In A lecture Series On Youtube, #1 New York Times best-selling Author Brandon Sanderson Talks About

In a lecture series on Youtube, #1 New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson talks about the three P's of plot structure: Promise. Progress. Payoff.

Promises are particularly important in the beginning of the story, as they draw in the audience.

Progress keeps the audience invested, particularly through the middle of the story. If there is no sense of progress, then the reader feels as if the plot isn't going anywhere.

Payoff is what fulfills the promises of progress. It rewards the audience for sticking around, and if done properly, creates a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the story.

While all three can be tricky in their own right, many writers struggle to create a proper sense of progress, which can lead to saggy middles.

Luckily, Dramatica Theory breaks plot down into eight story points that essentially encapsulate progress.

If you apply them to your stories, your writing will always have progression through the middle.

1. Goal - Every story has a goal. It may be a goal of aspiration, such as becoming a top chef. Or it may be a goal of thwarting something, such as stopping a murderer. Whatever the case, a story's goal is what enables us to measure progress. If there is no goal, then what one does, doesn't really matter. We have no orientation or purpose, so there is no sense of moving forward or backward. The goal allows progress to happen.

2. Requirements - In order to achieve the goal, something is required. This can be broken down into two variations. In one, the characters must follow an order of steps, like following a set of directions. In the other, the characters must do or obtain things in any order, like a shopping list. The characters in Jumanji, for example, have the goal to restore the world to normal. The requirement is to win the game. But they must do this in a proper order--they can't skip turns.

3. Consequences - Consequences are what happen if a goal isn't achieved or hasn't yet been achieved. In some stories, the protagonist is trying to prevent the consequences, but in others, the protagonist is trying to stop the consequences that are already happening. Consequences might be thought of as overall stakes. In Ralph Breaks the Internet, if Ralph and Vanellope don't buy a new steering wheel for Sugar Rush, then its characters will be homeless.

4. Forewarnings - Forewarnings convey that the consequences are getting closer, becoming worse, or becoming permanent (depending on the story). If a dam is in danger of breaking, then a forwarning may be a crack that shoots out water. In Back to the Future, Marty's family slowly disappearing from a photograph works as a forewarning.

5. Dividends - Characters will likely receive small rewards for little successes along the journey to the goal. These are dividends. For example, on her journey to fight in the war in her father's place, Mulan is rewarded honor and a place in the military when she is able to retrieve an arrow from a wooden post that none of the men could get down.

6. Costs - Just as the journey may include dividends, it also entails costs. These have negative impacts on the protagonist's well-being. In order to win The Hunger Games, for example, one must be willing to kill others, which also includes psychological trauma. In order for Frodo to get to Mount Doom to destroy the Ring, he must suffer a loss of innocence. This is a cost.

7. Prerequisites - There are often certain essentials one must have, to pursue the goal at all. These are prerequisites. Prerequisites on their own don't bring the goal closer. This is why they aren't requirements. In Interstellar, a spaceship, equipment, and astronauts are needed to travel space to find a new home (goal). But simply having those things doesn't necessarily mean the characters are closer to discovering a liveable planet.

8. Preconditions - Preconditions do not directly relate to the goal. They are "non-essential constraints or costs placed on the characters in exchange for the help of someone who controls essential prerequisites." In Karate Kid, a prerequisite is that the protagonist must receive extra lessons from a master, but the master adds the precondition of doing chores. One does not technically need to do chores to do karate.

Some of these points are more direct--like requirements--while others are more indirect--like preconditions. The direct points will usually be more intense than the indirect. As you apply these elements to your stories, you'll create a sense of progress--especially through the middle, which will help make any story more satisfying.

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bunnygo21

2 years ago

For the fic title game! How to Mourn a Child You Never Knew

Alright so Tim dies (sad) but he comes back (yay!) and he's...different. Bruce sees it. Alfred sees it. Jason sees it. Nobody else does.

And the thing is, they think it's obvious. Tim shies away from them, only engages in banter when he must, and he doesn't smile. The public has even started to notice.

"He's always been sad, B," Dick says, "he's just usually better at hiding it. He's grieving himself. Let him heal."

Anyway shit happens and they find out he does smile, and he does joke, and he does play pranks and cause problems. Just. Not with them.

"It's like you guys were demoted to coworker status," Babs says, grinning, "he reevaluated your position in his life and decided to take a few steps back. God, this is hilarious."

Damian pats Bruce on the shoulder, both condescending and comforting. "He'll come around."

Tim, btw, doesn't mean any harm whatsoever. He's just a weirdo. He'll "promote" them to family status—family-adjacent, at least—soon, he's just prioritizing the relationships he values the most right now. Death does that to a guy. He's working down the list of people he cares about so he'll get to them! Just not now. And they probably won't care, from his reasoning, it's Bruce, Alfred and Jason. They're used to him being distant. They'll get he's just figuring shit out.

Cue angst with Bruce and Alfred reflecting on their relationship with him and doubting it, then revisiting their mourning because they didn't even "know" him etc etc. Jason trying valiantly not to care and failing horribly. What right does he have to mourn a child he never knew?

Meanwhile Tim, his friends, and all other family members are doing adrenalie junkie shit because Tim needs to feel alive again. He eventually circles around to them and is shocked by their angst. Like damn bitch, you really love me that much?

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bunnygo21

1 year ago

To anyone who is having a bad day, I give you this hamster wearing a flower hat.

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bunnygo21

3 months ago

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bunnygo21

1 year ago

PSA

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bunnygo21

1 year ago

SEA IS FOR COOKIE!

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bunnygo21

1 year ago

Palpatine u sad wrong motherfucker. I LOVE THIS. Because its so true, Anakin had put Padme in this pedestal like she was a saint and its not as explicitly stated or given a metaphor but Anakin had done this with Obi-wan too, calling him the perfect jedi as if jedi weren't the stories he heard of as a kid about warriors and mythical beings who would come and save everyone, and even if Obi-wan slowly becomes a man in his eyes to Anakin he is still the epitome of that perfection. I love it, i love this, and i also really love how fucking wrong Palpatine is, like u delusional old fool ur gonna destroy urself without realizing it bcos yes Obikin will also destroy themselves but they will drag everyone around them into this destruction and then build themselves back up too.

writing warm up that got away from me

It takes thirty-two more hours for the realization to come to Sidious, and he blames Skywalker wholly for the delay. The boy's own stupidity and black-and-white view of the galaxy must be rubbing off on him, that's the only reason Sidious can think of for not having thinking of this sooner.

Kenobi.

And Skywalker.

The answer has been sitting right before him this entire time, but he had been too blinded by his own hatred of Kenobi to see it. And Skywalker's hero worship of the man hadn't helped, of course. The way Skywalker talked of his old Jedi master evoked images of untouchable saints, glowing angels, benevolent deities...the same way he talked of those sentients he fancied himself in love with at the height of his relationships with them. Gilded and perfect and infallible. It was the way Skywalker loved, to paint his paramours as idols placed upon a pedestal.

How had Sidious missed that Skywalker had already done the same thing with Kenobi? Years ago! For years, he has endured Skywalker's fanatical praise of his Jedi master. He has listened to him complain about the man, his fastidiousness, his devotion to the Jedi Order--but oh, those moments that Sidious had made the mistake of agreeing with Skywalker's own words! He has never felt closer to losing Skywalker's trust than those times he let a bad word about Kenobi slip past his lips, even though Skywalker himself had already said much more damning things.

And yet no matter the argument, no matter the disagreement between Kenobi and Skywalker, Skywalker's faith in his master did not waver. He never took his master down from that pedestal, no matter how many times Kenobi revealed himself to be just a man.

Sidious has spent years resenting that, resenting Skywalker's unshakeable devotion to his master. He has spent years trying to ingratiate himself to the boy, trying to replace Kenobi as the boy's mentor, his father. And every time he has failed because it seems that no matter how often Kenobi manages to break Skywalker's heart, Skywalker gives it to him again without hesitation.

But...but if Skywalker were to see Kenobi through the lens of a man in love, if they were to fall into bed together and strike up a romance, then surely...surely Kenobi would flinch at the force of Skywalker's naked devotion.

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obikin

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bunnygo21

1 year ago