6 Degrees of Escalation

This is the middle of three posts that pretty much cover my current thinking on narrative structure. I don’t claim to be an expert – I challenge anyone to screw up the middle of a story quite as well as I can – and this stuff isn’t new. Nevertheless, it’s the combination of maybe five or six books on the matter as well as countless balls-ups and rewrites, and as such, I might a least save you a bit of time.

You'll need a copy of Sam Raimi's movie A Simple Plan.

OK. Part Two. Once you’re through gate 1, there’s no turning back, remember. Usually this gate is psychological. It is in A Simple Plan; it’s murder and the associated guilt that comes with it.

Philip Larkin once quipped that most stories have three things; a beginning, a muddle and an end. He’s got a point. Act two is hard. I started to get better at this when I listened to Writing Excuses, which is a really useful podcast on the craft of storytelling. Hosts Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal use the word escalation to discuss act two. “Act two is a series of try-fail cycles…” they say; the protagonists try but fail to achieve their goal, and with each attempt and failure, the stakes are further escalated. (See also the ‘Yes-But, No-And’ model for further details on try-fail cycles.)

If you’re up for it, stick A Simple Plan on again kicking off, remember, at gate 1 which is 33:00. Spoilers coming up. There are at least six degrees of escalation in Raimi’s act two. I’m doing this from memory, folks, but my seven go something like this:

• Hank is forced to admit his role in the murder to his brother Jacob – something he would have preferred to keep to himself. We know Jacob isn’t the soul of discretion.
• The local media report the story of the snowmobile accident – now everyone knows the local farmer dude is dead, and if an alternative version of events emerges it will be clear the accident was a cover-up.
• Jacob announces his intention to buy back his parents’ farm with his share of the money and stay in the locality, rather than follow the plan which was to leave town.
• Sarah discovers the origin of the money. Raimi lingers on the newspaper article which clearly shows two men. We know there was only one in the plane.
• Jacob’s drunken pal Lou arrives at Hank’s house asking for his share of the money, and threatens him.
• Hank and Sarah’s baby is born – now there is more to protect and fight for. Hank forces Jacob to ‘choose a side’.
• Sarah suggests they try and trap Lou into making a false confession; the tentative and uneasy team established in act one has collapsed as the brothers head out to execute this plan.

You’re looking for a point of complete crisis next. It must be three or four times the enormity of the gate 1 crisis, and must be followed by gate 2 – another turnstile, this time a decision, choice or action which makes the remainder of the story inevitable.

The crisis is easy here – it comes at about 1:15:00. Gate 2 - in my opinion - is the arrival of a character. I'll finish up tomorrow in the next post.

---