1. Plot development is best approached holistically, and if you’re struggling with it, I would recommend trying a plot formula to structure your story. However, these scene ideas can certainly jumpstart a flagging plotline, especially if you’re a pantser.
2. Adventure, action, comedy, a strong plot, little Easter eggs for Valiant fans, and great usage of history make for another must-read from Valiant. This deluxe edition adds additional pages of concept art, story boards with scripts, and variant covers that are standards in DE's, but this series is solid even without the extras and for the price.
3. Pikmin 3 Deluxe Co-Op Mode Explained. Pikmin 3 Deluxe has a story mode that can be played single player or co-op, although co-op is not immediately available to players.

• A Plot Story Deluxe Trailer
• A Plot Story Deluxe 2

A Prayer for Owen Meany Summary. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Plot development is best approached holistically, and if you’re struggling with it, I would recommend trying a plot formula to structure your story. However, these scene ideas can certainly jumpstart a flagging plotline, especially if you’re a pantser.

Today’s post includes excerpts from What’s the Story? Building Blocks for Fiction Writing, chapter two: “Plot.” It’s a book that lays out the fundamentals of creating fictional stories, equipping you with the basic skills necessary for writing stories that engage. Enjoy!

What is a Plot?

A plot is a sequence of related events in a story.

Plot usually centers around the protagonist’s primary goal or challenge, the central story problem. Each event in the story pushes the protagonist toward a climax where they either succeed or fail to resolve the story problem. In a mystery, the challenge might be to solve a crime. In a romance, the goal is to find true love.

As the plot progresses, the stakes get higher and tensions rise. A killer is on the loose. If the detective doesn’t solve the crime fast, the killer will strike again. As the detective closes in, the killer taunts the detective and threatens his family. Then he kidnaps the detective’s daughter. The situation grows increasingly dire, desperate, or dangerous. The story intensifies at every turn.

The climax is the moment in the story where tension reaches its peak and the stakes are maxed out. The climax occurs near the end of the story and is followed by a resolution, which is when the central story problem (main plot) and all subplots are resolved. Getting to the climax isn’t easy for the characters; otherwise, there would be no story to tell. Therefore, the journey is hard on them, causing a lot of suffering. This results in a satisfying payoff at the story’s end.

In a tightly woven plot, all events are necessary and intertwined with the central conflict. Removing any scene or plot point would break the story. Readers lose interest when a story is filled with unnecessary excess: backstory that isn’t relevant to the plot, lengthy exposition about how a gadget works, and pages of description become tedious. Most readers don’t want to drift too far from the plot, get pulled out of the story, or be confused by tangents.

Readers keep turning pages for two reasons: they care about the characters, and they want to find out what happens. When a plot is well crafted, readers will stick around, because they want to see the detective catch the killer, or they want to see the protagonist find love.

Plot Types and Originality

It’s not uncommon for writers to develop a premise, concept, or entire plot only to realize that something similar has already been done. It’s tempting to throw the idea away and search for something more original. In some cases, that might be a smart move. But most of the time, throwing away an “unoriginal” idea is a mistake.

Plots are built around conflict, but there are only a few conflicts to choose from. There is some debate about how many conflicts exist. Some traditions argue for three; others identify four or more. Here’s a list of six:

• Man vs. man
• Man vs. nature
• Man vs. society
• Man vs. self
• Man vs. machine
• Man vs. supernatural

That’s it. The central conflict of every plot is based on one of these conflicts. Examine any story you can think of, and you’ll be able to classify it as one of these six conflicts.

Think of all the books you’ve read and movies you’ve watched. Can you think of any with a plot that doesn’t fit into one of these? Probably not, and that’s why trying to be original is a useless task.

Tips for Devising a Compelling Plot

• Goals and motives. Build a plot around the protagonist’s goals. What does the hero want? What does the antagonist want? What do the other characters want? Why do the characters want these things? Goals and motives are the driving forces behind the characters’ actions and decisions.
• Stakes. Tensions rise and stakes get higher as the plot unfolds. What will the characters gain if they succeed? What will they lose if they fail?
• Momentum. Make sure every scene and chapter move the plot forward in a meaningful way. If a scene can be cut without changing the story, then that scene is unnecessary.
• Plot versus character. Avoid plots that overshadow the characters, and avoid characters who do little more than guide readers through the plot. A good balance of compelling characters and a gripping plot results in the best possible story.
• Originality. Don’t worry about being original. Focus on developing fresh ideas for your story. Use the other elements—characters, setting, and theme—to enrich your plot and make it feel innovative.
• Resolution. When you finish your draft, make a list of the subplots. Are all subplots and the central plot resolved in a satisfactory way? If you’re planning to write a sequel, did you close the main plot but leave a story thread open?
• Plotting and planning. Making a list of your plot points gives you a good overview of your story, which you can quickly review to check for flow, pacing, conflict, and tension.
• Page-turners. Not all stories are page-turners, but if your goal is to keep readers glued to the story, plan plot points that intrigue and entice them.

To learn more about storytelling and plotting, pick up a copy of What’s the Story? Building Blocks for Fiction Writing.

Super Deluxe is a 2019 IndianTamil-language crimeblackcomedy-drama film with elements of science fiction and fantasy. It was co-written, co-produced and directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja. It features Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni, and Ramya Krishnan in leading roles in separate segments while Mysskin, Gayathrie, Ashwanth Ashokkumar, Bagavathi Perumal, and Mirnalini Ravi play supporting roles. P. S. Vinod and Nirav Shah handled the cinematography, while Yuvan Shankar Raja was the music director. Directors Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K. Sekar and Mysskin have written the additional screenplay for this film.^[2]

The film was released in theatres on 29 March 2019 and came out with mixed reviews from audience and positive reviews from critics.^{[citation needed]} Super Deluxe was screened and garnered the 'Equality in Cinema Award' at the 2019 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.^[3][4]It also screened at Fantasia International Film Festival, the largest genre film festival in North America^[5][6]and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.^[7]In 2019, Film Companion ranked Sethupathi and child actor Ashwanth Ashok Kumar's performances in the list of 100 Greatest Performances of the decade.^[8]

Plot[edit]

There are four interwoven stories shown in parallel.

Shilpa's story: Jyothi and her son Rasukutty are awaiting the return of Rasukutty's father Manickam, who abandoned the family seven years ago. To their shock, Manickam arrives from Mumbai as a trans woman named Shilpa. Rasukutty wants to introduce Shilpa to his friends at school. On the way, a bigoted cop detains Shilpa, and she is forced into fellating a corrupt police officer named Berlin. Shilpa faces more harassment and humiliation at the school. Distraught, she buys a ticket to return to Mumbai. On the way home from school Shilpa loses Rasukutty, and seeks help from the police. She meets Berlin again and he starts beating her. Shilpa puts a death curse on Berlin in the traditional style of a hijra and escapes. Eventually, Shilpa finds Rasukutty at home. Rasukutty reveals he knows about Shilpa's intention of abandoning them again, and confronts her emotionally. Shilpa realises that Rasukutty and Jyothi are ready to accept her as she is, and they stay together.

The TV story: Five young men (Gaaji, Soori, Mohan, Vasanth, and Thuyavan) all skip school and gather to watch a porn movie at Thuyavan's home, only to find out that the porn star is Soori's mom Leela. Soori breaks the TV in anger and runs away crying. Thuyavan, afraid of his father finding out about the broken TV, enlists Gaaji and Vasanth into getting enough money for a new TV by the evening. They accept a job from a local gangster, but fail miserably. They try to burgle a local merchant, which fails too. At his home, they are confronted by a girl with magical powers who reveals she is an alien. She duplicates Gaaji, keeping one clone for herself for companionship. The friends get money from her to buy a new TV. They toss out the old broken TV through the broken roof of a disused building, and set off to a movie theater to finally watch a porn movie like they'd originally wanted.

Leela's story: Soori is angrily running towards Leela with a screwdriver upon finding out she was in a porn film, when he trips, falls and stabs himself in the abdomen. A distraught Leela takes him to the hospital, and his father Arputham (formerly known as Dhanasekaran) is informed about the accident. Arputham is a survivor from the 2004 tsunami who believes that he was saved by God in the form of a Jesus statue which he held onto when the tsunami struck, converting to Christianity after the tsunami but currently having a crisis of faith. He subjects Soori to faith healing at his chapel, while Leela strongly prefers modern medicine but struggles to arrange medical expenses. Arputham's crisis of faith was triggered by a conversation with Shilpa earlier, when Shilpa, having lost Rasukutty, confesses her guilt over kidnapping and delivering children to criminal gangs. Arputham states there is no forgiveness for her. Before leaving, Shilpa tells Arputham that she too survived the tsunami by holding onto a rock but didn't attribute divinity to it. Arputham breaks the statue in a rage and finds long-forgotten diamonds inside it, which he uses to pay for Soori's medical expenses. Leela asks him whether he'd still have faith if he'd been saved by clinging onto a teddy bear instead of Jesus. He reflects on that question. Soori reconciles with Leela.

Vaembu and Mugil's story: An unhappily married woman Vaembu impulsively has sex with an old boyfriend while her husband is away, when suddenly the boyfriend dies in bed. Her husband Mugil returns to find his dead body, which they have to hide from inconvenient neighbors. They talk about their dissatisfaction with their marriage. Eventually, they manage to smuggle the corpse out of town but they are caught by Berlin, the same corrupt police officer from Shilpa's story, who blackmails the couple for sexual favors from Vaembu. After inflicting much trauma on them, as he advances towards Vaembu, intending to rape her, the old TV thrown by the boys from earlier falls on his head and kills him. The couple get rid of both the dead bodies, and reconcile with each other.

Epilogue: (The epilogue's voiceover is interwoven with the endings of each of the four stories.) The friends from the TV story finally go to watch a porn movie at the theater. The movie starts with a doctor speaking philosophically about the mysteries of life and patterns through the universe, with everything being interconnected in ways as yet unknown to us. He then says he's going to reveal some of those secrets to the audience now, and winks. The nurse nearby winks and starts to take her clothes off, as the porn movie titles show its name Vaazhvin Ragasiyam ('The Secret of Life').

Cast[edit]

• Vijay Sethupathi as Shilpa (Manickam), a transgender woman who returns home to her wife and son after transitioning
• Fahadh Faasil as Mugil, Vaembu’s husband who is devastated after she cheats on him, but helps her to hide a dead body
• Samantha Akkineni as Vaembu, Mugil’s wife who has sex with her ex-boyfriend, who suddenly dies in bed with her
• Ramya Krishnan as Leela, an actress whose son accidentally injures himself after he finds out his mother’s work in porn industry
• Gayathrie as Jyothi, Shilpa’s wife, who is devastated to find out that her husband is transgender
• Mysskin as Arputham (Dhanasekaran), Leela’s husband and a preacher who relies on faith healing to save his injured son
• Bagavathi Perumal as Berlin, a corrupt sub-inspector who expresses lust for Shilpa and later Vaembu (main antagonist)
• Ashwanth Ashokkumar as Rasukutty
• Ramana as Ramasamy
• Vijay Ram as Balaji (Gaaji)
• Mirnalini Ravi as Seth Girl (Alien)
• Naveen as Soori
• Jayanth as Mohan
• Abdul Jabbar as Thuyavan
• Noble K. James as Vasanth (Mutta Pupps)
• Manushyaputhiran as Sexologist

Production[edit]

In October 2016, director Thiagarajan Kumararaja announced his next film after a gap of five years. The film was initially titled as 'Aneedhi Kadhaikal' with Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil were reported to be featuring in the lead roles. Later, Samantha was signed to play a female lead role.^[9][10]P. C. Sreeram was chosen as the cinematographer while Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the music. Kumararaja also produced the film along with East West Dream Work Entertainment and Alchemy Vision Workz.^[11] Following a series of schedule changes during the filming process, the makers renamed the title as 'Super Deluxe' and cinematographer P. C. Sreeram walked out of the project, and was subsequently replaced by P. S. Vinod. Nirav Shah joined the film as additional cinematographer. Directors Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K. Sekar and Mysskin have written the additional screenplay for this film, with each writing one of them writing a portion of the hyperlink.

After completing the first shooting schedule of Junga, Sethupathi began filming for Super Deluxe. He plays a full-fledged feminine character in the film. A still of his character was released on September 2018.^[12]At first, Ramya Krishnan was approached to play the role of Leela in the film, but due to some problems on the director's side she couldn't continue. So in order to replace her, Nadhiya Moidu was chosen for the role but again due to some problems, Ramya replaced her and was back onboard becoming the second lead of the film after Samantha.

Release[edit]

The film had its theatrical release on 29 March 2019.

Critical reception[edit]

Baradwaj Rangan, in his review of the film for Film Companion, praised the director on how he had concentrated on both the larger structure of the story and also on the minute details. He wrote 'This is an utterly unique film, a brave film. While watching Super Deluxe, I felt what Pauline Kael described in her review of The Godfather Part II: “the exploding effects keep accumulating. About midway, I began to feel that the film was expanding in my head like a soft bullet.” I’ll just say I’ve never seen anything like this in Tamil cinema, with its mix of the sacred and the profane, the epic and the intimate, the earthly and the otherworldly, the pop-cultural and the philosophical. It’s a film you want to view as much with a microscope (zooming in on the details) as a telescope (zooming out to the bigger picture).'^[13] In a later Film Companion segment he also mentioned that he had refrained from watching the film twice, in order to keep the movie “perfect” in his mind and not find flaws.

Srivatsan S, reviewing for The Hindu, wrote 'No other filmmaker has probably romanticized the Tamil cinema universe with pop culture references as much as Kumararaja. In one of the earliest stretch, a character says, “Dai rascal! Enna maranthutiya?” For a moment, it felt as though Kumararaja was asking this question to us: it’s been eight years since he made a film. If Super Deluxe is what you get from a filmmaker who was in exile, then you don't mind waiting a few years from now till he comes up with his next eccentric film.'. M Suganth, in his review of the film for The Times of India, wrote 'There is black comedy, double entendres, swear words, WTF moments, political and social commentary, romance, sentiment and even a musing on what it means to be life on Earth. There is ambition, genius, and also a beating heart.'^[14]

Home video[edit]

The film was made available for video on demand on YouTube.^[15]The film was made available for streaming on Netflix as well.^[16]

Awards and nominations[edit]

A Plot Story Deluxe Trailer

References[edit]

1. ^'SUPER DELUXE'. British Board of Film Classification.
2. ^'Five directors to pen dialogues for Vijay Sethupathi's next'. thenewsminute.com. The NEWS Minute. 5 November 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
3. ^'Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha-starrer Super Deluxe to be screened in Indian Film Festival of Melbourne'. International Business Times. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
4. ^'Vijay Sethupathi, Shah Rukh Khan, Tabu, win top awards at IFFM Awards 2019 - Life and Trendz DailyHunt'. M.dailyhunt.in. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
5. ^'Super Deluxe'. Fantasia Festival. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
6. ^'Super Deluxe selected for Fantasia International Film Festival'. Times of India. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
7. ^'Super Deluxe to be screened at film festival in Korea'. Times of India. 13 June 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
8. ^'100 Greatest Performances of the Decade'. Film Companion. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
9. ^Rangan, Baradwaj (3 December 2016). 'Interview: Thiagarajan Kumararaja'. baradwajrangan.wordpress.com. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
10. ^'PC Sreeram to work in Vijay Sethupathi-Samantha film'. behindwoods.com. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
11. ^'Vijay Sethupathi likely to play the lead in Thiagarajan Kumararaja's next'. behindwoods.com. 24 October 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
12. ^'Vijay Sethupathi in 'Super Deluxe': The problem with male actors portraying trans-women'. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
13. ^'Super Deluxe a lip-smacking combination of 'high' and 'low' art'. 29 March 2019.
14. ^S, Srivatsan (29 March 2019). ''Super Deluxe' review: an unusual film with an assortment of quirky characters'. The Hindu – via www.thehindu.com.
15. ^'Super Deluxe'. Youtube.
16. ^'Super Deluxe'. Netflix. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
17. ^'Andhadhun, Gully Boy lead nominations at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2019'. Firstpost. 17 July 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
18. ^'IFFM Awards 2019 winners: Shah Rukh Khan, Zoya Akhtar, Tabu, Karan Johar and other celebrities win the award'. Times of India. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
19. ^'Nominees for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Asian Film Announced'. Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. 15 October 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
20. ^'Zee Cine Awards Tamil 2020: Dhanush, Aishwarya Rajesh, Nayanthara win big'. Hindustan Times. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
21. ^'Zee Cine Awards Tamil 2020: Dhanush bags Best Actor award, 'Pernabu' wins Best Film'. The News Minute. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
22. ^'Vikatan Awards 2019: Taapsee Pannu wins 'Best Actor' for Game Over, shares surreal moment with Dhanush and Vetrimaaran'. The Statesman. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
23. ^'The prestigious awards of the South-- Vikatan Awards 2019'. India TV. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
24. ^'Edison Awards 2020 nominations'. Edison Awards. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
25. ^'Edison Awards 2020: Vijay, Thala Ajith, Rajinikanth, Chiyaan Vikram Nominated For 'Mass Hero of the Year'; Here's The Complete List of Nominations'. Latestly.com. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
26. ^'Edison Awards 2020 Winners'. Flickstatus. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
27. ^'Review — Super Deluxe'. Film Critics Circle. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.

External links[edit]

• Super Deluxe on IMDb
• Super Deluxe at Rotten Tomatoes
• Super Deluxe at Metacritic

A Plot Story Deluxe 2