What is the difference between a complication/twist and a situation?
I have recently read an article (The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing, chapter 7) concerning plot twists, or complications. It discusses the difference between twists and mere situations. The concept seems clear enough: a situation is an event that occurs, but a complication is how that event influences the character to act. A complication either illuminates, thwarts, or alters what the character wants. All seems well to me.
The author of the article then presents an example, however, that goes as follows:
Ralph's beloved wife is terminally ill. The complication is that she asks him to write her will. (What Ralph wants is to avoid facing the rest of his life alone)
The author says that this is not a complication because it includes no 'point of departure.' But it seems to me that it is a complication, because it thwarts what Ralph wants. It makes him face the fact that he will have to live his life alone. Hence my question:
Am I understanding this wrong? Is there some important difference between situations and complications that I am missing?
An extension of this question may be found here.
1 answer
I think the confusion around this example is because the problem is going to happen no matter what Ralph does, so his actions won't change anything. He will have to face living alone whether he writes the will or not.
Having not read the book, I can only guess that the author is trying to draw a line between things which can be changed and things which can't.
What if instead it read "Ralph's blind wife has fallen in love with another man. The [complication/twist] is that she wants him to write a love letter to her new boyfriend."
The thing being thwarted is "Ralph's love for his wife/Ralph's marriage." The complication is "the love letter." What Ralph could do here is write a bad letter, not write the letter, or write it and then try to win his wife back.
In the example given, Ralph's wife will die no matter what he does. That's why there's no "point of departure."
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