Excerpt:
"What makes a plot?
Think of a book like a really big door, preferably one of those Parisian ones that are thick and heavy and last hundreds of years. Here's how it breaks down. Bullet point time!
- The premise is what happens to knock the door ajar. Something sets the protagonist's life out of balance. Preferably something really intriguing or like totally deep man.
- The climax is when the door closes. Maybe the protagonist made it through the door, maybe they didn't make it through the door but learned a really great lesson about door closing, maybe the door chopped them in half.
- The theme is how the person opening the door changes along the way.
What's the plot? The plot is what keeps the door open!! Why can't that person close the door?
So basically, plot is a premise plus a major complication that tests the protagonist. It's what opens the door plus what's keeping the door from being closed.
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Chet's NaNoWriMo Experience (updated)
47,012 / 50,000
Okt 19, 2009 - 02 50
I've always equated the "plot" to being the "big picture", the master plan and if you're writing something, the whole series of events that culminates into the endgame.
I kinda need that anyway, if I can't see the big picture, I won't know what I'm writing and that would be so easy to lose inspiration.
----------"The world didn't end with a whimper. It ended in a sea of screams, blood and torn flesh. It would have been delicious if it wasn't so sickening."
- Excerpt from "The Bloody Long Walk" (NaNoWriMo 2009)