2024-09-10 short story writing class

#update
parents:: short story writing class
daily note:: 2024-09-10

Thoughts

• thoughts on Last Night - James Salter

Summary

Today's focus was on plot. What is plot? What are the elements of plot? Rules? Exceptions?

For me, my first instinct was that plot is an abstraction of story. It's the basic framework in which one might instantiate particular details, almost like a less structured mad-lib. So for me, that means perhaps defining what the conflict(s) are, and the types of motivations ("why") and struggles (external or internal) which lead to those conflicts. However, the details of who the people are, and what they're actually struggling over are filled in by the story (See #Exercise).

I realized quickly that most people had a different sense of what plot vs story is. Most people thought of plot as the "what". While the story fills in the "how" and the "why." (After all, this is what Atwood seems to suggest in Happy Endings - Margaret Atwood). Fatin's example of two stories with the same plot: two people have their flight cancelled over the holidays, but one is happy because she hates her family, while the other is sad because she misses her family.

I'm still not sure I'm entirely convinced...

We also discussed the typical elements of a plot, ala Freytag's pyramid. (1) Exposition, (2) rising action, (3) climax, (4) falling action, and (5) resolution. I'm also not sure if I'm fully convinced of this... it seems like there's more exceptions to this rule than there are examples of it (amongst "good literature"). However, I do agree that there is a certain amount of science to writing a good story. A science to getting readers sympathetic (or antipathetic (?)) to the characters, drawing them in emotionally, getting them invested in a conflict, resolving things in a way that both makes sense yet is surprising. Sometimes satisfying, but sometimes, it might be cool to not resolve things-- in particular, Last Night - James Salter does this, leaving many questions unanswered.

Questions this raised for me

• can art and science be separated?
  • There seems to be both a scientific part (grammar, elements of plot) to good story writing; but what makes a story great seems to be the "creativity" and "art" aspect of it.
• are the examples of stories with multiple conflicts (say internal vs external) but the conflicts instead of paralleling each other, are contrasting?

During class

Exercise

What is plot? What is story?

• Story as plot + other things...

• A plot maybe is an abstraction: it's a categorization of the "type of action, type of conflict, type of resolution" that occurs.

  • Say... a betrayal, or a

• While a story is the actually fully fleshed out thing: complete with characters (the friend was a chef who was jealous that the protagonist got a new restaurant), details (the murder weapon was a rice cooker...), etc...

• A kid goes to sleep and asks his parents to "tell me a story," not "tell me a plot."

  • A cool parent then asks his kid, what's the difference between a story and a plot?

Come up with 2 stories with the same plot:

• Bob and Charles are chefs. Started cooking together at a young age, first on a fake, red yellow green blue doll house kitchen. Then, in Bob's family's actual home kitchen, with Bob's loving parents. Because Charles was from the wrong side of the tracks. This was his escape from life. He was so grateful for it. They eventually both go to the same culinary school, attend all the same classes. Are inseparable. But then... comes the real world, and they need to get positions.
  • Bob goes behind Charles's back and talks to the head chef for a personal tryout thing.
  • Charles kills Bob with a rice cooker
• Bob and Charles are chef. Started cooking together at a young age, first on a red yellow green blue, 3 foot tall hoop. Then, on the real basketball hoop in Bob's driveway. Because...
  • Same thing... betrayal, Charles kills bob with a basketball hoop...