuing the Story Goal,it is an important part of your plot outline. The combination of goal and consequence creates the main dramatic tension in your plot and makes the story meaningful.
3. Requirements
Requirements, describes what must be accomplished in order to achieve the goal. This is a checklist of events. As the Requirements are met in the story, the audience will feel the characters are getting closer to the goal.
Ask yourself what event(s) might need to happen for the goal in your story to be achieved. List as many possibilities as you can think of.
4. Forewarnings
Forewarnings are the counterpart to requirements. While requirements show that the story is progressing towards the achievement of the goal, forewarnings are events that show the consequence is getting closer. Forewarnings make the reader anxious that the consequence will occur before the protagonist can succeed.
In the plot outline for our story, events that could constitute Forewarnings might be...
* the company loses one of its key employees to another firm that was more family-friendly.
* the protagonist has a series of bad dates that make it seem like she will never find the right guy.
* the protagonist meets a woman at a singles club who tells her that at their age all the good men are already married.
* one of the protagonist's friends goes through a messy divorce, showing that marriage may not be the source of happiness it's purported to be.
While the Story Goal and Consequences create dramatic tension, Requirements and Forewarnings take the reader through an emotional roller coaster that oscillates between hope and fear. There will be places in the plot where it seems the protagonist is making progress, and others where it seems that everything is going wrong. Structure these well, and you will keep your reader turning pages non-stop.
For example, here's how our plot outline might look so far ...
"A female executive in her late 30s has been married to her job. But she has a wake-up call when her elderly, spinster aunt dies alone and neglected (consequence). The executive decides that she needs to have a family before she suffers the same fate (goal). In order to do this, she hires a dating service and arranges to go on several dates (requirements). But each date ends in disaster (forewarnings)."
As you can see, using just these four elements, a story plot is starting to emerge that will take the reader on a series of emotional twists and turns. And we're only halfway through our 8 plot elements! (Of course, we started with the four most important ones.)
Notice too that these elements come in pairs that balance each other. This is an important secret for creating tension and momentum in your plot.
Before moving on to the remaining elements, list some possible events that could serve as Forewarnings in your story. For now, just choose one. See if you can create a brief plot outline like the example above using just the first four elements.
5. Costs
Generally speaking, good plots are about problems that mean a lot to the characters. If a problem is trivial, then neither the protagonist nor the reader has a reason to get worked up about it. You want your readers to get worked up about your novel. So you must give your protagonist a goal that matters.
One sign that a problem or goal matters to the protagonist is that he/she is willing to make sacrifices or suffer pain in order to achieve it. Such sacrifices are called Costs.
Classic examples of Costs include the hard-boiled detective who gets beaten up at some point in his investigation, or the heroic tales in which the hero must suffer injury or give up a cherished possession to reach his goal. However, Costs can come in many other ways. Protagonists can be asked to give up their pride, self-respect, money, security, an attitude, an idealized memory, the life of a friend, or anything else they hold dear. If you make the costs steep and illustrate how hard the sacrifice is for the protagonist, the reader will feel that the protagonist deserves to achieve the goal.
In the case of our female executive, perhaps she must give up a promotion she has worked hard for because it would require her to travel so much that she would have no chance of settling down and raising a family.
Make a list of possible Costs your protagonist might be forced to endure in order to achieve the Story Goal. Again, just choose one idea to include in your plot outline for now.
6. Dividends
The element that balances Costs in your plot outline is Dividends. Dividends are rewards that characters receive along the journey towards the Story Goal. Unlike Requirements, Dividends are not necessary for the goal to be achieved. They may be unrelated to the goal entirely. But they are something that would never have occurred if the characters hadn't made the effort to achieve the goal.
In the case of our executive, perhaps her efforts to meet men give her an idea for creating a business of her own – a kind of executive dating service, for instance, that will lead her to a happier career. Or perhaps the quest for love and family forces her to become more compassionate towards her co-workers when their family responsibilities interfere with work.
List possible ways to reward your characters and choose one that feels appropriate for your plot outline. Then move on to our final pair of elements.
7. Prerequisites
Prerequisites are events that must happen in order for the Requirements to happen. They are an added layer of challenges to your plot outline. Like Requirements, as Prerequisites are met, the reader feels progress is being made towards the goal. For instance, in order to free the Princess, the hero must recovery the key from its hiding place, but first (Prerequisite) he must defeat the dragon guarding it. In order to win the maiden's hand, the gallant suitor must show he would not risk losing her for anything. But before he has a chance to do that, he must show he is willing to risk everything to win her (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice).
If the Requirement for our novel about the executive is that she must go out on several dates, perhaps the Prerequisite is that she must sign up at a dating service, buy a new wardrobe, or get a make-over.
Take a look at your chosen Requirement and make a list of possible Prerequisites that must be accomplished before the requirement can be met. Choose one.
8. Preconditions
The last element to balance your plot outline, Preconditions, is a junior version of Forewarnings. Preconditions are small impediments in the plot. They are stipulations laid down by certain characters that make it more difficult for the Story Goal to be achieved.
A classic example is Pride and Prejudice in which Elizabeth's quest for happiness is made more difficult by the terms of her grandfather's will, which state that the family property can only be inherited by males. This means that, upon her father's death, Elizabeth and her sisters will be penniless unless they find good husbands first.
However there are many other ways characters can impose conditions that impede the attainment of the Story Goal. They can make their help conditional on favours, insist on arduous rules, or negotiate tough terms.
For instance, perhaps the company where our female executive works has a rule that executives must attend meetings very early in the day - say 6AM on Saturdays. This rule makes it very hard for her to go on Friday night dates and be alert in the meetings. Or perhaps the singles club she joins has some seemingly unfair rules that cause her problems.
You know what to do by now. List possible Preconditions your characters might encounter, and choose one you like.
Organizing Your Plot Summary
Once you have chosen your eight elements, the next step is to arrange them into a brief plot summary. It doesn't matter what order you put them in, so long as all eight are included. In fact, most of the elements can be repeated or included in more than one way.
For example, here's how we might put together all eight elements for our executive story together into a one-paragraph plot outline...
“A female executive in her late 30s has been married to her job. But she has a wake-up call when her elderly, spinster aunt dies alone and neglected (consequence). The executive decides that she needs to have a family before she suffers the same fate (goal). So she buys a new wardrobe and signs on with a dating service (prerequisites). Her boss offers her a promotion that would involve a lot of travel, but she turns it down, so that she will have time to meet some men (cost). She goes on several dates (requirements). But each one ends in disaster (forewarnings). On top of that, because the agency arranges all her dates for Friday nights, she ends up arriving tired and late for the company's mandatory 6AM Saturday morning meetings (preconditions). Along the way, however, she starts to realize how the company's policies are very unfair to people with families or social lives outside work, and she begins to develop compassion for some of her co-workers that leads to improved relationships in the office (dividend).”
How to create and idea for film story
create an interesting idea
do thought-generating exercises. (brainstorm)
you don't need to make a story at the beginning
start new idea with anything:
a phrase, a person, an experience or a situation
make it exciting and inspiring to you to create a story.
Story building method
- Take an hour to write your idea in one-sentence
Write as many ideas until you have an inspiring idea.
Try the idea generator online, but create your own!
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=storygen
- Expand your sentence into a one page story
have a start, conflicts and the ending. - Write a summary of the characters of the story.Start with main character and sub characters
- Expand the character with details.
Write everything about each character.
Make a synopsis from your work. - Make a list of scenes of your story as a list.
- Describe each scene
place, time, people involved, happenings. - Write your script now
dialog and camera shots - Create Your Storyboard
The most important element in a story
is about characters and conflict.
Let's think of a story of a girl strugglling to gain freedom.
Now ask yourself questions to create her character with a conflict.
- Who is she?
- What does she want?
- What is obstructing her getting what she want?
Now transform your idea into a story plot.
Oh! now you face the hard part.
How to transform your high-level idea to a real story?
How do you turn it into a good plot?
The best is to start with the ending first.
Ask your self; What happens to our girl at the end?
Think about your characters in deep,
associate them in your mind.
Virtually read their secret diaries.
What are their outer looks?
dark or fair? tall or short? modern or traditional?
likes and dislikes ? values and restrictions? skills and hobbies?
who are their associates (friends, families)
what are their hidden secrets?
What are their life experiences, needs, and desires.
Building the plot points
Take your characters and put them together
and see how they would interact with each other.
Create Friends, enemies, mentors, betrayers, saviors
Create incidents
The girl impress everyone in a music competition but looses due to favourism.
Arrange your plot points into a story arc.
A 5 part model for a story:
Exposition
Shows the the normal life of the the character
until an "inciting incident" that creates a conflict.
The girl's home and school life shown.
She is not allowed to go on a trip with class
Rising Action
The character faces conflicts, struggles, and pitfalls
while trying to pursue their goals.
The girl fights to get freedom, but no result
ClimaxThe conflict comes to highest point at this point.
At this point all seems possible or impossible.
The charater must must decide whether to go for it or fail and loose.
The girl desides to take part in a music competition.
Falling ActionThings start unfolding after the climax, the character wins or loses.
She looses the competition, but her song becomes a global hit
DenouementThe character begins a new life,
her family accepts their fault and get together again.
It could be another way also.
It's upto you to create the ending.
Work forward and backward.
Never afraid to change around or redevelop your plot.
More
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/createa.htm
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