Introduction to Plot

1
Introduction to Plot
2
General Ideas

• Plot sequence of events or actions in a story
• Conflict struggle between opposing forces
• Suspense pleasurable anxiety experienced by
  reader while plot unfolds

3
Conflict

• Internal conflict
• Ex I struggled mightily to resist the urge to
  yawn in class, but I finally succumbed.
• External conflict
• Ex When I went to get my yellow ball from the
  neighbors yard, I was attacked by his pit bull.

4
Opposing Forces

• Nature
• Society
• Fate
• Individuals
• Fear
• Personal weakness

5
Plot Elements

• Exposition introductory material and background
  information
• Complication onset and development of the major
  conflict
• Climax moment of greatest tension at which the
  outcome is to be decided
• Resolution ending when all the basic questions
  are answered

6
Sample Plot

• There was a prince who fell in love with a
  beautiful maiden.
• But a troll took her prisoner.
• The prince fought the troll to the death, and
  after almost losing his life, finally killed the
  troll.
• Then the prince and maiden married and lived
  happily ever after.

7
Freytags Pyramid
8
Plot and Time

• Foreshadowing hinting at what might happen later
  in a story
• Flashback presentation of past events