The Beginnings of Plot

Today, there really isn't a whole lot on my plat to talk about, so I thought about talking about something I know about and maybe helping someone out (ya like that?  A little poetic, well very little poetics, but fun.  I believe that's an assonance).  So let us look at the all exciting and ever crucial yet often misused concept of PLOT.

A very pretty plot diagram

Plot is basically the road map of a story.  The diagram above is about as simple as a plot diagram gets, even though experienced, practical, or hobbyist writers know that very few stories are actually this simple.  However, this also means that covering the basics of plot will probably take me more than a few posts to accomplish.  So hopefully i wont be too boring.

When we consider plot, we first must also consider two other things in our story.  The concept and the premise.  Neither of these items creates the story, they just create the motivation and potential of a story.

The concept is the exigence of the story, the curiosity that gets us moving.  Boy meets girl is a very simple example of a concept.  We know that usually when a boy meets a girl love is in the air. So, to keep things interesting we tend to complicate these ideas more so since the days of Aesop.  These complications help create the premise of the story.  Girl meets magically cursed boy trapped in a hairy and fanged persona or boy meets girl but she's locked away in a high tower guarded by a dragon.  So on and so forth.

As we begin to flesh out the details of our Premise we begin to develop the conflict of the story.  Originally, as we are told, conflicts had three form, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man, and Man vs. Self.  All three of these can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first known literary pieces written down.

Side note:  It is important to note that much of the literature we have today is understood only because it was written down.  However, there are oral story traditions that date back long before our first writings which have either been transcribed, remain oral, or have been lost to us.

Back on soapbox: Eventually, conflicts got more esoteric and thanks to plays like Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus.  Thanks to the constant tinkering of the Greeks we managed to add Man vs. Fate and Man vs. Government.  It wasn't until the age of Jules Verne, and very heavily attributed to writers like Ray Bradbury and Issac Asimov, we were able to add Man vs. Technology.

Now, these six conflicts are what we milk into our plots, thus creation somewhere around 35 identified plot conflicts or premises and at least ten archetypal quests.  Topics for another lesson.

So, I know, I didn't even begin to discuss plot.  I know  I chose to write about the things which come before the plot.  The items which we create to investigate using our plots and characters.  Let me explain.

One particular story I have been playing with contains the following:

Concept - Struggling with the loss of someone special.
Conflict - Man vs. Fate, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Nature (arguably).
Premise - A young boy loses his mother to circumstances he doesn't understand and uses his kite to try to find her once again.

Voila, now I begin looking at other key tidbits of my creation as I begin to outline and dabble with my characters, and that is where I'll write more tomorrow.