The Anatomy of Story (53 page)

The next major structural element that affects your plot is genre. A genre is a story form, a particular kind of story. Most stories in movies, novels, and plays are founded on at least one genre, and are usually a combination of two or three. So it is important that you know what story form, if any, you are using. Each genre has predetermined plot beats that you must include, or your audience will be disappointed.

Genres are really story subsystems. Each genre takes the universal steps of story structure, the seven and twenty-two steps, and executes them in a different way. You can tell a great story without using any genre at all. But if you do use one, you must master how your form executes these structure steps, as well as learn how each handles character, theme, story world, and symbol. Then you must use these elements in an original way so that your story is not like any other story in that form, even though in many ways it is like every other story in that genre. Audiences of genre stories like to see the familiar bones of the form, but with a new skin that makes this story fresh.

The details of the various genres lie beyond the scope of this book, and I have written extensively about them elsewhere. They are very complex, and you must commit to one or two of them if you are to have any chance of mastery. The good news is that, with practice, as all successful writers know, they can be learned.

C
reating
Y
our
P
lot—
W
riting
E
xercise
7

■ Designing Principle and Plot
Review the designing principle and

the theme of your story. Be certain that your plot tracks these lines.
■ Symbol for Plot
If you are using a story symbol, make sure that your plot is an expression of it.

■ Storyteller
Figure out if you want to use a storyteller, and if so, what kind. Keep in mind the structural techniques that allow you to get the most out of the storyteller.

■ Twenty-two Steps
Describe the twenty-two steps of your story in detail. Be sure to start with Step 1, the plot frame, so that all the other steps fall naturally into place.

■ Reveals Sequence
Focus on the reveals sequence. List the reveals separately from the other steps. Look for the following elements to make the reveals as dramatic as possible:

1. Make sure the sequence is logical.

2. Try to make each reveal more intense than the one before.

3. Check that each reveal causes your hero to change his original desire in some way.

4. Make the reveals come at a faster pace as you move toward the end of the story.

Let's look at a twenty-two-step breakdown for
The Godfather
so that you can see how the twenty-two steps add the crucial plot details to the seven key structure steps you've already determined.

T
he
G
odfather

(novel by Mario Puzo, screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

■ Hero
Michael Corleone.
1. self-revelation, need, and desire

■ Self-Revelation
Michael has no self-revelation. He has become a ruthless killer, but only his wife, Kay, has seen his moral decline.

■ Need
To avoid becoming a ruthless killer.

■ 
Desire
To take revenge on the men who shot his father.

■ 
Initial
Error
Michael believes he is different from his family and above their criminal activity.

2.
 ghost and story world

■ Ghost
Michael's ghost is not a single event from his past but a family legacy of crime and killing that he despises.

■ Story World
The story world is the Mafia system of Michael's family. It is extremely hierarchical, run like the military, with strict rules. The Godfather is the absolute ruler, meting out justice as he sees fit, and the family uses murder to get what it wants. The workings of this world are laid out at the wedding of Michael's sister, to which all the characters in the story have been invited, including the hidden opponent, Barzini.

The national reach of the family's power is then shown when a Hollywood producer fails to do what the Godfather has asked. The man wakes up with the severed head of his favorite horse beside him.

3.
 weakness and need

■ Weaknesses
Michael is young, inexperienced, untested, and overconfident.

■ Psychological Need
To overcome his sense of superiority and self-righteousness.

■ Moral Need
To avoid becoming ruthless like the other Mafia bosses while still protecting his family.

■ Problem
Rival gang members shoot Michael's father, the head of the family.

4.
 inciting event

Michael's distance from his family is shattered when he reads that his father has been shot.

5.
 desire

To take revenge on the men who shot his father and thereby protect his

family.

6. ally or allies

Michael has a vast array of allies from his family. They include his father, Don Corleone; his brothers, Sonny and Fredo; Tom; Clemenza; and his wife, Kay.

7. opponent and/or mystery

Michael's first opponent is Sollozzo. However, his true opponent is the more powerful Barzini, who is the hidden power behind Sollozzo and wants to bring the entire Corleone family down. Michael and Barzini compete over the survival of the Corleone family and control over crime in New York.

8. fake-ally opponent

Michael has an unusually large number of fake-ally opponents, which greatly increases the plot. They include the driver of the car when his father was shot; his Sicilian bodyguard, Fabrizio, who tries to kill him but blows up his wife instead; his brother-in-law, Carlo, who lures Sonny to his death; and Tessio, who goes over to Barzini's side.

9. first revelation and decision: changed desire and motive

■ Revelation
The hospital in which his father is recuperating has no guards and is virtually empty. Michael realizes that men are coming to kill his father.

■ Decision
He decides to protect his father by wheeling his bed into another room and standing guard outside.

■ Changed Desire
Instead of standing apart from the family, Michael now wishes to protect his father and save his family.

■ Changed Motive
He loves his family deeply, and his drive to compete and succeed will not let him lose.

10. plan

Michael's first plan is to kill Sollozzo and his protector, the police captain. His second plan is to kill the heads of the other families in a single strike.

11. OPPONENT'S PLAN AND MAIN COUNTERATTACK

Michael's main opponent is Barzini. Barzini's plan is to use Sollozzo as a front man in the effort to kill Don Corleone. Once Don Corleone is incapacitated, he pays off Carlo to lure Sonny into a trap and pays Michael's bodyguard in Sicily to kill him.

12. 
drive

■ Drive Sequence

1. Clemenza shows Michael how to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey.

2. At the restaurant, Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey.

3. There is a quick montage of newspaper articles.

4. Sonny and Tom argue because Sonny wants to kill old Tattaglia.

5. In Sicily, Michael sees a pretty girl on the road and tells her father he wants to meet her.

6. Michael meets Apollonia.

7. Sonny finds Connie with a black eye. He beats up Connie's husband, Carlo, in the street.

8. Michael and Apollonia are wed.

9. Tom won't accept Kay's letter to Michael.

10. Michael shows Apollonia how to drive; he learns Sonny is dead.

■  Added Revelation
Michael sees a beautiful Italian girl on the road in Sicily.

■ Decision
He
decides to meet her.

■  Changed Desire
He wants her.

■ Changed Motive
He is falling in love.

13. 
attack by ally

■ Ally's Criticism
When Michael returns from Sicily, Kay criticizes him for working for his father. She tells him he is not like that.

■ Hero's Justification
He promises her the family will be legitimate in five years.

14. 
apparent defeat

Michael's apparent defeat is a one-two punch. He finds out that his brother Sonny has been murdered and
soon
afterward sees his wife blown up by a bomb that was meant for him.

15. SECOND REVELATION AND DECISION: ObseSSIVe DRIVE, CHANGED DESIRE AND MOTIVE

■ Revelation
Michael realizes that a bomb has been planted in his car and that his wife is about to start the engine.

■ Decision
He tries to stop his wife, but he is too late.

■ Changed Desire
Michael wants to return home to his family.

■ Obsessive Drive
He is determined to take revenge on the men who killed his wife and brother.

■ Changed Motive
They must pay for killing the people he loves.

16.
 audience revelation

The audience sees Luca Brasi, Don Corleone's most dangerous ally, murdered when he meets with Tattaglia and Sollozzo.

17.
 third revelation and decision

■ Revelation
Michael realizes that Tessio has gone over to the other side and that Barzini plans to kill him.

■ Decision
He decides to strike first.

■ Changed Desire
He wants to kill all of his enemies in one blow.

■ Changed Motive
He wants to win the war once and for all.

18.
 gate, gauntlet, visit to death

Because Michael is such a superior fighter, even fooling the audience, he doesn't pass through a gate or gauntlet before the final battle. His visit to death occurs when he sees his wife blown up by a bomb meant for him.

19.
 battle

The final battle is a crosscut between Michael's appearance at his nephew's baptism and the killing of the heads of the five Mafia families. At the baptism, Michael says that he believes in God. Clemenza fires a shotgun into some men getting off an elevator. Moe Green is shot in the eye. Michael, following the liturgy of the baptism, renounces Satan. Another gunman shoots one of the heads of the families in a revolving door. Barzini is shot. Tom sends Tessio off to be murdered. Michael has Carlo strangled.

20. SELF-REVELATION

■ Psychological Self-Revelation
None.
Michael still believes that his

sense of superiority and self-righteousness is justified.
■ Moral Self-Revelation
None. Michael has become a ruthless killer. The writers use an advanced story structure technique by giving the moral self-revelation to the hero's wife, Kay, who sees what he has become as the door slams in her face.

21. 
moral decision

Michael's great moral decision happens just before the battle when he decides to kill all of his rivals as well as his brother-in-law after becoming godfather to the man's baby.

22. 
new equilibrium

Michael has killed his enemies and risen to the position of Godfather. But morally he has fallen and become the devil. This man who once wanted nothing to do with the violence and crime of his family is now its leader and will kill anyone who betrays him or gets in his way.