20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

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Overview


Give your story a solid foundation - a plot that engages readers from start to finish!

The best stories linger in the hearts and minds of readers for decades. These tales gain their power through plots that connect with the audience on both an emotional and intellectual level.

Inside, Ronald B. Tobias details these 20 time-tested plots. Each is discussed and analyzed, illustrating how a successful plot ...

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20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them

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Overview


Give your story a solid foundation - a plot that engages readers from start to finish!

The best stories linger in the hearts and minds of readers for decades. These tales gain their power through plots that connect with the audience on both an emotional and intellectual level.

Inside, Ronald B. Tobias details these 20 time-tested plots. Each is discussed and analyzed, illustrating how a successful plot integrates all the elements of a story. Tobias then shows you how to use these plots effectively in your own work.

Tobias then goes to the next level, showing you how to choose and develop plot in fiction. He shows you how to craft plot for any subject matter, so that you develop your work evenly and effectively. As a result, your fiction will be more cohesive and convincing, making your story unforgettable for readers everywhere.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781582972398
  • Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
  • Publication date: 1/17/2003
  • Edition number: 2
  • Pages: 240
  • Product dimensions: 6.52 (w) x 9.16 (h) x 0.69 (d)

Meet the Author


Ronald B. Tobias has spent his career as a writer moving from genre to genre, first as a short story writer, then as an author of fiction and nonfiction books and finally as a writer and producer of documentaries for public television. He is currently a professor in the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University and the author of The Insider's Guide to Writing for Screen and Television. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 9 )
Rating Distribution

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(3)

4 Star

(5)

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(1)

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Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews
  • Anonymous

    Posted July 26, 2005

    Plots, the 'How To' Primer

    Plots, the 'how to' primer This is a book for the person who seriously wants to become a paid author. Ronald Tobias took on an incredibly, almost impossible task of distilling down an innumerable number of plots into a manageable twenty. As I came to the end of '20 Master Plots: and how to build them', I realized that Mr. Tobias, as a professional published writer, by taking the tremendous effort to write this book, clearly demonstrated sincere empathy for those new to the business. The challenge facing his left-brain readers, with the logical, linear and sequential cant given our dominate neurons, is that we could be trapped into reading good 'How-To' writing books like this, until old-age Parkinson's or Alzheimer's makes it physically impossible to begin our first effort. This 232 paged, large-font trade paperback, prepares us with five fast-moving explanatory chapters. We then plow into the twenty master plots: beginning with 'Quest' and ending with 'Ascension & Descension', leaving your reviewer-writer pondering if he will ever get a book published. As an actor, I am conditioned to reading plays and scripts and making what we call 'discoveries'. In '20 Master Plots', as I was dragging my eyes over the pages on 'Pursuit', my hi-liters remained in their hip-holsters, and I wondered if I would ever finish the stinking chapter. And later, eagerly reading, then re-reading, 'Master Plot #17: Discovery', where I used fluorescent yellows, pinks and blues to soak the pages, I understood that I would most likely not pound out a book rooted in the 'Pursuit' plot and more likely would become a best-selling author based on the aptly named 'Discovery' plot. Grin . And, likewise, if you should chose to read '20 Master Plots' you will endure slow and boring chapters and delight in fast and fun pages. If you are the type of beginning writer who seeks guidance in the area of plots, this book is certainly all you need.

    2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted December 11, 2006

    WORTH STUDYING

    20 MASTER PLOTS (And How to Build Them), by Ronald B. Tobias, provides an interesting analysis of plot, in general, and then a chapter-by-chapter countdown of twenty specific master-plot scenarios. Whether you believe there are really only one or two basic plots upon which all stories are built, or whether you believe there are an infinite number of plots, 20 MASTER PLOTS is worth studying.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted January 31, 2012

    Great help for understanding plot basics.

    This breaks the most commonn plots down into basic parts and offers some great examples on how each plot works for several major works.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted July 26, 2005

    Plots, the 'how to' primer

    This is a book for the person who seriously wants to become a paid author. Ronald Tobias took on an incredibly, almost impossible task of distilling down an innumerable number of plots into a manageable twenty. As I came to the end of '20 Master Plots: and how to build them', I realized that Mr. Tobias, as a professional published writer, by taking the tremendous effort to write this book, clearly demonstrated sincere empathy for those new to the business. The challenge facing his left-brain readers, with the logical, linear and sequential cant given our dominate neurons, is that we could be trapped into reading good 'How-To' writing books like this, until old-age Parkinson's or Alzheimer's makes it physically impossible to begin our first effort. This 232 paged, large-font trade paperback, prepares us with five fast-moving explanatory chapters. We then plow into the twenty master plots: beginning with 'Quest' and ending with 'Ascension & Descension', leaving your reviewer-writer pondering if he will ever get a book published. As an actor, I am conditioned to reading plays and scripts and making what we call 'discoveries'. In '20 Master Plots', as I was dragging my eyes over the pages on 'Pursuit', my hi-liters remained in their hip-holsters, and I wondered if I would ever finish the stinking chapter. And later, eagerly reading, then re-reading, 'Master Plot #17: Discovery', where I used fluorescent yellows, pinks and blues to soak the pages, I understood that I would most likely not pound out a book rooted in the 'Pursuit' plot and more likely would become a best-selling author based on the aptly named 'Discovery' plot. Grin . And, likewise, if you should chose to read '20 Master Plots' you will endure slow and boring chapters and delight in fast and fun pages. If you are the type of beginning writer who seeks guidance in the area of plots, this book is certainly all you need.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted February 12, 2002

    Absolutely necesary for scriptwriters

    Ever heard that all the stories are already told? Here they are. If you have a good story, you'll surely find its basic structure and the way to improve it here.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted December 30, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 9, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 3, 2009

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 29, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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