Plotting Your Novel
October 16th 2010 18:36
What is plot? Plot is the sequence of events that form the story. Plot is also the subject of your story. Ideally, you should be able to summarise the plot in one sentence.
Plot needs a beginning, a middle and and end. That may sound obvious, but it's important to remember how beginning, middle and end are defined in narrative fiction. The beginning is where you set the scene, introduce your character and the problem the character needs to solve (the problem is closely related to the character's desire). The middle describes your character's bumpy journey towards fulfilling her/his desire. It's where the tension rises, it looks increasingly as if the character isn't going to get what she/he wants. This is the largest part of your novel.
At the end, there's the climax - your character either succeeds or fails -, the story is tied up, things return to their normal state. It doesn't matter if your novel has a happy ending or a sad one, as long as it's a satisfactory outcome in terms of the story. It must be the logical conclusion of all the scenes that led up to it, it must make sense within the story universe and it shouldn't be a deus-ex-machina solution (they aren't satisfying).
The significance of scenes:
The basic unit of plot is the scene. Every scene must advance the plot and/or alter the character's view of the world. Each scene in your story serves just one purpose: To drive the story forward, cause the next event. Think of scenes as the building blocks of your story, together they create the bigger narrative where everything happens for a reason.
Plot needs a beginning, a middle and and end. That may sound obvious, but it's important to remember how beginning, middle and end are defined in narrative fiction. The beginning is where you set the scene, introduce your character and the problem the character needs to solve (the problem is closely related to the character's desire). The middle describes your character's bumpy journey towards fulfilling her/his desire. It's where the tension rises, it looks increasingly as if the character isn't going to get what she/he wants. This is the largest part of your novel.
At the end, there's the climax - your character either succeeds or fails -, the story is tied up, things return to their normal state. It doesn't matter if your novel has a happy ending or a sad one, as long as it's a satisfactory outcome in terms of the story. It must be the logical conclusion of all the scenes that led up to it, it must make sense within the story universe and it shouldn't be a deus-ex-machina solution (they aren't satisfying).
The significance of scenes:
The basic unit of plot is the scene. Every scene must advance the plot and/or alter the character's view of the world. Each scene in your story serves just one purpose: To drive the story forward, cause the next event. Think of scenes as the building blocks of your story, together they create the bigger narrative where everything happens for a reason.
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