Project: Story to Plot

Project: Story and Plot

Aristotle & Freytag

I found the writings of Aristotle to be extremely useful in understanding the importance of story and plot.  Aristotle’s Poetics (335BC) makes reference to the importance of ordering the beginning, middle and end in a ‘natural’ way, whilst describing the story as a “beautiful, living creature”.   Poetics seems to be one of the earliest texts that makes a reference to the structure of storytelling and the necessity of progressive events to seamlessly draw together the opening, middle and closing sections. 

It is clear from many texts that Aristotle has played a large part in the structure of storytelling.  Dodd, N E. (2011:10) suggests “…many versions of what constitutes good storytelling that can be traced back to Aristotle and The Poetics.”  In addition to these ‘pointers’, Aristotle has inspired many others to explore the structure of storytelling. 

One of the largest contributors to the study of storytelling since Aristotle is considered to be Gustav Freytag and his expansion of Aristotle’s ideas into what is now called the Freytag Triangle.  In the beginning of the 20^th Century Freytag continued Aristotle’s thoughts of story arcs, developing a pyramid which outlines the basic structure of a story:    

                        Longacre (2010)

I found this model to be useful when beginning to plot the original ideas.  Although it was originally based on a five-act structure, I feel that the general developments of any dramatic story contain many of these basic elements.  However, the suggestion that ‘Freytag’s Triangle is most useful as a building block, or an after-the fact method of analyzing a story that already works.” (Leebron & Levy, 1995) lead me to find it more useful to use this model as an evaluation tool; to enable me to ensure that my outlines contain a solid formula for drama.  

Exercise: The essentials of plotting

Below are my attempts to simplify two films into a basic plot.  Although seemingly a simple task, it found it difficult to naturally omit description and further elaborations.

Fred Wolf’s The House Bunny (2008)

A Playboy Bunny is tricked into leaving the Mansion by one of the other girls.  She comes across a sorority house, close to closure, containing a group of ‘misfits’ on the campus of a local university.   The lead character becomes the ‘housemother’ and coaches the girls to be popular and recruit more members, thus saving the sorority from closure. 

Disney’s Aladdin (1992)

A poor boy finds a magic lamp containing a genie that grants his three wishes.  His wishes lead him back to him hometown where he falls in love with the Princess of the Sultan.  An evil advisor finds out what he is doing and steals the lamp, tries to kill the boy and makes himself the most powerful sorcerer in the world.  The boy defeats the evil advisor, marries the princess and becomes Sultan of the land. 

Ordinary Events vs Story Events

It is very rare, amongst the tension of a TV drama such as '24', that we would see the lead character in mundane situations; reaching for a snack or nipping off to the toilet.  This would, of course, completely ruin the dynamics of the storytelling and would cause the storyline to be ‘bitty’ and ‘disconnected’.  Although I fully understand the reason why writers often neglect the more ordinary events, I wanted to spend some time researching some theory behind the types of ‘story event’ that shape a good piece of writing. 

I came across a number of texts about this subject, but found the ideas of both Georges Polti and Arthur Quiller-Couch to be very interesting.  Polti (1921) categorises dramatic events into thirty-six ‘situations’.  These are:

Supplication                                                             Revolt

Deliverance                                                              Daring enterprise

Crime pursued by vengeance                               Abduction

Vengeance taken for kin upon kin                        The enigma

Pursuit                                                                       Obtaining

Disaster                                                                     Enmity of kin

Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune                           Rivalry of kin

Murderous adultery                                                  Madness

Fatal imprudence                                                     Involuntary crimes of love

Slaying of kin unrecognised                                   Self-sacrifice for an ideal

Self-sacrifice for kin                                                  All sacrificed for passion

Necessity of sacrificing loved ones                        Adultery

Rivalry of superior vs. inferior                                  Crimes of love

Obstacles to love                                                       An enemy loved

Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one           Ambition

Conflict with God                                                       Mistaken

Erroneous                                                                   Remorse

Recovery of a lost one                                              Loss

Although this seems like a very definitive list of events, which can be ‘chosen’ by the writer to increase the drama of the story, it could be argued that this list is too comprehensive, yet at the same time, too concise. 

It is believed that Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch devised a simpler series of conflicts, this time categorised into only seven examples.  These are:

Man vs. Man              Man vs. Nature                     Man against God

Man vs. Society        Man in the Middle                Man & Woman

Man vs. Himself

Although this is a much simpler way of looking at a series of events, these categories seem to provide ‘umbrellas’ under which Polti’s thirty-six situations could be sorted, thus possibly not providing a new means of structure, but encouraging the writer to use more imagination by providing a more vague theme.  Of course, none of these seven categories allow space for today’s more modern storylines involving Animal vs Animal, Alien vs. Man, etc.

In contrast to Quiller-Couch and Polti’s ideas, Adams (2000) suggests, “A more useful approach would be to abandon the chimera of universality and focus on what works today.”  Adams goes on the discuss a sense of uniformity caused by following strict ‘rules’ and implies that today’s modern society requires a new and individual approach to story telling. 

Exercise: Story Events – the physical obstacle

A scruffy man jumps out of bed, late for his court appearance due to a broken alarm clock.  He rushes to get dressed and runs to the bus stop.  When he arrives the bus has broken down at the stop, forcing him to run to the courthouse.  On his way he comes across an old friend who tries to give him a lift but actually kidnaps him and tries to recruit him back into gang life.  The man tries to use his mobile to call for help, but the kidnapper throws it out of the car window.  Desperate to escape his past life, he punches the kidnapper causing the car to crash at the side of the road, killing the kidnapper.  The police arrive on the scene and assume that the man murdered the driver and he is taken back to prison. 

I began writing this plot without forming much of plan of what was going to happen and where the structure would appear.  However, the addition of these physical obstacles has enabled me to take the story in a quite unpredictable direction, heightening the dramatic effect and enabling the audience to learn more about the lead character.   What begins as a relatively ordinary story of a man being late for an appointment at court, unravels into story containing mystery, action, crime and suspense.  The story also holds a deeper theme of gang violence and a man’s desperation to escape this path, thus opening up many opportunities to develop further personal, social and psychological obstacles. 

Exercise: Identifying Story Events

As a favourite film from my childhood I chose to use Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986), as I know the story very well.  As well as attempting to identify some of the main story events, I wanted to look at what form of obstacle was being used, e.g. physical, social, etc. 

LABYRINTH (1986) STORY EVENTS

Main events	Obstacle
Sarah forgets she is babysitting her brother after forgetting last line of the monologue. (Rushes home)	Personal - This is the first event as it is the driving force for the main character to take a change in her path and head home and leave what she was doing.
Confrontation with parents (Realises teddy has gone missing)	Psychological  - It is clear that Sarah dislikes her stepmother and will go out her way to cause problems for her. (Probably due to the fact she lost her own mother and feels she could not replace her)
Finds teddy in brother's room (Wishes the goblins will take him away)	Psychological – Sarah feels the teddy is an act of revenge at her for being late to babysit, so responds with revenge and wishes her step brother away.
Meets the Goblin King (He says she would get her brother back if she solves the labyrinth.)	Personal – Sarah gets what she wants but realises it was a mistake and pleads for her stepbrother's return.
Meets Hoggle (Refuses to help her)	Personal – Hoggle is the first fantasy character she meets and his refusal pushes her to succeed in herself in an attempt to beat the labyrinth.
Sarah gets trapped in an oubliette. (Goblin King sends Hoggle to rescue Sarah and lead her back to the entrance)	Physical – Sarah gets physically trapped and this event causes the first cracks to appear within her, as she doubts herself.
Sarah rescues Ludo (Hoggle runs away at Ludo’s roar)	Personal – Sarah gets a thirst for succeeding once more, so in this event manages to rescue the second fantasy character she meets.
Sarah and Ludo get separated (Sarah gets harassed by the fire gang)	Psychological – Sarah is alone in a foreign land and feels isolated. This event causes more cracks to appear as she becomes helpless.

Goblin king gives a poisoned peach to Hoggle. (Hoggle rescues Sarah)	Physical – The handover of the peach is the first physical event that will change the path of Sarah without her having ultimate control herself.
Reunite with Ludo at the Bog of Eternal Stench. (calls the rocks so they can cross)	Social – The first social event where three beings of different backgrounds put aside their arguments and work together as a team to get free from the bog.
They meet Sir Didymusat the bridge leaving the Bog. (He allows them to cross and joins them)	Personal – This is where they meet the fourth fantasy main character who joins them on the quest.
Hoggle gives Sarah the peach. (she falls into a dream like state)	Physical – The giving of the peach is the second physical event, as like before Sarah will have no idea of the poison once she takes a bite.
Sarah dances at the ball where the Goblin King tries to seduce her. (Clock chimes and reminds her of her quest)	Psychological – Sarah at first doesn’t realise why she is there as ash gets manipulated into dancing with the Goblin King at his masquerade ball.
Sarah rejoins Ludo and Sir Didymus. (They approach the Goblin city)	Personal – This allows Sarah to continue on her personal quest to get her stepbrother back.
Hoggle appears and disables a giant robot. (Sarah forgives Hoggle's earlier betrayal)	Personal – This event shows the kindness of Sarah as she forgives Hoggle for his wrong after he saves them.
Goblin Army attack them. (Ludo calls the rocks and saves the day)	Physical – The Goblin King sends out his army to try and prevent Sarah and her friends from getting to the castle.
Sarah goes into the castle alone to confront the Goblin King. (Sarah can’t find her way to her brother)	Personal – Feels she needs to continue alone on her personal quest is the first real sign we see of her bravery and courage. (Heads towards the climax of the story.)
Goblin King confronts Sarah and asks her to stay. (She remembers the monologue and recites it perfectly) Goblin King admits defeat and sends Sarah and her brother home. (Sarah is lonely and wishes her friends were with her)	Psychological – This event is really the final act before defeat as the Goblin King tries one last time to manipulate Sarah into staying with him in his kingdom. Personal – The final event where Sarah wins personifying good versus evil. Also complementing the classical concept of a fairy-tale. (the heroine succeeds in her quest.)

After analysing these results, I found the balance of different forms of obstacles very interesting.  In order to keep the audience's attention and keep the story ‘real’, the writer has cleverly used a variety of interventions to help us better understand the characters and the plot. 

Research Point: Conflict

My tutor suggested that I spend some time looking at McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (1997:215) and especially the chapter on complexity.  I found large portions of this book hugely helpful in terms of story structure, but McKee’s thoughts of conflict were particularly interesting, describing the use of the ‘inner conflict’, ‘personal conflict’ and ‘extra-personal conflict’.  As my story contains largely references to the emotional and psychological state of Sally, I will aim to ensure that these ideas of conflict are used to ensure a believable and relatable character.