We left last months issue with the crème de la crème of human emotions, vengeance, betrayal, love and hate. They, in my opinion, are the primary emotions that run amuck in all of us. But not far down the list from them are grief and catastrophe. As you see, the words themselves shake us to the core of our bones. It is difficult enough for one story and one plot to incorporate one or two of these emotions but to deal with all of them is truly an accomplishment worth reading about.

Grief is an emotion that is not associated with any other living thing. But no matter how uniquely a human emotion it is, it's an emotion that is not that easily describable. It's an emotion of keen mental suffering, of distress over affliction, loss, sharp sorrow, and painful regret. In its lesser form, but by no means less important state, it is sufferings of disappointment, misfortune, failure, anguish, heartache, woe, misery, sadness, melancholy, and moroseness. You, as a writer, with no effort at all, can garner so many plots from any one of these states of grief! Two together would be a task and more than three would put your reader over the top!

Catastrophe, in and of itself, is a broad category. It is a word descended from the Greek word katastrophe' meaning much the same thing as it does to us, to overturn. Greek writers, who did wonders in their dramas dealing with catastrophe, wove thousands upon thousands of plots with this good friend. You too can weave stories about sudden and widespread disasters, sudden and violent disturbances, sudden cataclysmic calamities, final events and/or conclusions, all of which lead to disastrous ends. An example of which is the book "Gone With the Wind", Margaret Mitchell's American classic. Or, you may opt, in your story, to deal with any one misfortune, mishap, failure or fiasco. Or you may want to incorporate a catastrophe as a part of your overall story using it at some crucial point of your drama where the circumstances overcome the central motive of your theme and begins to introduce the close of conclusion of your plot. Try out any one of these thousands of premises for a story. Someone has to write them!

Speaking of "Gone With the Wind", there is litigation, in Atlanta, Georgia, on behalf of the author's estate, crying copyright infringement. The trustee of the estate is attempting to stop the impending publication of a black writer's version of that classic, "The Wind Done Gone", by Alice Randall. Cynara, a name of a poem from which the phrase "gone with the wind" was taken, is the story's main character; she is an ex-slave who lives on "Tata" and narrates the story from that point of view. The court cannot decide to ban the intended publishing of the book, it can only decide whether Randall's work borrows too heavily from Mitchell's saga of the south during and after the Civil War and therefore offer a decision of copyright infringement.

So, it's all right to borrow, every author does it. The human emotions, the events that affect us as humans and the English language used to express those emotions and events are there for everyone to use. However, extensive borrowing is always what's at issue.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
We thank you once again for your overwhelming responses to this feature. Again part of this article addresses the questions posed in your e-mails. After this series on proven plot motivators, we will look at how you, as an author, will have to learn to utilize the techniques that create the world in which your characters dwell. Contact us on site; http://www.4pointspress.com or direct your email to the Editor.