Writing Plots For The Ages: Keep Them Turning The Pages

When we have a story to tell, we usually have the plot in mind and a plot is actually a very simple thing

• A young man quits his job.
• A ship captained by a driven man pursues a white whale
• A prince seeks revenge for his murdered father.
• A young woman considers the right man to marry.

Of course, these are bare bones descriptions of A&P, Moby Dick, Hamlet, and Pride and Prejudice, and you are probably thinking that there is a lot more to these. And you’d be right. That “lot more” is the difference between plot and story: a plot is a series of events or instances and the story is what unifies these events into something significant. In other words, the whole is greater than the sums of its parts.

To plot an effective story, it’s best, like a good play, to think in terms of individual scenes. Map out fully realized opportunities for your characters to explore conflicts.

In addition, it’s useful to think of a plot as having three distinct parts:
1. Rising Action
2. Climax
3. Resolution

Of course, your story is much more complicated than this, but using some of the following elements can help cohere and provide depth to a story.

Symbolism: A symbol is an image (something that can be seen or otherwise sensed) which refers to an idea that is larger than itself and often lies outside of the story. Writers, when they are struggling with an idea that is difficult to express, will often invest in a symbol to both give their idea shape and allow the idea flexibility. Melville’s white whale, for example, is a symbol, as it invites interpretations that bring the reader outside of the story. Hawthorne uses the “A” in The Scarlet Letter as a symbol, since it means “Adulteress” but it also comes to mean, among other possibilities, “angel,” thus taking on a life deeper than the physical image.

Motif: A motif is the repetition of an image, or a theme, or manner of description. A motif can be the repetition of an image or description within the work itself (a “t” or a cross in a story dealing with Christian themes) or it can mean the use of a familiar image or theme from outside the work (the ugly duckling motif, for example).

Foreshadowing: a well-known technique, this is the subtle suggestion of events to come. The sense of mystery and dread in the opening of Hamlet, for example, sets a mood for the rest of the play.

By: Marc D. Baldwin, PhD

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Marc D. Baldwin, PhD, is the Owner/President of www.edit911.com, one of the world’s best editing services. Founded in 1999, Edit911 has edited over 21,000 documents for 15,000 clients. They have a perfect A+ BBB rating and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.