How to Develop Plots in Fiction Writing
Plots can be Planned or Evolve Through Characters.
Sep 10, 2009
Louise Erdrich, author of several novels including The Painted Drum, and The Beet Queen, among others, stated in a radio interview, cited in Writer’s Digest magazine that she doesn’t worry about plot in her first drafts.
“I usually write pieces of a book and fit them together and find the plot within them,” she told the interviewer. “When something really works for me, it’s happening on the subterranean level, but the plot is there all along.”
Norman Mailer apparently feels the same way. Quoted in Josip Novakovich’s book Fiction Writer’s Workshop, he is quoted as saying, “Generally, I don’t even have a plot. What happens is my characters engage in an action, and out of that action little bits of plot sometimes adhere to the narrative.”
Author Steve Almond, in an article entitled “The Great Plot” test sets forth how he approaches the subject of plot with his workshop students. He asks them to tell him what their stories are about using only one sentence. Inevitably, they provide him with a litany of chronological events, without ever truly fleshing out a plot, which results in plot issues. He believes that plot, indeed, can be boiled down to a single sentence rather than a list of events. This is not an easy task and in the process, many young writers develop have Plot Issues: the protagonist’s passion never comes out in the writing; the plot drifts in that the central character and his or her desire is not clear, or the writer fails to push the plot hard enough, i.e., the character never really has to makes difficult choices between their passion or desires and loss or pain.
How Essential Is Plot Development to Fiction?
According to Novakovich, plot is the design of the story. In interconnects and moves the elements of the story and answers the questions, “Who, What, Where, When and How”? It establishes cause and circumstances and should depend on basic values: What do the characters treasure most? What is their passion? How far will they go to fight to defend that passion? Plot relies on these passions and how characters react to defend them or play them out.
Writer’s Digest suggests that writer’s plan out plots using a “Plot Planner” which should be used as often as necessary while writing. Essentially the plot is fleshed out in this way: a conflict and or group of complications attached to that conflict, or problem, is presented. This follows with the character’s reaction and the effect of the reaction, which essentially is what, happens to further complicate the problem and thus build the intensity of the conflict.
Character’s need a problem, which in turn will create a plot, notes Novakovich. A character without a conflict or a problem, is like a mathematician without a problem to solve; they both are idle, and in that case of a character, flat and potentially boring. He notes that fleshing out a character’s flaw is the most efficient agent of plot as doing so will bring out problems and conflicts. On a good day, that means the story will almost write itself.
Types of Plots
There are several types of plots, but most fiction falls into the category of confrontational or character-conflict plot. Novakovich sets forth the following types:
- Man against Man
- Man against Self
- Man against Nature
- Man against Society
- Man Against Machine
- Man Against God
- God Against God
He notes that in most strong conflicts, the protagonist looks at the conflict as war. If the writer can clearly define the conflict, the plot will follow. Although it always takes two parties to create and maintain a conflict, Novakovich suggests that having three or more characters involved in conflict makes for a more interesting story.
Non Confrontational Plots
Slice of Life plots essentially outline the details and daily life of your character or characters. These details usually accompany a story but are not the main focus. If one chooses this type of approach, Novakovich notes that “scrupulous attention to detail to setting is an absolute must.”
Revelation or epiphany plots are also nonconfrontational in nature. In these types of plots, the main character has a personal insight, or genuine discovery. In a plot involving a character’s journey, we learn more about setting than the characters. As Novakovich notes, the journey itself moves the story along. He gives Dante’s Divine Comedy as an example of this type of plot.
Most stories will combine the confrontational and nonconfrontational type of plots, usually is a story of predicament. Essentially, Novakovich notes, the initial predicament will be straightened out and in doing so, the story will be told. Although conflicts are established along the way, the nonconfrontational elements—wonder epiphany and journey—are more important. He sites author Peter Taylor’s The Old Forest as an example of this.
Creating Plots in Fiction
Plots can evolve or be meticulously planned. Although not all plots involve a type of conflict, most do and if the writer can clearly define that conflict, the story will essentially move itself along as the writer brings the character’s personalities and actions in line with the conflict. This will move the story along keep the reader interested.
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