Plot Beat Patterns

20240212

I find myself noodling with the MECH way too much during MRK’s Sunday morning “Make Me Write” sessions. During the post-MMW call with just the Short Story Cohort… Mary Robinette suggested we rewrite the plot beats of Red Riding Hood, but she also mentioned how she’d have these thumbnails on index cards that are 150 words max with a beginning, middle, and end.

I thought about this a lot and was reminded of a book with 54 situations called Story Structure Architect. Yesterday, I pasted the notes up here. I’m not sure it was super useful. I think it got me one step closer. And then, I remembered this three column thing I made a while back that combined the 54 situations in a way that made more sense to me.

As I was doing this Sunday, I had…

Three Insights i/r/t Plot Threads & Patterns

INSIGHT #1: Starting from plot structure is stupid. It’s too open-ended. You need a concrete, tangible detail or prompt first. That way you can build your MECH, a couple of characters maybe, and a setting. What tripped me up in 2015-2017 is trying to “solve” all these plot patterns and thinking I could start there when it’s the SECOND step.
INSIGHT #2: Hyper-related to the first point, starring at a huge list of plot structures is intimidating, overwhelming, and useless. The prompt and/or MECH dictates and/or helps narrow down which plot patterns to “try on” and experiment with.
INSIGHT #3: The Plot Thread Archtypes I broke down a few months ago are DIFFERENT form the Plot Patterns I think I’m starting to understand now. Plot Patterns can be applied to any story. They’re more like scenes, or a sequence. Plot Thread Archetypes are in that liminal space between genre and plot, of which, some are more hard-coded than others (e.g. Mystery, Romance, Thrillers).

More importantly, i/r/t to the last point, I’m starting to understand (again) that what tools you can functionally use for practical crafting stories is vastly different from what tools are used for analysis and dissection.

As I mentioned above already, right now, I’m stuck on the MECH and can’t context-shift to the dramatization and laying down the plot beats. The MECH is still too open for me. I need tools to narrow down the plot beats.

MICE & Plot Patterns

Last night and this morning, I started going through the list of 54 situations and it became very clear to me that aside from “pure” mystery stories (starts with a crime/inquiry), almost every story starts with an “E” in the MICE quotient. You need to rock the status quo first in order to get the story moving. The inciting incident or disruption (DSR) then, is the first plot beat. I’ve broken them down into five types.

5 Types of Inciting Incidents / Disruptions (DSR)

Prot/Ally Attacked

Prot or Ally is cursed, poisoned, or injured
Prot or Ally is abducted, caught, imprisoned, lost, or abandoned
Prot or Ally is murdered, slain, or wronged

Comes/Goes to Town

Stranger comes to town: rival, hero, or new ally
Reunion: someone PROT knows is coming
Fish out of Water: PROT goes to new place

Get A Gift

Gifts can be magical or mundane. MAGICAL: talisman, power, fortune, miracle MUNDANE: invitation, proposition, school, access, job, contract, meal, ticket, toy, temptation

Gift is bad, must get rid of or get out of it
Gift is good, but has unforeseen consequences and side effects
Gift is unknown quantity, must figure out what it does

Life Stages

Similar to gifts, but even more mundane life stages: puberty, new love, new friend, birth, death, marriage, divorce, breakup, mid-life crisis, LGBTQ+ coming out, pregnancy, first job, first love, first house, first period, miscarriage, losing virginity, affair, empty-nest, estrangement, addiction, recovery, accidents.

New Intel

Warning, rumor, or data that something bad is arriving soon (villain, disaster, bad news)
See glimpse of truth (often due to being at the wrong place, wrong time). A “behind-the-scenes” truth about how things really work. Or a covered up scandal. Or discover secret accidentally (adultery, incest, age, lie, secret job, crime, secret meeting)
Change of heart or doubt. Routine activity is called into question, loyalty is shaken. Or something new creates temptation, want to find more of it.

Middles: Mystery or McGuffins

OK, once the DSR occurs, the PROT can choose to ignore it for a while (the reluctance in the Hero’s Journey), but I would assume, in a short story, we don’t have time for that and the PROT starts moving. In further thinking about this… It seems to me that the middle tends to be Ms (milieu) or Is (inquiries) in the MICE quotient.

DSR	BWO	DNM
Prot or Ally hurt	If cure known, milieu to go get it. If cure unknown, inquiry to figure out.	Ally healed or not
Prot or Ally lost	If ally, milieu rescue mission If hero, milieu escape mission	Rescue or Escape
Prot or Ally wronged	If persecutor known, event revenge Revenge may be: kill, steal, lawsuit, etc. If persecutor unknown, inquiry hunt them	Vengeance
Stranger to town	If rival, event contest If stranger, inquiry what’s up w/them? If newbie, event train/haze	Stranger leaves or stays
Reunion	event dredge up past, chars change	Separate
Fish≠Water	milieu, explore, learn, adapt, climb	Get burnt, survive, or rise to top
White Elephant	milieu, ring to Mordor milieu go to place	destroy or destroyed
Monkey’s Paw	event, enjoy in 2a, learn in 2b	return gift or be one with it
Mystery Box	event figure out what it does	use for good or evil
Life Stage	event or milieu as char goes thru DREAM	Self & others accept change or not
Warning	event prep, defend OR milieu fetch quest, or solicit help	survived or fended off, or overrun
Glimpse	If institution, milieu flee and chased if ally, event confront, blackmail, expose	Secret out or silenced
Doubt	Faith shaken, character talk to others, tested	restored or leaves
Temptation	Wants another hit, milieu or event	Succcumbs with cost, or resists

Inquiries

Questions aside from “who murdered the victim” can be…

What’s up with that mysterious stranger? (asshole, does weird shit, or just outside cultural norms)
Why do we do this cultural thing? (ritual, rite, or routine is called into question)
How do I get another hit of this? (PROT experiences something new and tasty, wants more of it)
What were the side effects (or unexpected consequences) of this? (PROT is in over their heads or made deal with devil)
How do I find this person, thing, or whatever? (PROT must figure out how to get McGuffin before going to get the McGuffin)
What’s the cure, solution to this? (PROT is faced with a puzzle as an obstacle)

Horror or Monster in the House as Middle

This is interesting. I feel like you can use “Monster in the House” (MITH) with almost any DSR. The DSR is just bait to lure the PROT(s) into the house so the monster can torture them. The house, obviously, is a milieu. Comes with monster free-of-charge.

Plot Beats of Middles

Milieu

Go get something to save ally’s life
Go save/rescue ally
Escape from a place
Explore and adapt to (or get burnt by) new place
Explore and climb ladder of new place
Deliver person/thing to new place
Go to new place(s) to avoid or b/c of life stage
Flee or run away from ANTG chasing/hunting you
Go to new place(s) to get stuff

Inquiry

Figure out how to save ally’s life
Figure out the new stranger in town
Figure out what new gift does
Figure out why we do X (ritual, rite, routine)
Figure out all the hidden costs of a deal
Figure out how to find X (person, place, thing)

Event

Have contest with rival to proof superiority
Train/haze new guy and eventually accept/deny them
Reveal secrets to hurt each other
Fuck around and find out with new gift
Resist (or be persecuted by) for new life stage
Prepare defense for incoming ANTG
Confront, blackmail, or expose secret
Face tons of obstacles for wanting X

CONCLUSIONS

I don’t know if this will help. I won’t know until I put it into practice, but I have at least 20+ DSRs and 20+ BWOs now. I think with these in my toolkit, I can start aiming towards 3-4 of these as I noodle around with my MECH design on Sunday mornings. We’ll see.