[MUSIC] Welcome to module A, Plotting a Course.

Hi, I'm Brando Skyhorse and in this

course
I'll be teaching you the craft of plot. Together we're going to learn what is
plot, how is plot different from a story, how does plot shape a narrative,
what makes a strong plot. We're also going to be talking about story
structure, how to show instead of tell by writing scenes, how to edit and revise
our
work once we've finished our draft of it. And I'll also be discussing with
you in the capstone segment what to do when you finished
all of your revisions. How do I get my work published? Should I self-publish or
should I find an agent? How do I write an agent query letter? Hint, it should be as
short as haiku. What happens to my book after I sell it? Complete all four courses
in the Wesleyan
creative writing program, then come join me in the capstone, where I'll answer
these questions and a whole lot more. Now let's start with plot. What is plot? Plot
can often be a scary word for
writers because it's the first word we think of when someone finds
out we're writing something. Writing a book? What's it about? How can you break
down all of the
complicated parts of your novel into one, simple, easy to digest sentence. That's
where plot comes in. To those of you either writing a novel or
thinking about writing one, plot is the main events of a novel or
story devised and presented by the writer as
an interrelated sequence. Now, that's his dictionary definition but
let's break that down further. Main events mean what
happens in your story, literally the actions or
events that occurred. Devised and presented as an interrelated
sequence means the connected order In which things happen in your story. Note that
word connected. That's a key word to keep in mind and
I'll explain why in a second. So plot then is this What
happens in your story and the connected order in
which those events occur? That's it. Now, did you catch that in
how I just described plot, story is in the definition of plot. A lot of people get
these two
words story and plot confused. What's the difference then
between a story and a plot? The great English author Forster
defines the difference like this. The king died And then the queen died
is a story while the king died and the queen died of grief is a plot. This implies
a causal relationship
between those two events. in the first description First
x happened and y happened. There's no relationship
between those two actions. It's like an itinerary of events that
happened according to a timeline, but are not related to each other. Think about
the departure
board in an airport. This plane leaves for Paris at 5 PM. The next plane leaves for
London at 6 PM. The two flights occur at the same airport,
but they are not related to
each other in any way. But in the second description, first x
happened and then y happened because of x. The queen died because she was sad
about the first thing that happened. Those things are connected to each other. Now
let's go back to that
airport departure board. Imagine that you were supposed to be on
the 5 PM flight to Paris to meet a friend, but discovered they rerouted through
London and were stuck there. Therefore, you took the 6 PM
flight to London instead. Let me put this another way. Think about the actions in
any novel or
story. If the words and then happens between
the beats of those actions, you have something really boring because the events
are not related to each other in any way. You don't need and thens,
you need therefores. This happened therefore, this happens. An excellent way to
visualize all of this and how events happen in a story
is Freytag's Pyramid. Gustav Freytag was 19th
century German novelist and playwright who analyzed ancient Greek and
Shakespearean drama and devised a pyramid to
describe how a story works. At the base of one side of the pyramid,
is exposition. This is where you give your initial
important background information about the story. So for example, you can tell your
readers information about setting, events that have occurred before
the main plot of your story. Back story information about your
characters, any information that might provide context for
what your plot is about is exposition. Next, there is what's known
as the inciting incident. This is the actual event that kicks
off the action in your story. This event also informs the reader
what the main conflict in your plot will be about. This is where we are introduced
to our protagonist. That's your novels main character. After that the pyramid goes
up,
that's your rising action. This is an event or
series of exciting events that start right after your inciting
incident that builds up to your climax. Your plot is dependent upon these exciting
events to set up the climax of your story. This is where we usually
meet our antagonist. This is our protagonist's chief opponent. The antagonist of
your story
tries to put as many obstacles in your protagonist's way. At the top of your
pyramid is a climax. Here's where the biggest
tension in your story is. It's the most exciting event in your plot. This is
everything that your
rising action has built up to and sets sets up for
all of the falling action that follows. Here's where your protagonist, your main
character pushed up against the wall, finally reveals what they're made of. Now
we're coming down the other side
of the pyramid, falling action. These events are the fallout from the big
action that happened in the climax. This is also where we learned
the conflict between your protagonist and the obstacles that have
been put in their way. At the base of the other side
of the pyramid, resolution. This is where the protagonist, or
main character, solves the main problem or conflict. Last, on the other end of the
pyramid,
the denouement, this is your ending. Any remaining secrets, questions,
or mysteries which remain after the resolution is solved by
the characters or explained by the author. Now, all these terms are great. But, how
do they work in an actual book? Click on the next segment in this
module and I'll show you how. [MUSIC]