In the current issue of The Writer Magazine, Sam McCarver warns against ten fiction pitfalls. The one that stood out for me (as a reader and movie-goer, as well as somebody who teaches writing) is "Don't write a 'simple' plot."
The current emphasis, especially in screenwriting, on using the formula of "your protagonist wants something desperately and there's somebody trying to stop him or her from getting it" is leading to two-dimensional stories.
Yes, that quest can be the spine of your story, but for me a story gets interesting when it blossoms into moral dimensions. For instance, the typical movie hero has no second thoughts about killing someone in self-defense. But if you or I killed someone, even if we thought our life was in danger, would we just get on with our day to day business as though nothing much had happened? What if something comes to light that makes us wonder whether our life really was in danger? How might the incident affect our relationship to our spouse or partner?
I know these issues are not on the minds of the teen-age boys who are the target audience for most movies these days, but that level of simplistic plotting seems to be spreading even to stories ostensibly aimed at a more mature viewer or reader.
The two levels are not mutually exclusive--in many cases, it's a matter of adding another level of meaning and drama.
One way to explore these while planning your story is to consider how each major action in the story affects the characters intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Not all actions will have effects on all three levels, but seeing which ones do can help you fully exploit the drama of any story.
(If you'd like support and help with time management and the other things you need to do in order to finally write that book or screenplay you've been thinking about, get my free report, "Seven Things That Stop Your From Writing and How to Overcome Them," and information about the Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program, go HERE.)
