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Story Ideas and the “Maguffin”
By Deb Gallardo
If you’ve ever wondered why sometimes we care more about what happens to characters in a story than whether or not they win, achieve their goal, etc., then you’ll be interested in this discussion which goes somewhat deeper into writing theory than I usually venture.
Alfred Hitchcock, that master of suspense who loved to appear in cameo roles in his own movies, brought us such thrillers as “The Birds,” “Rear Window,” and that nightmares-about-taking-a-shower classic, “Psycho.” Hitchcock identified the issue that the story characters care about but that the reader or audience does not as “the maguffin.”
Think of the film “The Maltese Falcon.” We never really care one way or the other if this mysterious black bird is found or even if it’s real. What we care about is Humphrey Bogart’s character and whether or not Gutman will kill him or if Bogie will outsmart the bad guys. We may be curious about the falcon, but we care about the characters.
Author and teacher Orson Scott Card says that the real issue in our stories needs to be moral questions to help us understand why people do the things they do and to help us decide how we will choose to act.
He says, “We not only must know how people behave, but how they should behave, and most especially how we should behave; what goodness is, so we’ll know when we’ve achieved it; what nobility is, so we’ll know whom to honor.”
Ultimately it’s the people and how they live and move and treat one another that matter the most to us. The maguffins serve their purpose, but they’re not the focus for our readers or for us as writers. It always must begin and end with people who breathe and bleed and cry and laugh, and who make us laugh and cry right along with them.
Read “The Maguffin.” (opens in new window)
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