Okay guys so my new series is about plotting. Now I know that not all of you are plotters. If you aren’t that’s okay too. This series will still be really helpful for you. I personally am more of a pantser than a plotter. But when you really get down to the nitty gritty of plot like I’m kind of hoping to do in this series, it gets easier to be a pantser. I really enjoyed writing some of these posts ahead of time and I hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. These posts are kind of my break in the week from doing school work and going to work and just doing something that I enjoy. So here we go with the new series. This series is called Secrets of Plot.
In the first series of posts I’m going to break down and look at general plot elements. These include Exposition, Rising Action, Climax etc. Every writer knows these terms but in this series I’m hoping to bring new insight to them. I tried to make them less lecturey and more fun so I hope that they are more enjoyable than I am making them sound. I wrote some original pieces of stories in here as examples, so you’ll also get a taste for my unedited writing. (Sorry that part will be crappy. I have to edit like crazy for something to sound publish worthy). I originally wrote this first post as a single post for the getting started series titled plot elements, but it got really long, and I realized I needed a series for it. So, without further ado the first post in the new series:
Secrets of Plot: What is plot?
What is plot? I don’t think that writers ever actually define this for themselves the more they get into writing. I think that writers just kind of assume that what they think of as plot is plot. Here’s what the dictionary says.
The first definition of plot in the dictionary is, “a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, especially a hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose”. Now I don’t know about you but my fictional novel is not some secret vendetta that I am creating against someone that is for an evil purpose. That definition doesn’t really seem right to me. But the second definition of plot sounds better. The second definition is, “the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story”. That sounds better doesn’t it. More like the definition you have in your head of what a plot is.
But here. Let me put it into more simple terms or a ‘JM definition’ if you will.
A plot is a sequence of events that (if its interesting enough) is a story. Its not some secret scheme that your villains make in a back alley in chapter three. A plot is the story itself. But something that I know other writers struggle with all the time is the difference between plot and plot points. Let me try to make this easier to understand.
Plot points are different than plot. Plot points are points of important events or changes in the stories narrative. Plot points don’t usually include every little detail of what happens in each and every scene. A plot is all of the little details and the major events or changes. Plot points are an element of the plot but they are not the plot. It’s kind of like how a square can be a rectangle but a rectangle can not be a square. Plot points can be part of a plot but a plot can not be just plot points.
But the next thing I would like to talk about is the plot elements.
To start off with, there are all sorts of arguments on what the main elements of plot are. Some argue that there are five, some four but I’m partial to the three-plot element list. So, we’re going to go off of that. Here’s what I have found about the plot elements based on my writing.
The three main elements of a plot go like this:
Exposition: The Introduction
Conflict: The Problem
Resolution: The Solution
Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? Well, hold on to your notebook because its about to get a little more complicated. But not in today’s post. Sorry to get your hopes up. Next week we’re going to talk about the different sections of the introduction. That post is pretty long and so I might break it up into two separate posts talking about different elements of the introduction. We’ll see. I’m winging this series more than the last one where I planned every single post. But I do hope that you guys likes this post. I thought it was kind of interesting to write about. But next week will be great. And as usual,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!