Elements of Fiction: Structure
Plot
Every story needs a sequence of incidents
and events, consisting of a beginning, a middle, a climax, and ending – places
along the way where characters can hang their hopes, frustrations, dreams, joy,
etc. The plot is the skeleton that holds all the details together and pushes
the story to its conclusion. The structure of the traditional story can be
charted as follows:
Beginning➔ Rising action➔
Climax➔ Epiphany➔ Falling Action➔
Resolution/Dénouement
Beginning
Establishing a stunning beginning is very
important because the opening must involve your readers immediately. How many
stories have you started to read, only to put down them down because the
openings left you unengaged? Some tips for a strong beginning: as a general
rule, try to avoid openings with pronouns, articles, pedestrian summary,
passive verbs, and/or abstractions. Strong openings include vivid concrete
language, active verbs, and/or surprising summary. Sometimes, writers choose to
open with dialogue, which can be very effective.
Edwidge Danticat’s opening in
“Night Women” seems particularly strong:
I cringe from the heat of the night on my face. I feel as bare as open flesh. Tonight I am much older than the twenty-five years that I have lived. The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it. (From Danticat’s Krik? Krak? [83])
Also consider the opening sentence in Marly Swick’s story “The Other Widow”:
In the two months since David’s sudden death, Lynne has stopped eating,
started wearing nothing but black, and found herself a therapist in the Yellow
Pages. (From The Summer Before the Summer of Love: Stories by Marly Swick).
From that one sentence, what do you already
know about Lynne?
Rising action
After a writer introduces the story, he/she
builds up suspense, also called rising action, until the story reaches its
climax (turning or high point).
Climax
The climax is simply a turning or high
point in the plot. For the “artist” in Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist,” the climax occurs when the protagonist is at the prime of his career;
spectators flock to his cage and admire him. The conflict comes only later when
the public grows bored and rejects his art.
Epiphany
When the protagonist experiences an
epiphany, he/she discovers something important about him/her/themself. No need
to use the flash of insight method so famous in 19th and early 20th
century fiction. An epiphany can whisper its message to the protagonist.
For example, Lynne, in “The Other Widow,” realizes that she will never know if
David, her dead lover, had ever intended to leave his wife for her; with this new
knowledge, Lynne can (and does) move on with her life.
Falling action
After the turning point, the action begins
to wind down toward the resolution, thus falling action.
Resolution/Dénouement
For the most part, the conflict of the
story needs to be resolved (not necessarily solved – know the difference
between these two words).
However, some modern writers may opt for intermediate
endings, in which the main conflict is never really solved or resolved –
very much like real life.
Some modern
writers incorporate less traditional story structures and with some modicum of
success. However, this is the exception.
In the end, readers prefer a traditional structure in their fiction because it offers a complete and definitive package.
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More Elements of Fiction:
Elements of Fiction: Characterization
Elements of Fiction: Point of View
Elements of Fiction: Story Structure
Elements of Fiction: Other Elements
Elements of Fiction: Building a Character (Character List)
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