Plot
What do we mean by plot?
Now that you’ve thought about who your characters are and how they will change in your story, it’s time to start outlining the events and scenes of your story. Depending on the genre you are writing, these events or scenes may directly drive your characters’ development, or they may involve another, larger conflict. Put simply, plot is the organized structure of events in your story that show your character development and conflict.
It is important to intentionally plot out your story before you begin writing so that you can keep your story organized and your pacing on track. It’s your outline, the thing that will keep all the cool and emotional parts of your story in order.
Plot 101
Different genres lend themselves to different plot structures--but that’s not what we’re focusing on here. We’re taking it back to even more basics than that. No matter what genre or story type, most stories will have, at their core, the following structure:
Your exposition sets the scene, showing your audience who your characters are and what their world is like.
Your inciting incident introduces the conflict. Something happens to the character that will send them on a journey (internal, interpersonal, external).
Rising action are all the events that build your character up to facing the conflict head-on. Depending on the length of your story, this may involve multiple smaller conflicts, and multiple emotional highs and lows.
The climax of your story is the point at which the conflict where the tension in the conflict is highest. It is likely the point in the story where the character begins to accept a change in themselves or their circumstances that will allow them to solve the conflict.
The falling action are the events of the story that show what has changed since the climax.
Resolution involves the solution to the conflict (or various conflicts).
On an even simpler level, you may look at the beginning (how your characters are at the beginning, what the world is like, what happens to them to drive the conflict), the middle (all the things your characters do towards solving the conflict), and the end (how the conflict is resolved and how your characters and world are after the conflict) of your fic. This simpler version may lend itself better to shorter fic (or to those of us who have a hard time plotting).
Different Plotting Methods
Depending on who you are as a writer and thinker, a different method for organizing your plot may feel like a better fit. You may also want to look at different methods of plotting depending on the genre or length of story you write (a 2k fic may lend itself better to a different method than a 200k fic).
Freytag’s Model
Zigzag Plot
NaNoWriMo’s Plotting Method Quiz
Some brief descriptions of additional methods!
Tips for when you get stuck plotting
Prompts
Choose a story that you’ve already published (any length) and try to organize the plot using the freytag pyramid. If that really isn’t working for you, use one of the other plotting methods. Examine the structure of your story along with the pacing of your conflict and character development. Determine your strengths and weaknesses.
Choose a WIP and write out an intentional plot for it. Be as thorough as your method allows. Share it with a beta or on the discord (or publicly!).
Additional Resources: TBA
Previous Topics:
Character Development
