{"id":1675,"date":"2008-05-05T19:21:07","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T23:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2008-05-05T19:21:07","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T23:21:07","slug":"cold-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"Cold conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just finished Dean Koontz\u2019 Icebound<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> This isn\u2019t a review (it\u2019s not my favorite of his work\u2014it\u2019s an early attempt to do an Alistair MacLean sort of book, originally published under a pseudonym. As a MacLean-type story, it\u2019s long on action and suspense, short on characterization, making it not my sort of thing, overall), but it seemed to me an excellent example of plot-building in a sort of purified form.<\/p>\n

You take a group of scientists and put them on the polar ice cap. They\u2019re involved in an experimental project to blow a big chunk off the ice cap, creating an iceberg in order to study the feasibility of towing it southward, so as to provide fresh water for agriculture. In order to do this, they\u2019ve just finished burying sixty shaped explosive charges deep in the ice. The next step, obviously, is to retreat as fast as possible to their base camp, miles away, and wait for the boom.<\/p>\n

But just as they finish burying the last charge, there\u2019s a huge earthquake. The area where they\u2019re working becomes detached from the main ice cap, and our characters are trapped on a brand new iceberg with all those timed charges.<\/p>\n

And then the worst ice storm in decades hits, making it impossible for ships or helicopters to evacuate them.<\/p>\n

And then they discover they have a psychotic murderer in their midst.<\/p>\n

That, friends, is how you raise the stakes in a story.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s plot in its rawest form. Put your characters in a horrible situation, then make it worse. And then make it worse again.<\/p>\n

As I said, this is very pure plotting, very simple, done in primary colors. Your own story may deal with threats and struggles of much more subtle or internal nature. The conflict in your story may be an interpersonal struggle between business rivals or even friends. It might be the struggle of star-crossed lovers to overcome obstacles to their marriage. The conflict could even be within one character\u2019s mind and soul.<\/p>\n

But the principle remains the same. Some Hollywood mogul once gave his formula for an epic movie\u2014\u201cStart with an earthquake, then build from there.\u201d You can call it escalation. You can call it, \u201cBeing mean to your characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s what plot is. It\u2019s what keeps the reader interested.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished Dean Koontz\u2019 Icebound. This isn\u2019t a review (it\u2019s not my favorite of his work\u2014it\u2019s an early attempt to do an Alistair MacLean sort of book, originally published under a pseudonym. As a MacLean-type story, it\u2019s long on action and suspense, short on characterization, making it not my sort of thing, overall), but … Continue reading Cold conflict<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}