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 March, 2005

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The Basics: Plot

by Sandy Tritt

http://tritt.wirefire.com

Before you can start writing, you must have at least a basic idea of the three major components of a story. Plot is what happens. Character is to whom it happens. And setting is where and when it happens. Most stories are either plot-driven or character-driven. A plot-driven novel is one in which what happens is more important than to whom it happens. An example of this is an action/adventure novel. A character-driven novel is one in which a character evolves during the story, and what happens isn’t as important as how the character reacts to what happens. An example of this is a romance novel.
A successful plot must have a struggle of some sort—on one hand, something that a character (or characters) wants very badly, and on the other hand, something that prevents the character from having it.
There are three fundamental struggles that plots are based upon:
• Man-against-man—this is when another character (the antagonist) is at odds with the protagonist (the main character) and tries to prevent the protagonist from accomplishing his goal. An example of this would be a cop chasing down a serial killer.
• Man-against-nature—this is when nature (or, possibly, machinery) causes problems for the protagonist. An example of this would be a man left behind in Antarctica, fighting for survival against the elements of nature.
• Man-against-himself—this is when some character flaw within the protagonist prevents him from achieving his greatest desire. An example of this would be a man who wants a happy home life, but who battles alcoholism.


Many novels have a main plot, with several subplots spidering off of it. However, in order to focus, it is important to have a focus statement to give your story cohesiveness. A focus statement describes your story’s basic plot in one sentence. Yes. One sentence. Forcing this focus gives you a home base to return to and reflect from, and ensures that you don’t drift too much in other directions. Examples of a focus statement:
• An uneducated man from the slums climbs through the political world in his quest to become President.
• A teenager hones his acting skills in hopes of making it big on the Silver Screen.
• An alcoholic mother struggles to raise her children.

A plot must also have three distinct parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning, of course, is where the story starts. The setting must be firmly established (both place and time), the main character must be introduced, and the story question must be presented. The story question puts the focus statement into a “what if” format:
• Will the uneducated man from the slums be able to achieve his goal to become President?
• Can the teenager make it big on the Silver Screen?
• Will the alcoholic mother be able to successfully raise her children?

The middle of the story is where we build the action and further develop the characters. The middle of the story is the link between the beginning and the end, and that which makes the end possible.
The end of the story consists of two parts, the climax and the resolution. The climax is the turning point in the novel, where the tension is highest. The climax is where all seems lost, where decisions must be made, where life and death hangs on the balance. The climax should lead directly into the resolution, which should answer the story question and resolve the character statement of the main character (usually, these will be linked). In a character-driven novel, the main character should be changed in some way—wiser, more mature, kinder, perhaps even more cynical—but he/she must have undergone a change. If his character goal has not been achieved, then it must be resolved (perhaps the uneducated man from the slums decides that he can make a greater impact on society if he becomes a teacher than he could make as President or perhaps the teenager’s father is seriously injured in an accident and the youth realizes that nothing is more important than his family and he’d prefer to stay close to home).

Plot is accomplished through a series of scenes. A scene is the dramatization of one snapshot in time—what happens at one specific place at one specific time. Of course, the action may unwind over a period of several minutes or longer, but once the action is transferred to a different setting or to a different character, that scene ends and another scene begins. (However, the same scene continues if the viewpoint character himself is moving, say walking down the street from one house to another). Every scene in a novel must further the plot or develop a character (preferably both at the same time); otherwise, it is an extraneous scene and should be cut. Every scene should also have a feeling of completeness about it. This is accomplished by ending the scene with an action, thought or dialogue by the viewpoint character, hopefully resolving or reviewing whatever “mini-crisis” the scene presented.
Most writers divide their novel into chapters. Some give a title to each chapter; others just use numbers. There are no rules for assigning chapters, although I’ve read advice that suggests that each chapter should consist of three scenes or each chapter should consist of twenty pages. I think this is up to the individual writer.
Plot is certainly one of the most important components in your novel. There are several ways to go about developing plot. Some people outline, putting every scene on an index card. Some people allow the plot to develop on its own, as they write. Some people know the entire plot before they even write one word, others discover the plot as they write. Section 8 contains a reproducible Chapter Summary Worksheet, should you like to outline your chapters. Section 8 also contains a reproducible Novel Summary Worksheet, which helps identify each component of your novel. This summary can be used with the Character Trait Charts and the other material available to create a detailed reference of all the components of your story. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t.
In the meantime, happy plotting!

(from Section 2, Workbook)

Want more great tips and techniques? Our Inspiration for Writers Tips and Techniques Workbook is now available. Expanded tips, more topics, reproducible worksheets, exercises to practice what you learn and much more--check it out! Free shipping anywhere in the United States.

(c) copyright 2002 by Sandy Tritt. All rights reserved, except for those listed here. March be reproduced for educational purposes (such as for writer's workshops), as long as this copyright notice and the url: http://tritt.wirefire.com are distributed with the pages. For use in conferences or other uses not mentioned here, please contact Sandy Tritt at tritt@wvadventures.net for permission and additional resources at no or limited charge.

   Keep writing!

Sandy Tritt

Inspiration for Writers tritt@wvadventures.net

Weeping Your Readers

       by Bruce Cook

For myself, the best writers are those who can make me weep.

As a writer, I ask myself what kind of emotional scene will do that best? How exactly shall I present it? Maybe a grotesque and tragic scene, or one in which the main character has been miserably deceived. Or a triumphant scene in which the protagonist has vanquished the foe or preserved something that was close to destruction.

Either of these may work, but that’s not the point.

The point is that the reader will not cry unless the writer cries harder. Both have to care about the characters. This is one long and tall order, for the writer just made up the characters and they are entirely fictional. And worse, for the reader, the characters are but shadows and have nothing at all to do with reality.

Despite this truism, the writer and reader can care, and even obsess, over the characters in a story. In fact, even though “a grown man never cries,” if the fiction writer can’t cry deeply over one of his/her own characters, why is the writer doing fiction at all?

There is good reason to cry for our characters. For we cry not only for that character, but for the part of us we which is identified there. Further, while we may not be philosophers or kings, we also weep for that kind of character, for one who suffers or exults and typifies the many who will someday face that kind of situation in all places and times.

Alas, poor Yorick.

But why does a novel we cry over get that special place on the old bookshelf? Is it because we like to cry?

It seems to me that crying is the ultimate emotion, perhaps even better than competing emotions, for it is through crying that we reach out to others. We secretly brush away a tear even as we hope that someone we care about might see and take compassion, or share our exultation.

This is the ultimate power of fiction. As Kathy Hartwell has reminded me, a child’s first communication is through crying. When we die, the first emotion to those around us is the same. And, along the way, weeping often accompanies our mountaintop moments.

Writer, you have access to this great power. The controls are in your hand and heart. Accept this responsibility and use it responsibly, for we need to hold focus on the truths our characters have taught us. Let’s not, like Upton Sinclair in the past and several writers in the modern era, take advantage of this power in vain attempts to manipulate our readers.

Make crying happen for the sake of the character you created. Carefully trim your emotional scene to what your character has proven. Let those fingers slip on tear-stained typewriter keys, and you will have found your home for life.