Week 9 - Story Line

Another tool to aid in you in your plotting is the story line.  A story line is a written description of the obstacles that your characters must overcome and the tactics they devise to combat them.  By working through a problem-and-solution framework, you strengthen your plot.  The key to writing believable and consistent story lines comes when problems arise out of the apparent solutions of the previous problems.

Instead of problems coming from out of thin air, like a slap upside the head by the invisible hand of fate, attach a problem to a character, a human, animal, or otherwise.  How do your characters go about solving their problems - to jump over the hurdles that life has placed in front of them.  Action equals reaction... what problems arise from the solution to the previous problems?  Because the problem & solution framework mirrors life's ambiguity it results in a framework that gives you a story line that feels real.

THE EXERCISE:

1.   Use the problem-and-solution framework to construct a story line for your play. 

Remember, for every problem, there must be a solution, and from that solution rises a

whole new problem or set of problems.

2.   Locate the key scenes in your story line and circle them with a colored pen or pencil.