Plot Structure

Structure §

• Structure is the selection of events from a character’s life stories composed strategically to arouse specific emotions.

• Story events create meaningful change in the life situation of a character that is expressed and experienced in terms of value and achieved through conflict.

  • Stories cannot be built out of nothing but coincidences.

• Story values are the universal inconstant qualities of human experience (i.e., good / bad, life / death, hope / despair).

• Stories are composed of the following:

  • Story Beats are an exchange of behavior in action / reaction. Beats shape the turning of the scene.
    • They are what actually happen within a scene that make it turn.
  • Scenes are actions through conflict in more or less continuous time and space, that affects a character meaningfully — that affects a story value of the particular character.
    • Remember: If everything were the same before and after the scene, ask why the scene is there. Exposition is a non-excuse. If a scene is not a story event, remove it.
  • Story Sequence - a series of scenes that culminates with greater impact than any previous scene.
    • For sequences, the whole sequence is greater than the sum of its constituent scenes. It could have been told with a single scene, but fleshing it out into a sequence gave a more important story value(s) more impactful change.
  • Act - a series of sequences that peak in climactic sequence which causes major reversal of values, more powerful in its impact than any previous sequence or scene.
  • A story is one large event broken into acts. The overall effect is an absolute, irreversible change in story value delivered in the story’s climax.

The Story Triangle §

• Plot is the writer’s choice of events and their design in time.

  • Archplots involve classical ways of telling the story.
    • Causality and Linear Time
    • External Conflict
    • Single, Active Protagonist
    • Consistent Reality
  • Miniplots are inspired by archplots but reduces them to strive for simplicity and economy.
    • Open Endings
    • Internal Conflict
    • Multi-Protagonists
    • Passive Protagonists.
  • Antiplots reverse the tropes set by the archplots.
    • Coincidence-based
    • Nonlinear time
    • Inconsistent reality

• A closed ending means all questions raised by the telling are answered, and all audience emotions are satisfied.

• An open ending leaves some questions unanswered, or some emotions unfulfilled by the ending. These questions are answerable, and the story has made it clear what the resolutions could possibly be.

• External Conflicts mean conflict outside of the character, possibly with other characters, society, or the environment.

• Internal Conflicts emphasize a battle with the character’s own thoughts and feelings, conscious or unconscious.

• Multiple Protagonists mean that no single protagonist is the focus of the story. The focus shifts between scenes, sequences or acts.

• An active protagonist, in the pursuit of desire, takes action in direct conflict with others.

• A passive protagonist is outwardly inactive while pursuing desire inwardly, in conflict with aspects of their own nature.

• A story arranged into a temporal order of events that is easy to follow is told in linear time.

• A story that skips through time or blurs temporal continuity so that the audience cannot sort a temporal ordering is told in nonlinear time.

• Causality drives a story in which motivated actions cause effects. that cause other effects. Reality in this case is interconnected via causality.

• Coincidence drives a fictional world in which unmotivated actions trigger events that do not cause further effects. Thus, existence feels disconnected.

• Remember: Stories are told as metaphors for life, but they do not have to obey reality as it is .

  • Consistent Realities are settings with rules that govern interactions with the world or characters, and are kept consistently throughout the story.
  • Inconsistent Realities are settings that do not have an internally consistent set of rules. Rules may change creating a feeling of absurdity.
    • They are metaphors, not for life as lived, but for life as thought about.

• Change is the driver for all forms of plot-whether that be archplots, miniplots, or antiplots.

  • Stasis serves as the basis for nonplot they do not tell a story, they merely paint a picture.
  • Still, even nonplots can deliver a profound message for the audience.

The Five Part Form of Plot §

The Inciting Incident §

• The Inciting Incident must be a dynamic, fully developed event. It radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist’s life.
• It is a single event that either happens directly to the protagonist, or is caused by the protagonist.
• If setup and payoff is required, do not delay the payoff for long.
• Important: The protagonist must react or respond to the Inciting Incident. The event awakens a conscious and unconscious desire.
  • This un/conscious desire is the Spine or Throughline of the story. All surface-level aspects of the story relate to its Spine.
  • Unconscious desires make better Spines, but they are not required for a story to work.
• Important: The Inciting Incident of the Central Plot must happen onscreen (shown to the audience).
  • When shown to the audience, it provokes the question of “How will this turn out?“. This is the hook to capture the audience’s curiosity.
  • It evokes the Obligatory Scene / Crisis which the audience knows it must see before the story can end—the protagonist must confront the most powerful forces of antagonism. ¹
    • No confrontation means the audience will not buy any character growth.
    • The Obligatory Scene is foreshadowed via other characters, genre, mood, or setting. The key is to project an image of the crisis into the audience.
  • It should happen soon but when the moment is ripe. The longer it takes, the more boring the story. Too soon and the audience will not care for or be confused by the inciting incident. This is what is meant when we say the Inciting Incident hooks the audience.
• It doesn’t need to be the biggest event, only an event that functions to upset the equilibrium of the character’s lives, and to hook the question in.
• Generate ideas by using the Yes but, No And method.

Progression §

• The part of the story that spans from Inciting Incident to Climax. The goal is to make life more and more difficult for the characters. The characters should exert more and more effort.
• A story must not retreat to actions of lesser quality or magnitude, but move progressively forward to a final action beyond which the audience cannot imagine another.
• The Law of Conflict - Nothing moves forward in a story without conflict.
  • Conflict that captivates the audience makes them unaware of the passage of time.
  • If Story is a metaphor for life, then conflict is natural. It is the soul of being alive.
  • Even if the quality of conflict shifts, the quantity of conflict in life is constant.
• There are three levels of conflict.
  • Inner conflicts - are conflicts involving the self—body, mind, and emotions.
  • Personal Conflicts - are conflicts with other characters the protagonist is intimate with (friends, lovers)
  • Extrapersonal conflict - are conflicts with external sources of antagonism — the environment, governments, institutions.
• Complicated stories operate on only one level of conflict. Complex stories operate on all three levels, often simultaneously.
  • Constrain yourself to include elements that add to the story.
• For most long stories, we need at least three acts. The rationale is that we need that amount of space to properly convey the messages of the story. Any less and it feels unsatisfying. However, be wary of adding too many:
  • The multiplication of act climaxes invites cliches because they require more scenes.
  • It reduces the impact of other climaxes because of repetitiveness.
• Repetition is the enemy. Thus, add variety to the story. Give a sense of progress..
• Subplots may be used to enrich the film ..
  • by serving as the antitheses for the Controlling Idea of the Central Plot.
  • by serving as supporting evidence for the Controlling Idea, and by introducing variations to this theme.
  • A setup subplot may be used to open the storytelling when the Central Plot’s Inciting Incident must be delayed. Importantly, these subplots help us get to know the characters and world better.
  • by complicating the Central Plot — by adding additional antagonism.
• Multiplots frame an image of a society — we adopt the viewpoint of many characters, each with their own stories to tell, but unified by a common theme.
• Use subplots and multiplots in service of conveying what the story is trying to say. Do not accidentally make these the focus of the story, otherwise the controlling idea of the central plot is lost.
  • If the subplot becomes interesting, either soften it by showing less of it or implying it, or by making it the new Central Plot.

Crisis §

• The Obligatory Scene. The Scene that must happen because of the Inciting Incident.

• The dilemma confronts the protagonist who, when face-to-face with the most powerful and focused forces of antagonism in his life, must make a decision to take one action or another in a lats effort to achieve his Object of Desire.

  • The protagonist may or may not get what he wants, but it won’t be the way he expects. With this in mind, throw the crisis at the turning point of the climax.
  • In rare cases, a major chunk of the story can be driven by the Crisis. In this case, the Crisis is introduced first in the story, and then the rest of the act is dedicated to a response to the Crisis.

• How the character chooses in the moment of crisis defines their fundamental nature.

• The Crisis decision must be a deliberately static moment. Do not put it off screen or skim over it.

Climax §

• The Climax should be full of meaning— a revolution in story values towards a change that is absolute and irreversible. The meaning of that change moves the heart of the audience.

• The action that creates the change must be clear and self-evident, requiring no further explanation.

• The action must be appropriate to the needs of the story.

• The Climax of the last act is the great imaginative leap. Once you have this Climax, stories are rewritten backward, not forward ². The flow of creativity flows from effect to cause.

• If permitted, tie all loose ends during the Climax of the Central Plot’s Final Act.

  • If not possible, prefer to climax the subplots in order of importance.

• The Key to all story endings is to give the audience what it wants, but not in the way it expects—what the audience wants is emotional satisfaction, a Climax that fulfills anticipation..

• The Climax should be single image that sums up and concentrates all meaning and emotion. It resonates with all that has gone before. Looking forward, it was unexpected. Looking back, it was inevitable.

Resolution §

• Any material after the Climax. This serves a few purposes:
  • To tie up any plot holes within the story so that the story is logical. This may come off as awkward if the scenario involved is of secondary interest.
    • One way to make it less awkward is to tease the audience that the Central Plot will come back, only to immediately resolve itself with irony.
  • To show the spread of the climactic effects. To show the progression.
  • As courtesy to the audience., allowing a relaxed period for the audience to reflect on the story as a whole.

Topics §

• Writing Story Scenes

Links §

• McKee Ch. 2, 8, 13 - primary source.

Footnotes §

1. Sanderson’s words, there is promise and payoff. ↩

2. This is essentially Yoko Taro’s style of writing. ↩