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odd_buttonsThe following is an excerpt from Part III of the book Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. The first two parts are very much worth reading as well. The book is available in paperback.
Plot
Plot means the story line. When people talk about plotting, they usually mean how to set up the situation, where to put the turning points, and what the characters will be doing in the end. In brief, they are talking about what happens. Plotting concerns how to move characters in and out of your story. Plotting means what you do to keep the action going. For example, in detective fiction the classic rule is that when the action slow down, have someone come in the room with a gun. (Metaphorically speaking, that's not bad advice for any writer.)
In a good plot, cause and effect interlink. Each situation sets up the next situation. For example:
The shorter the piece of fiction, the less need for plot. You can write a fine story in which little happens: A man curses his neighbor, a widow quits her mah-jongg group, or an unhappy family goes on a picnic. Simple shapes work better than something fussy and complicated.
In novels, plot seems more important. I say seems because the concept of plot confuses writers. They'll say, "I want to write, but I can't think of good plots." They are worrying about the wrong thing. Though they do have to create an interesting story line, it doesn't have to be complicated -- it doesn’t' have to be plotty. "The Shapes of Fiction," Part I of this book, explains the basic building blocks of fiction. In novels these shapes get extended, combined, and multiplied. The Journey becomes Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The Visitation precipitates the plot of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
A plot can, like a journey, begin with a single step. A woman making up her mind to recover her father's oil paintings may be enough to start. The journey begins there, as it did for Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment when he decided to commit his crime. You might even say that every novel is a quest novel. The characters will be seeking freedom or truth, revenge or exoneration, peace or sanity. They're searching for their fathers or mothers or their roots. True love or salvation. Or money, marriage, and success. Or themselves. Read Tobias Smollett or Henry Fielding, Lore Segal or Anne Tyler -- everybody's looking for something.
The plot grows out of what helps and what hinders the characters' progress toward their goals. Some beginning plot elements might go like this:
When poorly conceived, plot creates problems. An over-complicated plot can make a book seem contrived or confusing. A lack of plot can make a book seem meandering or static. But plot alone can't make a fiction vital, witty, moving, informative, or wise. That comes from character, dialogue, description, and narrative style.
When we call a novel plotless we meant that the writer has not created that interlinking of cause and effect -- has not deployed intrigants, developed momentum, or used the traditional narrative devices that seduce and impel readers through the work. (The picaresque novel has often been called plotless, though the opposite seems true -- it's made up of a great many separate plots.) Novelists who eschew plot have captivated readers by their delicious prose, profound meditations, intense visions, and political insights, but the longer the work, the harder it is to keep readers' attention all the way to the end.
See Character, Cliff-hanger, Freytag's Pyramid, Intrigant, Narrative, Novel, Premise, Tension, Zigzag.
Plot
Plot means the story line. When people talk about plotting, they usually mean how to set up the situation, where to put the turning points, and what the characters will be doing in the end. In brief, they are talking about what happens. Plotting concerns how to move characters in and out of your story. Plotting means what you do to keep the action going. For example, in detective fiction the classic rule is that when the action slow down, have someone come in the room with a gun. (Metaphorically speaking, that's not bad advice for any writer.)
In a good plot, cause and effect interlink. Each situation sets up the next situation. For example:
Arthur Garble moves into a new house with his ferocious-looking but gentle pit bull. The dog makes his neighbors nervous and so they are unfriendly. That upsets Arthur, and he is rude to them. Their reaction is to persecute him. Some neighbors, however, take his side. Soon people are arguing wherever they meet. After a particularly heated interchange, they realize they have lost control of themselves while the controversial dog has remained peaceful and serene.Misunderstanding begot unfriendliness; unfriendliness nurtured hostility; hostility led to anger; anger turned into confrontation; confrontation precipitated recognition; and recognition brought about reconciliation. The plot doesn't go off on a tangent by turning into a love story. The plot doesn't violate its premises by bringing in some outside factor (deus ex machina) in the end - such as having the dog save a child from a burning building. Its resolution lies in its characters and the situation.
The shorter the piece of fiction, the less need for plot. You can write a fine story in which little happens: A man curses his neighbor, a widow quits her mah-jongg group, or an unhappy family goes on a picnic. Simple shapes work better than something fussy and complicated.
In novels, plot seems more important. I say seems because the concept of plot confuses writers. They'll say, "I want to write, but I can't think of good plots." They are worrying about the wrong thing. Though they do have to create an interesting story line, it doesn't have to be complicated -- it doesn’t' have to be plotty. "The Shapes of Fiction," Part I of this book, explains the basic building blocks of fiction. In novels these shapes get extended, combined, and multiplied. The Journey becomes Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The Visitation precipitates the plot of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
A plot can, like a journey, begin with a single step. A woman making up her mind to recover her father's oil paintings may be enough to start. The journey begins there, as it did for Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment when he decided to commit his crime. You might even say that every novel is a quest novel. The characters will be seeking freedom or truth, revenge or exoneration, peace or sanity. They're searching for their fathers or mothers or their roots. True love or salvation. Or money, marriage, and success. Or themselves. Read Tobias Smollett or Henry Fielding, Lore Segal or Anne Tyler -- everybody's looking for something.
The plot grows out of what helps and what hinders the characters' progress toward their goals. Some beginning plot elements might go like this:
Andy Giannino is a kid who wants to be let alone. He's looking forward to a free summer with plenty of reading. But Andy's parents send him off to a military summer camp. He's miserable until the nature counselor befriends him and gets him to make meticulous drawings of insect larvae. On visiting day Andy's father is furious thinking that Andy is not learning to become manly. Andy's mother thinks the drawings look disgusting. They take him home at once. Andy starts hanging around with a guy known only as Goofer. Goofer reads during the day and buys stolen property at night. Goofer shows Andy how to steal copper from power plants. [And so on.]Andy Giannino's quest is for survival and for self-knowledge. The other characters have their own quests. The father is trying to improve himself by listening nightly to motivational tapes. The mother is trying to make the family fit an ideal American stereotype because, she believes, then she will be happy. The rhythms of their advances and setbacks develop the story.
When poorly conceived, plot creates problems. An over-complicated plot can make a book seem contrived or confusing. A lack of plot can make a book seem meandering or static. But plot alone can't make a fiction vital, witty, moving, informative, or wise. That comes from character, dialogue, description, and narrative style.
When we call a novel plotless we meant that the writer has not created that interlinking of cause and effect -- has not deployed intrigants, developed momentum, or used the traditional narrative devices that seduce and impel readers through the work. (The picaresque novel has often been called plotless, though the opposite seems true -- it's made up of a great many separate plots.) Novelists who eschew plot have captivated readers by their delicious prose, profound meditations, intense visions, and political insights, but the longer the work, the harder it is to keep readers' attention all the way to the end.
See Character, Cliff-hanger, Freytag's Pyramid, Intrigant, Narrative, Novel, Premise, Tension, Zigzag.