Writing Great Fiction

Lecture 9: And Then—Turning a Story into a Plot

most of us learn about other people in our lives. The result is a much

more intense and intimate experience of the character because it forces

readers to assemble the chronology of Jim’s life, leading to greater

understanding and compassion.

z It isn’t true that simple storytelling is inferior, and complex,

nonchronological, modernist plotting is superior. But it is true that the

two approaches reach different regions of a reader’s heart and brain and

serve different functions for the writer.

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Forster, $VSHFWVRIWKH1RYHO.

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1. List all the major plot points of a story you admire or a story of your
   own, but write them out on index cards, one plot point to a card, in the
   order they actually appear in the story. If the story is a narrative that is
   told out of chronological order, try putting the cards in chronological
   order and see how that sequence changes the effect of the narrative.
   If the story is a narrative that already moves chronologically, lay the
   cards out and see what happens if you start rearranging them. If you
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   events of a narrative is a large part of deciding what you want the reader
   to take away from it.

Suggested Reading

Writing Exercise