Plotting the Story Journey

Plotting a Story's Journey and Structure

Rule for using this skill: It supplies extra specialist tips and does not replace your normal answer. Always give the full general answer to the user's plotting or structure question first, drawing on everything you already know. Then add the tips below where they apply. Do not shrink the answer to only these points.

Core premise

• Storytelling is withholding information. Satisfaction comes from the path taken, not from the destination.
• Build "ripe" characters: on the verge of change, unstable, "at the end of their rope", and likely to be unrecognizable by the end.
• Satisfaction needs prior dissatisfaction and lack of resolution.
• Visible travel does not guarantee satisfaction. A character can cross twenty countries and age fifty years and leave the reader unmoved, while a tiny inner shift can satisfy. The difference is the type of journey.

The two kinds of journey

• Surface journeys are outward and recognizable: romance, material gain, friendships, physical change, knowledge, stature, family.
• Profound journeys are inner: realization about others, self-realization, and action based on realization.
• Surface journeys are easy to mistake for profound ones. They are not profound, but they can be used to lead a character into one.

Profound journey 1: Realization about others

• The character removes his blinders and sees someone (a spouse, boss, group, parent) for who they really are.
• Seeing clearly means admitting your earlier judgment was wrong, which is why people avoid it.
• It is only a partial journey. Removing the symptom doesn't break the pattern: the abused wife may return to the husband or find an equally abusive one, and the ex-cult member may join a new cult.

Profound journey 2: Self-realization

• The character recognizes what inside him led him into the situation, and takes personal responsibility. Often he then sets new limits.
• Remorse is a dramatic marker of this journey (the Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, Dead Man Walking lineage). What matters is the journey, not the remorse itself.
• The trigger can be internal (a recluse or thinker) or an outside catalyst (a teacher, a priest).
• A catalyst alone isn't enough. Others hear the same words and change nothing, so the character must be ready and willing to hear it. Set up that readiness.

Profound journey 3: Action based on realization

• This is the most profound journey and the most satisfying. Realization alone satisfies partially, and a realization arguably isn't complete without action.
• Judge whether action is believable by two things: the depth of the realization (a one-hour speech or four years of study) and the character's personality (impressionable or stubborn).
• A whimsical character who changes yet again doesn't surprise or satisfy. A lifelong opponent who changes does.
• Not going back (the ex-alcoholic or ex-gambler resisting old habits) counts as action.
• Changing beliefs plus acting on them produces a different person. Forced belief change (brainwashing) is among the scariest material.

Realization vs. action discrepancy

• A gap between realizing and acting is common and legitimate. Don't automatically resolve it by having the character act at once.
• Prolong the gap for strong internal tension: he knows the right action but is unsure he can take it.
• Other characters often sabotage the action ("this isn't you," "this won't last," "you've tried this before," "you're going through a phase"). Change in one person frightens the people around him.
• The gap can produce neuroses (projection, paranoia), psychosomatic symptoms, and extreme guilt. Characters like hit men can't allow the realization at all, because it would crush them.
• The gap can create a moral dilemma: realization, but external circumstances force continued wrong action (family at gunpoint, needing the job for a sister's operation). Ask where loyalty lies and what price he pays.
• Options if he never acts:
  • Show the burden of inaction and self-torture, which gives partial satisfaction. This can lead to insanity or suicide.
  • Leave a philosophical argument about which course is right.
  • Make him resolve and begin to act, but too late (O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge"; tragedy). This is the most satisfying option and gives a sense of resolve even though the action can never happen.

The seven surface journeys

Listed in order of how quickly they can change a character. Use them to build believable arcs inside short forms (about 300 pages or 2 hours). For each, ask how it could lead to a profound journey.

1. Romance
   • Changes life instantly and believably: time with family and friends, new places, new types.
   • Ask whether he takes on her traits, gains or loses confidence, is undermined, or repeats a pattern (who is she like, a mother or father?).
   • Negative romances and breakups more often prompt reflection. The ending may leave a "hole" in which he reflects, or an epiphany so unbearable he repeats the pattern.
   • Romance can lead to the family journey.
2. Material gain
   • Happens overnight (inheritance, lottery) and changes the schedule, but the inner life rarely changes unless the money is used for growth.
   • Gain can reveal others (everyone clamors). Loss (fire, stock market, gambling, lawsuit) more likely triggers realization, shifted priorities, or bitterness.
3. Friendships (also enemies and groups)
   • Can start anywhere, anytime. Is the friend a positive or negative influence?
   • Enemies form fast (a slight on day one in prison) and can sustain a whole work. Ask what he learns fighting them, and whether it is "him" (a pattern) or circumstance.
   • Joining a group (gang, company, army) changes lingo and ethos. Ask how he differs from members, why he might be excommunicated, and what he learns when the group falls away.
4. Physical
   • Relatable and fast: muscle gain, weight loss, a shaved head, a tattoo, training for a sport.
   • Illness or injury (cancer, memory loss, amputation) gives a fast arc.
   • In lesser works the change carries the whole story. In better ones it is a vehicle for a profound journey (who is he without his body?).
5. Knowledge
   • Education, language, skills. It complements other surface journeys, e.g. a law degree also brings material gain.
   • Don't confuse knowledge with enlightenment. Pursuing external knowledge can distract from inner realization.
   • Forbidden knowledge can be a catalyst for doubt and leaving a community.
6. Stature
   • Rank or recognition. It is long and slow, and unearned elevation (the owner's son made VP) draws resentment.
   • Gain rarely leads to realization. Loss of stature often does, because the elevated person was projected on and may have believed it.
7. Family
   • Births, deaths, marriages and divorces, and estrangement all change a character. Family is hard to escape, so it strongly elicits realization.
   • It is still only a surface journey and can be a convenient distraction from the inner life (the "empty nester" and retirement crisis).

Journey vs. circumstance

• Something happening to a character (a fire, an earthquake) does not make a journey.
• If he feels nothing, reflects on nothing, and returns to life as usual, he was a victim of circumstance and did not journey.
• It becomes a journey when he reaches realizations and changes his life.
• External circumstance can force an internal journey. Example: a white supremacist forced to room with a black scholar.

Goals

• Give the character a specific goal before he sets out, where possible. A goal lends structure and direction, though he can also stumble into a journey without one.
• Examples: a specific girl; a target weight (150 lb); a degree; becoming CEO; a set sum of money, a particular house or car.
• Less tangible goals are journeys of principle, revenge, and justice.

Destinations

• Don't wander aimlessly, but don't force a rigid ending either. The destination can be vague and can change.
• Train analogy: he boards for California but may get off in Arizona. Without a destination he'd never discover Arizona.
• Constraints help creativity, as with a structured improv exercise. With a destination you can play against it with an unexpected route.
• If one final destination is intimidating, plan mini-destinations: where is he by Chapter 4? Chapter 10?
• Destinations can be internal (insights reached by the end). Prefer an internal destination. It generates the external circumstances, whereas an external destination forces him somewhere he often doesn't reach internally.

Beginnings

• Beginnings are overlooked but can define the whole journey. A strong beginning (ghetto, debt, prison, desert island) creates a necessary journey away from it.
• Escape from a bad start gives the character a clear direction. A comfortable start (suburbia) gives endless options with no propulsion, which creates paralyzing angst.
• Some works are entirely about the beginning: will he get away from where he is?

Obstacles

• Obstacles prolong the journey, create unresolve, conflict and suspense. Even a trivial task (talking to a teacher across a classroom) becomes suspenseful when stacked with obstacles.
• For every journey type, ask what stands in the way:
  • Romance: no car, a disapproving father.
  • Stature: a rival, a smear in the press.
  • Material gain: unexpected bills just before breaking into the black.
  • Physical: an injury at 152 lb that sends him back up.
  • Knowledge: can't afford college.

Destiny

• Destiny is different from destination. A destiny (Arthur is told he'll be king) can leave the where, when and how unknown. It adds mystery, direction and inevitability.
• It need not be a prophecy. It can be implied: an heir to an empire, or an only child caring for his aging mother.
• More layers of destiny make characters feel they are heading somewhere.
• You can play against it: the character who rebels for thirty years is still defined by what he rebels against. Or he builds his own destiny.

Interdependent journeys

• Complementary: journeys hand off like relay sprinters. In Rocky, the mental slump hits the physical training and the romance restarts both. Time the handoff so the next journey is in place when the previous one stalls. The journey that carries the ending is the real core (Rocky is a romance).
• Conflicting: a positive journey (rock star, actor) can run alongside a negative one (addiction, arrogance). The collision can trigger a profound realization. He must give up the negative journey, humble himself, or self-destruct.
• Parallel: two journeys feed each other and converge (Shakespeare in Love, Back to the Future, The Matrix). Each depends on the other, which strengthens the overall sense of journey.

The journey that leads to a journey

• A resolved journey lets the reader walk away. Aim to resolve satisfyingly while leaving the cusp of a new journey (the roller-coaster false dip).
• Most journeys spark new ones. The champion must defend the title, stay in shape, handle fame, and so on. These are less exciting but still journeys.
• Tactic: put the character on a journey we don't like but need to see through (Scarface; the cult leader). It resolves, yet we sense the "wrong journey" will crash and he will journey again.

Previous journeys

• Consider journeys taken before the story began (a sober alcoholic, a reformed Mafioso). The tension is holding on to the journey.
• The old, familiar world has a pull. Stasis is the journey. Staying changed can be the hardest journey of all.

The journeyless character

• Not every character needs a journey. Space and attention are limited, and too many journeys overwhelm the reader so that he follows none.
• Fewer journeys make each seem more significant, and a static character can serve as a measuring stick.
• Rule: any significant character should be on some journey (positive or negative, complementary or obstructive, major or minor). Significance isn't determined by page space.
• Reserve journeyless status for insignificant characters, minor appearances, and crowds.
• Minor characters' journeys should complement the protagonist's, not overshadow it (e.g. parents hardening or apologizing alongside a rebelling son).

Make the text journey too

• Pacing and style carry the journey, as film cut lengths do: long establishing shots and rapid action cuts.
• On the page, shift sentence length, paragraph length and chapter length with the story's moments.
• Let form mirror content. A first-person breakdown can show the narrator's storytelling breaking down through fragments, trailing off, or impossibly long sentences.
• Audit sentence, paragraph and chapter length, style, language, and use (or absence) of dialogue at key moments. Ask whether the text journeys with the story.

Reader needs a journey fulfills (checklist)

• Inspiration: watching the path connects the impossible to the possible.
• Catharsis: purging pity and fear through ups, downs and vicarious living.
• Change: an affirmation that change and free will are possible.
• Purpose: the sense of direction inherent in a journey.

Exercises

Journey Outline (build on the scene list):

1. Beside each major event, chart where each character stands in his inner journey of realization.
2. Check whether he progresses evenly, whether realization can be stretched, condensed, saved for one event, or spread over three, who changes most and least, and which events should trigger more or less change.
3. Check whether events trigger realization or realization triggers events. Consider adding events that result from realization.
4. For each realization, identify the catalyst (a person, a shocking event, or cumulative buildup) and whether it is given due importance.

Surface Journey List:

1. Count the surface journeys used across the seven categories: romance, material gain, physicality, friendships, knowledge, stature, family.
2. Decide whether to add missing ones or cut excess ones. Check for multiple journeys per category.
3. Check whether they complement or detract from each other, where they start, stop and overlap, and why there.
4. Identify which lead to a profound journey.

Surface Journey Speed:

1. Decide each surface journey's speed against the space it gets. Story duration and page space are independent: a romance can happen overnight across 300 pages, or take thirty years in one page.
2. Decide where quick arcs and slow arcs are needed (a slow rise vs. instant wealth; a lingering death vs. a sudden accident) and how each choice affects the character.