For us
writers, plot is a necessary evil. Our writing careers hinge on creating
gripping plots. We all know that Plot is
the literary element that describes the structure of a story. A plot diagram is an organizational tool,
which is used to map the significant events in a story. By placing the most
significant events from a story on the plot diagram, we can visualize the key
features of the story. I had done a post
about my plotting method: Plot Structures that Capture the Essence of the Story. It’s simple and easy to follow.
While
researching about plot for my class, I
realized that I was really a plot novice. There was so much about plot
that I had no clue about. I am sharing
what I discovered when I researched about plots. As many of us teach creative writing, these explanations will help
us explain plot points to students.
There are
two types of plots: Linear Plots and Nonlinear Plots.
Nonlinear Plots are plots where the characters and dialogue go in more than one
direction. Nonlinear narrative is also called the disjointed or the disruptive narrative. This is a
technique which is sometimes used in literature and movies, in this type of
narrative the events are portrayed out of chronological order. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of
human memory, to show memory lapses.
Several medieval Arabian Nights Tales such as ‘Sinbad the Sailor’, ‘The City of Brass’ and ‘The Three Apples’ had nonlinear
narratives employing the in
medias res and flashback
techniques. Few examples of
Nonlinear novels are Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, James
Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, Finnegans ‘Wake’, Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch 22’ and Muriel
Spark’s ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.’
In Linear
Plots, both the character and dialogue
are going in one direction.
There are
many types of Linear plots.
Chronological Plot in which the events are told in a chronological
order; from the beginning to the end
with a middle in between and everything follows a proper sequence. Most
books follow this plot structure.
Flashback
Plot in which the story is told in
Flashback by the narrator through memories of the events.
There is
a third type of Plot : in medias res (in the middle of things) when the story
starts in the middle of the action without exposition. An example is Homer’s
Iliad. Most murder mysteries start this way.
In
addition to this we have another plot type the Circular Plot Type. A circular
plot shares many of the characteristics
of a linear plot, except that a circular plot typically begins and ends in the
same or similar place. A character would go through the entire journey of
resolving the dramatic question only to end up right back where they started,
with nothing solved.
A
skillful writer will create an unusual plot by adopting more than one type of plot, or playing with
several plot types.
So far I
have only tried the Chronological Plot
for my books. The flashback plot is one
I have used for several short stories. Personally, I would love to try
the in medias res for a suspense MG fiction I hope to outline in the near
future. Which kind of plot type would you all like to try? Do you know of any
other types of plot that will be of
interest to us. Please tell us.
