The Problem of Plot

Plot is a useful tool but it’s also a pain the ass, I say.

You say whatever you think, or you’re just listening. Whichever.

Yeah, I go, my issue is that if I really get into a story and like the characters, like the setting, it gets hard to experience those without the interference of plot points and story, and it becomes this kind of deterministic prison—which, I dunno, may be true to life in some ways, but is a serious bummer for me as a fan.

So I try to keep plots around for people who like that shit, and as a way, I guess, of getting people invested? That’s not a super conscious or front of mind thought, rather an analysis of my actions. It’s probably social conditioning and literary education, too.

Anyway, I’ve said it before but it bears repeating …

I pause to light up a smoke. I take a drag, shake out the match, and continue, saying, “I like to just hang out with characters and be in their spaces. You know, live with them in their worlds. So I think that’s a big part of what I’m trying to provide. It’s challenging, but it’s an interesting challenge. You know, as a writer.”

Play procedures

• Think about your perspective on plot. No, I don’t say recall your perspective or argue it; think about it. Really stop and think. Think your way through it. Then begin to draw in memories or awareness about your inculcation into this perspective. You might find there are multiple perspectives in there. Look at each of them. Consider their relationship to each other.

• Consider a work that you love quite a lot. Can be from any genre, medium, or milieu. How easily are you able to inhabit it? What do you think allows this or facilitates it? How might we deepen this experience for ourselves and for audience players?

• If you have game design or narrative composition or some shit like that as a trait, you may make a roll now. It’s a fairly high difficulty, but not impossible. A simple success yields an insight in to the secret of plotting. If you’re not collecting chapters or working toward unlocking secrets, this won’t mean anything to you. Great success means you have gained access to the master level of the secret and can now compose, edit, and redesign many plotlines across many worlds, settings, and projects on the fly with almost no confusion or loss of clarity.