What is plot---or more often, some version of "I'm bad at plot"---is the topic that comes up the most in my teaching, when most people are not "bad" at plot they just cannot recognize it, or expect it to be Big Things Happening Through Character Will. Matthew Salesses has an excellent section of his book (Craft in the Real World, a must read if you haven't yet!) about plot, agency, and heroics that I have begun to teach recently, which is luckily excerpted here: https://lithub.com/matthew-salesses-on-writing-plot-and-cultural-context/. I love how you break down different types of plot here, and the space they allow for other models beyond the hero's journey model that Salesses looks at critically.
Hey! Thanks for the mention. This is such a useful list! I do love all kinds of plots, from Alexander Dumas swashbucklers to Kishotenketsu Ocean Vuong describes. Amazing how ornery they can be.
The plots I enjoy most are hero's journeys, wherein the hero(ine) figures her shit out and saves herself. And--yes!--"character driven" is code for too interior and "plot driven" is code for overly exterior. The most emotionally satisfying stories are driven by interplay between the two. What's been helpful for me is KM Weiland's pacing bookmarks for taking readers along for the ride, i.e., hook at 0%, a rebuffed "call to adventure" at 12%, the protagonist finally engaging the main conflict at 25%, etcetera. IMHO, if a book has "lost the plot," what it has often lost is its pacing.
What is plot---or more often, some version of "I'm bad at plot"---is the topic that comes up the most in my teaching, when most people are not "bad" at plot they just cannot recognize it, or expect it to be Big Things Happening Through Character Will. Matthew Salesses has an excellent section of his book (Craft in the Real World, a must read if you haven't yet!) about plot, agency, and heroics that I have begun to teach recently, which is luckily excerpted here: https://lithub.com/matthew-salesses-on-writing-plot-and-cultural-context/. I love how you break down different types of plot here, and the space they allow for other models beyond the hero's journey model that Salesses looks at critically.
Hey! Thanks for the mention. This is such a useful list! I do love all kinds of plots, from Alexander Dumas swashbucklers to Kishotenketsu Ocean Vuong describes. Amazing how ornery they can be.
The plots I enjoy most are hero's journeys, wherein the hero(ine) figures her shit out and saves herself. And--yes!--"character driven" is code for too interior and "plot driven" is code for overly exterior. The most emotionally satisfying stories are driven by interplay between the two. What's been helpful for me is KM Weiland's pacing bookmarks for taking readers along for the ride, i.e., hook at 0%, a rebuffed "call to adventure" at 12%, the protagonist finally engaging the main conflict at 25%, etcetera. IMHO, if a book has "lost the plot," what it has often lost is its pacing.
Love this so much and got so excited to see Ocean Vuong mentioned.