TheWritersBag.com

Experts say there are only 20 or so master plots – that every story in the world is simply a variation of one of these plots.

I’m not sure that’s right in every case. I’ve read some fairly bizarre stories that seem to be wholly unique. But the principle is true. I think it would be safe to say that most stories derive from one or more of the age-old master plots. The fact is, certain stories show up again and again over the millennia and were around long before mankind ever wrote a word.

If you’re looking for a story to write, you’ll find a treasure trove of plot lines in those weird little stories you heard growing up: fairy tales. Thumb through The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm or The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales . (Great authors, playwrights and script writers have been finding inspiration and ideas in these stories for a very long time.) If you don’t find dozens of wonderful mythical themes and story lines to play with in the pages of these and other fairy tale tomes, you’d better check the vital signs of your imagination.

One last note: Fairy tales can be downright terrifying. I’m surprised some of them haven’t been labeled “For Adults Only” – especially the ones about mothers selling their children to wicked witches, parents trying to lose their children in the forest because they don’t have enough food to share with them, little girls being accosted by dirty old wolves … and that’s just scratching the surface.

In short, fairy tales are not for pansies.

I loved the submissions for last week’s Word Shot, few though they were. (Check out what Tombo wrote. It should make you laugh out loud. Glanda’s might startle you with a O’Henry-like twist at the end, and Tim’s is a pleasure to read. Good for all of you!) You can read these comments here.

Okay – on to yet another Word Shot … another opportunity to give your writing skills and imagination a good workout. Here’s the image:

As you probably know by now, here’s what you do: Look at the photo (really look at it), then think about it, then write down what comes to your mind. Submit that as a comment to this post. You can submit anything from a single word to a full story. And if you participate in 10 Word Shots, I’ll e-mail you my three e-manuals on writing.

Though there are no rules to this, here’s a tip: Ask yourself obvious questions, then answer them in non-obvious ways. For example, obvious questions for this photo would be, “Why are these people lined up? What are they waiting for?” Obvious answers might include, “They’re lined up to sign up for a race, or to buy tickets to an event or ride in the park.”

Those are boring answers. Stretch your imagination as come up with answers that are not obvious. For example, your answer might be that these young people are waiting to board a time-travel module because each desperately needs to escape a particular problem in his or her life. Such an answer could be the premise of an entire book.

Take a shot at this one. What can you come up with? Even if it’s just a word or a phrase, we’d all like to hear from you.

Only one of the following sentences is correct. Which?

1. I decided not to go to the inauguration; it would be incredibly crowded; with the rest of the committee.
2. I decided not to go to the inauguration (It would be incredibly crowded.) with the rest of the committee.
3. I decided not to go to the inauguration – it would be incredibly crowded – with the rest of the committee.
4. I decided not to go to the inauguration (it would be incredibly crowded) with the rest of the committee.
5. I decided not to go to the inauguration, it would be incredibly crowded; with the rest of the committee.
6. I decided not to go to the inauguration, it would be incredibly crowded, with the rest of the committee.

If you chose sentence #2, you were … close. Sentence #2 is not correct. But it comes closer to being correct than the other four incorrect sentences. Sentence #1 is flawed as well. So are sentences #3 and #5. Sentence #6 is wrong, too. (What I’m doing here is giving you the run-around, because if, after listing the six sentences, I were to come right out and say sentence #4 is the correct choice, that would take all the fun out of it. But there you have it. Sentence #4 is the winner.)

But why?

The reason is simple: The others are incorrect. Sentences #1, #5 and #6 make a valiant effort to push commas and semicolons to do what they cannot. Sentence number three – the one with the dashes – comes closer to acceptability, but not nearly close enough. Using dashes to embed a complete sentence within another sentence is tricky (if not dangerous) business, and should never be attempted at home.

Sentences #2 and #4 are essentially the same, except that the embedded sentence in #2 goes obnoxiously far in trying to make itself look like a sentence. My grandmother used to say that if a complete sentence is cowardly enough to try to hide inside another sentence, it doesn’t deserve to take its beginning capitalization and ending punctuation with it. In short, it should be stripped of its sentence-ness.

That’s why sentence #2 is not correct. Its embedded sentence has ostentatiously clung to its first capital letter and ending period. Yes, it made the right choice in pulling parentheses around it – rather than commas, semicolons and dashes – but that doesn’t excuse it from the other infractions.

So the next time you’re sitting around embedding complete sentences inside other sentences (some enthusiasts do this every Friday night) remember the rule: Don’t capitalize the embedded sentence, and don’t use the ending punctuation. If you follow these rules, you will live a long and happy life.