Brandon's Philosophy on Plot—Promises, Progress, and Payoffs — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:08i'm going to talk
3. 0:09this plotting session about brandon's
4. 0:12philosophy on plot
5. 0:13when we do plot number two i'll try to
6. 0:17give you some other tools we'll talk a
7. 0:19little more about the
8. 0:20hero's journey we'll talk about three
9. 0:22act structure we'll do all that stuff
10. 0:23in the second plot lecture so first up
11. 0:26you're just getting brandon's take on it
12. 0:29we'll do this with
13. 0:31setting in character two you'll probably
14. 0:33first get a lecture on brandon's take on
15. 0:34things
16. 0:35and then a lecture on if that doesn't
17. 0:37work for you which
18. 0:39for a lot of you it probably won't but
19. 0:40hopefully it'll teach you some things
20. 0:42that you can apply
21. 0:43we'll move on to other things so
22. 0:44brandon's plotting method
23. 0:46um is about
24. 0:50i actually found a way that this all is
25. 0:53uh
26. 0:53is alliterative it is about promises
27. 0:58it is about progress and it is about
28. 1:02payoff
29. 1:05i like to try to view stories
30. 1:09as a sequence of promises
31. 1:12progress along that promise and payoff
32. 1:15of which
33. 1:16progress is actually the most important
34. 1:18of the three for the bulk of the amount
35. 1:20of writing you do
36. 1:21but promise is where things go wrong the
37. 1:24most often
38. 1:25so i'll talk you through a few times
39. 1:27where i made improper promises
40. 1:29caught it because of good beta readers
41. 1:32tweaked the story and it ended up
42. 1:33working
43. 1:34um so when plot is going wrong
44. 1:37i think it is usually at least for me
45. 1:40not understanding these three things
46. 1:43people go into a story um
47. 1:46giving you a certain benefit of the
48. 1:48doubt
49. 1:49if they weren't giving it to you they
50. 1:50would not be opening your story they
51. 1:52wouldn't
52. 1:53pick that book up and read it some of
53. 1:55them might be hot tougher
54. 1:56audiences and tougher cells than others
55. 1:58but every one of them has
56. 1:59opened that book and started reading
57. 2:02they are
58. 2:03offering you something they're extending
59. 2:04their hand to you in return
60. 2:07what they are wanting you to do is
61. 2:09quickly give them some promises
62. 2:12about what type of story this is
63. 2:15and why it's going to be enjoyable
64. 2:18all right those promises take several
65. 2:21forms
66. 2:23um and they work in different ways one
67. 2:25of the promises you're going to give
68. 2:27them
69. 2:27is a tone promise
70. 2:32another promise is generally going to be
71. 2:34a genre prominent promise
72. 2:36and usually your packaging of your story
73. 2:40has already made this promise but
74. 2:43it's important to recognize genre is one
75. 2:46of these things you are promising them
76. 2:48you're going to give them a promise
77. 2:50about
78. 2:51the plot specifically the type of
79. 2:54progress that's going to come in this
80. 2:56story uh this
81. 2:58is the promise of this what is going to
82. 3:00make you turn the page
83. 3:01and you're usually going to be making
84. 3:02some promises about character
85. 3:07did i spell that right i didn't
86. 3:09character
87. 3:10it's spelled right now you can't tell me
88. 3:12it's not
89. 3:13it's in my own language um
90. 3:21you guys actually have adam who can like
91. 3:22zoom up on this so you can actually see
92. 3:23my terrible handwriting
93. 3:25whereas in the normal class they just
94. 3:26have to sit back and be like does that
95. 3:28act
96. 3:28did he i can't make yeah you get to see
97. 3:32it in like glorious hd
98. 3:33um 4k 4k 4k
99. 3:36scribbles on a whiteboard uh
100. 3:40yeah all right so promises
101. 3:45these promises um can indeed be
102. 3:48undermined
103. 3:49in some ways almost every plot twist in
104. 3:52a way
105. 3:53is a slight change or twist
106. 3:56on one of your promises and we'll talk
107. 3:58about that later on when we get the
108. 4:00payoffs
109. 4:00right and a lot of your promises that
110. 4:03you'll be making is
111. 4:04that i am going to give you this
112. 4:06expected thing but it's going to be
113. 4:08better than you expect
114. 4:09um tone let's talk about this one first
115. 4:14tone promise usually is telling people
116. 4:16when they
117. 4:17pick up the book what type of feel
118. 4:20the book is going to have this kind of
119. 4:23gets into
120. 4:24is it going to be whimsical is it going
121. 4:26to be humorous
122. 4:27is it going to be dark and gritty is
123. 4:28this going to be adventuresome
124. 4:31you can do different subgenres of every
125. 4:35genre
126. 4:35dealing with those tones you can write a
127. 4:37romance that
128. 4:39is adventuresome or that is whimsical or
129. 4:42that is comedic
130. 4:43um you can write a fantasy even in a
131. 4:46specific sub-drama you can write an epic
132. 4:48fantasy
133. 4:48that is dark and gritty you can write an
134. 4:51epic fantasy
135. 4:52that is hopeful but uh you know points
136. 4:54of light in darkness
137. 4:56where there are certain it's going to be
138. 4:58a rough world but there are points of
139. 4:59light
140. 4:59you can write one that is going to be
141. 5:01fun and whimsical
142. 5:03you can write one that is going to be a
143. 5:05comedy all of these things
144. 5:07are important promises at the start of
145. 5:09your story
146. 5:10i don't fixate as much as a lot of
147. 5:13writing teachers i've seen
148. 5:15on your first line nearly as much
149. 5:18writers tend to fixate
150. 5:19on it too much in my opinion
151. 5:22what you want to have in that opener is
152. 5:25a
153. 5:26indic an indication of what kind of
154. 5:29story it is your opening paragraph
155. 5:33should offer some sort of motion i
156. 5:36recommend this for every type of story
157. 5:38because every story should be promising
158. 5:40motion
159. 5:40there should be some sort of conflict
160. 5:43promise of change or some sort of motion
161. 5:46um even if you are writing um you know a
162. 5:50story that is mostly going to be
163. 5:52pastoral
164. 5:53um i often use pride and prejudice right
165. 5:56um the opening line of pride and
166. 5:57prejudice is in conflict with itself
167. 5:59because it's irony i can't quote it
168. 6:01exactly but it's like
169. 6:03what is it every man
170. 6:08yes there you are that a man in
171. 6:10possession of a fortune
172. 6:13right so opening line to
173. 6:17a book in the 1800s that is a much
174. 6:19slower book than modern ones
175. 6:21already says this is a promise of the
176. 6:24tone
177. 6:24it's going to be kind of funny right
178. 6:27this
179. 6:27is also something is going to change
180. 6:30there is a
181. 6:32guy in this book who has a fortune but
182. 6:34does not have a wife
183. 6:35and he wants one we have motion and
184. 6:38change
185. 6:38promised in the tone of this you
186. 6:41generally have to be a little faster
187. 6:44even than um books in the 1800s
188. 6:48the more that writing has become a um a
189. 6:51popular
190. 6:52mode of storytelling the more that you
191. 6:54want this
192. 6:55opening page to make sure that it has
193. 6:59motion and change and if you
194. 7:02can at all an active protagonist who
195. 7:04wants something and tr
196. 7:06is trying to get it you don't have to do
197. 7:09any of those things that's the recipe
198. 7:11but the reason the chef reason for this
199. 7:13is
200. 7:14we in our lives have so many things
201. 7:17trying to grab our attention does not
202. 7:19mean that your book
203. 7:20has to have add um and
204. 7:24uh you know work like a vine or
205. 7:27what the tick tock where it's 15 seconds
206. 7:29long and you grab someone's attention
207. 7:30that fast but what it does have to do is
208. 7:32promise
209. 7:33motion promise conflict promise
210. 7:36change um one of the things i often use
211. 7:39is a great example of someone who knew
212. 7:40what they were doing and this is robert
213. 7:42jordan's wheel of time
214. 7:43robert jordan's wheel of time is a book
215. 7:45series um that is about the
216. 7:47end of the world in a fantasy world the
217. 7:50fantasy apocalypse
218. 7:53he wanted to start his book with a young
219. 7:55boy on a farm
220. 7:57uh in a kind of hero's journey sense in
221. 7:59a pastoral location he's going to be
222. 8:01forced out
223. 8:02onto his hero's journey he knew that
224. 8:04that would give some of the wrong
225. 8:06promises to some of the readers
226. 8:08because by chapter 2 like
227. 8:11everything is going crazy already in
228. 8:13that book
229. 8:14um and so this is why you often see in
230. 8:18fantasy books a prologue like robert
231. 8:20jordan's that takes place during the
232. 8:22previous apocalypse of the world ending
233. 8:25showing how
234. 8:26awful everything was um kind of making
235. 8:29all of these cool magical promises of
236. 8:30stuff you're gonna get to see
237. 8:32it's very short it's one of the best
238. 8:34prologues in all of fantasy
239. 8:36um and it says to you as a reader here
240. 8:39is our tone
241. 8:40promise now we're going to go to the
242. 8:42character promise
243. 8:43of the young boy on a farm and by
244. 8:45melding these two you're going to
245. 8:47realize
246. 8:47this boy's young pastoral perfect life
247. 8:51is going to be upended because of an
248. 8:53apocalypse that's coming
249. 8:54just give me time to get there and you
250. 8:58know as a young reader i was on board i
251. 9:00understood i'm like all right this is
252. 9:01where we're going
253. 9:02i can now give him the time to set up
254. 9:05this character
255. 9:07properly um because i have had this
256. 9:10promise up front
257. 9:11it's why you see prologues a lot in
258. 9:13fantasy novels
259. 9:14um definitely can become a cliche unto
260. 9:17itself and indeed it can be a recipe
261. 9:19thing
262. 9:19where you're like well fantasy books at
263. 9:21burlogs i'll add a prologue not every
264. 9:23book needs one
265. 9:24not a lot of books can start with the
266. 9:26right tone promise
267. 9:28this doesn't mean that you need to
268. 9:31introduce your plot
269. 9:34the actual plot of the book straight off
270. 9:37um what you often want to do is
271. 9:40introduce some smaller conflict
272. 9:43that then introduces some of the same
273. 9:46ideas
274. 9:47that are going to be part of your plot
275. 9:49and again this is a
276. 9:50something that uses a prologue which you
277. 9:52don't need to do but a great example is
278. 9:54uh indiana jones on the radius the lost
279. 9:56ark
280. 9:56right lucas and spielberg love the cold
281. 9:59open
282. 10:00the cold open where you join someone in
283. 10:02the middle of their previous adventure
284. 10:04which they are just wrapping up which is
285. 10:06going to be a small microcosm
286. 10:08for the big adventure you i've it's been
287. 10:12you know everyone knows this now but in
288. 10:14case you don't you know you meet indy
289. 10:16he's this mysterious character
290. 10:17he's cool he's got a whip who has a whip
291. 10:21um he's investigating a um a temple
292. 10:24he's smart he outsmarts all of the traps
293. 10:27he gets betrayed but outsmarts his
294. 10:29betrayer and there's this this
295. 10:32wonderful moment where indy knows that
296. 10:36this guy is untrustworthy and so he
297. 10:38leads him wrong through one of the traps
298. 10:40uh where indy it's a pressure plate he
299. 10:42steps on but he puts his hand through
300. 10:44the uh
301. 10:45through the light to indicate oh the
302. 10:47light sets off the trap
303. 10:48the guy dies to that trap after
304. 10:50betraying india a little bit later
305. 10:52because it was actually the pressure
306. 10:53plate india is really smart
307. 10:55and at the end of this thing indiana
308. 10:57jones loses anyway
309. 10:58right tries really hard still loses um
310. 11:02this is a small sort of plot promise
311. 11:04it's also a tone promise and a genre
312. 11:06promise but the plot promise on this is
313. 11:08you're going to see a bigger version of
314. 11:09this you're going to see indiana jones
315. 11:11struggle
316. 11:11you're going to see that he's really
317. 11:13competent and he still
318. 11:15gets the crud beat out of him uh he
319. 11:18still has to deal with snakes
320. 11:19he still has people betraying him um and
321. 11:23he just as a guy who has a lot of grit
322. 11:25and can push through that
323. 11:26and at the end you're probably going to
324. 11:28get some sort of bittersweet ending
325. 11:31guess what that is the entire movie
326. 11:34right
327. 11:35they did a very small version of the
328. 11:37exact movie
329. 11:38um that's again why uh
330. 11:43indiana jones is used as a really good
331. 11:45example of a tightly paced
332. 11:47um hollywood formula movie um
333. 11:50you want to do something like this it
334. 11:53does not need to be on the scale you
335. 11:56don't have to have like a mini adventure
336. 11:57that explains the whole adventure that's
337. 11:59going to be happening
338. 12:00but having a character who is struggling
339. 12:04with a problem
340. 12:05that is going to become a major issue
341. 12:07once the plot insight intersects them
342. 12:09is a great way to say look you're going
343. 12:12to see this character grow and struggle
344. 12:14with this problem
345. 12:15and it's probably going to become an
346. 12:16even bigger problem as the story
347. 12:18progresses
348. 12:19make promises of the type of story
349. 12:24and you know what kinds of characters
350. 12:27you're going to look forward to reading
351. 12:28about
352. 12:30doing this is a really important skill
353. 12:33for storytelling
354. 12:36if you don't learn to do this granted a
355. 12:39lot of people do this by instinct it's
356. 12:40not like
357. 12:41you have to use my formula for it but if
358. 12:43you don't learn to make promises
359. 12:44and show progress on those promises your
360. 12:46books are going to be boring
361. 12:49and it's really interesting because
362. 12:51boredom
363. 12:52is this weird construct right it
364. 12:55usually is the the readers like it's not
365. 12:58moving fast enough or i don't know
366. 13:00what's happening or i'm just not engaged
367. 13:03not every time but a lot of times the
368. 13:05problem is
369. 13:06that you have made wrong promises or
370. 13:09that you're not showing progress on
371. 13:10those promises
372. 13:12if you up front promise people something
373. 13:14but then
374. 13:15your progress is all on a different axis
375. 13:18what's going to happen
376. 13:19is in their heads they're going to treat
377. 13:21the actual
378. 13:22progress of the book as a side deviation
379. 13:26from the thing they're expecting so what
380. 13:28happens is they stop investing
381. 13:30in this this thing because their brain
382. 13:32tells them this is a side story
383. 13:34this is a side mission this is not
384. 13:36important to the main plot
385. 13:38this is a bunch of characters going to
386. 13:39canto bite and getting their car
387. 13:42towed um little did i get the last jedi
388. 13:45there sorry
389. 13:46um your brain says not important this is
390. 13:49not the main plot of the story
391. 13:51um and i can't see how this is
392. 13:54progressing
393. 13:55and how it relates conversely you might
394. 13:58say this is their main plot
395. 14:00but you don't signpost that progress is
396. 14:02being made
397. 14:03you as a storyteller your job is to give
398. 14:07a
399. 14:07sense of progress why a sense of
400. 14:10progress because
401. 14:11all progress and stories is illusionary
402. 14:14um
403. 14:15you can do anything progress wise in a
404. 14:19story if you want to say
405. 14:21you are writing an underdog sports story
406. 14:24and you want to say all right and then
407. 14:27they won the championship
408. 14:29that's the next chapter of your book
409. 14:31you're done you've given them progress
410. 14:33it's happened you've solved the story
411. 14:36right
412. 14:36uh and then she got over her hang-ups
413. 14:39and realized that he really wasn't that
414. 14:41bad a guy he's just really
415. 14:42kind of bad at making introductions
416. 14:44himself to new people and they got along
417. 14:46swimmingly
418. 14:47got married the end right there's one
419. 14:50sentence resolution
420. 14:51to um to a plot you can also if you
421. 14:55really wanted to
422. 14:56don't do this but you could write 50
423. 14:59pages
424. 14:59where only one second passes i guarantee
425. 15:02that every one of you could do that
426. 15:04uh you could describe in my new detail
427. 15:07in a frozen moment
428. 15:08everything happening in this frozen
429. 15:10moment and go on and on and on
430. 15:12and you can fill your whole book with
431. 15:13that right you have absolute control
432. 15:16over how fast your book moves and how or
433. 15:19how slowly the book moves
434. 15:21your reader needs a sense that goals
435. 15:25exist for the characters that goals
436. 15:28exist for the story
437. 15:30and that progress is being made
438. 15:33toward those and the different type
439. 15:36of sub-genre and genre you are doing in
440. 15:39your story
441. 15:40is going to tell you what those
442. 15:41signposts should be
443. 15:43right um this is where it gets a little
444. 15:47complicated
445. 15:48because every story is doing multiples
446. 15:51of these
447. 15:52right um again if we use uh star wars
448. 15:56uh because a lot of people have seen it
449. 15:58and it is a really tight screenplay
450. 16:01you have kind of an opening promise
451. 16:04right uh from the from a new hope the
452. 16:07opening promise is
453. 16:09little ship big ship bad guy in black
454. 16:12armor
455. 16:13good character in white clothing who is
456. 16:16who has
457. 16:16uh friendly little droids right uh what
458. 16:20is your tone promise
459. 16:21science fiction about the little ship
460. 16:23against the big ship
461. 16:25uh first image in the movie tells you
462. 16:27what the story is about
463. 16:29um and so that's your first promise
464. 16:31little ship
465. 16:33versus big ship right
466. 16:36well then nested i'm drawing brackets
467. 16:38here is your next
468. 16:40set of promises which are the kind of
469. 16:43actual plot promise which is where
470. 16:46princess leia says
471. 16:48take these plans to obi-wan kenobi he
472. 16:51can save us
473. 16:52so you've got a plot that is kind of a
474. 16:54bit of a travelogue
475. 16:57a character has to go to a place and
476. 16:59find a person
477. 17:00travel plot right um
478. 17:04go to a place find a person so you're
479. 17:05nesting these big plot is
480. 17:08we're going to uh little ship's going to
481. 17:09beat the big ship
482. 17:11uh sm smaller plot is
483. 17:14find this person go to this place travel
484. 17:16to this place
485. 17:18then it cuts to luke and you have your
486. 17:21character promise
487. 17:23right and in your character promise luke
488. 17:26skywalker
489. 17:26is doesn't want to go do whatever he's
490. 17:29supposed to do
491. 17:30and instead he walks out and looks up at
492. 17:32the double suns
493. 17:33and is like man i want to go out there
494. 17:36and have an adventure
495. 17:37this guy wants an adventure
496. 17:42right um and
497. 17:46so what happens is lucas starts working
498. 17:49on these various stories as he goes and
499. 17:52he will open up
500. 17:54small little promises and pay off in the
501. 17:56middle
502. 17:57like you find obi-wan kenobi but the
503. 17:59travel plot gets expanded
504. 18:00this is a very common sort of twist you
505. 18:03put in your stories is where you expand
506. 18:05a previous plot into a larger plot the
507. 18:07travel plot
508. 18:08changes from find ob1 to
509. 18:11we need to go off planet and go uh
510. 18:15find this princess and bring these plans
511. 18:17to rebellion right the travel plot gets
512. 18:19bigger and the character adventure
513. 18:23gets bigger doesn't it he meets obi-wan
514. 18:26and obi-wan says
515. 18:27you must learn the ways of the force and
516. 18:29train to be a jedi
517. 18:31guess what your adventure's going to be
518. 18:32you wanted to have one here is what it's
519. 18:34actually going to be you are now
520. 18:37expanding to not just going on adventure
521. 18:39you're going to become a jedi
522. 18:41right and this is all very well
523. 18:45signposted
524. 18:46as part of the big plot little versus
525. 18:48big
526. 18:49why are we going to go on our travelogue
527. 18:51because this will help us destroy the
528. 18:53big ship
529. 18:54in fact we will find the biggest ship
530. 18:57ever
531. 18:58we will expand our plot to holy cow it's
532. 19:01a big old death star
533. 19:02right it's not just a big ship it's the
534. 19:04biggest ship that's ever been built
535. 19:06and we got to blow that up with a little
536. 19:08ship um
537. 19:10travel plot says if we can get to this
538. 19:12place
539. 19:13we can blow up the biggest ship by using
540. 19:15little ships
541. 19:16the character thing why do you need to
542. 19:18become a jedi because darth vader killed
543. 19:20your dad and he's on the big ship
544. 19:22right um everything is related back and
545. 19:25so as
546. 19:26lucas is signposting each of these
547. 19:28things you are
548. 19:30told reasons why you should care and it
549. 19:32is
550. 19:33indicated to you we are making progress
551. 19:37right and then you kind of out starts
552. 19:40outlining the steps this is very common
553. 19:42in a travel log
554. 19:43we need to go to mos idly spaceport to
555. 19:45find a pilot
556. 19:47when we have done that we have achieved
557. 19:49a step
558. 19:50in our journey right and almost all the
559. 19:52journeys uh the steps and
560. 19:54uh star wars are journey steps it's
561. 19:56mostly uh character
562. 19:58um that is a hero's journey
563. 20:02with an actual literal journey that is a
564. 20:04travelogue that's the type of plot
565. 20:06progress you're getting most of the time
566. 20:08and so we go there we find a pilot
567. 20:11uh and indeed this pilot is
568. 20:14a big old meanie right
569. 20:18han is mean
570. 20:22and scruffy-looking right he's a
571. 20:24scruffy-looking nerf herder
572. 20:26um or whatever um and you open up a new
573. 20:30character plot
574. 20:32han is mean we wish han weren't mean
575. 20:35because he's also cool
576. 20:37maybe we can have a little character
577. 20:39journey for han
578. 20:40where han is no longer uh you know
579. 20:43han is no longer mean i mean you have
580. 20:45little bits in this
581. 20:46where you uh where you open up a new one
582. 20:49that is all right
583. 20:50to get these plans we actually actually
584. 20:52got sucked into the death star
585. 20:55right oh no we're stuck to the death
586. 20:57star we were trying to get to the right
587. 20:59place
588. 20:59the right place isn't there anymore
589. 21:01instead there's a death star and we now
590. 21:03have the expansion of even bigger ship
591. 21:05right and then we
592. 21:08start closing the brackets right all
593. 21:11right
594. 21:13we close the death star plot uh not the
595. 21:16death star they
596. 21:17get off the death star right uh we
597. 21:19closed that one out by us escaping
598. 21:21but it costs us obi-wan kenobi that's
599. 21:25bad
600. 21:25that's an escalation now we have to do
601. 21:28these other three thing
602. 21:29four things with no obi-wan kenobi
603. 21:33suddenly you have another twist and it's
604. 21:36expansion
605. 21:37of the danger um and the scope
606. 21:40by taking away the strongest member uh
607. 21:42and the support of the team
608. 21:44right um you then actually
609. 21:47close the travel plot
610. 21:51by getting where you're supposed to be
611. 21:53so they close a little bit out of order
612. 21:55this does happen
613. 21:56but you close the travel plot and then
614. 21:59you close the character plot
615. 22:04right you close the character plot by
616. 22:07having the moment
617. 22:08where luke is going to trust the force
618. 22:10right um
619. 22:11where luke has learned and this these
620. 22:13these next ones happen almost in
621. 22:15exact quick succession in fact i think
622. 22:17you close the han plot first don't you
623. 22:19uh han comes back and he's not a meanie
624. 22:21anymore right and he saves you
625. 22:23um then you close the jedi plot guess
626. 22:27what luke's turning off his targeting
627. 22:28computer he's become a jedi not really
628. 22:32but enough for this book
629. 22:33or this movie and then what happens last
630. 22:36right we have han these two i think i
631. 22:38got backwards
632. 22:39um then you what happens a little ship
633. 22:44blows up a really big ship right
634. 22:47um and an exact reversal of the opening
635. 22:51shot
636. 22:52the little ship blows up the big ship um
637. 22:55the
638. 22:56important thing to remember about these
639. 22:58is
640. 22:59this sense of progress let me ask you
641. 23:02guys
642. 23:02do you get a sense that luke is learning
643. 23:05the ways of the force through the course
644. 23:06of the story
645. 23:08yes he fights a little ball that shoots
646. 23:11him he learns about stuff
647. 23:13han is mean about it is han mean yes but
648. 23:17does han stop being quite so mean
649. 23:19you see progress for han along this
650. 23:22thing
651. 23:23well maybe we can save a princess maybe
652. 23:25i like that princess
653. 23:26maybe i like this guy maybe this is
654. 23:28actually worth fighting for something
655. 23:30rather than looking out only for myself
656. 23:32you see progress you've been promised it
657. 23:35and you signpost it um do you see
658. 23:38that they are making progress in their
659. 23:40travel yes
660. 23:42we've got to go here and do this thing
661. 23:44now we've got to go here
662. 23:45we went there and it's gone and we had a
663. 23:47little venture on the death star
664. 23:49next travel is escape the death star
665. 23:51then we got to get to the rebels
666. 23:52we do that pretty quickly travel plot
667. 23:54has been signposted all along
668. 23:56and this is kind of your structure for
669. 23:59the first star wars movie which is why
670. 24:02we hold it up as such a great example
671. 24:04because
672. 24:05the great thing is that i love is that
673. 24:08these three close
674. 24:11almost simultaneously and so what's
675. 24:14happening is
676. 24:15two character plot things we'll talk
677. 24:17about this more in character
678. 24:19both han and luke's character climaxes
679. 24:21overlap
680. 24:22in a matter of a few minutes and then it
681. 24:25is the
682. 24:25those two things closing learning the
683. 24:28force and han coming back
684. 24:30that allow them to destroy the death
685. 24:32star right
686. 24:33they can the little ship can destroy the
687. 24:34big ship because we
688. 24:36trust in the force and we're good
689. 24:38friends right
690. 24:39you we joke about this but the death
691. 24:41star was destroyed by the power of
692. 24:43friendship
693. 24:44without the power of friendship no death
694. 24:47star getting destroyed because luke dies
695. 24:49um and so the character
696. 24:53moments happen in service of achieving
697. 24:57your main goal
698. 24:59this all ties up in a really great bow
699. 25:01everyone gets a metal but chewy
700. 25:03um and uh movie ends r2d2 is happy
701. 25:08um and so what can we
702. 25:11learn from this it's this progress thing
703. 25:14that is so important that people get
704. 25:17wrong
705. 25:18a lot of times we're gonna erase this
706. 25:20but uh
707. 25:21so take a screenshot uh if you wanna
708. 25:23have this for some reason
709. 25:25um right
710. 25:29identifying the type of progress
711. 25:32that you are going to be writing into
712. 25:34your story and then making the proper pr
713. 25:37uh promises and then signposting that as
714. 25:40you go
715. 25:42is the way to go about this in kind of
716. 25:44the brandon method
717. 25:46wow 6 23 already so i got like i got is
718. 25:49650
719. 25:50yeah we got a little time um so
720. 25:54what i try to do when i'm building my uh
721. 25:57my books
722. 25:58um is i don't build a traditional
723. 26:00outline
724. 26:01that is like heading one subheading b
725. 26:04these sorts of things
726. 26:05i ask myself what kind of things do i
727. 26:08want to have happen at the end of my
728. 26:09book
729. 26:10i outline backward what are my payoffs
730. 26:12that i want to earn
731. 26:14when i write a story where a character
732. 26:17is going to use the magic in a really
733. 26:18interesting and cool way at the end of
734. 26:20the story
735. 26:21um i imagined that scene and say all
736. 26:23right i gotta earn that scene
737. 26:25what do i got to do during that scene
738. 26:27well first the character has to practice
739. 26:30right we have an apprentice plot
740. 26:34and we have to explain the magic
741. 26:40and usually we have some sort of mystery
742. 26:45right a lot of my books that you'll read
743. 26:47i love mysteries about the magic system
744. 26:49because
745. 26:49it's just a thing that i love um so the
746. 26:51characters will be trying to figure out
747. 26:53how the magic works
748. 26:55while they're training in it and while
749. 26:56it's getting explained to the reader
750. 26:59and i will then say all right what sort
751. 27:02of
752. 27:02progress can i show along these things
753. 27:05and i like to try to identify the types
754. 27:07of
755. 27:08progress for certain sub-elements of a
756. 27:10story for instance
757. 27:11if you've got a mystery in your story
758. 27:13you need them to discover clues
759. 27:14information is usually your progress in
760. 27:17a mystery
761. 27:18you give information some of it's red
762. 27:21herrings
763. 27:22um some of it is actual information
764. 27:25uh some of it's partial information but
765. 27:28you can identify all right
766. 27:29the progress on that is going to be
767. 27:32getting information
768. 27:33but with the character getting better at
769. 27:35a skill
770. 27:36a lot of times in movies it's a montage
771. 27:39or something like that for but in a book
772. 27:41basically you're going to say all right
773. 27:42here are my kind of
774. 27:44signposts of showing that they're
775. 27:47getting better
776. 27:48right um in star wars it's let's make
777. 27:51sure we show a scene
778. 27:52where luke has the blast shield down and
779. 27:55is trying to sense what he's supposed to
780. 27:57do
781. 27:57to imitate being in the cockpit later on
782. 28:00with helmet on
783. 28:01and let's show that right now he can
784. 28:04actually kind of do it but not really
785. 28:06well
786. 28:06and so you have this nice scene where
787. 28:08he's got a lightsaber um
788. 28:10and things like that what's another
789. 28:12thing you need you need obi-wan kenobi
790. 28:14to speak in his head because he's going
791. 28:15to give him the last piece of advice at
792. 28:17the end right
793. 28:17you've already imagined this ending and
794. 28:19so you're like all right we need a scene
795. 28:21where obi-wan kenobi says through the
796. 28:23force go
797. 28:24do this luke and we do that right after
798. 28:26ben dies right
799. 28:27um and so we have this you know escape
800. 28:31get away luke
801. 28:32follow obi-wan's directions um
802. 28:35and things like that you have these
803. 28:37scenes if you're writing a book about
804. 28:40this
805. 28:40you devise these scenes and show
806. 28:43progress
807. 28:43of the characters uh skill with the
808. 28:46magic
809. 28:46through the course of the story or
810. 28:48whatever it is they're learning so that
811. 28:50at the end
812. 28:50the reader has been able to watch these
813. 28:52signposts it is
814. 28:54really fun to watch a character get
815. 28:57better at something
816. 28:58lots of reasons for this one reason is
817. 29:01you get to show them be bad with it and
818. 29:02that's funny
819. 29:04when luke gets shot by the little thing
820. 29:06that's funny
821. 29:07right uh when a character is trying to
822. 29:10use the magic and flops on their face
823. 29:11when neo jumps off the building
824. 29:13and can't leap and falls down that's
825. 29:16fun these sorts of moments are really
826. 29:19they bond you to the character
827. 29:21you like watching them and it's also
828. 29:23each one of them is a promise that later
829. 29:24on
830. 29:25i'm gonna get able to see that character
831. 29:27kick some butt
832. 29:28and i'm gonna enjoy it because i feel
833. 29:30vicariously
834. 29:31like i had to suffer like they suffered
835. 29:33through not being good at it
836. 29:35so later on when they use the skill in a
837. 29:37really interesting and cool way you
838. 29:40feel like they've earned it you feel
839. 29:42like you have earned that scene
840. 29:44by reading all the scenes of them going
841. 29:46doing it poorly those hopefully weren't
842. 29:48painful because the author wrote them
843. 29:50the way that they're fun
844. 29:51but that whole thing that i like
845. 29:53watching numbers count up on a
846. 29:54spreadsheet
847. 29:55that principle works for
848. 29:58almost everyone we love seeing steps and
849. 30:02progress
850. 30:02and if you are good at signposting this
851. 30:05people will not find your book boring
852. 30:08the best writers i know can write a
853. 30:10story um
854. 30:11about like uh lee modesit has a scene
855. 30:14where a character makes a barrel
856. 30:16he's a he's a barrel right whatever
857. 30:19that's actually called
858. 30:20um what's that maybe yeah
859. 30:24and he makes a barrel and it's like a
860. 30:26whole chapter and it's fascinating
861. 30:28because he's really good at this stuff
862. 30:29he signposts what needs to be happened
863. 30:31watching someone who's really skilled at
864. 30:33somewhat something someone
865. 30:34who's really skilled at something do it
866. 30:37is fun for us to watch
867. 30:39and we get to see the barrel get made
868. 30:41it's the same reason that we enjoy
869. 30:43baking shops right watching people
870. 30:46do something if it is properly
871. 30:50promised to us is really exciting
872. 30:53um and there's this principle in
873. 30:54storytelling that a lot of you are going
874. 30:56to disagree with i disagree with on
875. 30:58moral principle but the the principle of
876. 31:01storytelling is that
877. 31:03readers enjoy stories if they know
878. 31:04what's going to happen
879. 31:06this has been studied numerous times
880. 31:09in studies granted it's a little bit i
881. 31:12mean how do you study this they usually
882. 31:14say
883. 31:14on a scale of 10 how much did you enjoy
884. 31:16this experience and stuff like that
885. 31:18but uh the data seems pretty conclusive
886. 31:21that people having movies and shows
887. 31:23spoiled for them
888. 31:25increases their enjoyment of that i hate
889. 31:28that
890. 31:28right as my morally opposed to it but
891. 31:31it actually has a really good
892. 31:33fundamental principle that
893. 31:35um that is baked into all of us i don't
894. 31:38know if you guys have read
895. 31:39um uh which one is it it's one of the
896. 31:42malcolm gladwell books the one that
897. 31:43talks about
898. 31:44um about blue's clues which one is that
899. 31:48outliers i think it's outliers might not
900. 31:50be um
901. 31:51but regardless what they the blues clues
902. 31:54made an interesting
903. 31:55uh revolution in children's programming
904. 31:58by realizing that kids enjoyed blues
905. 32:01crews more
906. 32:02if they'd seen the same episode a couple
907. 32:04of times and they were the first one to
908. 32:06try airing the same episode
909. 32:07five days a week and what they found is
910. 32:10that kids
911. 32:11preschoolers who watched this got really
912. 32:13excited because
913. 32:14preschools are used to not knowing
914. 32:15anything is going to happen in stories
915. 32:17it's all new to them and but they could
916. 32:20realize
917. 32:20oh the i know what's in the mailbox
918. 32:24it's the it's the shoe i saw this
919. 32:26yesterday
920. 32:27and they love being able to say it's the
921. 32:29shoe i
922. 32:30anticipated the story beat that's really
923. 32:33exciting to me
924. 32:34readers love this across the board this
925. 32:37is why the promises are so important
926. 32:40readers love being able to say read the
927. 32:42book and be like wow
928. 32:43i bet luke is going to get good at the
929. 32:45force oh wow he's really good at the
930. 32:48force now
931. 32:49that's fun figuring out what your
932. 32:52your progress is and we can't go into it
933. 32:55maybe next
934. 32:56plotting episode i'll try to go into it
935. 32:57a little bit more but
936. 32:59all different subplot cycles all have
937. 33:01kind of different
938. 33:02progresses relationship plops are a good
939. 33:05example
940. 33:06if you want an in-depth look at a lot of
941. 33:08these my podcast running excuses did a
942. 33:10whole season it's like season 11 i think
943. 33:12maybe 12
944. 33:13on what we call the elemental genres um
945. 33:15and this is where we just look at the
946. 33:16progress for each type of
947. 33:18kind of sub genre of a relationship plot
948. 33:22is uh is very commonly you can take the
949. 33:25same things and apply them to different
950. 33:27genres
951. 33:28uh like i always like to point out that
952. 33:30like a buddy cop movie and a romance
953. 33:32generally use the same story beats right
954. 33:35uh if you strip away and look at the
955. 33:38core
956. 33:39skeleton they have very similar story
957. 33:41beats um
958. 33:42ender's game and hoosiers and
959. 33:45uh the way of kings all have the same
960. 33:47story structure this is science fiction
961. 33:49this is a basketball um uh story
962. 33:52and an epic fantasy they're all the
963. 33:54under dog sports story they're all
964. 33:56played very differently
965. 33:57um but you can find the same beats and
966. 33:59pitch perfect
967. 34:00that you find in ender's game um this is
968. 34:03understanding the difference between
969. 34:05like this progress the type of progress
970. 34:08genre you're doing
971. 34:09and the trappings of your genre and i
972. 34:11should have mentioned when i was talking
973. 34:12about your promises of genre
974. 34:13genre can have both trappings and plots
975. 34:16and you like progress associated with
976. 34:18them right like
977. 34:20uh oh people point out that star wars is
978. 34:22kind of a space western
979. 34:23it's using a western story structure
980. 34:27but it's trappings or science fiction
981. 34:28with a little fantasy mixed in
982. 34:30so don't mistake your trappings for your
983. 34:32plot that those are
984. 34:34very easy to separate apart
985. 34:37and part of being a chef i would
986. 34:39challenge you is going in
987. 34:40to your favorite pieces of media the
988. 34:42books you've read the movies you love
989. 34:44and start ask yourself what are the
990. 34:46differences between the trappings
991. 34:48and the actual plot skeleton and the
992. 34:50sense of progress that we're getting
993. 34:52a lot of thrillers are creating a sense
994. 34:54of urgency through someone chasing them
995. 34:56but at their core they're either a
996. 34:58travelogue or a mystery right
997. 35:00some of them are what we call heists um
998. 35:03that happens a lot too
999. 35:04but you just start to learn this stuff
1000. 35:07get yourself a book
1001. 35:08and start to break down what different
1002. 35:11types of plots you are seeing
1003. 35:12in the things that you love and ask
1004. 35:14yourself why do they work
1005. 35:16what do i love about them what's the
1006. 35:17progress that they're making and why is
1007. 35:19it keeping me engaged
1008. 35:21good progress is the thing that keeps
1009. 35:23you turning the page
1010. 35:25one of my favorites examples of this
1011. 35:28it's a
1012. 35:29lesser-known book uh called inferno by
1013. 35:31larry niven and jerry pornell
1014. 35:33mostly known for their other science
1015. 35:34fiction work this is a story about a
1016. 35:36science fiction author who gets drunk at
1017. 35:37a party falls out a window
1018. 35:39and wakes up in dante's inferno turns
1019. 35:41out that's the afterlife
1020. 35:43um and it is mostly uh because
1021. 35:46um larry and jerry uh grew up in an era
1022. 35:50where the the uh the science fiction
1023. 35:52short
1024. 35:53in uh in magazines was a much bigger
1025. 35:56influence on the genre that is now
1026. 35:58a lot of stories from back then feel
1027. 36:00very episodic this is one of them
1028. 36:02it feels like they go to a place in the
1029. 36:04inferno
1030. 36:05and have an adventure with some dead
1031. 36:06historical figure and then move on
1032. 36:09to another one right it's just vignette
1033. 36:11after vignette
1034. 36:12um of what if you know you went on a
1035. 36:14wacky adventure in as fidel
1036. 36:16and billy the kid was there right um
1037. 36:20that's basically the premise and i was
1038. 36:21reading this book and i was just
1039. 36:23eager to turn the page and i thought
1040. 36:25this is really the definition
1041. 36:27of an episodic thing why am i eager to
1042. 36:30turn the page
1043. 36:31and it was actually really simple they
1044. 36:33drew the inferno
1045. 36:34as a giant circle with a mysterious dot
1046. 36:37at the center
1047. 36:38and they dropped him at the perimeter
1048. 36:40and each adventure took him closer to
1049. 36:42the center
1050. 36:43and i realized that that natural
1051. 36:45momentum of me following his progress
1052. 36:47along the travel log
1053. 36:48even though each episode was episodic it
1054. 36:51took him one step closer to the center
1055. 36:53and the big cool mystery that was going
1056. 36:55to be there
1057. 36:56that was the way out of dante's inferno
1058. 36:59um and i just was
1059. 37:02you know i was hooked it's a very short
1060. 37:04book that works to its advantage also in
1061. 37:06this
1062. 37:06um i that map in that case
1063. 37:10was the thing to give me the sense of
1064. 37:11progress i needed and they carefully
1065. 37:12signposted
1066. 37:13where we were along this map as we went
1067. 37:16and that's all i needed for that story
1068. 37:18i could see their progress i knew i was
1069. 37:20making progress
1070. 37:21you have an advantage in books
1071. 37:22storytelling that they know the reader
1072. 37:24knows how many pages it is and you're
1073. 37:26using those pages up and giving them a
1074. 37:28natural momentum
1075. 37:29if you can make good on that by just
1076. 37:31making sure
1077. 37:32if you have a mystery plot you are
1078. 37:34giving information clues
1079. 37:36and signpost famous progress if you have
1080. 37:38a relationship
1081. 37:39you are showing the progress as he is
1082. 37:41getting made on that relationship
1083. 37:43even if there's a step backwards now and
1084. 37:45then things are happening that reader
1085. 37:47can say
1086. 37:47they're getting closer even if they
1087. 37:49don't realize it these things
1088. 37:51are gonna what's gonna make your book
1089. 37:53interesting to read
1090. 37:54page by page