simplest genre to write for 'plot line' / 'story'?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
Which genre would you say is the easiest (relatively speaking) for crafting a logically connected plot chain and 'story'? For example, mystery would seem to be one of the more difficult genres to craft, perhaps supernatural thriller too given that that involves mystery. Slasher horror? Action? Rescue? Other?
 
If the *only* requirement is "logically connected plot chain", then romcom.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy get girl back - Mark
 
Yes, romance (romcom or not) has the clearest overall structure. But a traditional mystery is also quite clear - the mysterious thing happens, and is slowly deducted/unravelled/investigated through the story. In both cases, success depends on what you can do within the structure to make it entetaining and fresh.
 
I'm not sure one genre is that much easier than the other, and I actually think romantic comedies are deceptively hard, but the one type of story that I think is the easiest to hook an audience with and plot out is what I call 'regular joe stuck in an extraordinarily crappy situation'. By extraordinarily crappy situation I mean like 'there's a bomb on a bus' (Speed), or 'terrorists takes over a building' (Die Hard), or 'guy mistaken for a secret agent' (North by Northwest). Once you figure out the situation, the plot is just getting him into that tree and throwing rocks at him until the situation resolves itself. These stories always generate a certain level of audience involvement, even when badly done, just because you gotta find out how the poor shmuck gets out of it.
 
beware the easy

beware the easy

its been said romcoms are actually the hardest genre to write cause the girl is simultaneously the problem, the goal, and the "buddy" character- the person you talk about the problem and the goal with.

Batutas right in that the easiest way to write a story is to give your character a problem , and then let the problem get progressively more worse/troublesome.

But thats the way I look at -all- stories. find it the simplest, most nut-and-bolts useful way.

As far as genre, horror movies would be my choice, what blake snyder called the "monster in a maze" story- get someone(s) stuck in an environment, throw a monster (problem) in.

you need:

clever monster: like Freddy. Claws, burnt face...haunts your dreams.
clever maze: your dreams-you gotta sleep, right? (wow that IS clever. Wes Craven rocks)

ok, maybe you wont do that well your first time around...

ok, another example:

clever monster: Alien that impregnates you, designed by innovative surrealist artist HR Geiger
clever maze: A spaceship- the characters are basically regular-joe space truckers.

wow, that's kinda hard to top too.

hmmm.....

wow...maybe writing is never THAT easy....

Go for it....

;)



If it makes you feel any better, look up "Fear Of Clowns"- that guy got distribution from Lions Gate based on his teaser trailer, which simply featured a monster that kids really wanted to see....

and Jaws is just a shark.


PS: you can start with something simple "A killer in the woods", then add and tweak details until some thing original emerges: No country for old men had the most cliche crime movie idea in the world- the old "bag o money" thing, but the details made it rich (air compressor weapon thingy, bad guy chased by a badder guy, great dialog, etc)
 
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memento515 said:
Batutas right in that the easiest way to write a story is to give your character a problem , and then let the problem get progressively more worse/troublesome.

But thats the way I look at -all- stories.
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It's true that all stories are more or less variations on this, and I thought then when I was posting, but stories where the problem is very immediate and life threatening, and needs resolution in a short period of time tend to grab audiences more quickly.
 
I think it's probably a bad idea to think of any genre as "easy." Telling any story well is a lot of work, and thinking something is "easy" often means you're cheaping out.
 
I think it depends on what simple and easy is defined as.

Example, if you refer to simple and easy as the easiest to get the audience to be emotionally involved in the story, then I think thriller/horror is the easiest in that the story just needs to shock, awe or mind **** you with Chekhov's gun over and over.

I'm not saying it's easy to write for horror, it reckon it does bring in a slew of other issues like being too over saturated already in the market and trying to be different to avoid cliches but yet not overly unrealistic at the same time. But compared to something like rom-com, it's just easier to get someone to **** in their pants than to shed a tear. Again, it's all about emotional investment- i think.
 
First, I hope no one took my previous post to mean that I think romcoms are easy to write.

Second...

Batutta said:
Once you figure out the situation, the plot is just getting him into that tree and throwing rocks at him until the situation resolves itself.
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"the situation resolves itself" sounds a little Deus ex Machina to me.

Mark
 
David Jimerson said:
I think it's probably a bad idea to think of any genre as "easy." Telling any story well is a lot of work, and thinking something is "easy" often means you're cheaping out.
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That is why I clarified in a parenthetical in my OP "relatively easy", not easy. Not asking about any genre as easy, they are all hard to craft stories for, but I am wondering if you all think certain genres are relatively easier to write than others.
 
"I once asked this literary agent what writing paid the best, and he said 'ransom notes'." -Get Shorty

Simplest genre?

What kind of question is that?

Naked teens hunted by psycho with knife. There you go. Have fun with that.
 
"polfilmblog
"I once asked this literary agent what writing paid the best, and he said 'ransom notes'." -Get Shorty

Simplest genre?

What kind of question is that?

Naked teens hunted by psycho with knife. There you go. Have fun with that."


---

this dudes right- btw- id add that if youre hunting for the "easiest genre" your probably at a stage in your abilities where youre not going to pull something worthwhile off anyway.

writing is a skill taht people study and practice and fight hard for years for (I did), there's no easy ways out of anything.

my screenwriting books are covered with highlighter and notes scribbled in the margins, post it notes marking important sections. I would HUNT for the best books.

I also read books on playwriting and fiction writing.

I have a "cheat sheet" of techniques I woudl review and scribble notes on and update.

I also have a stack of index cards wit notes that Id flip through while watching movies.

and of course I wrote and wrote

success formula= decide what you want. pay the price.










​
 
Batutta said:
That's hilarious about Lazarus...please, go into that here. ....
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I don't care to risk a libel suit so I had best keep my opinions to myself; let's just say I did not click with his mentoring style (which might be great for other writers, just not me, so I am not meaning to bash him as a mentor/teacher, he is obviously talented). Here is an interview that goes into his lateral movie in the industry to adult film--
http://www.sreviews.com/interviews/tom-lazarus/
I have generally had good experiences with the six or so UCLA writers extension online courses I have taken, this was an exception. I loved my UCLA course on writing better dialogue taught by Karl Iglesias, and several courses I took taught by Scott Myers (K-9, Alaska, Trojan Wars [Jennifer Love Hewitt])-- Scott's blog site (GITS -- Go Into The Story) is also great for any screenwriters looking for daily doses of sw how to (Scott usually posts daily if not more!).
R
 
I'd say that the horror genre is quite simple to write for while maximizing effect. The reason being is that the antagonist, especially if supernatural, doesn't really need to be developed beyond a consistent modus operandi. In fact many of the scariest horror films I've seen never fully explain or even show antagonist. It's because in supernatural horror films the real conflict is in the confrontation of the human fear of death, which is mysterious and unknowable to us.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I don't care to risk a libel suit so I had best keep my opinions to myself; let's just say I did not click with his mentoring style (which might be great for other writers, just not me, so I am not meaning to bash him as a mentor/teacher, he is obviously talented). Here is an interview that goes into his lateral movie in the industry to adult film--
http://www.sreviews.com/interviews/tom-lazarus/
I have generally had good experiences with the six or so UCLA writers extension online courses I have taken, this was an exception. I loved my UCLA course on writing better dialogue taught by Karl Iglesias, and several courses I took taught by Scott Myers (K-9, Alaska, Trojan Wars [Jennifer Love Hewitt])-- Scott's blog site (GITS -- Go Into The Story) is also great for any screenwriters looking for daily doses of sw how to (Scott usually posts daily if not more!).
R
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Interesting interview. At least he's doing what he wants to be doing.
 
BitMaestro said:
If the *only* requirement is "logically connected plot chain", then romcom.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy get girl back - Mark
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lol, I even cut out the first one of those. In my story, they're already together, but it's a lot more about another story element as well so it's not quite so simplistic.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Which genre would you say is the easiest (relatively speaking) for crafting a logically connected plot chain and 'story'? For example, mystery would seem to be one of the more difficult genres to craft, perhaps supernatural thriller too given that that involves mystery. Slasher horror? Action? Rescue? Other?
Click to expand...

The original post of this thread is really bizarre to me. How do you connect 'genre' to ease of story?
Isn't this a very subjective and personal thing for the writer?

Or did you mean to write - what genre is it easiest to make your money back on?
 
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