Just two elements left! Plot and Theme! If you’re playing catch up, here are the previous articles in this series introducing the Five Elements of Fiction:
The Five Elements of Fiction: Style
The Five Elements of Fiction: Character
The Five Elements of Fiction: Setting
As we jump into Plot today, let’s start with two helpful definitions:
Years ago, Jill Williamson and I taught together at a writing conference. We taught several classes, but the one that sticks with me the most is the class we taught on Plot and Structure.
During the prep for that class, as Jill and I were sending notes back and forth, I realized something: I may not actually understand story plot.
Mind you, I’d had three novels published at that time, and was fairly certain those stories had a beginning, middle, and end.
And yet, the terminology of the Three Act Structure, the names of all the alternate story structures, and the certainty with which some experts espoused dos and don’ts, had me flummoxed. If I didn’t use their beat sheets or plotting charts, if I didn’t know exactly how to define the midpoint twist, did that mean someone, somewhere was going to take away my author card? And why on earth was I teaching a class where I still felt very much like a student?
Now, seven or eight years later, I’m much farther along in my understanding of plot and structure, but I’ll tell you this: I am absolutely, 100%, still a student of this story element. And today, instead of pretending like I have it all figured out, I want you to know that there isn’t one way to plot and structure a story. More than that, even if you haven’t memorized a single plotting method or chart, it is possible to successfully write a compelling story that has a beginning, middle, and end.
You were created with a blueprint for story inside you. Did you know that? This Tedx Talk by SJ Murray is one of my favorites, and it gives a window into just why that is.
Because humans inherently see and explain the world through story, your instincts are worth valuing. On top of that, if you do the work of reading good fiction, odds are favorable that when you put pen to the page, something resembling a Three Act Structure, or a Hero’s Journey will likely guide your thought processes unseen.
And still! We want to be a good student of the writing craft. We want to improve. We want to capitalize on our narratival instincts, and use them to create the best art we can possibly create. So, as much as we’re able, we study plot and structure. We consider carefully the thoughts of experts when they tell us when and how we should use certain plot devices. We read widely and note how conflict and tension almost always climb, how every story seems to center around a central problem, and how growth in the main character is inevitable or, notably, scandalously absent.
We don’t wait until we have it all figured out to begin. We open our hands to the process, to the wisdom of the storytellers who’ve gone before us, and we learn as we write.
The first plot structure I was introduced to was the Three Act Structure. At the time, I believed, erroneously, that this was the only story structure. Because it’s so common and so universal, I thought that if I just looked at a story hard enough, I could make it fit into this structure. And while this is true of many stories, I was missing a very obvious truth:
The Three Act Structure addresses our need for a beginning, middle, and an end, so yes, we can find it in most stories, but the author may have had an entirely different model in mind when constructing the story. And this is where I think studying story structure can be helpful for authors.
Different structures play with the order of events as shown to the reader, and can open up new and creative ways to tell a story.
The purpose of today’s post isn’t to explain every plot structure available to the author, but if you’d like to read more on that subject, check out this post by Jill Williamson, or consider purchasing our book Go Teen Writers: Write Your Novel, where they’re laid out more fully.
Today, our goal is to acknowledge the role that plot plays in fiction. Stories need structure, and the one thing that ensures a story will have some method to their madness is conflict.
Every story should have a central conflict, often called the story problem, and it’s the addressing of this problem that drives the story forward to its conclusion.
As we study story, we realize that the best story problems are connected inextricably to the main character, also called the protagonist. Thus, it’s not the story problem we end up following, but a worthy character. And in the most compelling stories, worthy characters don’t have just one problem to deal with, they have a full life, which means there are other problems. Great news for every author! We get to show how the central conflict impacts the protagonist’s entire life by simply cracking it open for the reader.
Suddenly, what was once just a problem in the mind of an author, becomes a story that develops organically from the character’s awareness of the problem, through their grappling with it impacting them on every level, to the end where some sort of resolution must happen. A beginning, middle, and end.
And all because we started with a worthy story problem, and added to it a compelling protagonist. Or vice versa.
Plotting a story is just that easy and also that hard. It’s not simple, but we shouldn’t believe it’s so difficult to understand that we stop writing stories out of fear that we’re doing it wrong.
Remember, you were created for story. Hardwired for it, even. Read all kinds of books, soak up structure, start with a problem or a compelling character and then add the other, work your way honestly from problem awareness to problem resolution, and learn as much as you can as you work. Writing itself is an excellent teacher, and actually finishing a story will teach you more than any book or blog article out there.
So go! Write! And tell me, what do you find most difficult about plotting a story? Perhaps I’ve been there and can offer some encouragement.
Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.
Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.
It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.
To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.
For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.