Lecture 9: And Then—Turning a Story into a Plot
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when you’re reading a novel or short story that you’re getting someplace.
Another way to think of this quality is as forward momentum.
o Whether it’s a highly plotted, complicated story, such as *DPH
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'DOORZD\, a book or story needs to give the reader a reason to
keep turning pages.o 3URÀXHQFHGRHVQ¶WQHFHVVDULO\PHDQWKDWDVWRU\KDVDSORW
per se; there are other reasons besides plot to keep reading.
Sometimes, you read to gain a deeper understanding of the
central character, as is the case in Anton Chekhov’s plotless
story “The Kiss.” Or you might read simply to inhabit a strange
and richly detailed world or to enjoy an author’s writing style.'H¿QLQJPlot
z Although our culture is dominated by the traditional narrative structure,
some writers remain uneasy with the idea of plot. John Gardner, in his
book 7KH$UWRI)LFWLRQ, called plotting “the hardest job a writer has.” E.
M. Forster wrote that a story “can only have one merit: that of making
the audience want to know what happens next. And conversely, it can
only have one fault: that of making the audience not want to know what
happens next.” As we’ll see, however, creating an engrossing plot is one
of the most satisfying things a writer can do and no more arbitrary an act
than creating characters.z 7KLQNEDFNWRWKHVWRU\ZHFRQFRFWHGLQRXU¿UVWOHFWXUHDERXW6DUDK
and Brad, the couple at the baseball game whose marriage was on the
rocks. We could take that same situation and tell it from any number of
different points of view—Sarah’s, Brad’s, a mutual friend’s, even from
a godlike, omniscient point of view. We could also play with the order
of events, telling the story in a strictly chronological fashion or starting
from the moment when Sarah tells Brad she’s unhappy, then showing
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