TOOLS OF THE TRADE PART 1

Some of you all maybe thinking, just from the name of this post that it is about paper, pens, pencils, computer, tablet etc but it's not. While they are all tools of the writing trade this post is about something more essential to writing than that, it's something that every writer uses. What am I referring to? The elements of a story: plot, character, setting, theme...etc

Part one of this series will focus on plot. According to Wikipedia a plot is;

a literary term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect.

According to Wikipedia there are two types of plot; chronological and flashbacks. Chronological order is where all the events that occur in the story are written in the same order in which they happened. Flashbacks on the other hand...

convey information about events that occurred earlier. It permits authors to begin the story in the midst of the action but later fill in the background for full understanding of the present events. Flashbacks can occur more than once and in different parts of a story. (Study Of Literature, 2012)

The plot of  my story which is entitled The Boogeyman by the way, is flashback. The beginning of the story is actually the end of the story. I like starting at the end of the story because I think it intrigues readers more, I know it certainly intrigues me more when an author or filmmaker does that.

Quentin Tarantino's movie Pulp Fiction  is the first movie I ever saw that had flashbacks in it, it definitely stuck with me. The idea of not telling a story in the"traditional" way a.k.a. chronologically fascinates me because it has me wondering why the person would make that kind of decision, it also has me anticipating what comes next and always keeps me guessing. That is the kind of reaction I want my readers to have. I want them to start thinking about the story and be fully engrossed in the characters before they've really gotten into the meat of the story so to speak. I want to grab their attention from the get and keep it till the end of the story, to me flashbacks do that. 

I found a video on Youtube that descibes plot through song. I thought it would be fitting to add to this post because it deals with Freytag's pyramid or in other words his idea of a plot; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.