So, I’m reading a highly recommended book about plotting your novel. The author gives the classic advice that a good plot needs a strong lead character who truly WANTS something, but an equally strong force tries to stop her. In the end, she gets what she wants (drama) or fails to get what she wants (tragedy). After thinking about the author’s example of “The Wizard of Oz” movie, all I can say is, what a load of CRAP!
At the start of the movie, Dorothy kinda wants ta leave Kansas and go “somewhere over the rainbow.” At that point, Dorothy kinda sorta hopes-thinks-longs-a-bit to leave her home. That is certainly NOT a strong, interesting, dynamic lead character who truly, madly, deeply WANTS something.
- Then Miss Gulch wants to have Toto killed. So, Dorothy needs to save her dog. She does, in fact, want that badly enough to leave EVERYTHING she knows behind. Ah, dramatic need!
- But no, as soon as the Wizard in the wagon reminds her that people will miss her, she wants to go back home.
- She gets almost home and sees the tornado. Then she wants to get into the storm shelter.
- The house gets carried away. So, Dorothy just wants to survive.
- Then she lands in Oz, and just wants to know what the heck is going on.
- Glinda gives Dorothy the Ruby Slippers (that rightfully belong to the Wicked Witch of the East’s next of kin, the Wicked Witch of the West). Dorothy doesn’t want them, but she gets stuck with them anyway.
- Then Dorothy, who doesn’t WANT to see the Wizard, never heard of the Wizard, doesn’t care about the Wizard, is told by Glinda, to go see him. That is not a strong dramatic need, but Dorothy takes off walking.
- On the way, she happens to meet a Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman. and a Cowardly Lion. Not that she was looking for friends, or looking to avoid meeting new people. They just sort of bump into each other.
- Dorothy is confronted with snarky talking apple trees that just want to keep their own apples, and the Witch shows up again, wanting HER slippers back. (Now the WWotW has a true, clear dramatic need. She want’s her slippers!) And gets through the poppy fields with a little unexpected, uncalled for, help from Glinda.
- They see the Wizard, and he tells her to go kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Does Dorothy WANT that? No. She kinda wants to go home, but is having a great time in Oz, and she doesn’t even know why she should keep those stupid red shoes. If anything, she just wants the WWotW to leave her alone. A weak, mild, negative need.
Does this meet the classic plot structure of a strong, dynamic lead who really REALLY wants something and meets opposition along the way? I say no, not at all, not even close. By the end of the movie, Dorothy is back in Kansas where Toto’s life is once again in danger. She has dithered around and put Toto’s live in danger AGAIN. Great job, Dorothy!
Very popular story. NOTHING like the classic plot structure. Dorothy is thrown hither and yon, pushed this way, pulled that way, forced into situations she did not want and does not understand. All while just trying to hang on and stay alive–with perhaps a little help from her friends. Sounds more like real life than the classic plot to a novel.
Once again, the writing teachers have it all wrong. Don’t trust them. Don’t listen to them. Stop reading their advice. Stop reading writing books and start reading real books, novels, short stories, poetry. Get out there in the real world. Start writing. Keep writing. Keep dreaming up stories. Keep writing down plots, YOUR plots, your story outlines, your story structures, your ideas. Better to write and ruin a dozen novels than to waste your time reading the crap that passes for writing advice in American colleges and book stores.
Stop reading this drivel and go dream up a story already!
Rodney Robbins, Novelist and Playwright 