Learning Objective: By the end of this post, you will know how to use five key components to create a compelling revenge plot in your own story.
Revenge plots have been on my mind lately because I’m about to start another revision of my option book. As a whole, my novel can be broken down into two main storylines—a love story and a revenge plot. I just received feedback on this book from my agent last week. While working on my revision plan, I’ve realized that breaking down the key components of a revenge plot will help me meet and subvert genre expectations in my next draft. So, let’s get into it.
Revenge stories—as a genre—have withstood the test of time. From the Greek myth of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon to modern day movies like Gladiator and the Kill Bill films, revenge plots have been consistently present across eras and cultures. These stories—no matter what era or culture they’re found in—typically have three traits in common. The first trait is measurable progress. Revenge stories are so compelling because the protagonist’s external goal is deeply rooted in a concrete desire to win, stop, escape, or retrieve something from the antagonist. Since this goal is so concrete, the audience can easily measure the progress the protagonist makes toward their goal. When the audience can easily see how each scene in a story brings the protagonist closer to (or further from!) their long-term goal, the story’s tension becomes taut because we can concretely see the consequences of the protagonist’s success or failure at any given moment.
For example, in revenge stories, the protagonist’s long-term goal is often related to literally or metaphorically killing the Big Bad antagonist. This goal is usually broken down into smaller challenges in which the protagonist must literally or metaphorically kill a minion in order to get closer to the Big Bad. In Blue Eye Samurai1, Mizu’s ultimate goal is to find and kill Abijah Fowler—a white foreigner who is hiding out in Edo-era Japan and responsible for atrocities done to Mizu’s mother. But in order for Mizu to find Abijah, they must first find Heiji Shindo—Abijah’s right hand man—to retrieve information about Abijah’s current whereabouts by any means necessary. While Blue Eye Samurai is a strong example of a literal revenge plot, Mean Girls (2004) is a great example of a metaphorical revenge story. In Mean Girls, Cady’s ultimate goal is to dethrone Regina George from her most-popular-girl-in-school status. But in order for Cady to unseat Regina from her throne, she must first metaphorically kill Regina’s relationships with her best friends, Karen and Gretchen, and her boyfriend, Aaron.
In our subplot lesson, we discussed how effective long-term goals funnel down into concrete short-term goals that must be achieved first in order for the protagonist to fulfill their overarching story goal. Revenge plots are ever-present in storytelling media because their protagonists’s long-term goals effectively funnel down into short-term goals. These clear and concrete short-term goals wrench the story’s tension taut because the audience can easily measure the progress the protagonist is making toward their long-term goals in every single scene.
How to Write a Subplot
Learning Objective: By the end of this post, you will know how to use the Character Goal Funnel to create a subplot in your story.
The second trait that revenge plots share is life-or-death stakes. When we talk about story stakes, we’re talking about the bad thing that happens if the protagonist fails at their goal, be that goal a short-term or long-term pursuit. In our character goals lesson, we highlighted the reasons why effective stakes are literally or metaphorically life or death. When it comes to a traditional revenge plot like Gladiator or Blue Eye Samurai, the stakes are literally life or death. If Maximus fails to kill the emperor, he will die at the hands of the emperor’s soldiers. If Mizu fails to kill Abijah, they will die at the hands of Abijah or one of his minions. Life-or-death stakes can also be social or metaphorical. In Mean Girls, if Cady fails to dethrone Regina, she will die a metaphorical death as a social pariah. When the audience can see (1) the protagonist’s progress toward their goal and (2) the concrete consequence if they fail at this goal, the audience is irrevocably invested in the story, and revenge plots often achieve these two feats with flying colors.
The third and final trait is satisfaction. In the third episode of Blue Eye Samurai, one of Abijah’s henchmen tries to negotiate with Mizu, and Mizu says, “I refuse. I have no interest in money or power. I have no interest in being happy. Only satisfied.” Revenge plots are effective because their audiences immediately understand the four elements of the protagonist’s character goals. This understanding enables the audience to empathize with the protagonist to the point that they are living vicariously through them. When the protagonist succeeds, we as the audience succeed. When the protagonist suffers, we as the audience suffer. Most importantly, when the protagonist is satisfied by getting what they want, we are satisfied. Nearly every person in the world has experienced desperately wanting something and the ups and downs of pursuing that thing. For many people, there have only been a handful of times in their life where they get the thing they wanted and experienced true satisfaction. In general, we watch, read, and listen to stories to undergo a satisfying emotional journey. Revenge plots are timeless across cultures because they offer their audience a vicarious journey that ends with the deep satisfaction the protagonist feels when they finally exact their revenge. This satisfaction is a form of wish fulfillment, and this wish fulfillment is a compelling narrative tool that functions in revenge plots in the same way that it functions in romance novels. At the end of the day, many readers read to have some kind of wish fulfilled through a story’s protagonist.
In addition to these three traits, effective revenge plots also have five key components that keep the pacing tight, the plot compelling, and the character development deep and sympathetic. We’ll be using examples from several stories for this post. Spoilers ahead for the following books, movies, and TV shows:
As always, you know what to do: take what’s useful to you and your writing life and leave what’s not behind.
The Long Road to Publishing Podcast
I’m on the latest episode of
’s podcast. The Long Road to Publishing shares the stories of how writers break into this opaque industry. Most of the time, we hear buzzy stories about the unicorns, writers who sell their debut novels in a week for six-figures. But in actuality, these stories make up a very small percentage of books sold to major publishers.In this episode, I talk about my ten-year journey to getting my debut novel, Good People, published by a Big Five publisher and everything I learned along the way. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen on Spotify here.
The 5 Components of a Revenge Plot
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