Recently, I asked a random sampling of writers not familiar with my work what they thought of plot. Most of the answers I received bordered on hostile. I include a few of the tamer ones here:
“I view plot as an enemy that must be destroyed, lest it pilliage my village and rape my wimmins.” UJ
“When I think of plot, I stop thinking about writing.” JT
“I have a deep disdain for plot, really.” LJ
I was most surprised when I read AK’s comment: “All anyone cares about is plot, plot, plot.”
Most writers I come in contact with “care” about plot because they’re grappling with not only what plot is but, even more importantly, how best to use it.
Plot is more than a prescribed course of dramatic action.
Action in and of itself is not dramatic. Conflict that creates tension, suspense, mystery, and/or curiosity make action dramatic.
Random action is not dramatic. Action that unfolds through cause and effect is.
Action that happens in scene can be dramatic. After all, scene “shows” the action happening moment-by-moment on the page.
Action that happens in summary is not. After all, summary merely “tells” about action.
When a character emotionally anticipates conflict that is coming, emotionally reacts to conflict at hand, and emotionally responds to conflict after the fact, the action is dramatic. Dramatic action paired with meaningful character emotional development then becomes plot.
Plot is deeper than structure.
Dramatic action that happens in a novel, screenplay, memoir, short story, and any other kind of writing that causes a character(s) to react and thus be affected by and changed at depth over the duration of the story. The crux of every good story is character transformation.
Plot is the full integration of dramatic action, character emotional development and thematic significance in a story.
Some writers prefer to start writing about or with characters. Other writers begin with action. Still others begin with only a point they want to prove. All starting points are equally valid. It’s the showing up and starting that counts.
Are you confident about what you know about plot and how to use it? Are you ever intimidated by the concept of plot? Confused by it?
I keep asking these types of questions because I’m afraid plot gets a bad rap. I’m hoping by asking what you think when you think plot, I might better understand the opposition…..
When I hear plot the first thing that comes to my mind is Charles Dickens. Of course I think he was a master of plot.
I was really intrigued and surprised by those answers you received.
Aristotle sums it up well in his Poetics: “The most important of these elements [plot-structure, character, style, thought, spectacle, lyric poetry] is the structure of events, because tragedy is a representation not of people as such but of actions and life, and both happiness and unhappiness rest on action.” (–Halliwell trans, ch 6, p 37)
In other words character is defined by action. What makes us who we are is what we do, not any beliefs or internalization. It is the actions we must face that define character. I think many writers are confused because publishers keep demanding character driven stories so end up developing character sketches rather than story. They fail to realize that character is predicated on plot.
Wow! Very nicely put!! Excellent analysis.
You’re reinforcing beliefs I already hold to be true which is comforting. Especially so to feel part of the esteemed company of Dickens, Aristotle, and you….
Sometimes I feel like I’m out on a limb with nay-sayers sharpening the saw……
Plot and I have a love-hate relationship.
First (and foremost, really), plot is hard. It’s difficult to direct the course of your story, to see the forest and not the trees. I think that people hate plot like poets hate editing, like artists hate drawing hands.
But plot is also essential. I can’t read a book without plot. I don’t care how fabulous the writing is, the characterization, the witty lines, the awe-inspiring scenery. When I read a book or watch a movie, that’s what I look for first. It probably makes sense that my favorite series (George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire) has over seven hundred sub-plots.
Plot makes things interesting. It gives shape and definition, it is the story far more than your prose or pretty ideas. It really doesn’t matter so much how you come by it– if you start with a plot first, or discover it on the way, so much as it is worked on, crafted, checked for holes, and focused on, just as any other aspect of our craft is honed.
So yes, I love plot. I try to fill my story with as much of it as I can. I also hate plot. It’s ruined darling ideas that I had so wanted to put into my prose, changed my outlines, forced rewrites. It’s work. But then, so is all writing, if you’re serious about making something fantastic.
I couldn’t agree more, Elizaw.
People hate that which scares them. Plot is hard. That’s why I’ve spent the last five years of my life teaching plot. It took me even longer than that to “get” plot, but once I did I made it my mission to help other writers so they wouldn’t have to work so hard at it or feel as inadequate as I often had.
Plot is elusive, but going after it is worth every minute of your time.
i hate plot because i dont understand it either
I loooove plot. I get so happy when I actually find it. That usually happens when I finally figure out who my characters are, how they react with each other, what they want from each other and what their world is like. I can honestly say though that sometimes I find it hard to actually find the plot. First because I read too many emotional/spiritual memoirs and watch way too many small arty films that are all about character development. Not conducive to page turning. And second because I often just living in the world I have created, peeking in at corners, peering around doors etc. So I always have to kick myself and say, “Stop being a tourist. Find something less dawdling to write about that will make folks turn the page.”
To me… a good plot seems inevitable when the book is finished. The story had to happen that way. To make the plot exciting is a whole nother situation. Sometimes a story feels right and feels inevitable and real but simply doesn’t grab. Not bestseller material. And sometimes a story grabs but it feels overly-contrived. -C