Calgary Association of RWA - Plots, Plotting, and Themes by Vieve Montcombroux

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PLOTS, PLOTTING, AND THEMES
By Vieve Montcombroux

There’s nothing intrinsically complicated about plots. A plot is the chain of cause and effect that advances the story. It might be helpful to think of it as the assembly line upon which the writer constructs the story. The story is the author’s unique creation. The basic plot has been around a long time and in one form or another may have been used by countless other authors.

A sub-plot is a secondary story lying within the main one. Short category romance novels rarely have room for a sub-plot. Only longer novels give the author the freedom to develop one.

If one thinks of writing a romance novel as embarking on an enchanted journey, it would seem to make sense that the author should know where exactly she is going and why. This is the role of the plot outline. Many writers protest that having to prepare and stick to an outline curbs the creativity. A story outline will crimp one’s creativity only if the author lets it. Writing without an outline can lead to an unbalanced plot and an unsatisfactory novel. The secret is to have every plot development worked out prior to writing yet make it look as though the story is the result of a flash of spontaneous inspiration.

By the very nature of the genre, every romance novel is based on a “love plot”. In its simplest form the love plot involves a woman and a man who are attracted to each other but cannot declare their love because of obstacles that lie between them. These obstacles can be either internal (i.e. a reluctance to enter a relationship) or external (i.e. the characters belong to opposing sides in some dispute). Most novels contain both internal and external conflict. The plot involves the working out of these conflicts until a loving union is formed.

In a romance novel, a love plot is coupled with another type of plot. Cinderella is a love plot, because she gets the man she loves in the end, but it is also what is called an “ underdog plot” involving a heroine who is used and abused until she finally overcomes the barriers placed in her way by the antagonists – in this case the stepsisters. The story, then, can be described as a love-underdog plot.

Before looking at some of the many plots that can be used with a love plot, let’s consider two of the more obvious variants of the love plot itself: Forbidden love, and May-September romance.

Forbidden love.
Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet is a classic example of this plot form. The heroine and hero defy their respective families and fall in love. Not being a romance novel, the play ends tragically, but that does not change the essential plot of forbidden love.

May-December romance
Novels using this variation of the love plot emphasize the wide age difference between the lovers. Usually, the heroine is young and the hero older, but not necessarily so.

The actual number of available plots is relatively small, though experts are still disputing exactly how many there are. What’s important is to realize that the stories a writer can weave from them are limitless.

Here are some of the other plots available:

Quest plot
Quite simply, this is where the heroine or hero searches for a person, a place or a thing. Whatever is being sought, it keeps the heroine and hero from being happily united until the end of the story when the goal is reached or has been rendered superfluous.

One characteristic of a quest plot is that the story moves around a lot. The protagonist is always searching and following leads. An important element of the quest is the knowledge that the character gains along the way. In the process of seeking, the protagonist is transformed to some degree. It therefore has a psychological element to it.

A major weakness of the quest plot from a romance author’s point of view is that one of the main characters tends to be sidelined by the other’s preoccupation with the quest. Keeping the story focused on the love relationship poses a challenge. One way is to have both the heroine and the hero engaged in the same quest, perhaps for opposing reasons.

A novel based on this plot should start with the incident that motivates the search. What the character eventually finds is often not exactly what she set out to find.

Adventure plot
This in many respects is similar to the quest plot, with the exception that whereas the quest plot deals with the characters’ inner workings (a mind plot) the adventure plot is purely physical (an action plot). The transformation of the character that occurs in the quest plot is absent here.

In an adventure plot, the heroine can plunge into any kind of action that takes the writer’s fancy, during which she encounters the hero. Historical romance relies heavily on love-adventure plots, using such scenarios as war, pursuits, and other calamities.

Riddle plot
This form underpins all those romance novels labeled “ Mystery” or “Intrigue”. The reader is invited to solve a problem, usually the solution to a serious crime. The plot itself is a “physical” plot because it focuses on events and actions that must be interpreted, for they are not exactly what they appear to be. The writer must give clues that are not too obvious and that could point to more than one solution.

The core of the mystery should be a clue that has been in plain sight – without being too obvious – from the beginning. The novel should contain tension arising from what happens as opposed to what seems to have happened. Everything should be neatly wrapped up by the end of the novel and all misunderstanding between heroine and hero swept away.

Discovery plot
The variations of this plot are endless. In many ways this plot form is related to the riddle plot in that it involves uncovering something previously unknown (to the characters, that is) and that begs to be solved.

All stories based on this plot form all have one element in common: the discovery is essentially one of character – people finding out something important which affects them personally. It is one of the most character-orientated plots of any available to the romance writer.

The beauty of the discovery plot is that it is virtually ageless. Times change, but people do not. It works equally well for a story set in contemporary North America as it does for the characters of in medieval England.

There is something universally appealing reading about characters in search of understanding. One point to remember when using a love-discovery plot is that the plot is more about the character making the discovery than of the discovery itself. This is not so much a search for lost treasure or a missing child, as a search for understanding about human nature.

The story should start before circumstances begin to change the character and force her into new situations. This said, there’s no need to spend too much time on the character’s former life. Begin at the very threshold of change.

The steps toward the discovery have to be significant, not trivial. Since discovery – especially about oneself – is usually accompanied by strong emotions, this plot can lead a writer into unnecessary melodrama. Since there is an element of learning to a discovery plot, the writer should be careful not to be preachy.

Rivalry plot
This plot provides fertile ground for the romance author. Although rivalry forms an important element of many romance novels, it is not often the main focus of the story.

To create a story based on this plot form, the writer needs two characters who are vying for the same goal, in this case, the love of the hero or heroine. The competing characters should be evenly matched or else there’s no contest and not much excitement. Obviously, the rivals should not be identical. If the antagonist is physically strong, have the rival protagonist make up for it in intelligence. The unfolding of the story is a series of events that test the rivals, and finally eliminates one of them.

Again, as with the quest plot, there is a risk that the romance gets lost in all this inter-suitor competitiveness. The heroine needs to be doing something while waiting for the outcome of the struggle.

There’s an element of predictability in the rivalry plot. Usually one character rises on the power curve as the other falls. The antagonist often gains superiority over the hero early on in the story, only to suffer a reversal later in the novel. The final dramatic phase of the story should involve a confrontation between the two rivals.

Underdog plot
As touched on above, the underdog plot is an interesting one for an author to explore. In it the character may be downtrodden or exploited, either by family or social situation, or she can be disadvantaged in some way. The underdog character has to want to succeed and does so against all the odds.

Naturally, everyone knows the outcome is predictable, but so is the outcome of all romance novels. The heroine and hero always get together in the end. Everyone roots for an underdog. The writer can exploit feelings of frustration, anger and exhilaration felt by her character.

Just as in a rivalry plot, the character is thwarted by an antagonist. The antagonist does not have to be a person. In a historical romance the antagonist could well be the army of a king, and in a contemporary novel, a faceless bureaucracy. Almost always, the protagonist is not evenly matched against the power ranged against him or her, yet succeeds in the end.

Transformation plot
In this plot, the protagonist undergoes a change during his or her relationship with the other principal character. In romance novels, it’s frequently the harsh, unfeeling hero who is transformed by the love of the heroine.

The process of change usually begins with an incident that propels the character along the course which will inevitably lead to a satisfactory love union. As in the discovery plot, the transformation is of character rather than of situation. Having a poor girl become wealthy by the end of the novel does not make it a transformation plot. She has to undergo some fundamental psychological change.

The author should have her transformed character’s awareness be gained at a price. Along with wisdom comes a certain sadness. This does not mean that your heroine has to suffer some traumatic loss. It would be sufficient that things are not quite as rosy as they were beforehand. For example, she might find her close friend is not as reliable as she’d imagined, or discover the village she grew up in is not as idyllic as she’d thought.

This examination of the possible plots used in constructing a romance novel is by no means exhaustive. There are many more plot variations that can be used. Maturation, sacrifice, rescue, rise-and-fall, and revenge are some of the other plot forms available to you. Theoretically, any plot can be grafted onto the basic love plot, but some of them present considerable difficulty to be used in a romance novel.

Plot should not be confused with theme. Plot is the underlying structure which carries the story. Theme is the idea permeating the story. Good versus evil, or the power of love to bring about change are two themes that can be played out in any number of plots.

The plot is not unconnected to the rest of the novel. The plot and the characters must be closely interwoven. Ideally, the plot should be custom-made for the heroine and hero, and their supporting cast. If a novel is built so that no other set of characters would be able to do what these characters do, that novel will stand out.

How can one take a plot that has been around for ever and create something original with it? The simple answer is to employ a technique called deconstructionreconstruction. It sounds complicated but isn’t. The process involves taking apart a story based on an existing plot (deconstruction) and rebuilding it as the writer’s own (reconstruction).

Down the ages many authors have used this technique. West Side Story is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, which Shakespeare himself adapted from a work by Boccaccio, who in turn borrowed it from an even earlier writer. My Fair Lady is a make-over of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmallion, itself a story from Classical Greece. You can even use stories whose origins are lost in the mists of time.

Reinventing stories from classical literature is legitimate. Doing the same with a novel written in the 1990s is not. Laws governing intellectual property have been strengthened in recent years. There is nothing unprofessional or illegal, however, in taking the basic plot of an age old story and adapting it to a modern setting.

The following is a checklist to ensure that the plot selected is workable for a romance novel:

The plot is complex enough to sustain a story of the minimum number of words required by the target publisher

There are sufficient obstacles for the heroine and hero to overcome.

The plot does not contain flashbacks or unnecessary prologue.

The heroine and hero meet in the first chapter.

The heroine and hero are not separated for long periods in the plot.

All the main characters are introduced early in the story.

The plot climax comes almost at the end of the novel.

The time span of the plot is relatively short.

The subplot, if any, will not detract from the heroine and hero.

The outline has sufficient detail to guide the writer through the stages of writing.

The story which interpret the plot is the author’s own.

It’s a safe bet that if an author is confused about what plot form or forms she’s using, this confusion will find itself into the novel. The best advice is to hammer out the plot before embarking on the writing project.

Vieve Montcombroux is the author of Improve Your Romance Writing Skills (ISBN 09681617535). Visit her at www.montcombroux.com.

©Vieve Montcombroux 2005