CHAPTER 4

UNDERSTANDING PLOT

So what’s your manuscript’s story? And what’s the plot? What’s the difference anyway?

Many people don’t know the difference between a novel’s story and its plot. This chapter is designed to help you articulate your novel’s story and to teach you how to construct a well-crafted plot. By learning the difference, you’ll learn how to propel your manuscript forward and gain an understanding of the overall concept of your novel—its story.

PLOT VS. STORY

The most important point in this chapter is that plot is not story. The story of the novel is the full sequence of events in a work of fiction as the reader imagines them to have taken place, in the order in which they would have occurred in life.

Stories can be plot-driven or character-driven.

• Plot-driven: A plot-driven story is one in which a preconceived story line is the main thrust and the character’s behavior is constantly being molded by the inevitable sequence of events that leads to the climax.

• Character-driven: A character-driven story is one in which the character is the main focus. Character-driven stories tend to be literary, and the story is a study of human behavior, emotions, internal conflict, and personal weaknesses. The pivotal point of a character-driven story is when the protagonist understands his weakness and takes the first steps to overcome it.

Generally, novels for young adult readers are plot-driven and not character-driven, although the separation between the two types of story consists of a vast gray area where characteristics of both types may be found. Due to their lack of maturity, introspective ability, and experience, most young adult readers generally cannot understand and appreciate a character-driven story consisting of narration of human internal conflicts.

A plot is a chain of events where each event has a cause. Each event then becomes the cause of other events along the chain that leads to the climax of the story. Plot extends well beyond the boundaries of the story both into the past and the future. However, the author does not always explain every connection of the events to the lives of the characters. Often this insight is reserved for the reader, drawing him more deeply into the world of the story.

There are three kinds of plots:

• Integrated: An integrated plot is one where the story and the plot are tightly bound together and the cause-and-effect events of the plot drive the characters toward resolving the conflict at the climax. The vast majority of young adult plots are integrated.

• Episodic: An episodic plot is composed of loosely connected incidents, each one more or less self-contained. They are often connected by a central theme, location, conflict, or character. At times the distinction between an episodic novel and a collection of short stories with the same theme is not clear. Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles is an example of an episodic novel.

• None: Plotless stories are extremely rare in young adult literature. An example of a plotless story would be Ernest Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River, in which the meaning of the story is entirely symbolic. Stories like this are an illumination of life—the point seems to be “this is what life is about.”

TYPES OF PLOTS

In the canon of literature all of the broad categories of conflicts have been in use since before the ancient Greeks. There are no new plots, only new ways to use them.

How many plots are there? That depends on how they are categorized. Pick a number from five to fifty, and a list of plots can be found for that number. Seven plots, which only slightly overlap one another, are generally mentioned by many writers.

• Man versus nature

• Man versus man

• Man versus the environment

• Man versus machine or technology

• Man versus the supernatural

• Man versus himself

• Man versus God or religion

Since there are no unique plots, the quality of a work of fiction rests on the author’s ability to guide the trajectory of the plot and use it to build an original, interesting story. Most novels follow a familiar plot structure that forms the foundation for telling the story.

PLOT STRUCTURE

Many of the ideas about plot can be traced back to Aristotle in the guidelines he set out in his Poetics, written in 350 BC. Aristotle used the term mythos to denote plot and wrote that it is “the arrangement of incidents.” From Aristotle, Freytag’s pyramid was developed in 1863, which divided a story into five actions: exposition, complication, crisis, anticlimax, and resolution. Modern novels use a similar plot structure by adding two actions, creating a seven-step progression of action that flows through the novel. These are ground state, conflict/incitement, complications/rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and denouement.

1. Ground State

As the story begins, the characters in their world are in a stable situation.

2. Conflict and Incitement

The stability of the characters’ world is upset as a result of a conflict that confronts the protagonist. In modern young adult fiction this must happen immediately, with one or more conflicts arising or implied in the first few pages.

One of these conflicts faced by the protagonist is considered the incitement or the event that actually sets the chain of events of the plot in motion. Some authors, especially in mysteries, may deliberately set out false conflicts. In Alfred Hitchcock’s movies these false conflicts often took the form of McGuffins—ideas or objects around which the plot revolves. While the characters may care deeply about what the McGuffin is, viewers typically care more about the characters and how they react to it. Although the McGuffin set the plot in motion, its exact nature—a government secret (The 39 Steps), a possible murder (Rear Window), $40,000 (Psycho)—was more or less interchangeable and unimportant.

3. Complications and Rising Action

Until the resolution of the story’s central problem, the protagonist’s situation should steadily get worse. A protagonist who finds many natural or unexplained obstacles in his path is “unlucky.” On the other hand, a protagonist who is dealing with obstacles generated by other characters is being “thwarted.” The difficulties should increase primarily as a result of action by the protagonist, not just from outside forces. Every attempt at a solution should create a new and more tenacious problem as a result of that action. The objective is to create a steadily increasing suspenseful atmosphere in order to pull the reader into the story and to keep him reading to find what happens to the characters.

4. Crisis

In young adult stories this is the point of maximum tension and suspense just before the climax. Every event and plot twist has logically led to this point following the actions of the characters reacting to the cause of events. The final crisis is the result of bringing together all of the known information with some final crucial element that brings the entire story into focus in the mind of the reader.

At no time in the crisis scene should the author attempt to summarize the plot or give the reader hints as to the outcome. Trust the reader. If the story is clearly written with a strong, well-organized plot, he’ll get it.

5. Climax

When a problem is resolved or an obstacle overcome, there is a climactic point of tension and drama in the story. The situation is such that the conflict must be resolved one way or the other when a character takes decisive action to end it. However, not all climactic points are created equal, and they should not have equal weight in the story. At the beginning of the story the plot should allow the protagonist small successes. As the story progresses, the challenges should increase in difficulty and the resulting climax should become more significant, leading up to the final central climax of the story. This is the high point of interest or suspense. The reader experiences the greatest emotional response to a character’s problem at this point.

In retrospect the climax should not be a complete surprise. Immediately after the reader says, “Yeah, I got it,” he should say, “Of course! I should’ve seen it.” The story has been building to this one scene, and the reader should be familiar with all of the plot elements but would not have put them together in that particular form.

The final climax must be shown in a fully developed scene; none of the details of this final scene can be described out of the sight of the reader. At the climax circumstances change and the world of the protagonist becomes stable again.

6. Falling Action

Directly following the climax, the author should tie up all the loose ends of the story and briefly examine the consequences of the climax and changed world of the characters. If a problem or question has arisen, the author should deal with it before the end of the story. This can be as simple as a few lines describing the resolution or an acknowledgment that the problem isn’t going to be solved within the space of this story. At the end of a story, a reader shouldn’t be asking, “What about…?”

7. Denouement (Ending)

This is a French term meaning “unraveling.” Most young adult authors prefer to leave most, if not all, of the meanings of the plot for the reader to figure out. That is, they will use indirection and suggestion rather than telling the reader right out. This gives the reader the opportunity to create his own interpretation of the story, which may be different from the author’s. It also provides the opportunity to tempt the reader with further adventures of the same characters in the next book. There are a number of common endings for a plot.

• Resolution: This is the end of the conflict by the victory of one side or the other. One of the most common endings in young adult fiction, it does not always mean that the victory is entirely complete or satisfying to the characters. Resolutions with a small but noticeable element of failure, sacrifice, or loss add emotional depth and force the reader into a variety of interpretations of the ending and how the protagonist handles failure.

• Revelation: This is the exposure of something previously hidden in the plot. An example of a revelation ending is the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The lottery process occupies the entire story, and only in the last few paragraphs does the reader understand the purpose of the lottery.

• Decision: This ending comes when the protagonist makes up his mind about the conflict. The decision should be important, difficult, and require that the character give something up to gain much more.

• Explanation: This ending provides the solution for a mystery or a puzzle-type plot to the reader. An explanation ending works when the mystery or puzzle is sufficiently hidden that the reader will not usually be able to figure it out.

• Trick: This is a surprise and may be a jarring departure from the expected ending. William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) wrote hundreds of stories with trick endings. Trick endings are sometimes used in young adult fiction, but the danger is that readers may think the ending is too simple and may be disappointed. A trick ending works when the protagonist must make a difficult decision and the author keeps the reader from knowing what the protagonist will do.

An author must write his ending on that fine line between a clichéd plot where everything falls into place and the reader saw it coming three chapters ago, and a plot that mimics life too closely and just ends in the middle of nowhere.

SUBPLOTS

The author may choose to tell several stories at the same time—stories within a story. Along with the major plot there may be one or more subplots about other characters or about the protagonist. Subplots are used to add layers of obstacles, mystery, and suspense to the story. A subplot can also add past information, usually something the main character wasn’t previously aware of. There are two types of subplots.

• Parallel: In a parallel subplot the author moves from the main plot to a subplot, using each to dramatize the other, bring in details from another time or place that affect the main plot, or compare and contrast different issues.

• Hinged: A subplot that dramatically joins and becomes part of the main plot at some point is called a hinged plot.

Generally, although there are exceptions, a subplot should not be introduced at the beginning of a novel. Subplots should support the protagonist. His actions should be introduced first and the subplots after.

Subplots can add layers of complexity to your novel and help add color to your story and your characters. But be careful how you use them. Remember they’re subplots—subservient to your main plot. Your main plot should always come first.