Most people agree that stories are created with three key elements: character, setting, and plot. While there are endless resources on character and setting (worldbuilding), I’ve found that most sources skim over plot. I know, you’re probably saying, “But you did a whole bunch of posts on plot with the Hollywood Formula, 7 Point Story, Hero’s Journey, Super Structure, and Save the Cat!” Yes, I did write those posts, but they aren’t about plot. They are about story structure. Many writers get these two concepts confused, and I want to set the record straight as well as dig into what really makes up plot.
Before we go further, I just want to give credit where credit is due. The first person who pointed out to me the difference between plot and story structure was September C. Fawkes. She did a long, in-depth series looking at what plot really entails. If you want more on the topic than what I’ve provided here, you can check out her first post in the plot series here. What I’ve done below is simplify and streamline her concepts in a way that works best for me.
Plot Vs. Story Structure
So, what is the difference between plot and story structure? Essentially, plot is what happens in a book while story structure is the strategic order of events. Clear as mud, right? Ok, let’s break it down more.
Story structure is all about what events need to happen (and when they need to happen) to make a good story. There is an introduction, an inciting incident, rising action, a climax, and the denouement. Each story structure method, as we noted a while back, uses the same type events and a similar order. No one starts with the climax. Everyone agrees you need a resolution. These are all based on studies of the best stories and what it takes to make a tale successful.
However, structure does not guarantee a good story. Consider the following outline of a book:
- Introduction: We meet a little girl in the United States who loves puppies.
- Inciting Incident: A car accident in Spain causes four deaths.
- Rising Action: One man must get through battle school against impossible odds.
- Climax: A woman declares her love for her boyfriend, and they finally get engaged.
- Denouement: A spy returns home to his family, vowing to never put work above his loved ones again.
Did you see a problem with the outline? None of the events go together. Most people would hate this book if it actually existed. Yet the story structure is solid. We’ve hit all five key events for a good story, yet the book won’t be successful. Why? Because there is no plot—what happens in the story makes no sense.
To sum it up, story structure is how you put your plot together to create a tale. If you’re baking a cake, the recipe is your story structure while the ingredients (flour, butter, milk, etc.) are the plot. You can follow the recipe’s directions and amounts, but if you put powder sugar in for the flour, your cake will fail. The same is true of a story. Without both story structure and plot working together, the final product won’t be good.
8 Key Elements Of Plot
If plot isn’t things like the inciting incident and climax, what is it? I’ve narrowed plot down to eight elements, and I believe each element flows naturally into the next (just like any good story). Let’s take a look at each one in turn.
1. Goal
The first and most important element of plot is the goal. What is the protagonist trying to achieve by the end of the book? He will either be trying to get, stop, or maintain something. He wants to get a promotion, a girlfriend, or a rare artifact. Maybe he wants to stop a murderer, a terrorist attack, or a terminal illness. Or, he wants to maintain a relationship, a job, or his wealth. There are numerous options, but you need to pick one plot goal and follow it to the end. Once the story is over, the reader should know the protagonist either achieved his goal or lost it forever.
Just to clarify, this goal is an external plot goal. This isn’t the protagonist’s internal goal that ties in with his character arc. This goal is what he is trying to achieve in the physical world.
2. Stakes
Every goal has stakes attached to it. The bigger the goal, the bigger the stakes. So, if you have a plot goal that the entire book revolves around, you better have important stakes to go with it. Let’s say we have the goal to stop a serial killer. The stakes are simple. If the killer isn’t stopped, then more people will die. I did a post on creating significant stakes and how to raise them throughout the story, so I won’t go in depth here. But remember that stakes are a huge part of a good plot.
3. Plan
Once you have a goal and stakes, then your protagonist needs a plan. How will he achieve his goal? If your protagonist wants to stop a serial killer but just continues to work at the coffee shop and watch movies in the evening, he won’t stop the killer. Plus, he’s not being an active participant in the book. Readers want someone who is proactive so give your protagonist a plan. If the plan falls through, have him create another one. Your protagonist should always have an idea on how to get what he wants.
4. Antagonistic Force
You have a goal, stakes that show the reader why the goal is important, and a plan to achieve the goal. If the plot elements stopped there, it would be a boring story. The protagonist would go after his goal, get it, and be done. Therefore, what you need now is opposition. An antagonistic force is something or someone who has an opposing desire or goal to the protagonist. It can be a natural disaster, an illness, a person, etc. The point is that it goes against the protagonist.
Most antagonistic forces will be a person, and the person does not have to be the villain. If our protagonist is trying to stop a serial killer, many would say that the killer is the antagonist. While the killer may want the opposite of the protagonist’s goal, that doesn’t mean the killer is the antagonist. Maybe the killer doesn’t even know someone is after him and is doing nothing to actively work against the protagonist. What if, instead, a detective is the antagonist? Maybe she doesn’t want the protagonist to stop the killer because she wants to catch the criminal, which will get her promoted. The detective isn’t the villain of the story, but she is working against the protagonist for her own goal.
5. Conflict
Once you introduce an antagonist, naturally the conflict will start. Conflict is what happens with the protagonist and antagonist clash while trying to achieve their own goals. Basically, there is a fight between the antagonist and the protagonist to establish control over something. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and René Belloq are fighting over control of the Ark of the Covenant. In Inside Out, Joy and Sadness fight over control of Riley.
Two people want something, but only one can win. If one character gets his goal, then the other character’s goal will be impossible. In our serial killer example, the protagonist will either stop the killer (achieve his goal) or he won’t (the antagonist achieves her goal). In order for conflict to be meaningful, there can’t be a situation where both win. Even in Inside Out, Joy and Sadness learn to work together, but Joy actually fails to achieve her goal. She doesn’t have complete control over Riley. Failing to get her goal doesn’t make a sad ending though (sometimes the protagonist’s goal is wrong). Just remember, either the antagonist or the protagonist wins, not both.
6. Decisions
Once conflict pops up, the protagonist will have to start making decisions. Obstacles will block his path, people will ruin his plans, and plot reveals will derail him. Each time conflict occurs in the story, the protagonist will need to make a choice on how to react and handle it. These decisions will affect the plot moving forward, making Try/Fail cycles until the story’s climax.
So, every time our protagonist gets a clue about the serial killer, he needs to decide what to do with it. Maybe he takes a clue to the detective at first, but she only arrests him for intervening with an active criminal investigation. The next time he gets a clue, he might try to follow it on his own. You can make his decisions point in the way you want your plot to progress, but make sure he always actively chooses to take action in some way.
7. Consequences
With each decision the protagonist makes, there will be consequences. If it was the wrong choice, there may be a punishment. If it was the right choice, there may be a reward. Every decision though should have a cost. Once the protagonist makes a decision, there can’t be any going back. The other option needs to be lost to him. If the protagonist chooses wrong and then just backtracks to the right path, the story loses any tension. Every choice should be permanent (or be extremely hard to reverse) so the readers feel real stakes attached to every decision.
For instance, if our protagonist decides to investigate a clue on his own, he can’t change his mind once he realizes it’s dangerous. Maybe the serial killer catches him and holds him hostage. Or, police could find him at a new crime scene, and the detective suspects he’s the serial killer. It can be anything you want, but there needs to be real consequences to the choice.
8. Shifts
The last element of plot is shifts. I talked about this a bit when I discussed processing the plot. Essentially, every time a protagonist makes a decision and the consequences pop up, the story needs to shift. The protagonist’s goal or plan should change according to the new events or information. If the protagonist was captured by the serial killer, his goal will shift to escaping. If he was arrested by the detective, his immediate goal will shift to proving he’s innocent. When he took his first clue to the detective and got no support, he changed his plan from helping the police to stopping the killer by himself. Every consequence should make the protagonist shift in some way.
Each shift will be either progress or a setback. If he found a clue to help his investigation, he made progress and can shift his plan according to the new information. If the detective arrests him, he’s reached a setback that deters him from achieving his goal, and he needs to find a way around it. You’ll want to balance out your setbacks and progress so the readers feel that reaching the goal is hard but not impossible.
Final Thoughts
Let’s sum up the eight plot elements. The protagonist has a plan to achieve a goal (with stakes), but an antagonistic force pushes back against him. There is conflict, which leads to decisions, which have consequences, which result in story shifts. The shifts create more conflict, which leads to more decisions…and so on. The last four plot elements keep cycling throughout the book. At first, you’ll want to make it so each decision makes the protagonist’s life harder, but, by the end, he’ll start making the right choices that will lead to victory.
It took my mind several months to wrap around the concept of plot and how to use it to craft a great story. It may take you a while as well, and that’s fine as long as you keep striving to learn a little more every day. The best way to write a plot is to keep it focused. This is where your premise comes in handy. Keep referring back to the premise as you write to make sure you keep the tale on track. Then just follow the natural flow of the eight plot elements, cycling when needed, until you bring your protagonist to the goal. Good luck!
Thanks for reading!
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