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Literary Lights

Priscilla Fagan

Part I The Elements of Fiction: Plot

Let us define a plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. ‘The king died and then the queen died,’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief,’ is a plot. E.M. Forster

Plots are driven by characters, situations, and conflict. One thing leads to another and another and in the end… John Gardner says it best, In nearly all good fiction, the basic—all but inescapable—plot form is: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.

Without plot, there is no ‘what, how and why’. Plot is the design of your story. Josip Novakovitch simply states it, Plot depends on passions –on how characters struggle to fulfill them.

There are several types of plots: Character conflict plots. These conflicts usually take place between a protagonist (the one we root for) and an antagonist (opponent). The second type is nonconfrontational plots such as a slice of life, an epiphany, journeys.  The third type is combination plots which are situational story or story of predicament.

Whatever type of plot you choose, the time sequence is all important. How you organize your story depends on the sequence of events. William Zinsser tells us, Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. I’ve read too many books where this simple statement by Zinsser is lost, thus losing me, the reader. Some writers either get bogged down with wordiness or just plain information that doesn’t move the story forward.

Plots drive our stories. Too many times we are driven off track. Keeping your plot in mind, and using it as an outline for your story, will guide you to a logical conclusion.

Anton Chekhov sums it up for us, If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.

Priscilla, the eternal optimist