Four Useful Lies About Writing
Steven Barnes

Most writing "experts" favor a particular way of looking at
plot, and will adhere to it for years or an entire career.
That's all well and good, but its important to realize that any
way of modeling story is just that—a model, not the depths and
living essence of story itself.

Problems arise when young (or experienced!) writers mistake a
simplified structure for some deep and eternal truth. It's much
better to examine several structures, see what their strengths
and weaknesses are, and try to glimpse the truth they are
trying to convey.

The actual "truth" of story is beyond any structure, but they
all point in the same direction, toward that misty, hidden
metaphorical mountain all storytellers have been climbing since
the beginning of time. As long as we don't mistake the finger
for the mountain, the structures can be quite useful indeed.

The worst story model that is at all useful might be" "It has a
beginning, middle, and an end." Well, yes, but so does a piece
of string.

More helpfully, try: Objective, Obstacle, Outcome. In other
words, a character wants something, and something stands in her
way. She tries various things to resolve the difficulty, leading
to an eventual climax.

This one is even more useful:

Situation, Character, Objective, Opponent, Disaster. Using the
classic James Bond film "Goldfinger" as an model (action films
are good for this, because their structure is usually crystal
clear):

Situation: When gold is being smuggled from England in large
quantities,
Character: Secret Agent 007 James Bond
Objective: Is assigned to find out how it is being done. But
little does he know that
Opponent: Industrialist billionaire Auric Goldfinger
Disaster: Is smuggling gold to finance his real operation, the
destruction of Fort Knox with an atom bomb!

Can you see how this model helps to clarify the different basic
aspects of your story? The hero must have a goal, and there must
be forces in opposition. Moreover, the hero's initial goal and
his ultimate goal may well change over the course of the story,
as they grow to understand the situation more fully. A story
structure like this one implies both internal and external
motivations, and sets up a dynamic structure that almost writes
itself!

The very best writing structure would be what is known as the
"Hero's Journey" created by Joseph Campbell, and explored by
anthropologists and writing mavens around the world. There are
numerous interpretations of it, but in essence, it can be
represented as:

1)Hero Confronted With A Challenge.
2)The Hero rejects the challenge
3)The Hero accepts the challenge
4)Road of Trials
5)Meeting allies and gaining powers
6) Confront evil and defeat.
7) Dark Night of the Soul
8) Leap of Faith
9) Confront Evil and victory
10) Student Becomes The Teacher

This pattern automatically implies the yearnings, fears,
obstacles, efforts, deep depression and exultation of actual
human lives. This is the reason that this pattern, more than
any other, is useful to writers both new and experienced.
Because it mirrors our lives, a writer can most easily adapt
her own understandings of life and the universe into her work.
If you organize your work into this pattern, readers or viewers
all over the world will instantly recognize your efforts as
"story." Whether it is a "good" story will depend entirely on
the skill and creativity that you bring to the task—the
unquantifiable quality of "art" that is beyond direct
description.

There are, of course, many other patterns, and an ambitious
writer or student would do well to list several of them side by
side, and analyze what they are saying. None of them are
"truth," but all are useful fingers pointing toward that
mountain.


About The Author: NY Times bestselling novelist Steven Barnes
has lectured on story and creativity from UCLA to the
Smithsonian. He created the Lifewriting high-performance system
for writers. Get a FREE daily writing tip at:
http://www.lifewriting.biz and http://www.lifewrite.com