Pacing: How Timing Matters to Your Story
Learn how to avoid common pacing mistakes in your stories.
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What Is Plot?
Every story has a plot. Whether it’s a short story, a novel, a play, or a movie, the most important element is the sequence of events that make up the story. In fact, that’s the definition of plot: the sequence of events in a story.
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Rethinking the Plot Diagram
Generally speaking, when we speak of a story’s plot, we are speaking of “the sequence of events” that comprise the tale. Some will quibble about this definition, but it’s the most common understanding of the term.
And most of us remember being taught the basics of plot structure via a witch’s hat plot diagram like this:
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The Heroic Journey, Part 20: Outer Journey
The idea for this stage is “higher stakes, greater complications.” After the Point of No Return at the midpoint of the novel the goal becomes both more difficult and more important to accomplish. The Hero has a harder time accomplishing his goal but is more committed than ever to achieving it.
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