PLOT AND STRUCTURE – PART 1
What’s the difference? Ready for planning your story? Broadly speaking it’s said that the Plot is your basic idea for a story proceeding as follows . . .
A series of dramatic events moving forward in time.
Actions and consequences leading to further actions and consequences leading to a resolution.
Everything that happens between Once upon a time and Happily ever after.
The Structure consists of the techniques you, as a writer, use to make that happen. Think of someone with a vision to create a 150-storey office block. He can outline his idea and roughly draw it so he knows how it will look. That’s the Plot. Designing the walls, floors, windows and access to make his dream possible is the Structure.
The Plot
You’ve got the idea and now you want to create a unique plot; the one nobody’s ever thought of before. Before continuing, I have to hit you with the bad news. You can’t! Sorry. Why? Because they’ve all been used.
If you’ve been a reader for a number of years, you already know all the plots because you’ll have read them a hundred times. You also know about plot outlines and structure because you’ll have followed them in the stories you’ve read. It’s the same for every other reader. It’s been suggested there are only seven basic plots; apparently Hollywood reckons there are only two. They’ll have variations but the basics are the same. It’s your variations on the actions and consequences that will make yours different.
How do you start? If you ask three writers this question you’ll get at least four opinions! A lot depends on your way of doing things in life. If you’re a list-writer, that’s where you will begin. If you’re a do-er, that’s how you might want to start.
At one extreme, some writers will map out the whole story in detail: characters; beginning, middle and ending, and every twist and turn. They might do it linearly on a notepad, or sticky-notes spread out on a table top, or a brainstorm diagram. Then they write with minimum alteration as they proceed. At the other end of the scale, some will jump in at the beginning and make it up as they go along.
Most will use a mixture of these methods finding the one that best suits their style and the story. Experiment!
See my blog on Planning for more thoughts on this.
The Structure
OK, you have this idea. Maybe some thoughts on characters. You might even have the opening and ending scenes in mind. Now you must fabricate these into a story. Like the 150-storey office block above, buildings have certain parts in common – floors, walls, ceilings – so do stories. Whatever you read about this subject, you’ll come across something like the following illustration.
Written stories are usually constructed using the same five basic sections. I use the terms normally given to them. The sloping line indicates the rising tension in the story and the arrows point to things happening along the way. Think about books you’ve recently read and this will become familiar.
Beginning Middle End
1. Inciting incident
Some trigger has to kick-start the whole thing; an event that gets the main characters moving and begins the protagonist’s predicament – eyes meeting across a room; a robbery; an alien invasion. Whatever it is, this action sets up the situation that needs to be resolved.
2. Complications
It’s not much of a story if the protagonist achieves his or her goal without really trying.
This is the way you get the protagonist in trouble and then follow it with worse trouble. Someone famous wrote: It is a writer’s job to make his character climb a tree to safety – and then throw stones at him.
You must give the hero or heroine problems to overcome, make trouble for them, cause them to make wrong decisions or take the wrong turn – she’s married; the cop chases the thief; a scientist has something the aliens want. Your story isn’t a straight line as represented above, it’s more like the graph on an ECG, full of ups and downs. These complications throughout the story help with the ‘will they/won’t they’ tension.
3. Crises
The longer your story, the more of these you will need.
We normally think of a crisis as an emergency where instant action is required to prevent disaster, but the meaning in terms of a story structure is different. In writing, a crisis is a decisive moment or event. The word comes from Greek where it means ‘to separate’ (Some writers love complicated words to describe simple things. There’s another one coming up in a moment). In other words, the crisis separates what has gone from what comes afterwards. It is also called a Plot Point (which is easier to remember). These plot points are where some major event or decision occurs, usually causing the story, and/or its characters, to turn in a different direction – she’s getting divorced; the thief is a Mafia boss’s son; the aliens will destroy the world unless . . . . Continuing with the ECG analogy, these will be the big rises and dips that get the doctors going – the larger problems to solve. Later, these turning points may well bring it back on course.
4. Climax
The peak, the highpoint of your story, is where everything is resolved and the main questions answered for the reader – she falls for the divorce lawyer and remarries; the Mafioso hands over his son to the police; the aliens happily set up home in Antarctica and repair the glaciers. It should be the most exciting point in your tale; the protagonist wins the day, the heroine succeeds, the world is saved! And the answers to the principal questions raised by the story are clear.
5. Denouement
From a French word meaning ‘to untie’ (I don’t know why we have to lapse into French for this one). In writing, it’s where the knot is finally unravelled and all the secrets and misunderstandings are revealed. Any questions remaining unanswered should be cleared up as soon as possible. Keep it brief so as not to detract from the Climax.
Even more info . . .
Beneath the above diagram I’ve written: Beginning – Middle – End. This is another approach to this subject known as the Three-Act Structure.
You’ll have encountered it on the stage in plays (Act 1, Act 2, Act 3), at the cinema, in your own home on TV and, of course, in books. Other than in plays, occasionally books, the acts are not clearly indicated. For more information, see my blog Plot and Structure Part 2.
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