Plot lecture for undergraduate general education course in fiction

1. G-EN270 INTRO TO FICTION
The Elements of Fiction
Plot
Bruce Clary, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

2. G-EN270 FICTION
Plot is a sequence of events that “has
a beginning, a middle, and an end.”
—Aristotle, Poetics

3. G-EN270 FICTION
“A plot is a series of events
deliberately arranged so as to
reveal their dramatic, thematic,
and emotional significance.”
—Janet Burroway

4. G-EN270 FICTION
Two dynamics of plot
• Movement in time
• Movement in dramatic tension

5. G-EN270 FICTION
Movement in time / chronology
• Unified plots
• Episodic plots

6. G-EN270 FICTION
Three chronological techniques
• Flashbacks
• Foreshadowing
• Discontinuity

7. G-EN270 FICTION
Movement in dramatic tension
“Conflict is the first encountered and the
fundamental element of fiction, fundamental
because in literature only trouble is interesting.
“Only trouble is interesting.”
—Janet Burroway

8. G-EN270 FICTION
Movement in dramatic tension
• Conflict (internal and/or external)
• Rising action
• Crisis and climax
• Dénouement or resolution

9. G-EN270 FICTION
The beginning of stories
• Exposition
• In medias res

10. G-EN270 FICTION
The middle of stories
• Rising action
• Characterized by a series of reversals, called
peripeteia

11. G-EN270 FICTION
Short story endings
• Closed ending
• Open ending
• Epiphany

12. G-EN270 FICTION
Other models for analyzing plot
• 3-D: Drama equals desire plus danger
• Story as war (Mel McKee)
• Connection – disconnection

13. G-EN270 FICTION
What readers demand from plots
• Unity – plausible cause-and-effect, not just
dominoes falling
• Significance – shows us something about human
nature and human nature. A model of reality.