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Humanities LibreTexts

6.1: Classroom Lecture by Ukaisha Al-Amin

  • Page ID
    386502

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    Plot and Organization

    How your story is organized matters. The plot is what actually happens in the story. For example, the humans leave the house, the cat decides to make a cake, the cake burns, the cat firefighters show up, they put out the fire, the cat apologizes, the cat's friends help him clean up, the humans return none the wiser. If you are finding it difficult to write a succinct plot synopsis of your story, you might consider reverse outlining it. You might ask yourself: What is the action of the story? The order in which you reveal information is important and may not be exactly part of the plot, but usually it is. Figuring out the plot not only includes how you reveal information, but also how you section off the story or whether you choose to have anything beyond paragraph breaks. There are also plot structures that you can use to help organize the story. Here are a few structures that you might use.

    Story within a Story: This structure starts with someone telling someone else a story. It is clear to the reader that this is happening. Throughout the story that the person is telling, sometimes the other person interrupts with questions. These interruptions act as section breaks in the story. The end needs to have a resolution in the present time of the story. This helps connect the story being told and the story happening in the forefront. A good example of this is Definitely, Maybe. and The Neverending Story.

    Multiple Narrator: This structure allows the writer to write two stories simultaneously through two or more characters. The characters could be sharing the same spaces but the way in which they interpret what happens is different. The characters could also be in two completely different places and eventually meet up to continue the story together. There is a lot of flexibility with this structure. The writer can use multiple point of views and at times, some writers even use a third point of view for some chapters.

    Chronological or Episodic: With this structure, the story starts at one point in time and progresses to the end. This can happen in present tense or in past tense. The story should continuously move forward, flashbacks or explanations of the past are minimal. This story is straight forward and the writer needs to make sure that the characters don’t go stale by just going along with the plot.


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