Plot Study: Introduction

The introduction ‘act’ of your story is where you give the reader all the information about the world they will be entering, along with background to explain the upcoming conflict. It’s your opportunity to lay the foundations for the rest of the tale.

Characters

It is during this section that you introduce your characters, giving an insight into their personae, allowing the reader to familiarise themselves with your cast before you throw them into the ‘meat’ of your story. Often, characters will come and go within a story, and this is your opportunity to introduce the core group of characters who will be playing the lead parts.

Obviously, the protaganist is introduced here directly, but what about the antagonist? Should he/she be explicitly introduced? I suppose this is entirely dependant on personal taste. For me, I like to only hint at the main protaganist during the introduction: That way, you can build some tension as the reader tries to figure out who is the main bad-guy.

The World

The introduction gives you a chance to introduce your world: Its people, the governmental structure, and the current situation it is in. It also is a chance to put into context where your characters stand within the world - which can be of utmost importance to the story.

History

As in the real world, the history of your created realm often will have shaped how it now stands. Your introduction gives you a chance to tell part of that history, and your readers will have a greater understanding of the world.

The origins of the protagonist, antagonist or any other character could well be inter-mingled with the history of the world, so you can also explain their background - And legends are always a nice way to give hints to what will happen later on in the story.

Atmosphere and Tone

The atmosphere and tone of your story could well stay the same throughout, and the introduction is a nicely convenient place to put them in place, giving your reader a taster of what to expect throughout the story.

However, the tone and atmosphere could also change by the end of the story, but you need to set the initial tone so the reader can see the changes. What better place to do it than here?

---

I mentioned I would be using the ‘Lord of the Rings’ as an example throughout this theme, so let’s take a quick look at what Tolkien did in his ‘introduction’ to do that which has been discussed above.

Starting off in Hobbiton, we are introduced to the race of Hobbits, who are a friendly, happy-go-lucky race of people who have no care of the outside world. It is also here that we meet our main protagonists: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. We see their attitudes, ideals and personalities quite well - Frodo, the adventure seeking young man who feels bogged down by responsibility; Sam, the duty-driven gardener who loyally serves his master (Frodo) well; Finally, Merry and Pippin who are both very similar: cheeky, mischievous friends who haven’t a real care in the world.

We’re also introduced to Gandalf, who plays a big part in the story, and get an insight into his position and power. But, his main ‘purpose’ during this part of the plot, from a storyteller’s viewpoint, is to give us, the reader, an insight into the history and world. He tells the story of the One Ring, and its creator, Sauron, while also giving us an idea of the world outside Hobbiton.

Overall, the tone and atmosphere are happy, cheerful and bright (Just about all Hobbits’ speech is ended in exclamation points!), yet during Gandalf’s telling of the story and legend surroudning the Ring, we get a hint of the darkness that will later prevail the story.

The introduction ends quite nicely as Frodo is charged with leaving Hobbiton to take the Ring to Rivendell so the elves can choose what to do with it.

Tolkien gives us a nice example of how Freytag’s analysis actually works in literature, and we’ll take a look later at how the other sections are utilised.

Your Introductions

What do you like to see/put into the introductory phases of stories? Do you like the way Tolkien makes his introduction? What other introductions have you enjoyed? Share with us!

Disbelief? Suspend it!

Following on from my previous post on realism, I was reading an article by Vicki Hinze on the Fiction Factor website. It discusses suspension of disbelief when writing fiction.

But, what is this idea of suspending disbelief? It’s all about making your readers be able to believe that what you are writing is, or could be, real. Whether it’s a romance, action-adventure or fantasy piece you are writing your readers need to be able to believe in what they are reading. Elves? Not in the real world, that’s for sure? Don’t be silly! If you can suspend their disbelief, however, then it could well be possible that elves do exist in reality.

It’s all in the detail.

How do we do that for a novel without an atypical or unusual element?
In a word, details.

And in that quote, Vicki sums up the concept perfectly. It is the tiny, seemingly unimportant details that are key to suspending your reader’s disbelief. From making sure your characters are believable and relatable through giving them ‘real’ personalities, to giving enough prior background for an event to be plausible.

An example by Vicki speaks of snow in Florida. Sure enough, a snow storm in Florida wouldn’t happen in real life (I think. Do feel free to correct me if otherwise), in your novel it could well be. A change in weather fronts and well developed plans by Organisation X to affect weather against the natural order? Sure, that could well make snow fall in Florida.

Consistency is key.

Throughout your novel or fictional piece you need to be consistent to maintain the suspension of disbelief. To continue the the ’snow in Florida’ example: Suddenly throwing in this Organisation X and all related factors in the chapter immediately before or after the snow storm will look very much like a desperate ’saving grace’ attempt that will make the reader stop, think and still believe it couldn’t happen.

Before and after the event, you need to continue suspending disbelief. As another extreme example: There is snow in Florida for the above-stated reasons one day, on the next, blistering heat once again. No, doesn’t sound real to me either, considering the information we’ve been given already. “Boo!” at the writer!

Informative delivery.

Vicki goes on to speak about how you give this details and ‘facts’ to the reader, and brings up an interesting point:

It’s widely accepted as fact that a reader believes what one character says to another far more readily than the reader believes what an author says to them.

And that, I think, gives point enough on how best to deliver the information that builds believability.

Over to you.

What methods to you use to suspend disbelief as a writer? As a reader, what are you most likely to notice that will reinstate your disbelief? Or what do you like to see to enable suspension of disbelief?