Plot? What is Plot?


Happy Monday, everyone!! So, last week we talked character building, this week is all about plot! I've learned a lot over the last several years about plotting out a story, and I know everyone has a different way that works for them. My process takes several steps. 

I learned about one plot structure where you figure out the five main plot points, and that's where I like to start. These plot points typically look like this:

1. Inciting incident, or beginning

2. 1st plot point, something major happens

3. Midpoint reversal, a false defeat or false victory

4. 2nd Plot point, often but not always the big showdown

5. Conclusion, or end of the book

There are other ways to plot your book or structure your story, but I like to start here, give myself a framework, and then build out from there. My books are speculative fiction, and tend to be 50-90k by the time I finish a draft, so there's a lot more than five events in the story.

For my books as well, I've made it more complicated. I have more than one point-of-view character, (or POV) and sometimes I have to write out each POV's five plot points so that I know what happens and when. Then, or sometimes before, if I'm struggling to find the big 5 plot points, I'll grab my notebook and brainstorm. I tend to take several pages to write out the story beats, highlighting the five plot points, and see where I may want to add or take away to keep the story balanced. We never want to let the middle of the story sag, so keeping momentum and adding tension is always fun. More on this tomorrow!

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