A note for editors who are interested in the method used to structure the plots.

I use a mathematical technique called 'Game Theory' to map the behaviour patterns of the characters and modify the thread lines after initially creating the first plot.
Game theory is a branch of mathematical analysis developed to study decision making in conflict situations. Such a situation exists when two or more decision makers who have different objectives act on the same system or share the same resources ñ such as a common stage.
Game theory as applied to plot structure is a multi-person game with actors integrating to produce the ëplayí. Game theory provides a process for selecting an optimum ëplot-lineí that (allowing for actors to fall out of character occasionally) seems rational and yet maintains suspense; it enables the writer to remove certain non-essential areas of the text and thus seem mildly surreal. The plot then becomes an optimum decision or a sequence of decisions based on the characters - simulating real life scenarios - in the face of an opponents who all have a strategies of their own.

Each decision maker - these players are like the actors on a stage - has available two or more well-specified choices or sequences of choices.
Every possible combination of plays available to the actors leads to a well-defined end-state (win, loss, or draw) that terminates the plot. A specified payoff for each actor is associated with each plot-end - some times there must be no winners or losers to maintain consistency and plausibility with real life situations.
Each actor has perfect knowledge of his plot and of his opposition; that is, he knows in full detail the rules of the plot as well as the payoffs of all other actors. This is essential in building the plot.
All decision makers are rational; that is, each actor, given two alternatives, will select the one that yields him the greater payoff - (here we must insert a clause which states that this depends upon the characters - some of whom will deviate from what they would normally do because of the stress of the 'game' or 'plot'.

The last two assumptions, in particular, restrict the application of 'Game Theory' in real-world conflict situations. So we have to make assumptions that some 'actors' rationality may be different than others - in other words their perception of the same situation is different. Nonetheless, game theory provides an excellent means for analyzing many problems that occur in plot structure and resolving them.