Plot & Portfolio

Today, please read this blog post and complete the class note questions. Our test next week will cover plot, setting, POV, description, characterization, and character. You should be familiar with all the various terms (see post above this one for a list from which to study for the test). 

PLOT

Plot refers to: the actions or incidents occurring in a story (usually in chronological order, but not always). Stories can be plotted in other ways. See below for details.

Without plot, we do not have a story. A plot is a plan or groundwork of human motivations, with the actions resulting from believable and realistic human responses. In simple terms, plot deals with CAUSE and EFFECT.

E.M. Forester:
“The king died, and then the queen died.”

To have a good plot, a sequence of events must include motivation which is based on reaction to action.

“The king died, and then the queen died of grief.”

Events and time in a story are not important in and of themselves but because one thing happens because of another thing (i.e. cause and effect).

Conflict is the essential element of plot because this is where human responses are brought out to their highest degree.

Once two (or more) forces are in opposition, there is doubt about the outcome, thus producing tension and suspense as well.

There are typically four types of conflict in literature, the last three could also be added in contemporary fiction:

• Person versus person
• Person versus self
• Person versus nature
• Person versus society
• (Person versus God is also another common conflict used in literature.) 
• (Person versus machine) (that which is unnatural)
• (God or "fate" versus everybody) 

Plot Structure: The arrangement and placement of materials (characters, etc.) or events within a narrative or drama. Plot structure unifies a story so that it all comes together.

• Plot: Describes the conflicts in a story or narrative.
• Structure deals with the way a work is laid out and given form to bring out the conflict.

Categories of Plot Structure:

• Exposition
• Rising Action/Complication
• Crisis or turning point
• Climax
• Denouement/falling action/resolution

Typical Plot Arrangements

• Linear (a story that focuses on a specific cause and its effects; this is most typically created when the author uses chronological time to organize the plot events; e.g., one moment or scene or day followed by the next and so on)
• Non-linear (a story that is not organized by chronological time; a story that uses flashbacks or flashforwards, skipping from one time or event to another) 

How to improve your 1st drafts and their plots:
1. Choose a story you have written in which you are dissatisfied with the plot.
2. Rearrange the plot so that it is not linear. Use a non-linear structure by using a flashback or flash forward technique.
3. Examine one of the weakest points of your plot. Is your story weak because of a crisis, a climax, a conclusion or denouement, or perhaps you did not include an exposition. Rewrite the story by adding any one or more of these details.
4. Examine your story for conflict. Is the conflict appropriate for the story?
5. According to E.M. Forester, to have a good plot, a sequence of events must include motivation which is based on reaction to action. Does your story have this? Rewrite to include character motivation as a reaction to the action of your story.

Lab: Write. Prepare your portfolio. Turn in your questions by the end of class today.

HOMEWORK: Your portfolio is due next class. Please catch up and complete your work. Please bring your short story collections to class on Tuesday. We will be using them in class.

There will be a unit test on Thursday, covering fiction elements. Please come to class on Tuesday with any questions you have on character, characterization, tense, POV, plot, setting, or description.