Plotting the Short Story E-Book

Seymour Cunningham Chunn

• Herausgeber: Midwest Journal Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Really Simple Writing & Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 76

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

How Successful Authors Write Short Stories: Learning the Plot

Most beginners seem to have the idea that the
writing game is a very easy game to play, as easy as ping-pong, for
instance. 

A few of them have acquired a fair education; others, not
so fortunate, are equipped with nothing but a gnawing desire to
write, and on first appearances it seems to them that it should prove
to be a very simple matter to weave their ideas into readable
stories.

Some of them have a vague idea of what a plot is, but they
know-nothing about BALANCE, INCITING MOTIVES, CRUCIAL SITUATIONS,
CLIMAXES, etc., and care less. 

When they read in their favorite
magazine a cameo-like story by some master writer, they do not
realize that the author may have labored for days over that story,
rearranging words, eliminating paragraphs and even whole pages from
the original draft, and reconstructing the plot after he has torn it
to pieces half-a-dozen times. 

The words flow so smoothly, the
characters stand out so clearly, the plot is so simple — how easy
it must be! But these writers are soon disillusioned when the
rejection slips begin to roll in on them with the regularity of
well-oiled clockwork. 

Not until they have served a long
apprenticeship do they learn that authorship is as much of a
profession as surgery is and that, as in all other pursuits, it is
simply a matter of the survival of the fittest.

No writer can hope to achieve real success in the
writing field unless he is well-grounded in the fundamentals of plot
construction, nor can he avoid an atmosphere of SAMENESS in his
stories and give them the stamp of cleverness and originality unless
he constantly adds to his store of plot material. 

"The plot's
the thing," and the writer who relies solely upon inspiration to
furnish him with suitable plots for his stories cannot begin to
compete with his more practical brother craftsman who stimulates his
imagination with tid-bits from real life, as it were, and builds the
foundations for his stories with the same care and exactitude that a
stone mason would employ in building the foundation and framework of
a house.  

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Leseprobe

Plotting the Short Story

A Practical Exposition of Germ-Plots

by Culpepper Chunn

First published 1922. Cover and added text copyright © 2017. Midwest Journal Press. All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I - GERM-PLOTS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

CHAPTER II STRUCTURE OF THE PLOT

CHAPTER III - PLOT DEVELOPMENT

Simple Plots

Complicated Plots

CHAPTER IV - RELATION OF THE PLOT TO THE STORY

BONUS

CHAPTER I - GERM-PLOTS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

A comprehensive system of plot development, and an adequate supply of material to draw from, are almost indispensable to the writer who turns out a large number of stories each year, and to the occasional scribbler who has little knowledge of plot form and structure it is of even greater value. Years of experience as a writer, literary critic and student of the short story have brought out these facts: The writer who is "long" on writing is generally "short" on ideas, and an inadequate knowledge of the plot and its development causes more aspiring authors to fail than any other one thing.

Most beginners seem to have the idea that the writing game is a very easy game to play, as easy as ping-pong, for instance. A few of them have acquired a fair education; others, not so fortunate, are equipped with nothing but a gnawing desire to write, and on first appearances it seems to them that it should prove to be a very simple matter to weave their ideas into readable stories. Some of them have a vague idea of what a plot is, but they know-nothing about BALANCE, INCITING MOTIVES, CRUCIAL SITUATIONS, CLIMAXES, etc., and care less. When they read in their favorite magazine a cameo-like story by some master writer, they do not realize that the author may have labored for days over that story, rearranging words, eliminating paragraphs and even whole pages from the original draft, and reconstructing the plot after he has torn it to pieces half-a-dozen times. The words flow so smoothly, the characters stand out so clearly, the plot is so simple — how easy it must be! But these writers are soon disillusioned when the rejection slips begin to roll in on them with the regularity of well-oiled clockwork. Not until they have served a long apprenticeship do they learn that authorship is as much of a profession as surgery is and that, as in all other pursuits, it is simply a matter of the survival of the fittest.

No writer can hope to achieve real success in the writing field unless he is well-grounded in the fundamentals of plot construction, nor can he avoid an atmosphere of SAMENESS in his stories and give them the stamp of cleverness and originality unless he constantly adds to his store of plot material. "The plot's the thing," and the writer who relies solely upon inspiration to furnish him with suitable plots for his stories cannot begin to compete with his more practical brother craftsman who stimulates his imagination with tid-bits from real life, as it were, and builds the foundations for his stories with the same care and exactitude that a stone mason would employ in building the foundation and framework of a house. Inspiration is, without a doubt, a very great thing, although personally I know very little about it, never having had time to sit down and wait for it to visit me. But it is a fickle creature at best, and requires as much attention as a teething baby. Even those rare exceptions among the writing fraternity who possess the divine spark need a solid base from which to start on their flights into the realms of imagery. It is not difficult to build an occasional plot. With one girl and one man, or two girls and one man, say, for a starting point, almost any writer who has touched a few of life's high spots can build a plot of some sort, but he cannot repeat the process over and over again with any great degree of success for the reason that he must attack each new story from a different angle, and when he relies entirely upon his own limited experience and his imagination, he soon finds this a very difficult thing to do. For this reason experienced writers always keep on hand a varied assortment of story-ideas, original and otherwise, to be used as starting points when they make new voyages into the uncharted seas of fiction. These story-ideas are called germ-plots.

A germ-plot is an idea which may be broadened out and used as a foundation upon which to build a short story — a spark, to shift the figure, that starts a conflagration in the writer's brain and makes him an object to be pitied until he sits down before his typewriter and pounds out a story to make us sit up half the night to read. Germ-plots lurk on street comers, in dark allies, in dingy restaurants, in ballrooms, on the faces of men — and women, in the lisp of a child, in the newspapers, in magazine advertisements, in funny sayings, in love letters, in jail, in insane asylum — on board the train, ocean liner, zeppelin! The germ-plot, in short, is any original or acquired idea, unusual situation, striking title, curious advertisement, funny character, queer dream, clever story — in fact, an5rthing that contains an element of mystery, adventure, humor, fantasy, love, etc., and which has a twist to it, is ideal material for germ-plots and therefore legitimate plunder for the writer.

To make my meaning clearer, let me give two or three concrete illustrations. One day several years ago, for instance, I saw something fall from the second story window of an apartment house and at first thought that it was a man. Then a gust of wind kindly came along and opened it up and I saw that it was a pair of purple pajamas. A moment later a young lady in scanty attire rushed out of the house, snatched up the brilliant garment and hurried back into the house again. When I got home I promptly developed the idea into a story called "The Purple Pajamas"—and sold it.

On another occasion I saw on a bulletin board a circular advertising for an escaped convict. The line "$500 Reward, Alive or Dead," caught my eye and started a train of thought thundering through my mind. At first glance the idea may seem trite; nevertheless, it developed into a story that I called "The Man From Virginia" — and sold.

Again. One day I read a newspaper account about a man who had a twin brother who looked so much like him that his wife, in a fit of jealous rage, shot her brother-in-law, in the belief that she was letting daylight through her husband! I nursed the idea for a couple of days, then wrote "His Brother's Keeper" and placed it without difficulty.

Every writer should have a blank book in which to jot down his germ-plots as he uncovers them, which are later to be neatly typed off on uniform sheets of paper and filed away for future use. Anything that seems suggestive, whether it appears to offer material for immediate use or not, should find a home in the Plot Book, where it will be found waiting with a cheerful smile on its face, as it were, some dark day when inspiration has taken to her heels and ideas seem to be about as plentiful as snow on the Fourth of July.

To give the reader an idea of the kind of material that should be stored away, and the manner in which it is done, let us pick at random a few items from one of my many plot books:

Saw man on street today who had a scar on his face resembling a question mark. (What an idea for a story!)

Overheard a woman say: "When a man loves he will dare anything." (Suggests original title "The Man Who Dared.")

Saw splotch of red on a white flower in the front yard of a house today. Looked like blood.

Tramp standing before the window of a fashionable restaurant gazing hungrily at the food being served within.

The newspapers are a very mine of ideas for the writer, the news items, sporting page, headings and advertisements (especially the "personal column") all being a common stamping ground for the germ-plot. A pair of scissors should always be kept at hand and used freely in dissecting out the interesting items one runs across when reading the papers. The shorter items and headings can then be typed off and filed away, and the longer articles pasted in a scrap book kept especially for this purpose.

Consider the following headings, items and advertisements, which were actually clipped from the daily papers:

HEADINGS:

Saves Governor; Wins Pardon,

Sells Self for Life for a Pair of Shoes.

Baby Girl Left on Doorstep.

Caught Boarder Kissing His Wife.

Bride of One Day Mysteriously Murdered.

Slayer Weeps Over Victim's Body.

NEWS ITEMS: (Condensed)

An unidentified white girl is found dead in a public park. Marks on the girl's throat lead police to believe she was murdered. Her handkerchief was marked with a number — 47 (laundry mark?)

The mysterious murderer known as "Doctor X" was hanged at the jail this morning. Even at the last he refused to tell his real name and it is probable his true identity will never be known.