How to Create Drama and Plot Without a Single Facebook Entry (Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”)

How to Create Drama and Plot Without a Single Facebook Entry (Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”)

35 Remarkable Comments

As playwright of the 17th century, you had one crucial advantage over a contemporary playwright: No distraction by Facebook messages.

Your disadvantage, on the other hand, was that if you got really unlucky, your whole family was extinguished by the black plague.

Well, can’t win them all.

But amidst all of the supposed madness of past centuries lived the man perceived as the greatest writer of all time: William Shakespeare.

For the tickle modern society nowadays finds in Facebook and Pinterest, it could 400 years ago find in Shakespeare’s plays – in fact, in Shakespeare’s times, dock workers were watching his comedies laughing so hard they were slapping their thighs.

And while Shakespeare was great in many regards and not so great in a few, today, let’s take one of the most famous plays ever written to show you how a masterful plot comes about: Let’s take a look at Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

In this post, you will find the answer to questions like:

What is plot?

How do you create suspense?

What is the single biggest thing that keeps the audience hooked?

There – I just asked some QUESTIONS you might want to know the answers to. You will realize the irony of this a bit further down…

44 Key Questions: Your Free Checklist

Also, if you want to see my 9 crucial points you need to get right to have an amazing plot (might be different ones than you think), I have a free download for you. They are part of the “44 Key Questions” you should ask about any story:

No spam, ever.

THE BASIC IDEA:

ridethepenvRZ_rider symbol

Macbeth tells the story of a nobleman (Macbeth), who receives a prophecy from three witches that he will become King of Scotland one day. This might have sparked his appetite for power, for he subsequently murders the king and rules the kingdom with malice. In the end his tyranny becomes so bad, an alliance of nobles has to get together to defeat him and behead him at his castle.

By the way, you can read the full text of Macbeth for free here.

Now let’s start out by explaining why an apple is an apple, i.e. answering the question: What is plot?

Plot is the movement of characters over the chess board of the story; it shows us what the figures do and what happens to them.

Good plot is plot that is moving the audience: It makes them feel suspense, laughter, anxiety or whatever else (Side note: If it’s a comedy and they only feel anxiety, you have done it wrong…). Plot is everything that happens, on a broader scale.

Additionally, plot will lead to POSSIBILITIES not acted out, which are very important as well, because they make the audience ask themselves QUESTIONS, e.g. the extraordinarily important question: What will happen next?

What MIGHT happen is often more thrilling than what actually DOES happen – you are aware of this if, for example, you have ever been out doing your thing while wondering whether you turned off the stove before leaving the house.

Excitement comes from what IS, and more importantly from what COULD BE. What actually is reality, is a little less exciting, because, well, it already is. It’s the unknown that excites us the most, it’s the possibilities:

How will your cat and your new pet canary get along?

What will Grandmother say when she finds out your new boyfriend works at Burger King?

Will drinking horse semen really improve your health?

Questions upon questions.

Once you get the answers, things might become very exciting for a short time, but the joy or desperation will wear off quickly. A question left hovering, however, could tickle you forever…

What REALLY excites your audience is not the answer to the following question, but the question itself: “WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT!?“

So how do you make a plot really fascinating for the audience?

You do it by letting them wonder about as many QUESTIONS as possible. You see, this is the trick about creating a thrilling piece of plot: The game is about QUESTIONS!

The more QUESTIONS the audience are asking themselves and the more urgently they are asking them, the more they will love your story.

Suspense is created by QUESTIONS the audience directs at themselves (because, well, there is absolutely nobody better around to direct them at…).

Solving these questions, in turn, leads to new questions, and it is also essential to ask those new questions before the old ones are resolved. This way you are making sure you have your audience hooked constantly and without any gaps in between, which would mean a lagging plot, or, in the common man’s words, a really boring story.

While the plot constantly develops in a dynamic way, new burning questions will arise.

Your questions should also come up in your story naturally. They should never feel as if they are just there because of the godlike will of the author. If a prisoner suddenly finds a file on the ground and there is no cake around it, your audience might feel manipulated and won’t buy into the illusion of your jailbreak story anymore.

You say so far this all sounds very theoretical?

Fair enough. Now let’s take a look at how master Shakespeare did it.

THE MASTER’S WAY TO DO IT:

(A.k.a.: Shakespeare didn’t have to post his food pics – Look how he hooked them instead…)

Kunstreiter klein

First act, first scene: Enter witches. First immediate QUESTIONS: Are they insane?

Speaking weird stuff in rhymes, running around under lightning in wide open space, probably with hunches, crooked fingers and dressed in rags. QUESTION: What the hell is this!??

Well, it is an unusual and very powerful way to start a play. Notice how an original setting immediately raises a LOT of questions, before even a single word is spoken (Who are they? What are they doing out there? What is going to happen next?), while also providing visually exciting elements on stage for entertainment-hungry, 17th century, Twitter-less eyeballs (storm, lightning, intriguing landscape, eerie women). Good stuff!

Macbeth, Three Witches

Three Witches

Cut to second scene. We hear war cries and see a king and a bloody warrior laying out a recap of the battle – it’s all very dynamic, but you don’t see the actual fight. So the play even spares the director the hassle of having to stage the battle, which in turn saves him a couple of stuntmen.

Immediately, questions arise: Who is fighting against whom? Who is winning? What do they want? Who was killed? What happened? What’s the king’s mission?

See how the plot starts to unfold almost unobtrusively, while questions, atmosphere and characters engage the audience’s interest and spark their excitement?

We hear about Macbeth before we even see him for the first time – this is, combined with the play’s title, a very effective way to spike curiosity. Questions: What will he look like? How will he behave?

We can’t go through every single scene here, or else you will have to witness me chew and digest my copy of Macbeth out of sheer madness, but you get the picture:

On a micro-level, asking questions works to engage the audience in a single scene, or maybe in an act.

On a macro-level, asking questions works to engage the audience in the whole drama and to overall wow them.

It is in the third scene of the first act that the witches predict Macbeth will become king. With their prediction perhaps the two most intriguing QUESTIONS of the whole drama come to mind:

  1. Are those crooked women indeed capable of predicting the future (read as: Does fate exist)?
  1. Will Macbeth really become king eventually?

Those two questions essentially amount to the same single one. They will be resolved in the beginning of the third act, when we see Macbeth appearing as king for the first time.

Notice how by then, there will have been some urgent NEW QUESTIONS established, to never let the audience off the hook for even one second (Will the nobles ever discover that Macbeth has murdered the king? How will Macbeth cope with his own guilt? Etc.).

PLEASE DON’T DO IT THIS WAY…:

Fallend groß symbol copy

They say you only really value something once it’s gone. So I want to make you value Shakespeare’s plot by cold-heartedly taking it away from you. This is how Shakespeare should never, ever have done it, no way.

Had he done it like this, they would have booed him off the stage, which would have made him so depressed he would have spent the rest of his lifetime on useless shit like twittering about his digestion all day long (Btw, twittering back then probably worked with REAL birds, as in messenger pigeons).

Writing Prompts

William Shakespeare twittering

So there you have it, you better pay attention! As I’m doing this wrong, I will do it really wrong:

Macbeth Done All Wrong

1st Act

The king, Duncan, in his castle, doing his thing (Instagram or whatever). We see him interacting with his sons and with nobility. He is friendly with them. No problems given, no questions asked, no solutions needed. He has a nice convo with Macbeth about the weather. He has supper with the nobles. He farts and goes to sleep.

2nd Act

In a short, easy-going monologue, Macbeth tells the audience he has killed the king. He is wearing the crown and is now the new king. Lady Macbeth is happy.

3rd Act

We see Macduff coming towards Macbeth’s castle, some soldiers behind him. Suddenly a soldier appears on stage and announces he has killed Macbeth.

THE END

Granted, Shakespeare’s play has much more content, but nevertheless the main point presents itself in all its glory.

Notice all of the interesting questions missing: Will Macbeth murder the king? Will his guilt kill him? Will the predictions come true? How will Macduff react?

Much of the basic plot still happens: The king is murdered, Macbeth bullies the country, Macbeth gets killed. But there is no alluding to future events, no uncertainty around the acts or characters, no hovering possibility of doom. No witches. No questions. No fun.

THE EXERCISE TO FINE-TUNE YOUR WRITING:

ridethepenvRZ_pens symbol

Now it’s time for the first exercise ever on this blog. Take a look at the following story:

A kid with some talent for handicrafts buys a board, paints it red, and by attaching four wheels from an old office chair to the bottom, builds a skateboard out of it. He skates out of his village and over a country road into the woods. Under his arm he has his family puppy, so the little guy can go for a walk without the labor of actually having to walk… It’s a rough ride, and the skateboard gets caught in some roots and crashes hard. The puppy is hurt badly. The kid quickly wattles a makeshift basket out of some branches and carries his puppy back to the village vet.

Realize that this story has no hooks, no real excitement. But that’s where you enter the picture: You will make it look like a diamond in the rough. Inject some juice!

These are the rules: You can’t change anything or leave out any part of the plotline, but you should ADD a lot. Feel free to add anything you want, including characters, scenes, sub-plots, attitudes, needs, emotions, tensions… in one word: QUESTIONS!

Hint: Courtesy of yours truly, this story is especially drained of characters. Add a figure here and there, work out their relationships to each other, and it will work wonders.

You don’t need to write any dialogue or any complete scenes, just put down a rough outline of your story.

Oh, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, for you can truly only improve your fiction writing by actually writing. Be courageous!

You can find a lot more quality writing prompts I created for (almost) all genres here.

THE GOOD-BYE PART

I hope that from now on you will think of great plot in terms of QUESTIONS rather than in terms of events.

Create an outstanding plotline by raising intriguing QUESTIONS. Raise new QUESTIONS before you answer the old ones – this way your audience won’t ever be let off the hook.

When you incorporate your tempting questions carefully, your readers will just have to know what happens next. Think of your own excitement when you wondered about the burning questions in your favorite story. That’s exactly how thrilled your readers will be with your own tale!

You will get them to eagerly turn the pages, completely addicted to your narrative. And you might, yes you just might… become even more important than Facebook to them.

Ride the pen!

 

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35 Comments

  1. George

    I read your macbeth article and then read your ebook.  Enjoyed both.  I remember reading Macbeth when I was about 10.  that would be 1952 and I was in the 5th grade.  My mother told me not to read it because I’d just finished War and Peace and she was miffed about that.  Reading Shakespeare was so much easier than Tolstoy.  Loved it.  And i didn’t have do deal with the bloody Russian names. I had forgotten the exercise attached to this post because I was full of schemes for your six-part exercise from the ebook.  This is gonna be fun.  This is going to take some juggling of my schedule.  I’m baking product for two restaurants and several private customers here in Quito while writing a new kind of basic baking ebook while trying to set up my first blog.  I hope to get back to you in a day or two.

    1. Alex

      Baking and story writing… don’t they have something in common? You try to create a delicious whole out of all the ingredients at your hand (plot, characters, dialogue, point of view, etc…).

      And it’s great you are getting right to the exercises. Have fun!

  2. Hannah

    I really enjoyed this article. I first read Macbeth at a similar age to George; my older brother was doing it at school and I got jealous 🙂 whenever I studied this play I did it from the POV of the morals presented and the language/grammar/orthography used, my studies were focused on extracts as opposed to the whole play so this take on the plot is especially fascinating for me. The question is… will following articles be as good? now THERE’s an intriguing question!

  3. Gerardine

    Nice article you had me snickering. I have been trying to wash off writer’s procrastination- by searching out online classes; I found some interesting online edu classes. Then I found a forum and your post pointed everyone to your site. I like your idea for your website. My own website has been sitting and waiting for me to wake up and write. I ‘liked’ your Facebook page. ‘Connected’ to you Pinterest and on Google, then I ‘followed’ you on Twitter and Tumblr. For a person who is a known procrastinator I sure get around. Guess I’m doing everything but writing. Do you use a specific plotting software? As for the ‘writing prompts/exercise’.. Hmmm! What would happen next is this kid is in deep trouble for hurting the puppy. And not taking the puppy for a walk like he was supposed to and taking the wheels off the only office chair in the house, which he finds, left his Dad with a broken leg when he fell off that wheel-less chair. At the vet, he finds out that the bill to save the dog is beyond his parent’s ability to pay. He moans and groans until the vet offers him a job. The first night on the job he finds out that the Vet assistant is a little odd. His father’s crutches are cursed and his little puppy’s siblings have all been dog-napped. Yeah, I know you wanted a little more detail. 🙂 How often are you going to post?

    1. Alex

      Since I have started this blog, I found out that procrastination seems to be the biggest problem for all writers. That’s why I will bring out a product soon that goes into depth on how to once and for all beat the procrastination demon.

      I don’t use any plotting software. For me, “pen and paper” works the best, that’s my software (soft paper!). Everybody on my e-mail list will be directed to a new post at least every three weeks.

      And kudos to you for doing the exercise. Rock on!

  4. S C Baker

    Hello. I really enjoyed reading this article. I think one problem in my writing is I have too MANY questions. Even I loose track of them. Anyway, I did the writing exercise. Well, it started off with the writing exercise. I was asking questions like: Where did he get the puppy in the first place? Why did he build the skateboard? I ended up plotting a whole MG virus apocalypse story from it, which was…um…quite interesting. Then I read that you wanted us to start and finish where the exercise started and finished, and just add bits in between. I only used the things that happened in the exercise in the middle of the story. I can still share it if you like, but it’s quite long…

    1. Alex

      When you have too many questions, it might be better to just concentrate on the most interesting ones; especially if you are a beginning writer. Story writing takes place on so many levels, it can be overwhelming in the beginning. Play one interesting question at any time, and you are good to go.

      You are very welcome to share everything you have. In any way, it’s great you did the exercise.

  5. Jean M Cogdell

    Thanks for the jump start. I just finished a children’s picture book and now need to get back to an adult WIP. But I’ve been procrastinating, not sure how to get back to the story. I seem to get that stuffed, ahh, done feeling when I’ve finished a project. Makes it hard to get started again.
    Your post gave me direction. Thanks. I started writing down questions for my WIP and pow, I was back.
    I’m gonna reblog this for my readers. Thanks again for the jolt.
    Jean

    1. Alex

      Awesome, Jean. It’s a good thing to cut yourself some slack when you have finished a project. But whatever happened, sounds like you are back into your WIP now.

      Questions don’t just guide your readers, they can also guide yourself as a writer. Good point.

  6. Charlene Gibb

    I first read Macbeth in grade 9 and thought I’d gone to hell  🙁  Didn’t understand a work of it lol. And, I must admit, I haven’t read any Shakespeare since high school – not my cup of tea.

    This article, though, ignited my imagination. My WIP is full of unanswered questions…the FMC is searching for her father and sister, with Mom dropping clues along the way. You advice here will help me immensely!

    Thanks, Alex!

    1. Alex

      Macbeth is an extremely somber play, almost depressing. Hey, even I thought I had gone to hell reading it… funny coincidence, I watched the “Macbeth” opera (Verdi) today, and the stage DID look like hell…

      Great to hear that the article got you into gear. Let your protagonist follow your questions, and it will all come together!

  7. Scrivener

    If Shakespeare depresses you then you MUST go to see a professional stage performance of As You Like It and also Midsummer Night’s Dream. The better productions tend to be staged by professional companies – best of all, see if you can turn up an RSC production. Hate to say this but every American production I have seen of a Shakespeare play, no matter how professional the company, missed the point. There is a certain, ‘bred-in-the-bone’ certainty to the language that the English, Welsh and Australians ‘get’, but Americans miss. That command of the rhythm and cadence of the language is relative to the unfolding of the plot. 
    The opposite would apply if an Englishman were to read ‘Leaves of Grass’ or Hiawatha.

    1. Alex

      Shakespeare’s language is just mesmerizing, I have a post about it stored away that will come out at some point. Unfortunately, I can’t completely grasp it, as I’m not an English native speaker. I’m based in Austria, and this is where I saw “Macbeth” (the opera) yesterday.

      Opera librettos seem crude anyways, compared to any theater play. That’s what I was thinking yesterday, observing from my seat in the darkness of the auditorium…

  8. Arvilla

    A boy drives his parents mad with his inventions. In this story he invents the skateboard. The fact that he takes a leaf from the kitchen table (did he first get his mother’s consent?) and uses the wheels off his older brother’s office chair will lead to some problem especially since said table is the oak one passed down from his great grandmother. It was said to have come over on the Mayflower, but that was partly myth. The brother is off at college studying to be a doctor.( no permission here, either) The boy finishes his project and to see if it actually will work, takes it into the back alley and tries it out. Glory be! It works, but then he has to hide it of course. This causes him problems. He can’t take it home, so he hides it behind his garage. Weeks pass by and he almost forgets he is in trouble when a dinner party is planned to celebrate his father’s birthday. Of course the brother will come home to discover the chair problem.

      1. Arvilla

        The challenge was, well . . . challenging. I couldn’t seem to come up with an ending to the conundrum to the ruined table leaf. Maybe go ahead and use the board making some kind of decorations around the wheels. We don’t really need anything too drastic for the consequence. (for the boy) Maybe he goes on to be famous for his invention.

  9. Marti J

    Good article. Fun exercise. Love a creative start to my day! http://textuploader.com/d5z8c

    Kid lost a bet with his sister and now has to take the dog out every day for a month. Which makes him late for his demonic cult meetings. So, he crafts a crude skateboard initially planning to have the puppy run ahead and power the ride. When that doesn’t work out he lifts the puppy into his arms and using his magical powers gains about 10 mph. Until, his nemesis the old Oak on the edge of the forest raises his root at just the right moment sending Kid and Pup sprawling into the air. Kid hits his head and feels his magic drain away. Pup hits the tree and drops in a lump at Kid’s feet. Can he be saved? Without his powers, Kid rushes back to the village to find the local vet.

  10. TELLER OF TALES

    Boy visits his grandparents in Upstate New York. He arrived there for the holiday vacations, 
    The next day while he’s walking through the woods near his grandparents home he sees a little dog, that seems to have been following him and as he chases after the little dog, he falls into a hole in the grond and he finds himself in a strange cave where he finds a odd looking skateboard that has no wheels. As he steps on to it the object begins to glide through the air lifting him up out of the cave. as he hovers through the woods he spots the little dog and he dives and picks him up then flys through the air holding the pup in his arms, his next stop his grandparents home. When they arrive they can’t stop the skateboard, and they fall. When the boy wakes up the pup was gone and so is the mysterious skateboard… Nick…THE TELLER OF TALES….

  11. Valerie

    Hi! Thank you for sharing this valuable tip in such an easy-to-follow and humorous manner. It really got me thinking about the story I am writing (and shaking my mind in dismay over certain parts).

    I have a quick question for you. I am trying to approach my story from a logical place so that I do not have to fix too many plot holes because of character inadequacies etc. What would you say is the sequence of good story-building? As in what should I focus on first and what next? Setting, character, plot etc.?

    I know this question may seem like a tangent to the subject on hand, but hey, the piece got me questioning about the other aspects of storywriting that I might be falling short on. 🙂

    1. Alex

      That’s an excellent question, Valerie. The answer would be worth its own post, but here are two quick thoughts:

      1. It’s a question of taste and style. There are many ways to tackle this, and I’m sure everybody does it differently.

      2. It makes the most sense when these elements are growing side by side. Your plot is missing a character? Bring in the character now. Your character is screaming for an additional plot twist? Twist the plot already! Etc…

  12. Marilyn

    A little “aside” here … My uncle was a noted attorney who seemed to mesmerize juries. He said he would read Shakespeare the evening before presenting a case to a jury. There are some passages in my novel that don’t seem to “flow”. Think I’ll read some of old Bill’s passages and see if any of the sense of rhythm rubs off!

  13. vinod

    Got in some paired by your article. (My last attempt yesterday to send this seems to have failed – probably failed the I am not a robot test, so here is an resend.) :

    The vet had a long day and the last thing he wanted to do was to listen to Tim’s tale which he knew would be sad and heart wrenching, so he cut him off.

    ‘Looks like the impact with the tree has knocked him out. What do you call him?’

    ‘Buddy – I call him Buddy. He will survive won’t he?’

    ‘Let’s get him on the stretcher. You wait out here while I stitch up the cut and bandage him up. Luckily no bones broken and he will be back on his four feet in no time. What about you though you had a bad fall Tim! Do you need a doctor?’

    Just then Tim’s mum showed up. She was shocked to see the blood on Tim’s shirt but was relieved to hear that the blood was not Tim’s but Buddy’s and that Buddy was being attended to by the Vet.

    ‘Mum it’s no big deal, I just tripped but Buddy was in my hand and he hit his head on the trunk of a big tree and that knocked him out. I was so worried as he lay there without moving. The vet says he will be OK.’

    ‘Yes thank God for that. You are OK right Tim?’

    Tim looked out of the right hand window of the car sheepishly. Buddy was resting in his arms.

    ‘Tell me what happened exactly. The vet thought you must have been going at some speed judging by how badly Buddy got hurt.’

    Tim had been dreading this question. Of course he was going at some speed. He was out in the wilderness, he could see the path ahead was dipping down and there was nobody else in sight. Besides what’s the point of having a skateboard if you can not speed down an incline.

    And this was not just any skateboard – this was one he had made himself in his secret hide out. Getting the wooden board off Granny’s old dining table without her knowledge was not easy, fashioning it with the only knife that he had was itself a great labor of love. Took him no less than three months to just get the wooden board ready.

    The wheels were something he was not ready to think about as he did not know where he would get them from. His pocket money which never was much when he did get it had been suspended since he had got into a fight with his brother and broke the wooden airplane that his brother was working on. His pocket money was given to his brother to try and complete his airplane project.

    ‘Mum, I was going down an incline after all!’

    ‘You mean running down an incline like an idiot that you are!’

    Tim did not respond as his mum already had worked out the situation in her own mind.

    An office chair is designed to have wheels which never go at any speed. Removing them and fitting them to a skateboard was a genius solution which his mum or dad would never understand. While fixing the wheels one of the screws was too small for the hole he had made for it in the wooden board. When going down the incline, the screw had come off, the wheel had decided to go in a direction of its own choosing and the momentum had carried Tim hurtling towards the oak tree on the side as a result. Had it not been for the root of the tree that diverted his projected path by tripping him he too would have been in the same condition as poor Buddy.

    Thank God his creation the skateboard was not damaged at all and he had wisely hidden it in the hollow of the old oak tree to be retrieved at some later date.

    But now was not the tome to tell his mum what exactly had happened to him while going down the incline.

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