Summary of  "The Craft of Plot" Course (Week 1)

I'm taking this course on Coursera called "Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot" and decided to publish the notes that I've been taking.

Here's a summary of Week 1!

1.1: What is a plot?

The dictionary definition for a plot is: main events of a novel/story devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.

Now, the main events are basically what happens in the story; and the "devised and presented in interrelated sequences" is just the connected order of what happens in the story.

Story VS Plot

There's a difference between a story and a plot. E.M Forester's example is as follows...

"A King died, then the Queen died", is a story.

Whereas, "A King died, then the Queen died of grief" is a plot.

This basically means that there has to be a cause and relation between the events.

First x happened, then y happened because of x

Stories that have "and then..." in their writing is generally a boring story, because the events aren't really related in any way. Instead, your story should have more "Therefore..." to show that there is correlation between the events.

Freytag's Pyramid



Here is an illustration of Freytag's pyramid, which depicts the basics of a plot.

Exposition The exposition of a story is the important initial background information. This could be the setting, backstory information or any info that provides context for what the plot is about.

Inciting Incident The inciting incident is the event that starts action in the story. It informs to reader about the main conflict in the plot and introduces the protagonist.

Rising Action The rising action is the Event/Series of exciting events that start directly after the incident. The plot has to be dependent on these events so that it can set up the climax. This part of the story generally introduces the antagonist.

Climax The climax is where the biggest tension/most exciting event happens. This is where everything you've been building up is set for the falling action. This is also where the protagonist reveals what they're made of.

Falling Action The falling action is where events that are the fallout from the climax action are. We get to learn more about the conflict between the protagonist and the obstacles put in their way.

Resolution The resolution is where the protagonist solves the problem/conflict

Denouement The denouement is the ending of the story. It reveals any other secrets, questions, mysteries, etc., that remain after the conflict is solved. This is generally revealed by the characters, however, it can also be revealed by the author as well.

1.2: How Freytag's Pyramid Works in Harry Potter

Next, we're going to see how this outline works in the famous Harry Potter series. We'll be focusing on the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Exposition

We begin by being introduced to Harry and his relatives, the Dursleys. We find out that Harry is an orphan and is mistreated by the Dursleys, especially when they noticed "odd incidents" occurring around him.

Inciting Incident

Before Harry's 11th birthday, a bunch of letters are delivered to the house but are intercepted by his uncle. After that, the Dursleys move to a cabin on a remote island.

Right on Harry's Birthday, Hagrid shows up to deliver a letter and tells Harry that he's a wizard. 🤯

Rising Action

This is where most of the book takes place.

Harry discovers the wizard world and learns more about what it means to be one. He then meets new friends and the antagonists: Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy.

We then see Harry throughout his first year of school as he faces challenges of being a new student. Throughout the story, we also start seeing mysterious things happening around the school and around Harry. His friends and him conclude that Snape was trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone and that they need to stop him.

Climax

Harry reaches the end of the traps/puzzles and instead of seeing Snape, he sees Professor Quirrell trying to steal the stone instead (he's looking for it in the Mirror of Erised).

During the climax, Quirrell reveals how he was trying to kill Harry in the quidditch match (which they accused Snape of doing) and that he was also possessed by Voldemort. Harry then gets the stone but doesn't give it to Voldemort and passes out.

Falling Action

Harry wakes up and finds out that Voldemort couldn't take the stone from him - since he's under the protection of his mother's love.

Dumbledore then reveals that Voldemort left Quirrell to die, and also destroyed the stone.

Resolution

It's the end of the school year and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville win the house points they lost earlier and Gryffindor wins the house cup!

Denouement

Harry returns home with the Dursleys for the summer, but doesn't let them know that he isn't allowed to use magic outside of school.



That's essentially how the first Harry Potter book used this pyramid in their plot.

1.3: Character + Action = Plot

An American Novelist, John Gardner said that there were only two types of plots:

1. Someone goes on a journey

2. A stranger comes to town

The thing that makes characters super cool in stories is the will of the characters.

You have to make sure that you aren't depicting fate, but will.

There are 5 main questions to ask when creating a character:

What do they want?

All great characters want something. That something can be as simple as wanting a pencil. Make sure you understand that wanting something is different than needing something. If the character needs something, then you are depicting fate and we don't want that.

What are their weaknesses?

Having someone with a lot of strenghts is a great for a real-life frined, but isn't really interesting in a story. Every great character has at least one weakness. Even Superman has a weakness, Kryptonite. When coming up with weaknesses for a character, you have to make sure they are more interesting than their strengths.

Where are they from?

There are two different ways of answering this, both literally and emotionally.

The literal interpretation, is what city/place are they from? Did they grow up in a city, or raised in a farm? Understanding this information will help us better understand what the character wants.

The emotional answer is more of their emotional background. Do they have 2 parents, or did they lose one? Were they bullied in school? Understanding where they're from, emotionally, will help us understand the motivation of a character for acting the way they do.

This will also help us understand why a character desires a certain thing.

Where are they going?

Pairing this with where they are from will give you a complete character arc.

If you know why a character wants a certain thing, and understand where they're from. You will better understand how hard they are going to try to get what they want and how resilient they'll be when the rising actions are being put in place.

What can your character do to surprise you?

The best characters don't do what we expect them to do; instead, they'll act more resourceful.

For example, if they hear scary noises in a dark room, they could decide not to into that room (like a normal person).

You have to try and fin places in your story where the character does things you wouldn't think they would do, and encourage the characters by following them instead of leading them.

Rising Action

Your main character wants something, but some obstacles get in the main characters way of getting that thing. These obstacles, could be a person, thing, etc.

The obstacles are the rising actions.

The character will then overcome these actions, but then encounters an even larger obstacle - the next action.

This framework is like a video game, where they have to keep getting over each level of obstacles until they can get what they want.

With a good character and actions, you have a good plot.

How to summarize a plot

In order to do this, you need to know the following:

The inciting incident, character, obstacles and quest.

When an inciting incident happens to a character, they have to overcome obstacles to complete their quest.

This form of summary, is known as a pitch that authors generally give when trying to publish their story.



That's pretty much everything they talked about in the first week of this course. I'd highly recommend checking out this course if you want to superpower your writing. The course if also part of a larger specialization that you can check out here!