STRUCTURING YOUR PLOT
You wake up one morning with an exciting story in your head. You tell yourself, “I have to write it! Everyone deserves to know about that story because it’s so good!”
You make yourself a coffee, just the way you like it. You position your fingers on the keyboard, you take a deep breath, and you just wait there, having no idea where to start.
Don’t worry; we’ve all been there.
WHAT IS A PLOT?
A plot is a series of sequential events that help create a novel.
-me
Simple? No?
Not so much, because before you write your plot, you need an outline first. It helps you to organize your thoughts the right way by summarizing them. Again, before you outline your plot, you need to understand how to structure it.
To create a fascinating novel, it is better to figure out the rules of structuring a plot and sticking to them. A plot structure goes like this:
- Exposition: This is when you introduce your characters, identify their goals, and explain the current stable situation they are in. Then you add the inciting event, that is the part where you grab your reader’s attention. It is when something happens that changes everything up-side-down.
- Rising Action: It is the journey the character makes. There is a goal that he wants to reach, but a series of conflicts keep being thrown at him hindering his journey. This part holds the most significant chunk of your book; it is where the readers get to understand the personality of your characters better through its development. They connect with them and get to understand the inner conflict and stakes that your principal character is going through.
- Climax: This is the last battle, the epitome of conflicts that the protagonist has to face. That’s where he beats the evil guy.
- Falling Action: Here is when you wrap everything up and fill out any missing elements in your story.
- Resolution: It is when everything returns to normal, and your principal character achieved his goal; and gets to live happily ever after.
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR STORY IS GRIPPING
A plot outline and structure are essential because it is the best way to grab the attention of your readers. What you need to keep in mind is that the events that take place in the story must start from A to Z. They all need to complete each other.
Every chapter you add must be there for a reason and engages the curiosity of the reader, wanting to know more. It is the perfect way for you to have a page-turner novel.
“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.”
– Somerset Maugham
This is the simplest way of putting up a plot outline structure. All you must do next is fill in the blanks. Remember that a good writer is the one that follows the rules. However, a great writer is one who knows those rules but breaks them. You can be whichever you like because you’ll be writing an extraordinary novel; I’m sure of it.