[Clarion West 2k1, week 4: raising the stakes...]

Tuesday. An extreme shortage of sleep for me, but I still managed to get my critiquing done for the day and get up in time to make it to class.

Connie gave another excellent lecture. Once again, I couldn't possibly post everything she had to say, but here are some tidbits:

* Rule: You can't always use a detail just because it's true.
* Rule: The space something takes up in a story *should* be directly proportional to its importance to the story
* "Plot explication only under heat, and even then, break it up. " -- Raymond Chandler (If I have the quote and the attribution right. I can only rely upon my notes.)

We discussed plot in general, complications as a device for making plot interesting, and reversals in particular as one effective kind of plot complication.

An interesting plot complication will often change or thwart the characters goals or means in some interesting way. Either the character changes what he/she wants, the character gets what he/she wants but not how they wanted/expected to get it, or the character gets the exact opposite of what they wanted at first.

In a "reversal", the plot or action suddenly veers off in another direction from what was expected. The reversal can be good *or* bad. It doesn't always have to be bad. A really good reversal changes the goals/questions for the characters involved.

Connie showed us snippets of several movies to illustrate the point. These were very helpful to me, as they helped to bring the idea to life.

One example that sticks in my mind is from "Six Days and Seven Nights". The Harrison Ford and Anne Heche characters are marooned on an island. In the scene we watched, their goal is to reach a transmitter tower that is located on the peak of a hill on the island. If they damage the tower, a repair crew will be flown out, and they'll be rescued.

Reversal (bad): they get to the top of the hill. No transmitter. Turns out they're on a different island.

Reversal (good): from the top of the hill, they see a yacht in one of the lagoons. So, their new goal is to get to the boat. They have to climb back down the hill, get to their life raft, and paddle around to that side of the island. Hopefully, the yacht will still be there when they get there.

Reversal (good): the yacht is actually still there when they get to that side of the island.

Reversal (better!): there's actually two boats there. Bonus!

Reversal (bad): as they approach the two boats, they see in their binoculars that the folks from one boat have just shot and killed the guy on the yacht and dumped his body overboard.

Reversal (worse!): one of the bad guys notices them, gets binoculars, sees that there are witnesses to their crime, and now initiates a chase of our two main characters. The goal has now changed for Harrison and Anne, who now want to flee the boat for their lives, and they turn back for the island, baddies on their trail.

These reversals happened in quick succession and changed the course of the story dramatically. The class discussed a number of other well known stories that used this device effectively. Another that I recall vividly is Star Wars. The goal in Act I is (eventually) to get the droids to Alderaan. Reversal: Alderaan has been destroyed and they are captured. Now the goal is to escape. Reversal: Princess Leia is on board! Now the goal is to rescue her and escape. They escape. Reversal: the Empire *let* them escape so that they can track them! Now the goal is to use the information that the droids have to try to find a way to thwart the Empire before the Empire destroys the rebel base.

If I've misquoted Connie or the class discussion, I apologize. You can believe me when I say that this was only part of the very interesting discussion.

Critique was as lively as ever, and I think we successfully avoided the "rawness" that may have edged into our critique the day before.

Tuesday afternoon I was unable to get any reading in, so the evening became a cramming session of reading, critiquing, and I even managed to write about 300 words of my new, still untitled, story.

The new story is a ghost story. I've never written one before. I now have a new task, as well: get a reversal in there. :-)