Plot and Structure
The development and Organisation
of Stories
Plot, Motivation, and Causation of Fiction
 events precede or follow another, not simply because
time ticks away, but because effects follow causes
Conflict
the controlling impulse in a connected pattern of causes
and effects
conflict causes character to engage in the decisions,
actions, and responses and interactions that make up
stories
Conflict con’t.
Concrete conflicts (person vs. person) or abstract conflicts
(person vs. natural objects, ideas, modes of behaviour, or
public opinion)
Characters may find themselves in a dilemma, a difficult or
even impossible choice
Conflict is the major element of plot because it arouses
curiosity, causes doubt, creates tension, and produces
interest
Structure
Describes how the writer arranges materials in accord
with the general ideas and purpose of the work
Defines the layout of fiction or the way the story is shaped
Placement, balance, recurring themes, true and misleading
conclusions, suspense all play a role in the structure of
stories
Formal Categories of Structure
• Exposition – laying out of main characters, their
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backgrounds, interests, goals, limitations, potentials;
laying out of the setting
Complication – the onset of the major conflict; the
event that starts the conflict; sometimes called the
‘inciting incident’
Crisis – the point at which curiosity, uncertainty, and
tension are greatest; often called the ‘turning point’ or
‘climax’ of a story
Falling Action – the events after the crisis that lead to
the resolution
Resolution or Denouement – the ‘releasing or
untying’; the completing of the story
Actual Structure
Stories won’t always follow the formal structure,
instead they may have one or both of the following:
1. Flashback
2. Double take (think about when you see something
and it catches you off guard and you take a ‘double
take’ or a second look at it. In fiction, the structure
can have a ‘double take’ when, for example, the end
of the story produces a new conflict. A ‘double take’
is a more realistic, or less ‘artificial’ means of
structuring a story
Writing about Plot
An essay about plot is an analysis of the conflict and
its developments
It does not retell the story but stresses the major
elements in the conflict; it analyses more broadly in
terms of impulses, goals, values, issues, and historical
perspective
It analyses how the plot develops the theme(s) of the
story
The conclusion of the essay should have a brief
consideration of the effect or impact produced by the
conflict
Writing about Structure
An essay about structure concerns the arrangement
and shape of the story
It doesn’t retell the story but explains why things are
where they are and how their placement helps to
develop the theme(s) of the story
It discusses why an entire story is arranged the way it
is (perhaps to reveal the nature of a character’s
situation, tor create surprise, or to bring out
maximum humour)
Characters: The People in
Fiction
Character
 A verbal representation of a human being
 Characters are portrayed through action, speech, description, and
commentary
Character Traits
 Quality of mind or habitual mode of behavior (ambitious or lazy, serene or
anxious, aggressive or fearful, thoughtful or inconsiderate, open or secretive,
confident or self-doubting, kind or cruel, quiet or noisy, visionary or
practical, careful or careless, impartial or biased, straightforward or
underhanded, etc.)
Circumstances vs. Traits
 A circumstance or situation that a character is in is not a character trait
 The character’s response to that circumstance illustrates a trait about the
character
Types of Characters
1. Round: round characters recognize, change with, or
adjust to circumstances; they profit from experience
and undergo a change or alteration which may be
shown in
a.
b.
c.
d.
an action
The realisation of new strength and affirmation of previous
decisions
The acceptance of a new condition
The discovery of unrecognized truths
- a round character may be called ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’ or
‘protagonist’
- another term for a round character is dynamic
(undergoes change or growth)
Types of Characters con’t.
Flat: flat characters do not grow because they may be stupid or
insensitive or lacking in knowledge or insight
- Static (another term for flat character) means they end where
they begin
- They highlight the development of the round characters
3. Stock: flat characters who are prominent in certain types of
literature such as a cowboy or policeman; they are
representative of their class or group
- Other examples are insensitive father, interfering mother, sassy
younger sister or brother, greedy politician, resourceful cowboy
or detective, overbearing or henpecked husband, submissive or
nagging wife, angry police captain, lovable drunk, town dogooder
- When stock characters possess no attitudes except those of their
class, they are labeled stereotypes
- Stock characters, like flat characters, are there to highlight the
development of the round characters
2.
How is Character Disclosed in Fiction?
Writers develop their characters by the following methods:
1. Action – what the characters do, especially in response to conflict and to
other people
2. Descriptions – both personal and environmental; appearance and
environment reveal much about a character’s social and economic status
3. Statements and thoughts -what the character says and thinks
4. Statements by other characters – what other characters say about the
protagonist (or anyone else) tells a lot about that character
5. Statements of author speaking as storyteller or observer – sometimes
an author will speak through the narrator to make a comment about a
character; this is very subtle and sometimes difficult to see
Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude*
- The actions, statements, and thoughts of characters must all be what human
beings are likely to do, say, and think
- The reader should distinguish between what characters may possibly do and
what they most frequently or most usually do
* verisimilitude: the quality or state of appearing to be true or real; the degree
to which a work creates the appearance of tuth
Setting
Setting is a work’s natural, manufactured, political, cultural,
and temporal environment, including everything that
characters know and own.
Types of Setting
1. Nature and the outdoors – natural surroundings, living
creatures, times, seasons, and conditions in which things
happen
2. Objects of Human Manufacture and Construction –
used to reveal or highlight qualities of character and to
make narrative lifelike
3. Cultural Conditions and Assumptions – historical and
cultural conditions and assumptions influence characters
The Literary Uses of Setting
- Used to create meaning
- Show divergent views of human life
Important Purposes of Setting – Function of
Important Detail
1. Setting and Credibility – realism or verisimilitude
2. Setting and Character
a. Importance of place, circumstances, and time in human
growth and change influenced by setting
b. Way characters respond and adjust to setting can reveal
their strength or weakness
3. Setting and Organisation – shifts in setting; framing or
enclosing setting creates a formal completeness
4. Setting and Symbol – objector scene highlighted or
emphasised, may be a symbol
5. Setting and Atmosphere – setting creates atmosphere
and mood (the enveloping or permeating emotional
texture within a work)
6. Setting and Irony
Point of View
The Position of Stance of the Narrator or Speaker
P.O.V. – refers to the speaker, narrator, persona, or voice
created by authors
- Involves speaker’s physical position as an observer and
recorder AND the ways in which the speaker’s social,
political, and mental circumstances affect the narrative
- Goal is to make story come alive; authors are like actors in
that they impersonate AND create their characters
- P.O.V. is the centralising or guiding intelligence in a work
- It is the mind that filters the fictional experience and presents
only the most important details to create the maximum
impact
- Determines how we (the reader) look, understand, and
respond to the story
An Exercise in P.O.V.
o Consider a minor car accident at an intersection. At
each corner stands a witness or two. Other witnesses
are the two drivers and any passengers in either car.
o How many different points of view of what happened
will there be?
o How will they be similar?
o How will they differ?
o What aspects of each witness will impact his/her
‘view’ of what happened? Why?
Conditions That Affect P.O.V.
1. Physical situation of the narrator as an observer:
a. How close to the action is the speaker?
b. Is s/he a major participant or no more than a witness,
either close or distant?
c. How accurate and complete are his/her reports?
d. How do his/her characteristics emerge from the
narration?
e. What are his/her qualifications or limitations as an
observer?
Conditions con’t.
2. Speaker’s intellectual and emotional position:
a. How might the speaker gain or lose from what takes place
in the story?
b. Are the speaker’s observations and words coloured by
theses interests?
c. Does s/he have any persuasive purpose beyond being a
straightforward recorder or observer?
d. What values does s/he impart to the action?
3. P.O.V. is NOT synonymous with opinions, ideas, or beliefs
• P.O.V. refers to a work’s mode of narration
• Opinions and beliefs are thoughts and ideas
• A discussion/essay of P.O.V. should emphasise HOW the
dramatic situation of a work actually SHAPES and CREATES
the work and should consider whether and how ideas affect
what the narrator concludes and says about the story’s
actions and situations.
Kinds of P.O.V.
1.
First Person (I, we pronouns)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
First-hand experience: what they themselves have done, said,
heard, and thought
First-hand witness: what they have observed others do and say
Second-hand testimony and hearsay: what others have said to
them or otherwise communicated to them.
Inferential information: what they are able to infer or deduce
from the information they have found
Conjectural, imaginative, or intuitive information: what they
are able to conjecture about how a character or characters
might think and act, given their knowledge of a situation
Reliable vs. Unreliable narrators
- Consider narrator’s position and ability, prejudices or selfinterest, and judgment of the readers or listeners
- Speakers describing their own experiences are reliable and
authoritative
- If speakers have interests or limitations that lead them to
mislead, distort, or even lie, they are unreliable
Kinds of P.O.V. con’t.
2. Second-Person (you pronoun)
a. Least common of the points of view
b. Four types of uses:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Narrator tells a present and involved listener what he or
she has done and said at a past time (narrator knows
more about the past event than other character)
Narrator is explaining to another person (the ‘you’) that
person’s disputable actions and statements
Narrator is actually referring to him/herself
Narrator is referring toanyone
Kinds of P.O.V. con’t.
Third-Person (he, she, they, it pronouns)
3.
Dramatic or Objective:
a.
• Limited only to what is said and what happens
• No attempt to draw conclusions or make interpretations
Omniscient (all-knowing)
b.
•
Presents action and dialogue AND reports the thoughts of characters
Limited or Limited Omniscient
c.
•
Confines or limits the narration to the actions and thoughts of a major character only
Note: Some authors mingle points of view to imitate reality, sustain interest, create
suspense, or put the burden of response entirely upon readers.
Most narratives rely on the past verb tense: however, many recent writers use present
tense to render story as a virtual drama which unfolds moment by moment; and some
writers intermingle tenses to show how time itself may be merged with the human
consciousness and to show the fusion of past, present, and future within a character’s
mind
Writing about P.O.V.
Goal: to explain how point of view contributes to making the work exactly as it is.
Consider language, authority and opportunity for observation, the involvement or
detachment of the speaker, the selection of detail, interpretive commentaries, and
narrative development.