Creating Plot
The general description of plot is simple: something happens, and this event leads to some kind of change.
The basic outline for a plot is Freytag's Pyramid. I'm sure you've all seen this before in your grade school English classes:
The story starts out with exposition, a.k.a. the introduction: introduce your characters and setting. Following that is the rising action, the introduction of the story's central conflict, which all work up to the climax, the point of the story where the change occurs. Then comes the falling action, which is the effects of the climax, and finally, the denouement (resolution).
If you want something more detailed, we can look at the Hero's Journey outline:
Image from Christopher Vogler's The Writers Journey, pg. 9
The Hero's Journey is derived from Joseph Campbell's analysis of the themes present in mythology all over the world; it's viewed as something of a standard for which stories are created. Any story can be analyzed according to the plot elements examined by Campbell and later outlined and condensed by Vogler. For a full list and detailed explanations of each element, you'll want to read the books yourself.
The premise of the Hero's Journey outline is similar to Freytag's Pyramid, but addresses the plot in terms of events rather than generalized sections. They do match up, however; the four acts of the journey roughly correspond to the exposition, rising action, and falling action, where point number 11, "Resurrection," is the climax and the last, "Return with Elixer" is the denoument. There are more plot events which have been analyzed other than those on the diagram, but we'll focus just on these for now.
In "Ordinary World," the hero is introduced. This is followed by "Call to Adventure," wherein something happens which upsets the hero's ordinary world and starts them on their journey. The hero may resist this, as in "Refusal of the Call," and have a "Meeting with the Mentor" to discuss their issues, helping them with "Crossing of the Threshold." This is followed by "Tests, Allies, and Enemies," all that juicy rising action as they "Approach" the "Central Ordeal." They gain their "Reward" (something not necessarily concrete) and start upon "The Road Back." However, things aren't over yet, and the hero must face a second ordeal, "Resurrection." This doesn't mean the hero has to die; the rebirth can be symbolic, a test to see if the hero has really learned anything. Last is the "Return with Elixir;" again, the elixir is a symbol, not necessarily a concrete object -- it can be knowledge, a lesson learned. This is what your hero has become, a change from who they started out as.
It's not necessary to have all these elements, or even in this order; take some out, add some not mentioned in, and shuffle them around to your heart's content as long as it still makes sense. Likewise, don't try to over-analyze your plot by trying to fit each part into one of these niches.
Now that we've analyzed the elements of a plot, let's put this knowledge to use!
What is your story's goal?
Every story should have a goal -- the Elixir of the Hero's Journey method. This goal is the end point towards which your main character is moving. It can be something concrete, like "the princess gets rescued" or some sort of knowledge gained or lesson learned. Whatever the case, this goal should also involve some kind of change in the main character, either in their personality or in the way they view the world. In some cases, such as in tragedies, this end goal may be failure or even death.
How is this goal achieved?
The goal is the ending. How the characters reach the goal is the bulk of the story, and the most important part. This is the stuff that
makes them change. For example, you don't just give a hobbit a ring and say "When you've time, go next door and throw this into Mount Doom, will you?" No. There is a journey, there are personal struggles; friendships are made, tested, and broken or healed; physical and emotional limits are tested to their extremes. There is death and betrayal and there is life and promises fulfilled. All these things create change within the characters, and without this change there isn't much of a story.
If the person who went into all of this craziness comes out exactly the same, what does that say? They did some stuff, saved the world, and went home. All in a day's work, nothing epic about
that. No story here, folks, just move along. If the story doesn't change the character, then it's certainly not going to change -- or engage -- the reader. Remember the old adage, "the only constant is change?" This is doubly true when it comes to literature, because everything is ultimately about
us, humans, a.k.a. the reader. Change is what keeps us going, and it's also what keeps us reading.
The importance of conflict
Conflict is the meat of the story. You may think that action is what engages the reader, and that's true -- to a degree. It works better for movies; people like to see things getting blown up. But books require something more engaging than explosions and sword fights. This is where plot and characters really start to run together along the line of "which is more important?".
Again, conflict is something necessary to plot. Without it -- like without a goal -- there is no plot. If a character doesn't have to make any decisions, what's the point? As humans, we're conflicted about every decision in our lives -- whether it be as simple as "coffee or tea?" or as life-changing as "should I really marry this person?". If a character doesn't have to make these decisions, or doesn't worry about something major, or just makes decisions without any explaination, then the reader has no reason to care about them because they can't understand them. To put it simply, conflict adds character depth.
There are seven basic types of conflict:
Character vs. Self
Character vs. Character
Character vs. Society
Character vs. Nature
Character vs. Supernatural
Character vs. Machine/Technology
Character vs. Destiny/Fate
Most of them are pretty self-explanatory. If you want a more in-depth explanation of each, you can easily look them up.
How do you come up with a plot out of a basic idea?
Let's walk through getting started on a plot together! We'll use the "princess gets kidnapped" plot from the
Getting Started post. What does the idea tell us? Well, it says we have at least two characters: the princess, and the person (or people) who kidnap her. Presumably, there's someone who's going to rescue her. We'll call the setting Kingdom X, which is where the princess lives. We said our goal above: the princess gets rescued.
Now we come to the rest of the story: how is this achieved? Is she rescued by someone, or is she the sort of princess who goes against stereotype and rescues herself? But first she has to
get kidnapped, and for that there needs to be some kind of motivation. Without motivation, there is no purpose; and with no purpose, there is no story. From here, of course, we could go all sorts of different directions with the plot. What if the princess just wanted to escape the castle and go exploring (or run off with her suitor), and the king blamed her disappearance on someone else? Or what if the princess framed her own kidnapping? Maybe she really was kidnapped -- but by who, and to what end? For a ransom, to provoke war, or because she was some sort of "key" to a prophecy that would save (or doom) millions?
Obviously you can take a basic idea and go literally anywhere with it, but for the sake of this guide we need to narrow it down. Let's say she was kidnapped by some outside person or group, to be held for ransom. The motivation is something you can play around with, to discover the most appealing or depth-giving option. Do they just want money, or land, or something more? And why? Are they just greedy bastards or were they cheated out of or robbed of something they legitimately owned and end up becoming a sympathetic villain? This cycle of coming up with ideas and picking and choosing the right ones is what creating a plot is all about -- and what is the "right" idea depends on you.
Subplots and story arcs
A story with a single, simple plot is usually going to be short. Novel-length works need more action to keep the reader engaged, and this is where subplots come in. Subplots are incidental events that keep the story moving during dead time. For example, say that your characters are going from point A to point B in search of information and there's not a whole lot that happens while they're on the road. Yes, you could just skip over the journey -- or you could have them attacked by robbers and have one of their members taken hostage and they have to go off and save them. Then this could uncovers
another subplot that's integral to the main plot -- they discover that these robbers are working for the same people as the princess's kidnappers!
Story arcs work in a similar way, but they're a lot larger than subplots and closer to the main plot. Story arcs work best in a long series, and help with plot cohesiveness and continuity.
Organization and outlines
Everyone has their own way of organizing plots. There is no one "correct" way. Some people can write a brilliant story without noting down anything, and other people need every single scene outlined before they can even
think about starting. How detailed your outline is depends on your own preferences, so figure out what works for you and go from there. If you check out the link to the Snowflake Method below, you can see the different level of details. Where you stop on that scale depends on how comfortable you are with what's already outlined in your head.
Useful Links
The "Basic" Plots in Literature
How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method
Help with Plot Development
Create a Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps
Hatch's Plot Bank (archived)
Suggested Readings
Campbell, Joseph -
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (
Read it on Google Books)
Vogler, Christopher -
The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (
Buy it on Amazon)
