30 Pitches Pitstop #1

Remember how I said pitches are all about throwing a protagonist, a goal, and an opponent together and trying to come up with something new? Well Lindsey Duncan's post inspired an easy way to begin. Simply mix and match a character archetype or career and one of 37 plots/dramatic situations, and see what you come up with. The dramatic situations already have a built-in plot, so it's just up to you to plug in the archetypes with actual people, your quirky protagonist with a background and their opponent, similarly attired with a personality. The goal takes care of itself!

Say you choose (or wind up with through a random number generator) #3 Crime Punished by Vengeance: what is the objective? Revenge. Who is the opponent? The person MC intends to revenge himself upon. All you have to do is figure out who the people are beyond their roles in the plot. A YA contemporary writer might see this as a perfect story for a teen prankster, giving her free reign to wreak havoc on her cheating ex-boyfriend, while a fantasy writer might instead have a greenwoman turning to the dark side to blight the life of the lover who obeyed his father when told to marry a more appropriate bride. Notice I'm being very free with what constitutes a crime: to the girl and woman scorned, betraying their love was a crime. Don't let yourself get tied down; the point is to have a place to begin from, but then let your questions and answers take you where they will.

This week's three (condensed) tips from James Scott Bells's top twenty ways to get plot ideas* in Plot & Structure:

1. The What-If Game. Play what if while reading the newspaper or watching TV (and the commercials), or simply let your mind wander.
2. Titles. Make up a title and then write a pitch to go with it. Titles can come from quotes, lyrics, or overheard dialogue, or make a list of words from the dictionary and combine them.
3. The List. Start a list of nouns, one- or two-word reminders of mental pictures from your past. From these you can brainstorm story ideas that should resonate with you.

*Why three tips a week when there are twenty in all? Some of the other tips don't lend themselves to coming up with a pitch or get covered in other ways, but all twenty are good.