Plot: What's it all about?

In my last blog post, I discussed the difference between story and plot.  I illustrated that in order to have a truly winning plot, you needed more than just a series of events.  You needed events that created conflict or were born out of conflict. You also needed the other elements of a good story: complications, climax, and resolution.  To say that plot is whatever happens in a story is simplistic and misses the true essence of plot. Plot is more, much more.

I like what Stephen King said about plot in his book Danse Macabre.  A novel without a plot is like a car without an engine.  It won’t run. 

 

In her book Plot, Ansen Dibell says a plot is moved along by events that have consequences and by the things characters do, say, feel, and think. Thoughts and emotions can drive plots too by causing actions and reactions.  These things become important only when they help the reader know what’s at stake and why it should matter. Dibell also says this about plotting:  “Plotting is a way of looking at things. It’s a way of deciding what’s important and then showing it to be important through the way you construct and connect the major events of your story.  It’s the way you show things mattering.”

For example in Lord of the Rings, the issues at stake are keeping an extremely powerful ring out of the wrong hands and saving the land from destruction by an evil sorcerer.  One major complication in the story is that everyone who comes in contact with the ring becomes obsessed with it. One of the main characters, Frodo, must continually deal with both internal and external conflicts.  On the one hand, Frodo must fight his own internal battle against the controlling aspects of the ring.  On the other, he must externally battle all those who pursue him relentlessly for it.  The plot is driven by a number of events including a number of battles of hand-to-hand combat, the capture of Frodo by some Orcs, and Frodo’s encounter with a giant spider to name a few.

  

For the plot of your novel or short story to run like a well-maintained vehicle, it must be driven by consequential events and strong characters that can convince the reader that your story does indeed matter.