1. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    McGuffin

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Bakkerbaard, May 11, 2021.

    I was just sitting and staring at nothing for a bit and my mind wandered in the wrong direction. Now I have questions about McGuffins.
    I understand they are a device to drive the story forward, but I kinda thought that was the plot's job. I'm afraid I'll need this explained like I'm a six-year old.

    1. If I were to use a ball of socks to have my character travel to a place where he'll find someone that sends him on the next leg of his mission, is the ball of socks then the McGuffin? And why is the mission giver not a McGuffin?

    2. Are McGuffins a thing in writing, or are they mainly a movie-thing?

    3. If they are a thing in writing, how are they viewed? Like when a song has a fade-out instead of a proper ending. That's the cheap way out, I think. Does the same go for a McGuffin?

    I might have more questions, but I've reached my weekly limit on writing "McGuffin".
     
  2. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I don't know how much you know, so forgive me if I over explain.

    McGuffin is a word made up by Hitchcock for a plot device people are fighting over. It's not important exactly what the object is, it could be a Maltese Falcon, the briefcase in Pulp Fiction with an unseen glowing something inside, or a ball of socks. It's just something used to advance the plot conveniently, like you said. What it actually is is unimportant, meaning you could substitute something else and make it the sought-after item everybody is clamoring after and the story doesn't change.
     
  3. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I'll try to address your questions.

    1. How would a ball of socks cause a person to travel somewhere? Are they royal socks, or Elvis' socks? Or are socks extremely valuable in the village maybe? A McGuffin needs to be an extremely valuable or important object that everyone wants or is after or some characters might want to destroy it. But at any rate, it's the center of the whole kerfuffle.

    2. Both

    3. I don't know that I'd say a McGuffin is a 'cheap way out'. More like a necessary thing that didn't have a name, so Hitch made one up. It's a thing of great importance to the story and the people in it, but it's interchangeable from one story to another. It might be a golden Faberge egg in one story and in another it might be a stolen gun used in a murder that the detectives are looking for and the murderer wants to try to hide it and somebody else thinks he can get rich if he turns it over to the police, and maybe some kid found it and thinks it's the coolest thing in the world and he's taking it to the clubhouse to show to his friends (or something, my brain is tired).
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2021
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  4. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    A person can be a McGuffin, but only if everybody else is after that person for reasons of their own. The mission-giver in your above statement doesn't seem to fit this role. But I won't try to explain this any further, hopefully from what I've already written you understand now. And my brain is tired.
     
  5. Not the Territory

    Not the Territory Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    1. If he does anything to try and get the ball of socks, and other people compete for that ball of socks, and the ball's only contribution to the story is that people want it, it's probably a macguffin.
    2. They're featured in all forms story-telling media.
    3. They're not inherently bad, and by a strict definition way more common than most people realize. Mediocre quality causes the term to get thrown around in the pejorative sense. This happens with all of the other writing tools as well (which results in grifters publishing those rules we see in top ten 'how to write' lists).

    In my eyes, a macguffin has almost no bearing on the content/themes of the story, or at best it's sometimes a fetish of greed or desperation. It's just there to spawn conflict and bring out the best/worst of your cast. I would only feel self-conscious about having one if its place in the world felt tacked on. Raiders of the Lost Ark walked that line right up until the climax IMO.

    Edit: Tv Tropes has a good take & some history: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2021
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  6. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    No worries. I thought I knew more than I did, I've discovered by your hand.

    You've mentioned already. Maybe because your brain is tired. ;o)

    Alright, so my ball of socks (because I wasn't being hypothetical) isn't a McGuffin. I don't think I've actually knowingly used one yet.
    Thanx for the info!
     
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  7. hyacinthe

    hyacinthe Banned

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    i love a good MacGuffin. great device. your ball of socks is not a MacGuffin, unless the story is about how everyone in the story wants your ball of socks and they're willing to do a lot to get it.
     
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  8. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    There's a book I love by an author I love, but because spoilers I'm not going to identify either. The MC is chasing after proof of some information that everyone strongly suspects is true, but will have no real bearing on the large-scale conflict ongoing. Searching for the proof pulls the MC across her known world, connects her back to events in her past that she didn't know the significance of, and those trying to conceal the proof out of shame cause several deaths along the way. In the end, however, finding the proof doesn't alter anything at all.

    For a more popular level example, the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction are a perfect MacGuffin. Marcellus Wallace wants it because he wants it, and he's willing to do a lot to get it.
     
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