Road Map to Plot: 13 Thoughts on Getting Where You're Going

photo courtesy pixabay

"Ay, now the plot thickens very much upon us."--George Villiers, The Rehearsal (drama, 1671)

Travel has certainly changed over the years. When we were first married, we found that the best resource for planning a road trip was the local AAA (American Automotive Association), a place where you could sit across the desk from an agent who would meticulously line out a flipchart map--famously remembered as the "triptik"--on which she would highlight the route with a yellow marker and even make note of the stretches where road construction might slow us down. In later years we made use of mapquest.com. Of course now there's the GPS and even more recently, all you have to do is ask Siri.

But I still like to hold a printed map in my hands and watch for upcoming landmarks on paper as we putter down the road.

The process I go through for plotting a book is similar: I like a hands-on, up-close approach, seeking help from those who have gone before and from whom we can draw on expertise. Over the years, I've collected a number of definitions, explanations, and "mile-markers" that have helped map my process on the road to plot, starting with the basics:

1. Plot (n.)--"1. Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story; 2. a map or diagram." --dictionary.com

2. "Traditional plot has this structure: 1. exposition (setting forth the beginning); 2. conflict (a complication that leads to a climax); 3. denouement (literally unknotting, the outcome of the conflict, the resolution)." --An Introduction to Literature

3. "The greatest gift the Greek dramatists bestowed upon humankind was this: ascending action, climax, denouement...In writing, it's the classical plot outline." --Steven Taylor Goldsberry, The Writer's Book of Wisdom 

4. "Plot is nothing more than the way you organize your story--the way you fit the puzzle pieces together to form a connected and coherent picture for the reader." --Nancy Lamb, The Art and Craft of Storytelling

5. "Essentially and most simply put, plot is what characters do to deal with the situation they are in. It is a logical sequence of events that grow from an initial incident that alters the status quo of the characters." --Elizabeth George, Write Away

6. "All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that's what we call 'the plot.'" --Margaret Atwood

7. "Plot springs from character in conflict." --Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots

8. "Plot is the crucible in which character is formed." --Stephen Roxburgh, Editor

9. "What happens is the plot. Someone is the protagonist. The goal is what is known as the story question. And how he or she changes is what the story itself is actually about." --Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

10. "Plot is what happens in your story, and structure is the shape of that plot." --Laura Witcomb, Your First Novel

11. "Let us define plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality (cause and effect)...It it is in a story we say 'and then?' If it is in a plot we ask 'why?'" --E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel

12. "Cause and effect: that's what makes a plot." --Ansen Dibell, Plot

13. "A textbook definition of plot would be 'the sequence of narrative order.' Or, 'the sequence of events showing characters in action.' But in fact, when thinking about plot, it's best to remember what some British school children said when asked what writers they liked to read. Enid Blyton, they said--because 'there's always something going on.' Always something going on. In some ways plot boils down to those four words. Always something going on." --Jane Yolen, Take Joy

So to plot includes a plan, organization, action, sequence of events, outline, cause and effect, character in conflict, and a story in which there's always something going on.

Wow, that sounds like quite a trip. Are you ready to get your map together? What road signs along your route have helped you with your story's plot?

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Plot Ponderings, Again

(photo: sxc.hu)
"There is only one plot--things are not what they seem." --Jim Thompson

Wandering the avenues of plot this weekend. Hope to make a few inroads!

How about you, any adventures planned?

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Plotting Strategy

"The plot is the line on which I hang the wash, and I try 

to think of a line on which it will hang." --Robert B. Parker

I'm thinking about buying some clothesline and clothespins.

What's  your plotting strategy?

photo courtesy of sxc.hu

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What a Coincidence

Hubby and I, both college students at the time, met in Chicago-- me originally from Columbus, he came from Cincinnati. What a coincidence that two Ohio natives met in the Windy City. But actually it's conceivable--and coincidental--that our paths crossed before that.

My dad has talked about a family trip we took to Kentucky when I was little. Driving back through Cincinnati, he missed his turn on to the 3C Highway at Kemper Road (pre-interstate days, of course) and ended up in a town at the bottom of a hill. Kemper? Hill? Why, the town must've been Loveland, where hubby grew up. Suddenly everything sounded familiar, and we realized that we had passed future hubby's house that day! Could I, a three-year-old, have looked out the car window and seen him as a seven-year old, riding his bike up Cactus Lane? Maybe. What a coincidence!

(Thus this recent anniversary card. Inside, his note reads: "Remember when you saw me when you were 'threeish'? You didn't know I got this picture of us, did you?")

Stories of coincidences abound. An interesting site on the subject lists the "Twenty Most Amazing Coincidences." Writer Susann Cokal at Glimmer Train Press tells her story of coincidence, one she equates to "living in a novel." She makes a case for how fiction is "a series of such coincidences."

Yet fiction writers should be wary of the overuse of coincidence. Irwin and Eyerly, in Writing Young Adult Novels, noted: "A novelist is allowed one coincidence at the beginning of the story, e.g. coincidentally, your protagonist and antagonist may be in the same place at the same time in order to provide an opening scene of the conflict. After that the writer must rely on cause and effect."

Norma Jean Lutz, "Fiction Tips--the Snare of Coincidence," elaborates: "A plot that relies on fate is a thin plot. It's the 'easy-way-out'...lazy way of writing...a short cut that means less hard work of actual plotting--weaving the story to make it work."

Ah, there's the key. In real life, it's fun to be amazed at what would seem to be improbable and unbelievable circumstances. But in writing, such coincidence is counterproductive to writing a believable story. And therein also lies irony (which is a different subject all together).

Hey, care to share a coincidence in your life--or a tip on how you work around it in your writing? We'd sure love to hear about it!