How to Write a Web Work
METHOD
A plot can be represented by a score or diagram.
Character A moves through event n between times t1 and t2
A line or thread represents a character or inanimate object.
Characters are considered active, objects passive. All characters are continuously motivated to act.
Numbered intersections are significant interactions between threads.
Story time moves from left to right.
The vertical axis is used to separate the threads and show their tension with respect to their intersections. The intersections exert deviational force on the momentum of the threads.
Every line must intersect another line at least twice.
Each intersection must result from the previous intersection along all intersecting threads.
PRINCIPLES
A single viewpoint should be maintained.
To build a web work plot, at the beginning, the main character's thread must intersect many threads in quick succession, in order to bring into the story enough threads.
Weaving may take place forward and backward.
Intersections may be revealed through narration as well as reminiscence.
The number of threads decreases over the course of the story.
Drop the least important thread first.
Keep important characters separated until the end.
JARGON & SCHEMATICS
Viewpoint character encounters characters 1,2,3,4,5, with no connection between them
The Row of Bricks plot, in which the character has a series of encounters having no relation to one another.
Quadrangular Plots
One of the simplest models of plot: characters A and B have encounter 1, which motivates both oof them, such that they have encounter 2. 2 must be caused by 1.
Plot Loop: a circuit in which an incident between two threads causes a second incident between two threads. With web-work, it is less instructive to think of your stories as having "plot" than it is to think of them as having "plot loops."
A Simple Plot Loop has two intersections.
Weaving: encounters between threads cause further encounters.
A Compound Plot Loop is a plot loop with more than two encounters.
Deviational: The intersection causes the threads to deviate from their path.
Motiving: Providing the character with traits that will cause them to act.
Motivating: Providing the character with circumstances that will cause them to act.
