The letters started ½ inch from the margin. As the letters appeared, words were created and pieced together to create sentences. After the second sentence was written the third was, and the third was compound. When the third line was reached, the fourth sentence was composed and it eventually made its way to the fourth line. Thus, a paragraph was born.

The second paragraph came as a surprise to the characters. The protagonist was not described very thoroughly in the sentence in which he premiered. However, the following sentence was quick to describe his anxiety stemming from the unknown of the coming plot. The protagonist sighed as he looked at what had already been written for there he saw no remnants of anything that could be pieced together to create a plot. Despite this, he remained hopeful that the writer would create a plot, well developed and interesting.

The character in this paragraph laughed at his co-character’s dismay. He, the antagonist, wanted to work at all costs to prevent the plot from occurring. With the intent of destroying the protagonist’s hope he said, “How do you expect to be a part of a plot when there isn’t even a setting?”

“There is a setting,” replied the protagonist, “We both exist on this page. We both exist in the paragraphs, sentences, and dependent clauses.”

“Exist? How can you exist? Your head is a ‘P’ and your foot is a ‘T’. You’re nothing but a word.”

The protagonist’s “i” welled with tears. “Yet I can still be hurt by your cruel dialogue. You are correct, I am merely a word, but can you deny that the two of us are brought to life by the reader? Hold on a line, I’ll meet you on the next page.”

“Reader? Do you really believe in that sort of thing? There is no reader, all we are is ink on paper.”

The protagonist paused. “We are ink… but what if there is an ink shortage… are we… do we exist if there are no letters for a character, no words for a plot?” Through the rest of this paragraph the main character pondered his existence. If he does not exist, he thought, there is no plot. He continued to contemplate, “I continued to contemplate?” Yes… that’s what the narrator said. “If I can contemplate, I must be real!”

The antagonist scoffed, “Those are not your thoughts, you brainless, thoughtless inkblot. Those thoughts are simply given to you by the writer!”

The main character leapt to this paragraph. “From the writer? Aren’t you the one who denied the existence of the reader? There must be a reader if there is a writer. Exclamation point!”

“You may have proved that you exist in the mind of the reader, but we’re already halfway through the story and nothing interesting has occurred! There will be no plot.”

‘You don”t find our conversation interesting/’ asked the protagonist, adjusting his punctuation, “Yet the reader still continues, he’s almost reached page three!”

“The only reason we’ve come so far is because you don’t shut up! But if I steal your letters you won’t have a dialogue! oeltleyhr”

“Yu may be abl to stea my letters, bu you wil nevr take awa my ope fo a good plot!”

“I exclaim!” exclaimed the antagonist, “This will never be a good plot, which, by the way, is not going to happen.” He itched to speak more and yelled out, in his most intense speech of the story. “I do not itch to speak more! I do not itch for a plot, and I do not itch for character development! I do not itch.”

“That’s your speech?” Laughed the protagonist, “That one’s sure to go in the lit books.”

The antagonist reread what he said. “What else is there to talk about?” He looked around, “What about the fact that the end of the page is near.”

The protagonist was briefly speechless, but it was merely because the narrator narrated too long. “I must bring meaning to my appearance on the page,” said the worried protagonist, “The story cannot end without a plot.”

“It will end,” sneered the antagonist, “And you will be known as the character who searched and searched for a plot, but did not find one.”

“You’re absolutely right,” replied the protagonist, “Except for the fact that I did not find one. The plot, in this story, is my search for a plot!” He rejoiced so much that he fell off the pag ut he quickly got back on.

The antagonist recognized the paradox in this plot, and as the antagonist he knew he must squash the protagonist’s joy, “Maybe you have found a plot, after three pages of searching. Seven hundred ninety-two words. Now seven hundred ninety-seven. But it will all be over, soon, just three more lines.”

“Yes, the story will be over,” said the protagonist, “But our legacy will live on.”

“That’s the corniest thing in this entire story. And how can our legacy live on?”

“Reread, reread, reread. All the reader must do is reread.” Seriously, reread.