“I like exploring the small, telling pivots of a moment because I believe that such small moments can be as important as the larger dramatic moments we often think define life.” Grant, this sentence of yours is gold to me. I’m also grateful I am a paid subscriber to your posts because I don’t want to miss the many shiny bits I find in your newsletters and work.
Thanks so much for everything, Ginevra! I appreciate your kind words and your support. I'm also just happy my newsletter resonates with you and is useful. Thanks so much again!
If only "plot" wasn't taught as so mechanical in discussing the progress of a protagonist or a story. What if it's about human change and development that is, or appears to be, organic based on the conflicts and challenges of a human person. And in short fiction, I can see the non-plot moment working; the problem is in longer fiction, how do we find a different more subtle solution to " what kind of change occurs." Maybe you are saying the progress of a story doesn't need to be about change?
Yeah, the mechanical/mathematical notion of plot certainly doesn't work so much for me. I like to think of contours, shapes. I also just like to not think of it too much—but rather to feel tension, to feel tension moving, searching (organic, as you say). You're right, though: the longer the story, the more pressure on the plot. I think change is crucial to "the progress of the story," but I also think change can take so many different forms. I like Jane Allison's book, "Meander, Spiral, Explode," for different models and language for plot.
Oh, Grant. I really like what you say about plot. When Anne Bernays and I were writing WHAT IF? WRITING EXERCISES FOR FICTION WRITERS, we sent the manuscript off to our editor at Harper Collins and he wrote back "You left out plot." True. So, we were asked to add it to the book, but our hearts were not happy. Recently, I wrote this for Vancouver Flash Fiction Writing Tips: 2023: "Forget plot. Plot sits like a boulder on your story. Instead think “unstable situation” and notice that an unstable situation has a past—and a future. Also forget conflict—it too is a dead weight. Instead think “tension,” “anticipation,” “apprehension,” and “dread.”
I love your posts. They are wise, witty, and full of inspirational advice. Now, I am waiting for your novel. Cheers.
Thanks so much, Pam! I love that we're on the same page with this. I love “unstable situation," and I haven't thought how insufficient "conflict" is. I love your replacement words.
The thing about plot is people tend to overly worry about it, construct elaborate and clever plots no one will remember, the characters on the other hand…
Agreed. I think I put too much pressure on myself re: plot. To focus on the character, the situation, is what really matters. Sometimes plot happens without the writer even thinking about it too much.
Yes, and the nice thing about flash fiction, at least for me, is that it's mostly all about the character(s). As you said, there's no/less need for a plot, even if nothing happens, a vignette, a snippet of life, which is fine for 100-1k words. Also, I like writing to an exact word limit.
I always refer back to James Joyce’s Dubliners as the gold standard of epiphany in writing. But I would also note that it is possible - perhaps even mandatory - that even character driven fiction contain the basics of plot, I.e. beginning, middle and end. It’s not easy to get to the top of that hill but it can be so rewarding if a writer can do so.
Ira
writing from the bottom of the world, or, as it is known around here - - Salem, Oregon.
I think it was Joyce who conjured the notion of epiphany in fiction. I love Dubliners. And I agree with you if by "the basics of plot" you mean narrative tension, suspense, a sense of escalation. I guess I think plot can take many shapes, and doesn't need to be restricted by its popular models (the hill, the roller coaster, the hero's quest).
Great article. When "composing" a story, I use a single suggestive (nonsensical) sentence to create the context:
example: “Andy lived blind until his hearing was shot!”
WTF: Then I explore the potential meaning of the sentence; and/or those 8 combined words. First: I got Andy, blind; hearing; & shot. Most important I got “until.” What happened?
I am only starting out as a crime fiction writer, but that’s how I create a plot from nothing..!
it's...extreme--earlier and more Expressionist with a capital E than the tone-row stuff he's more known for and (that I'm guessing the NY-er piece focused on, but I'll check). Signal use of Sprechstimme too, which is awesome.
Cool, I'll listen to it today. The New Yorker piece covered his 12-tone approach and his atonality and then his odd life in LA--it's his 150th birthday this year. I'm googling Sprechstimme ...
“I like exploring the small, telling pivots of a moment because I believe that such small moments can be as important as the larger dramatic moments we often think define life.” Grant, this sentence of yours is gold to me. I’m also grateful I am a paid subscriber to your posts because I don’t want to miss the many shiny bits I find in your newsletters and work.
Thanks so much for everything, Ginevra! I appreciate your kind words and your support. I'm also just happy my newsletter resonates with you and is useful. Thanks so much again!
If only "plot" wasn't taught as so mechanical in discussing the progress of a protagonist or a story. What if it's about human change and development that is, or appears to be, organic based on the conflicts and challenges of a human person. And in short fiction, I can see the non-plot moment working; the problem is in longer fiction, how do we find a different more subtle solution to " what kind of change occurs." Maybe you are saying the progress of a story doesn't need to be about change?
Yeah, the mechanical/mathematical notion of plot certainly doesn't work so much for me. I like to think of contours, shapes. I also just like to not think of it too much—but rather to feel tension, to feel tension moving, searching (organic, as you say). You're right, though: the longer the story, the more pressure on the plot. I think change is crucial to "the progress of the story," but I also think change can take so many different forms. I like Jane Allison's book, "Meander, Spiral, Explode," for different models and language for plot.
Thanks for suggesting Allison's book. (And you are so right that "the longer the story the more pressure on plot." Alas.
Oh, Grant. I really like what you say about plot. When Anne Bernays and I were writing WHAT IF? WRITING EXERCISES FOR FICTION WRITERS, we sent the manuscript off to our editor at Harper Collins and he wrote back "You left out plot." True. So, we were asked to add it to the book, but our hearts were not happy. Recently, I wrote this for Vancouver Flash Fiction Writing Tips: 2023: "Forget plot. Plot sits like a boulder on your story. Instead think “unstable situation” and notice that an unstable situation has a past—and a future. Also forget conflict—it too is a dead weight. Instead think “tension,” “anticipation,” “apprehension,” and “dread.”
I love your posts. They are wise, witty, and full of inspirational advice. Now, I am waiting for your novel. Cheers.
Thanks so much, Pam! I love that we're on the same page with this. I love “unstable situation," and I haven't thought how insufficient "conflict" is. I love your replacement words.
The thing about plot is people tend to overly worry about it, construct elaborate and clever plots no one will remember, the characters on the other hand…
Agreed. I think I put too much pressure on myself re: plot. To focus on the character, the situation, is what really matters. Sometimes plot happens without the writer even thinking about it too much.
Yes, and the nice thing about flash fiction, at least for me, is that it's mostly all about the character(s). As you said, there's no/less need for a plot, even if nothing happens, a vignette, a snippet of life, which is fine for 100-1k words. Also, I like writing to an exact word limit.
I always refer back to James Joyce’s Dubliners as the gold standard of epiphany in writing. But I would also note that it is possible - perhaps even mandatory - that even character driven fiction contain the basics of plot, I.e. beginning, middle and end. It’s not easy to get to the top of that hill but it can be so rewarding if a writer can do so.
Ira
writing from the bottom of the world, or, as it is known around here - - Salem, Oregon.
I think it was Joyce who conjured the notion of epiphany in fiction. I love Dubliners. And I agree with you if by "the basics of plot" you mean narrative tension, suspense, a sense of escalation. I guess I think plot can take many shapes, and doesn't need to be restricted by its popular models (the hill, the roller coaster, the hero's quest).
Great article. When "composing" a story, I use a single suggestive (nonsensical) sentence to create the context:
example: “Andy lived blind until his hearing was shot!”
WTF: Then I explore the potential meaning of the sentence; and/or those 8 combined words. First: I got Andy, blind; hearing; & shot. Most important I got “until.” What happened?
I am only starting out as a crime fiction writer, but that’s how I create a plot from nothing..!
Sounds fun!
it's...extreme--earlier and more Expressionist with a capital E than the tone-row stuff he's more known for and (that I'm guessing the NY-er piece focused on, but I'll check). Signal use of Sprechstimme too, which is awesome.
Cool, I'll listen to it today. The New Yorker piece covered his 12-tone approach and his atonality and then his odd life in LA--it's his 150th birthday this year. I'm googling Sprechstimme ...
Schoenberg: lmk when you get to “Pierrot Lunaire.”
I've listened to it just a little, but I'll skip to it on your recommendation. I got into him because of the recent New Yorker article on Schoenberg.