Plot: A Story’s Building Blocks
Feature Menu
What Is Plot?
Building Block 1: Conflict
Building Block 2: Events
Building Block 3: Climax
Building Block 4: Resolution
Practice
What Is Plot?
Plot is what happens in a story.
Listen to this group of
students talking about the
plot of a movie.
What Is Plot?
Most plots have four parts, which are like building
blocks.
Resolution
Climax
Series of Events
Basic Situation
Jen goes home happy.
The team makes it to finals—and wins!
Her team loses a game, then wins five games.
Jen wants her soccer team to win the state championship.
What Is Plot?
You can use a simple plot diagram to show what
happens in a story.
Why does the climax of
the story appear at the
top of the diagram?
• All the other events
lead up to it.
• It is the “high point”—
the most exciting
part—of the story.
What Is Plot?
You can use a simple plot diagram to show what
happens in a story.
Why is the basic
situation at the bottom of
the diagram?
• All the events grow out
of it.
• It is the first thing you
read—it sets the stage
for the action.
[End of Section]
Building Block 1: Conflict
A conflict is a struggle between opposing
characters or opposing forces.
The conflict is usually revealed at the beginning
of a story as part of the basic situation.
Building Block 1: Conflict
In an external conflict, characters struggle
against something or someone outside
themselves.
Internal conflicts happen inside a character’s
mind.
Building Block 1: Conflict
Look carefully at each picture below. Decide
whether the picture best represents an external
conflict or an internal conflict.
Be prepared to explain your answers.
[End of Section]
Building Block 2: Events
Each plot includes a series of events that make it
hard for the characters to solve their problems or
work out their conflicts.
Sometimes these events are called complications.
Building Block 2: Events
If there were no complications, a character
would solve the problem too quickly, and there
would be no suspense in the story.
Suspense is what keeps you reading to figure out
what is going to happen next.
Building Block 2: Events
Another way that writers create suspense in a
story is to foreshadow, or hint at, future events.
If someone throws a
brick through a
character’s window,
we have a hint that
something dangerous
may happen in the
character’s future.
A writer uses foreshadowing to plant interesting
clues for the reader.
Building Block 2: Events
Study the picture below. What does this character
want? What complication prevents him from
getting what he wants?
Building Block 2: Events
Read these sentences from stories in Collection 1.
Which sentences are examples of foreshadowing?
In the room next to ours I found a message scrawled on the
wall. “Beware the Sentinel,” it said in big black letters.
“Duffy’s Jacket”
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail
but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits.
“Rikki-tikki-tavi”
Three Skeleton Key . . . earned its name from the story of the
three convicts who, escaping . . . in a stolen dugout canoe,
were wrecked on the rock during the night, managed to escape
the sea, but eventually died of hunger and thirst.
“Three Skeleton Key”
Building Block 2: Events
These two passages are examples of foreshadowing.
In the room next to ours I found a message scrawled on the
wall. “Beware the Sentinel,” it said in big black letters.
“Duffy’s Jacket”
This sentence suggests that a dangerous person or animal is
lurking around. The sentence foreshadows an encounter with
the Sentinel.
Three Skeleton Key . . . earned its name from the story of
the three convicts who, escaping . . . in a stolen dugout
canoe, were wrecked on the rock . . . “Three Skeleton Key”
This passage suggests that “Three Skeleton Key” is a story
about an island, or “key,” with a frightening reputation.
[End of Section]
Building Block 3: Climax
The third part of plot is the climax. The climax is
the story’s most exciting or emotional moment.
Usually the story’s conflict is resolved during the
scene that is the climax.
Building Block 3: Climax
Which of these scenes seems more like the climax
of a story?
A
B
In scene A, a soccer player is about to make a goal—perhaps
the winning goal of the game. Scene A best represents the
climax—or most exciting part—of a story about a soccer
team.
[End of Section]
Building Block 4: Resolution
The resolution is the last part of the story—where
the loose ends of the plot are tied up and the story
ends.
During the resolution, we often
find out what happened to the
characters after their conflict was
resolved.
Terrence and his big brother walked
home together, still talking about their
amazing game against the
neighborhood champs.
Building Block 4: Resolution
Here are some examples of story resolutions.
Do you recognize the stories?
The prince and the princess lived happily ever after.
The king would allow no frog in his kingdom to be
harmed—or kissed.
The children went home with their woodcutter father.
Their stepmother was never seen again. The house
made of candy was sold for parts to the village baker.
After losing so much, the three brothers started a
charity organization to build more sturdy houses for
other victims of wolf-wind.
[End of Section]
Let’s Try It
Practice
“Hi there, Red,” said a wolf to a little girl in
a red velvet hood. “How’d ya like a ride on my
motorcycle?”
“Thank you, sir, but I can’t,” replied Little
Red Riding Hood. “As you can see, I’m carrying
this basket of ginger cookies to my
grandmother, and I can’t be late.”
“Tell you what, Red. You just hop on the
back, and I’ll run you over to Granny’s in five
seconds flat.”
“My grandmother lives way out at the end of
Lonely Road,” Red protested. “It’s miles and
miles.”
“This here motorcycle eats miles.”
“No, thank you,” said Little Red Riding Hood.
“I’ve made up my mind.”
1. What does
each character
want?
2. What is the
conflict in this
story?
3. Is it an
internal or
external
conflict?
Let’s Try It
Practice
“Hi there, Red,” said a wolf to a little girl in
a red velvet hood. “How’d ya like a ride on my
motorcycle?”
“Thank you, sir, but I can’t,” replied Little
Red Riding Hood. “As you can see, I’m carrying
this basket of ginger cookies to my
grandmother, and I can’t be late.”
“Tell you what, Red. You just hop on the
back, and I’ll run you over to Granny’s in five
seconds flat.”
“My grandmother lives way out at the end of
Lonely Road,” Red protested. “It’s miles and
miles.”
“This here motorcycle eats miles.”
“No, thank you,” said Little Red Riding Hood.
“I’ve made up my mind.”
4. Find an
example of
foreshadowing
in this part of
the story.
Let’s Try It
Practice
“Suit yourself,” chuckled the wolf, who
had thought of a wicked plan. He would go
alone to the end of Lonely Road, gobble up
Red’s grandma, and then, when the little girl
turned up, he would gobble her up too.
So, arriving at the last house on Lonely
Road, the wolf raced his engine, scaring
Grandma out her back door and under the
woodshed. The wolf was puzzled to find the
house empty, but he put on Grandma’s
nightcap and nightshirt and climbed into the
bed to wait for Red.
It was nearly dark when Red arrived, but
as she approached her grandma’s bed, she
sensed something was wrong.
5. What
complications
have occurred
in the story so
far? (What
events have
prevented the
wolf from
eating Little
Red Riding
Hood?)
Let’s Try It
Practice
“Suit yourself,” chuckled the wolf, who
had thought of a wicked plan. He would go
alone to the end of Lonely Road, gobble up
Red’s grandma, and then, when the little girl
turned up, he would gobble her up too.
So, arriving at the last house on Lonely
Road, the wolf raced his engine, scaring
Grandma out her back door and under the
woodshed. The wolf was puzzled to find the
house empty, but he put on Grandma’s
nightcap and nightshirt and climbed into the
bed to wait for Red.
It was nearly dark when Red arrived,
but as she approached her grandma’s bed,
she sensed something was wrong.
6. The boldface
words are
examples of
____________.
Let’s Try It
Practice
“Are you all right, Granny?” Red asked.
“Your eyes look bloodshot.”
“All the better to see you with,” replied
the wolf.
“And your teeth—suddenly they look like
fangs.”
“All the better to eat—” the wolf began,
but he stopped at the sound of his
motorcycle engine thundering in the front
yard. “Wait right there, Red,” said the wolf,
bounding from the bed.
7. What part
of the plot is
about to
happen?
Let’s Try It
Practice
“All the better to eat—” the wolf began,
but he stopped at the sound of his
motorcycle engine thundering in the front
yard. “Wait right there, Red,” said the wolf,
bounding from the bed.
The wolf was startled to find Grandma
sitting on the motorcycle.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Stop fooling with my
bike.” As he lunged for her, Grandma found
the gearshift, and the cycle leapt forward,
scooping the wolf up on its handlebars and
hurling him into a giant thorn bush—
8. What words
and phrases
make this part
of the story
exciting?
Practice
Let’s Try It
“Hey!” he shouted. “Stop fooling with my
bike.” As he lunged for her, Grandma found
the gearshift, and the cycle leapt forward,
scooping the wolf up on its handlebars and
hurling him into a giant thorn bush—which is
where the police found him when they
arrived.
The wolf was brought to trial and sent to
prison. Granny became a popular guest on
talk shows. Red lived happily ever after.
The wolf . . .
Granny . . .
Red . . .
The motorcycle . . .
9. How is the
story’s conflict
resolved?
10. Write a
different
resolution for
the story of
Little Red
Riding Hood.
Practice
On Your Own
Think about a story
you know well—
maybe a movie or a
TV show or a novel.
Show the story’s main
events in a diagram
like the one on the
right.
[End of Section]
Plot: A Story’s Building Blocks
The End