I just finished watching the Hulu TV series, Reprisal, and I was so annoyed!!! The show was interesting enough to keep me watching 10 episodes. But I couldn’t stop fussing with how nothing was ever explained!
“What do you mean, nothing was explained?” Asked my boyfriend.
“Why?” I replied. “Why did they do what they did to Katherine Harlow? Why exactly was revenge important to her after all these years?”
“Because of what they did. And they did what they did because they were afraid she would tell. It doesn’t need to have a bigger reason than that,” he replied.
Oh, except it does. He was talking to a writer here. Nothing leaves me more unsatisfied than getting to the end of a story and asking myself: So what was the point of all this?
So if you have been wondering what is the difference between Story and Plot, that is your difference. Story explains the point of the plot.
PLOT
A bunch of things happening for exterior reasons. The plot tells you what is happening. The events in your book.
- In Reprisal, Katherine arrives and sees that her brother has killed a bunch of men and yells he didn’t have to do that.
- Now they know and there’s a big chance she will tell. So they (including her own husband) chain her up and drag her through the road on the back of a truck. They leave her for dead..
- She comes back years later and starts to take on her revenge.
- There is a series of events and stuff happening. People kill each other, have a lot of fights, there is a lot of blood and dramatic music.
WHY? Who knows?!
Why did the brother kill those men? I think he wanted war, not sure. Why did he want war? Who knows, who cares?
Why did the brother drag her through the road with a truck? “Because she deserved better than a shotgun to the head.” What does that mean? She deserved worst because she was awful? We know nothing about their relationship. She deserved it because a shotgun is too common? Who could say? We know nothing about their relationship.
Why did the husband agree? “Because the brother filled his head with ideas of family and big things we were going to do.” What are those big things? What ideas of family? Isn’t your wife your family? What led the husband to betray his wife? We know nothing about their relationship.
Why are the other characters there? So that more events can happen.
Don’t get me wrong, plot is extremely important to the storyline. It moves your character forward. You don’t want them to be a big pile of sad melancholy like Edward in Midnight Sun (sorry Midnight Sun lovers).
But nothing makes me feel more cheated than when something happens and I think “Oh, I see what you did there. You just wrote that in to serve your plot!” Readers may not think like writers but they read more than one book. They know when they are being cheated.
When you have moments like when your bike doesn’t work for months but suddenly you really need it. So you just see a cable and attach it, now it works? PLOT!
You killed someone and left the room full of blood everywhere. Instead of leaving the motel, you move to the room next door but no one comes asking questions or clean the room? Because… PLOT!
Your readers may start to roll their eyes and say “really?”
STORY
I only really understood the answer to this question after reading Story Genius by Lisa Cron. In her words:
“Story is about internal struggle, not an external one. It’s about what the protagonist has to learn, to overcome, to deal with internally in order to solve the problem that the external plot poses.”
In sum, it’s about the message you want to convey to the reader. The reason. The why things happen in your story.
Reprisal could be a good tv show if they explored the messed-up views of family in gangs. The ideals of loyalty and other things mobsters value. But it did nothing of the sort.
I read an article where one of the actors compared the show to Kill Bill. I mean, I can see it but… really? At least in Kill Bill I knew why!
- It was pretty obvious that the character was struggling with her life as an assassin. She wanted to settle down and have a family, especially since she was pregnant. Her internal struggle was one of love, wanting to build a peaceful and loving family away from the gore she had lived.
- And BANG BANG. Bill came and took that away from her. Why did he take that away? You can bet will find out if you see the movie.
- Why does she want revenge? Because Bill took away the opportunity, she had to achieve her greatest desire!
- And that epic climax at the end of the last movie? When we get all the answers we were dying for? It’s just awesome!
So that’s what story does for you. It makes the reader’s brain go BOOM when they finally get to the satisfaction of learning the answer. Sure killing the bad guy is always awesome but the BIG REVEAL? It doesn’t compare.
So you have two choices:
- Not explaining what happens in your story and just have a bunch of things happen. Get a few fans but many disappointed readers with an anticlimactic end.
- Create complex characters and desires, and stories within stories. Make us go “Ah, so that’s why this happens…” And watch people fall in love with your books.
I understand that Reprisal probably wanted to milk the cow and go for a second season (it’s no wonder they didn’t). You don’t kill off characters before we get the chance to understand why they deserve to die.
Now, if you excuse me I’m gonna call Hollywood and let them know I’m a writer and I’m available. I can definitely do a better job at explaining why the TV show wasn’t working.
