Lecture 13: In the Beginning—How to Start a Plot
is probably more time-consuming and frustrating than sticking to an
outline, but it may result in a more complex narrative structure.z The methods of structuring a plot are not limited to these three, of
course, and the methods can be combined in interesting ways. Even if
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even if you’re trying to stick to the facts of a famous life—such as the
life of Hadrian or Copernicus—it’s what you discover in the process
of writing, as you imagine yourself into their minds, that makes the
narrative come alive.Starting in Medias Res
z As mentioned in an earlier lecture, many stories begin LQPHGLDVUHV, “in
the middle of things.” In fact, it’s tempting to say that all stories begin
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H[QLKLOR, “from nothing.” Even if you start a novel with the birth of the
main character, that character already has parents and relations, a family
history, and a social and historical context.z What LQPHGLDVUHV usually means is starting the plot at a point where the
story is already underway. Homer’s ,OLDG is not really about the Trojan
War in its entirety; by the time the ,OLDG opens, the war has already been
going on for 10 years, and the present-time narrative depicts only a few
weeks near the end of the siege of Troy. Even though it makes reference
to how the war began and how it ends, the ,OLDG does not dramatize the
kidnapping of Helen, which started the war, or the fall of Troy, which
ended it.z Starting LQPHGLDVUHV shows us that choosing where to begin is not so
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it is choosing the most dramatically productive moment. Shakespeare
could have started +DPOHW with the funeral of Hamlet’s father or the
subsequent marriage of Hamlet’s mother to his uncle Polonius, but he
chose to open it with the moment that was most likely to make Hamlet
reconsider recent events, namely, the appearance of his father’s ghost,
demanding vengeance.