A literature term, a plot is all the events in a story particularly rendered toward the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect or general theme. An intricate, complicated plot is known as an imbroglio, but even the simplest statements of plot can have multiple inferences, such as with songs the ballad tradition.[citation needed]
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Plot structure
Freytag's pyramidPlot is often designed with a narrative structure Theorists describing a text's narrative structure might refer to structural elements such as an introduction, in which the story's founding characters and circumstances are described; a chorus, which uses the voice of an onlooker to describe the events or indicate the proper emotional response to be happy or sad to what has just happened; or a, storyline Categories: Fiction | Plot | Literary concepts or story arc A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story arc is much more common in dramas than in comedies,, that includes exposition, conflict, rising action and climax, followed by a falling action and resolution.
Exposition
Main article: Exposition (literary technique) Exposition is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration. The purpose of exposition is to provide some background and inform the readers about the plot, character, setting, and theme of the essay/story or motion pictureExposition is the beginning of the plot usually concerned with introducing characters A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ), the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an and setting In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and. These elements may be largely presented at the beginning of the story, or occur as a sort of incidental description throughout. Exposition may be handled in a variety of ways—perhaps a character or a set of characters explain the elements of the plot through dialogue or thought, media such as newspaper clippings, and diaries. In the case of film, an analogous usage of television, discovered video tape, or documentary may be used.
Rising Action
Main article: Conflict (narrative) Conflict is a necessary element of fictional literature. It is defined as the problem in any piece of literature and is often classified according to the nature of the protagonist or antagonist, as follows:Rising Action is the central part of a story during which various problems arise, leading up to the climax.
Conflict is the "problem" in a story which triggers the action. There are five basic types of conflict: Person vs. Person: One character in a story has a problem with one or more of the other characters; Person vs. Society: A character has a conflict or problem with society-the school, the law, tradition; Person vs. Him or Herself: A character struggles inside and has trouble deciding what to do; Person vs. Nature: A character has a problem with some element of nature, a snowstorm, avalanche, bitter cold; Person vs. Fate A character has to battle what seems to be an uncontrolled problem.
Climax
Main article: Climax (narrative)The climax is the high point of the story, where a culmination of events create the peak of the conflict. The climax usually features the most conflict and struggle, and usually reveals any secrets or missing points in the story. Alternatively, an anti-climax may occur, in which an expectedly difficult event is revealed to be incredibly easy or of paltry importance. Critics may also label the falling action as an anti-climax, or anti-climactic. The climax isn't always the first important scene in a story. In many stories, it is the last sentence, with no successive falling action or resolution.
Falling action
Main article: Falling action The falling action is the part of a story, usually found in tragedies and short stories, after the climax and showing the effects of the catastropheThe falling action is the part of a story following the climax. This part of the story shows the result of the climax, and its effects on the characters, setting and proceeding events. Critics may label a story with falling action as the anti-climax or anti-climactic if they feel that the falling action takes away from the power of the climax.
Resolution
Main article: Dénouement In literature, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax of a drama or narrative, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Etymologically, the French word dénouement is derivedEtymologically Etymology is the study of the history of words, where they are from, and how their form and meaning have changed over time, the French word dénouement is derived from the Old French word denoer, "to untie", and from nodus, Latin for "knot". In fiction, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean.", or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Simply put, dénouement is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot. Be aware that not all stories have a resolution.
Plot devices
Main article: Plot device A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plotA plot device is a literary technique A literary technique, literary device, or literary motif is an identifiable rule of thumb, convention or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling used by authors to forward the plot of a story.
Plot outlines
A plot outline is a prose telling of a story to be turned into a screenplay. Sometimes called a one page (one page synopsis, about 1 - 3 pages). It is generally longer and more detailed than a standard synopsis (1 - 2 paragraphs), but shorter and less detailed than a treatment A film treatment is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline (or one-page synopsis) and shorter and less detailed than a step outline, but it may include details of or a step outline A step outline is a detailed telling of a story with the intention of turning the story into a screenplay for a motion picture. There are different ways to do these outlines and they vary in length.
In comics Comics is a graphic medium in which images convey a sequential narrative. The term derives from the mostly humorous early work in the medium, and came to apply to that form of the medium including those far from comic. The sequential nature of the pictures, and the predominance of pictures over words, distinguishes comics from picture books,, an outline, often pluralized as outlines, refers to a stage in the development where the story has been broken down A script breakdown is an intermediate step in the production of a play, film, comic book, or any other work that is originally planned using a script very loosely in a style similar to storyboarding Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity in film development Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image into a visible image, makes this permanent and renders it insensitive to light.
The pencils will be very loose (i.e., the sketch rough), the main aim being to lay out the flow of panels across a page, ensure the story successfully builds suspense and to work out points of view, camera angles and character positions within panels. This can also be referred to as a plot outline or a layout.
Notes
See also
- Dramatic structure Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle in his Poetics . This article focuses primarily on Gustav Freytag's analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama
- Narrative A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events
- Narrative structure Theorists describing a text's narrative structure might refer to structural elements such as an introduction, in which the story's founding characters and circumstances are described; a chorus, which uses the voice of an onlooker to describe the events or indicate the proper emotional response to be happy or sad to what has just happened; or a
- Plot hole A plot hole, or plothole, is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot, or constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot. These include such things as unlikely behaviour or actions of characters, illogical or impossible events, events happening for no
- Storyline Categories: Fiction | Plot | Literary concepts
- Subplot A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporting characters, those besides the protagonist or antagonist
- The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is a descriptive list which was created by Georges Polti to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. To do this Polti analyzed classical Greek texts, plus classical and contemporaneous French works. He also analyzed a handful of non-French authors. In his introduction, Polti, which is Georges Polti's categorization of every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance.
References
- Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 158297117x.
- Polking, K (1990). Writing A to Z. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Writer's Digest is an American magazine devoted to both beginning and established writers, offering interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles. It was established in 1920 under the name Successful Writing Books. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0898794358.
External links
- What Exactly is a Plot? This is a simple, easy to grasp explanation.
- On Plot, a guide for constructing plots.
- 20 Basic Plots from the Tennessee Screenwriting Association.
- How to plan and organise story ideas BBC raw words guide to story writing
Categories: Fiction | Plot | Literary concepts | Narratology
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Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:17:33 GMT+00:00
Telegraph.co.uk It is a dramatic story, part triumph and part tragedy, told by a master in the art of non-fiction narrative . Buck thrived on hardship and was ruined by ...
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Literacy Daily Planning Sheet 7
Derek
Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:17:14 GM
Authors have a role to play in forming the . plot. . . Narrative. essay formats can provide a template for them to work on. The plot can be woven into a gripping story to be completed within limits set by the template. Often, a narrative could ...
Q. I have written a literary fiction novel that is heavily based on my personal perception of how things are, but it is not a first person narrative and the plot is not about me. When I write my query letter to send to agents, should I make mention of the book being based on my perceptions, or should I simply state the way things are in the book as if that IS the way things are? I realize this is somewhat of a vague question, but I don't want to get into the actual details of the book.
Asked by egn18s - Mon Jun 28 18:18:06 2010 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Just state the way things are in the book. The agent doesn't care why you wrote it, honestly. Your query should focus on Who your character is, What happens to them, the Choices they have to make, and the Consequences of those choices.
Answered by agilebrit - Mon Jun 28 19:54:27 2010
