This topic sheet was originally devised for the Exciting
Plot Writing course. There is a table of links
to other teaching resources towards the bottom of this page.
The final section of this Exciting Plot Writing course is concerned
with controlling the flow of information in such a way that the
audience feels compelled to engage with one's work at the outset
and to stay with it until the very end.
There are many processes at work here, such as choosing the
right beginning and end and altering the timeline of the work
to include flashbacks, etc. This topic sheet is concerned with
the logical processes that underpin such choices. |
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Aristotelian Logic
A crucial factor in maintaining readers' interest, as we have
already discussed, is the exposition of a mystery to be solved.
An obvious example is the crime novel: the writer typically presents
readers with a range of possible murderers and motives, while
the reader takes pleasure from her/his attempts to solve the mystery
correctly before the solution is revealed. The mystery need not
be a murder, of course, and the same principle applies in any
work that presents the reader with a puzzle to be solved.
When devising a mystery to be held out to one's audience, it
is useful to bear in mind the logical processes that govern reasoning.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the principles of logic, like
the principles of plot development already discussed in this course,
were first articulated by Aristotle.
Aristotle's treatise entitled "Ethics" conceives two
distinct categories of reasoning: deductive and inductive. In
essence, deductive reasoning begins with a general subject and
works towards a specific conclusion, while inductive reasoning
begins with a specific subject and works towards a general conclusion.
Deductive Reasoning
A deductive argument consists of three or more premises, the
last being a firm conclusion based on the preceding premises.
For example:
- All mice like cheese.
- Tiptoes is a mouse.
- Tiptoes likes cheese.
Provided 1 & 2 are true, 3 must also be true. From a writer's
perspective, it is worth noting that this type of reasoning is
particularly useful for communicating universal truths based on
fictional premises. Insofar as the premise that mice like cheese
is not necessarily true in the real world, the conclusion is not
necessarily true either. However, if I create a world in which
all mice like cheese and in which there is a mouse called Tiptoes,
it is inevitable that Tiptoes will like cheese.
Works of fiction in which the closing pages are crucial to understanding
are usually based on deductive principles (though this is not
to suggest that they avoid inductive reasoning), gradually focusing
on very specific details that are inescapable conclusions from
the premises set out by the writer in the course of the work.
Inductive Reasoning
In inductive reasoning, we make a series of observations, detect
a pattern or patterns and form hypotheses that appear to conform
to the pattern(s). For example:
- John hasn't been looking well lately.
- John drives a red sports car.
- John hates public transport, which he describes as "dirty".
- John takes great pride in keeping his car in excellent condition.
- John is often seen with an attractive woman in the passenger
seat of his car: never the same woman two weeks running.
- I saw John on the bus this morning.
We might draw any number of conclusions from these observations.
We are able to gain a fairly clear impression of John's character
and motivation, but there is insufficient information to enable
us to know for sure why he looks unwell or why he has taken to
travelling by bus.
Accordingly, we imagine reasons for his condition and behaviour:
perhaps he's lost his job, crashed his car or gone through an
expensive divorce with the one and only woman who was never seen
in the passenger seat of the red sports car.
The more information we are given, the nearer we will come to
some firm conclusions about John. With inductive reasoning, however,
we can never be absolutely sure: our hypotheses may be supported
by the observations, but they are never proven. The only certain
conclusions we can draw are those that may be drawn by assembling
selected observations into a deductive argument.
It may be useful to link the concepts of inductive reasoning
and subtext in one's mind, on the basis that both are merely implied
and are therefore subjective and indefinite.
Logic in Writing
These logical processes are arguably not as important to creative
writers as they are to factual writers (researchers, journalists,
business analysts, etc) whose livelihoods depend on sound reasoning.
Even so, they are extremely useful in plot development, and not
least for developing a single idea into a coherent logical framework.
For example, the first inspiration for a piece of writing might
be a key moment in the life of a character: say the death of a
dominant parent. One can then experiment with deductive and inductive
arguments as a means of defining the conclusions to be drawn.
In deductive terms, one might construct a clear story of the
events leading to the death: abandonment by disaffected offspring,
medical negligence, etc.
Inductive reasoning, meanwhile, might lead to the construction
of a pattern of events whose purpose could be to communicate the
destructive effects of a domineering personality: the ineffectiveness
of the character's efforts to control others, the loss of friends,
the character's internal conflict between the desire to control
and the imperative of being loved, etc.
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