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00:00Okay, okay, so it's the sequel to the most beloved movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz.
00:15Rubies to riches, Dorothy designs a line of ruby slippers and boom, strikes it rich.
00:22Hard pass.
00:23All right, Wizard of Oz part two, Twister.
00:28Dorothy, Toto, and Aunt Em become professional storm chasers.
00:36Bring me a club soda with a twist of lemon.
00:39And I mean a real twist, not that stuff from the plastic squeeze bottle.
00:47Well, what do we have here?
00:51Dear Rita and Moby, how do I write a story that people will actually want to read?
00:56Thanks, B.
00:58I can answer that, plus it'll end this fiasco of a pitch meeting.
01:02Let's talk structure.
01:04Tim, pull up a seat.
01:06Every decent story's got a plot, a chain of key events that drive the action.
01:11The first event causes the second, which causes the third, and so on till the end.
01:17Plots are what draw us in, stir up our emotions, and get us hooked.
01:22They make us want to stick with a story to find out what happens next.
01:27None of this is new.
01:28Some of the rules for effective plot construction go all the way back to ancient Greece.
01:33Back then, plays tended to follow a three-part structure, beginning, middle, and end.
01:41You start with a conflict, a challenge faced by the main character, called the protagonist.
01:47In the first half of a story, the conflict escalates.
01:51Then, there's a reversal, and the conflict resolves, or clears up.
01:56A couple thousand years later, European writers were still following this basic structure.
02:02But by then, they'd added a few wrinkles of their own.
02:05A German writer named Gustav Freytag broke the formula down into five steps.
02:10He organized them in a diagram now called Freytag's Pyramid.
02:14The plots of most stories can be mapped onto this structure.
02:19First up, there's exposition.
02:22That's the setup, when the story's characters and setting are introduced.
02:27In The Wizard of Oz, the main character is Dorothy.
02:30She lives on a farm with her dog, Toto, and her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.
02:35Dorothy dreams of exciting adventures in faraway lands.
02:39Learning what her character wants sets us up for what's to come.
02:44Next is the rising action, often set in motion by an inciting incident.
02:50In this case, a tornado hits Dorothy's house and carries her away to Oz.
02:56It's around this point when we find out the story's main conflict.
03:01Dorothy desperately wants to go home, but lots of obstacles stand in her way.
03:06Including the Wicked Witch of the West, who's the antagonist,
03:10the character opposite the protagonist in the conflict.
03:14She wants to steal Dorothy's ruby slippers, a gift from Glinda the Good Witch.
03:20The rising action tends to take up most of the story.
03:24Maybe you've heard the phrase, the plot thickens.
03:27That's what happens here.
03:29Events build to heighten the conflict, and the tension keeps mounting.
03:34Dorothy and her pals navigate a haunted forest,
03:38facing strange creatures and dodging the witch at every turn.
03:42Finally, they reach the wizard, who says he'll help Dorothy get home.
03:47But only if she brings him the Wicked Witch's broomstick.
03:52Right! Dorothy's big face-off with the witch is the climax.
03:57The plot's peak, the most important moment!
04:01Following a mighty struggle, Dorothy triumphs by melting the witch.
04:07The climax marks a turning point that changes the protagonist.
04:12After that comes the falling action, when the conflict is resolved.
04:17As it turns out, the wizard is a fraud who can't actually help Dorothy get home.
04:22But Glinda the Good Witch can.
04:25She explains that Dorothy has the power within herself to go home,
04:29with a little help from her ruby slippers.
04:33Yeah, that's called a plot device, something dropped in to move the action forward.
04:39We knew the slippers were magic,
04:41but only at this key moment do we learn they can solve Dorothy's problem.
04:46Sometimes, plot devices are too random or unbelievable to work.
04:51Like a bunch of farmers decide to become storm chasers for no apparent reason.
04:56That kind of thing can turn off an audience, disconnecting them from the story.
05:02Anyway, the last part of the pyramid is the resolution, the plot's final wrap-up.
05:08It's also called the denouement.
05:10The conflict is solved and the reader feels closure.
05:14Dorothy returns to Kansas safe and sound, realizing there's no place like home.
05:21Well, you don't want your story to map perfectly onto the pyramid.
05:27It's a formula.
05:29Track too closely to it and your story will feel formulaic, or fake.
05:35Like in this phase, you don't want every single moment to add to the tension.
05:41In The Wizard of Oz, the plot takes all kinds of fun little detours,
05:45like when we meet the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion.
05:49A little bit of looseness makes a story more lively and engaging.
05:53Some writers even mess around with the structure itself.
05:57They might skip the exposition and start in medias res, in the middle of things.
06:02That can give the story a sense of urgency.
06:05Like if The Wizard of Oz started right in the middle of the tornado.
06:10The background info might come in later, through flashbacks,
06:13scenes from an earlier time inserted in the story.
06:17Then it would be a non-linear plot, a story that's told out of order.
06:23Sometimes a story begins at the climax, or even the resolution, then backtracks.
06:30Other stories might have more than one climax, or no resolution at all.
06:37Well, before you try any of those, it's a good idea to master the standard form.
06:43When you're planning out your story, map the plot onto the pyramid.
06:47Some writers start at the start, by imagining the characters and setting.
06:52Others envision the climax first, then backtrack to plan the events leading up to it.
06:58And some begin with the conflict,
07:00and then figure out how it escalates and resolves over the course of the plot.
07:05Figuring out your plot can be a messy process with lots of false steps and revisions.
07:11It's kind of the opposite of your finished story, which will be brilliantly structured.
07:15Gee, you really think so?
07:17Sure I do.
07:19Now get back to the drawing board and write me a hit, kid.
07:22Yes, ma'am.
07:25Call me if you need anything, and let's do lunch real soon.
07:32How many times have I told you?
07:34That guy shows up, call security.