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- Sketch out a plot outline. Mapping out your plot ideas can streamline your fiction writing process and help you through periods of writer’s block. Start with a freewriting session.
- Dive right into the action. Your exposition has several important responsibilities. It identifies the main character, establishes the setting and the themes of your story, and launches the plot.
- Lay the groundwork for the climax during the rising action. Now that you’ve set the stage, the rising action is where you really build the plot of your story, develop characters, and propel the tension towards the climax.
- Create a rich narrative with subplots. A good story has several plotlines running through the narrative. Write subplots to weave in and out of your main plot.
- The Premise
- The Inciting Action Or Event
- The Connected Sequence
- The Interruption, Delay Or Complication
- The Point of No Return
- The Plot Twist
- The Resolution
The premise or scenario is the situation or concept on which we build a story. Take a logline for a popular novel, such as John Grisham’s The Reckoning (2018): The premise sums up the key situation the story explores and unpacks. A summary like this is a great foundation for plot development. It limits what could possibly happen, by defining a time...
Plot is defined as ‘the main events of a play, novel, film, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.’ (Lexico, via Oxford Dictionaries). How do we begin exploring an ‘interrelated sequence’, the connected events of a story? Something happens. When this event sets the story in motion, narrative theory calls i...
What are the elements of plot development that make a story satisfying? One is the ‘connected sequence’ of events. If you’ve ever read a beginner’s story where it seems random events happen ‘just because’, you’ll know how frustrating this is. We become unsure why the author is sharing this or that event. The significance of events – the reason behi...
One of the useful elements of plot development at our disposal is the ‘interruption’. There are many ways you can interrupt the flow of your narrative to complicate how your plot develops. For example: 1. Switching to another central character’s viewpoint for a chapter interrupting a first character’s arc. 2. Inserting a smaller eventthat sidetrack...
A ‘point of no return’ isn’t a feature every plot necessarily has. Yet it’s a useful concept for thinking about situations in which there is no going back. These propel plot forwards, sustaining forward momentum. For example, in a spy novel, a point of no return could be the moment the main character agrees to become a double agent, serving both he...
Some genres are more likely to have dramatic plot twists than others. In thrillers, courtroom dramas and detective novels, they’re common. Because the idea of uncovering the truth – and the surprises that often emerge along the way – is embedded in these genres. A good plot twist is unexpected. For example, in Dickens’ Great Expectations, the reade...
Plot development doesn’t necessarily lead to a tidy resolution. Some stories (particular in serial TV shows) end on maddening, cryptic situations where everything comes down to how the reader (or viewer) interprets events. Even so, good plot development takes us to some kind of answerto the primary questions established by the premise. For example,...
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Create a six sentence plot outline for your story, one for each of the six elements above. Pay special attention to the inciting incident and dilemma. Tackle your work in progress. Take one of the components of plot (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, denouement), and show that point in your story.
Traditional theories of plot development define the crisis as the moment of greatest emotional tension in a story, and the point at which the protagonist's fortunes turn. However, Dramatica theory gives us a more precise and practical definition. Here's what really happens at the crisis of a plot.
- Know the crucial elements: What is plot? ‘The main events of a play, novel, film or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.’
- Write plot exposition leaving readers hungry for what comes next. Although your plot exposition is not the main developmental part, you can at least hint at how your plot will develop.
- Make sure each stage of plot development serves its function. Each stage of plot development serves vital functions. Exposition: Locates a story in time and place (establishes setting)
- Play with linear vs non-linear plot. The ‘interrelated sequence’ of our plot definition above could create a linear or non-linear sequence. Sure, you can start with Harry’s commute to school, the physical bullying he faces, and the bruise he arrives home with.
Oct 3, 2022 · Plot is the series of events that form a process of change in a novel, short story, screenplay, stage play, video game or other work of fiction. Plot describes patterns of events and situations, arranged to emphasize relationships between events (such as cause and effect, consequences, goals and prerequisite actions).
Aug 31, 2018 · Plot development can be a challenge for both aspiring and published novelists who are working on a new book. To build a great story structure that will carry you through to a finished novel, you have to take a closer look at your plot and work out kinks that may come up as you're writing. In the free online download, Plot Development: Charts ...
