The Crucible

Sol Stein says in 'On Writing'....

‘For plotting an entire work, I especially like the use of a crucible. In ordinary parlance a crucible refers to a vessel in which different ingredients are melded in white hot heat. The word has come to mean a severe test, which leads us to its use in plotting fiction, the container that holds the characters together as things heat up.

Characters caught in a crucible won’t declare a truce or quit. They’re at it till the end. The key to the crucible is that the motivation of the characters to continue opposing each other is greater than their motivation to run away. Or they can’t run away because they are in a prison cell, a lifeboat, an army, or a family.’

I’ve had this quote for many years in a file I call ‘Wisdom’ written by the excellent Sol Stein. It’s a brilliant bit of advice. Without a crucible - without something that holds the characters in opposition to one another, that keeps them coming back for more, that keeps them in the fight, then it’s difficult to have the conflict necessary to propel your story to the end. So for example, a woman may be tied to an abusive but hardworking husband by an invisible crucible, say four children and no money. That will keep her, at least temporarily, at home with him, suffering his abuse but feeding the kids and the story or plot might be how she finds the strength, money and means to leave. If she has the means, strength and support to just take the kids, rent a new house and call the police then your reader will ask ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ and you have immediately diluted the conflict necessary to keep the reader invested. The reader must understand the ties that bind her to the man, emotionally, socially and physically, why she remains in the crucible with him.

Another crucible might be an island and your hero is trapped there with no way of leaving despite dangers from islanders, environment or animals. Or two characters might be locked in a battle over who is going to find the gold, the ring, the formula, the secret potion. Whoever wins the race, wins the prize, the money, life itself.

Or, as in the example above, in this still from the film ‘The Defiant Ones’ (1958) two convicts played by Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are chained together. Both men escape a brutal prison regime and spend the film evading dogs, men, guns, capture, death. One white racist, one desperate black man. One great film.

When trying to plot fiction and ensure you have heightened conflict, make sure you have a credible crucible and a credible reason for the protagonist and the antagonist to remain in it.

What crucibles have you used in your work?