Using Generic Incidents to Plot Your Western Novel (or Fiction of Any Other Genre): Part 2

Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman

In Part 1 of this series, I explained how I strip the particular incidents of a plots to the bone, transforming them into generic expressions of action similar to the narrative motifs, or functions or dramatic personae, identified by Vladimir Propp in Morphology of the Folktale.

By doing so, I have developed a good size list of the types of incidents (and, indeed, their relationships to one another) that typically occur in Western movies (or novels).

The same technique, of course, can be applied to any other genre as well, providing similar indices of motifs for any type of fiction from action-adventure thrillers to science fiction or young adult novels.

In addition to the generic incidents I compiled on the basis of James L. Neibaur's summary of A Fistful of Dollars, I added additional generic incidents his summaries of other plots of Clint Eastwood's Westerns.

Neibaur's summary of A Fistful of Dollars (1964) disclose these generic incidents:

• The hero proves his worth.
• The hero is hired to join a gang.
• The hero plays two rival gangs against one another.
• While the gangs fight each other, the hero seeks to benefit himself at their expense.
• The hero commits an act that makes him somewhat sympathetic but does not make him less mysterious.
• To avenge and protect his injured friends or supporters, the hero tricks the villain and kills him.

These generic incidents are based on Neibaur's summary of A Few Dollars More.

• A hero's rival acts.
• A hero acts.
• A hero's rival acts again.
• A hero's rival and a hero exhibit their respective skills, trying to intimidate one another, but, instead, impress each other and join forces against a common enemy.
• To carry out their plan, a hero's rival and a hero split up.
• The plan of a hero's rival and a hero's unites them after they earlier separated.
• A hero's rival and a hero attempt to double cross a villain, but they are discovered and captured.
• A hero's rival and a hero are released by a member of a villain's gang so the gang can hunt them down and kill them.
• A villain plans to double cross his gang, but a member of the gang figures out the villain's plan and partners with the villain.
• A hero's rival and a hero kill off a gang, one by one.
• A villain gains the upper hand against a hero's rival.
• A hero intervenes, restoring the balance of power between a hero's rival and a villain.
• A hero's rival kills a villain.
• A hero's rival reveals a secret, telling a hero what motivated the rival to hunt down and kill a villain.
• A hero's rival rewards a hero.
• A hero eliminates a final threat.
  
  
  
  

These generic incidents are derived from Neibaur's summary of Hang 'Em High.

• An innocent man runs afoul of the law.
• An innocent man is punished.
• A lawman rescues an innocent man, but takes him into custody and presents him to a judge.
• An innocent man is found to be innocent.
• An innocent man receives the means to avenge himself.
• An innocent man kills one of the men who unfairly punished him.
• An innocent man receives information about his other persecutors' whereabouts.
• An innocent man arrests a second persecutor.
• An innocent man teams up with a sheriff.
• An innocent man and a sheriff arrest three more of the innocent man's persecutors.
• An innocent man defends two of his persecutors in court, because they had no part in punishing him, but to no avail; they are sentenced to be executed.
• An innocent man is paid money that is due to him.
• Two of the innocent man's persecutors flee, but three others conspire to kill the innocent man who now also hunts them.
• Three men ambush and attack an innocent man.
• Injured, an innocent man survives; he is nursed back to health by a woman for whom he develops feelings.
• An innocent man shoots it out with two men who attacked him earlier, killing them; the third attacker kills himself.
• An innocent man rides out of town, seeking the two remaining men who persecuted him.

These generic incidents are extracted from Neibaur's plot summary of Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970):

• A villain is violent toward an innocent woman.
• In an unexpected way, a hero responds to a violent act against an innocent woman.
• A villain flees; a hero shoots him.
• Both a female victim of violence and a hero support a revolutionary force or cause.
• A female victim of violence poses as a person different from herself, a pose which alters a hero's behavior.
• A hero is attracted to a female victim of violence posing as someone other than herself.
• A hero acts in such a way as to protect and impress a female victim of violence posing as someone else.
• A hero is wounded as he supports a revolutionary cause.
• A female victim of violence follows a hero's instructions, removing a bullet from the wounded hero.
• A female victim of violence posing as someone else discloses her true identity.
• A hero fights alongside a revolutionary force.
• A hero is rewarded.
• A hero and female a victim of violence ride off together.
  
  
  
  

These generic incidents make up the plot structure of Joe Kidd (1972):

• A young man is in jail with two older Mexican men who disparage him.
• A jailed young man assaults one of the two heckling Mexican men who share his jail cell.
• A judge fines a young man for poaching; when the young man is unable to pay the fine, he is jailed for several days.
• Several Mexican men storm a courtroom, holding the judge at gunpoint while they complain that their land has been stolen, but their proof has been destroyed.
• A young man helps a judge to escape from men who hold him hostage in his own courtroom.
• A wealthy landowner forms a posse to capture the leader of a group of Mexican men.
• A Mexican leader bails a young man out of jail and invites him to join his band, but the young man declines.
• After a Mexican leader raids a young man's ranch, he joins a wealthy landowner's posse.
• When a wealthy landowner holds Mexican villagers hostage until a Mexican leader surrenders himself, a young man who just joined the landowner's posse saves the hostages and leaves the posse to capture the Mexican leader by himself.
• A young man returns to town with a captured Mexican fugitive, only to find a wealthy landowner and his posse waiting to kill his captive.
• A young man kills the members of a corrupt posse.
• In a one-on-one duel, a young man kills a wealthy landowner who led a corrupt posse.

These generic incidents are extracted from Neibaur's summary of The Outlaw Josie Wales (1976):

• A man's family is murdered.
• A man seeks revenge.
• A man joins a group of other men.
• A man kills to protect a group of which he is a member.
• A man teams up with one of the survivors of a group of which he was a member.
• A man seeks vengeance by himself.
• A reward is put on a man's head; bounty hunters pursue him.
• A man gathers a diverse group of people.
• A group overpowers an adversarial group.
• A man attacks another man.
• A man attacking another man is himself killed with his own weapon.
• A man rescues a woman from a gang of would-be rapists.
• A man rescues women from a physical attack by a group.
• A man passes on the chance to fight his chief adversary after the adversary has been seriously wounded.

In listing these generic incidents, I separated them by movie to show how such incidents have been structured to generate plots for complete stories (i. e., films). However, there's no reason generic incidents cannot be mixed and matched, as long as doing so doesn't disrupt or destroy the narrative continuity of the selected incidents.

These generic incidents are derived from Neibaur's summary of Unforgiven (1992):

• Men commit a despicable act against a woman.
• A sheriff is lenient in dealing with men who commit a despicable act against a woman.
• A reward is offered for killing men who commit a despicable act against a woman.
• A young man plans to collect a reward offered for killing two men who committed a despicable act against a woman.
• A young man seeks to recruit an older man to help him to kill two men for whom a reward is offered.
• An old man, having no interest in helping a young man kill two wanted men for half the reward offered for their deaths, refuses to partner with the young man.
• An old man who'd refused to partner with a younger man changes his mind and agrees to help him track and kill two wanted men in exchange for half the reward for their deaths.
• A sheriff and his deputies beat an old man and throw him out of a business establishment.
• A young man and an old man's former partner nurse the old man back to health after he has been brutally beaten.
• A group of men find one of the wanted men they are hunting.
• A group of men ambush another group of men, killing one of the latter's members.
• A young man finds the second of two wanted men whom he and his partner are hunting, and he kills their quarry.
• A young man and his older partner escape the wrath of a group of men, one of whose members he young man earlier killed.
• Distraught over having killed a man, a young man dissolves his partnership with an older man and leaves.
• An old man learns that his former partner was killed and that his former partner's corpse is on display in a coffin on a town street.
• An old man instructs his former partner, a young man, to deliver his original (past) partner's share of a reward to his widow and to deliver the old man's own share to his children.
• An old man avenges his murdered former partner.
• As a sheriff forms a posse, an old man kills the sheriff's recruits.
• An old man kills a sheriff.
• An old man returns to his children.
• Having been paid his share of a reward, an old man relocates to a new part of the country, where better opportunities await him.

In listing these generic incidents, I separated them by movie to show how such incidents have been structured to generate plots for complete stories (i. e., films). However, there's no reason generic incidents cannot be mixed and matched, as long as doing so doesn't disrupt or destroy the narrative continuity of the selected incidents.