Plotting Your Story

Before you write a story, you need to have a plan. Not just an idea, but a plan. There’s an important difference. An idea could be one major event that’s going to happen in the story, or a hazy sense of how things are going to come out in the end. A plan is like a road map of the story. A plan tells the writer what will happen in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story, and it will lead you from one part to the next. The plan you make for your story is called the plot.

When we read the opening lines of a short story, what makes us decide to stick with it and read on? Something needs to be happening to capture our attention right at the beginning. Very near the beginning of the story, we need to be introduced to some sort of problem (often called a conflict) that the main character or characters are trying to solve. The beginning of the story doesn’t need to be long. It simply needs to introduce the characters and their problem. Then it’s time to move on to the middle part.

In the middle of the story the characters jump into action, trying to solve their problem. The middle is usually the longest part of the story. If the characters solved their problem three paragraphs into the story, there would be no reason to continue reading. Readers want a sense of tension to carry them through a story. They don’t want to see the characters having too easy of a time solving their problem. They want them to run into a few unexpected snags along the way. That’s what makes a story exciting. As the problem grows and gets more and more complicated, the reader wonders, Are they really going to be able to solve this dilemma? Are they all going to come out of it safely? Is the situation going to get worse before it gets better? These nagging questions are like a cowboy’s spurs. They prick the reader’s mind so that he has to continue reading and find out how the problem is going to be resolved.

The resolution of the problem happens at the end of the story. The characters solve the problem, and the excitement calms down and levels off. Like the beginning, this part of the story should not drag on. You don’t want your readers yawning through pages and pages of extra material after the problem is taken care of. The end should last just long enough to wrap the story up satisfactorily. Most people prefer that stories end with no loose threads hanging unresolved. And most people like hopeful endings.

Often the plot of a story is shown in a diagram similar to the one below. The first horizontal line represents the beginning of the story—where the characters, the setting, and their problem are introduced. Then immediately the excitement begins to rise as the characters start trying to solve their problem. The line sloping upward represents the rising action. At the peak of that line comes the climax, the highest point of excitement in the story. The excitement tapers off after this point. The downward-sloping line in the diagram represents the falling action, as the level of excitement calms down for the characters. The horizontal line at the far right of the diagram is the story’s conclusion, often called by the French term denouement (day-noo-MAH) which means “unknotting.” The resolution of the problem—the untangling of any remaining knots in the story—should occur during this final part.

Let’s use the story of David and Goliath in the Bible as an illustration (1 Samuel 17).

Introduction: The opposing camps of the Israelites and the Philistines are introduced, and their location is described (v. 1–2). We also meet the giant Goliath in verse 3, and the problem is immediately identified.

Rising action: David joins his brothers on the battlefield, hears Goliath taunting God and the armies of Israel, and volunteers to fight with him. He rejects the armor offered him by King Saul, chooses instead five smooth stones for his sling, and confronts the giant on the battlefield (v. 4–44).

Climax: David claims deliverance from God and runs toward Goliath with his sling prepared. He slings a stone at the giant! (v. 45–49)

Falling action: Goliath is struck in the head and falls to the ground. David takes the giant’s sword and cuts off Goliath’s head (v. 49–51).

Denouement: The armies of Israel rally, pursue the Philistines, defeat them, and capture the spoil from their tents. David, the victorious warrior, joyously enters Jerusalem with the head of Goliath (v. 52–54).

Not every story you read fits perfectly into this pattern. Some stories begin with the character in a climactic situation and then backtrack to fill in earlier details. Some stories end with a surprise “twist” that leaves the character stuck in a humorous situation or gives him an entirely new set of problems. But most stories have a definite beginning, middle, and end. They also have a problem that the character identifies, works on, and solves by the time the story concludes.

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