Telling a story requires taking your protagonist through a series of stages in which he resolves the central problem that set the tale in motion. Here’s a set of articles about those stages:
• Parts of a plot
Most stories unfold in the same way: The main character encounters a problem, he attempts in various ways to overcome the problem, and ultimately he succeeds.
• STAGE 1: Inciting incident
A vital part of your story is the opening lines, also known as the inciting incident. In this section of your story, we learn who the main character is, the central problem facing him and a little about the setting.
• STAGE 2: Rising action
Anytime you’re writing a scene in the story’s rising action, you’ll want to treat it as a short story in and of itself. That means focusing on conflict.
• Sidebar: Your main character must fail
Typically a story is about a single character who overcomes some problem. That character will spend most of your story failing.
• STAGE 3: Climax
In every story, there comes a turning point or an ultimate moment in which the situation has become so intolerable that the main character must take a decisive step and emerge victorious. This scene is known as the climax.
• STAGE 4: Falling Action/Denouement
Though your story may have reached its climax, the tale isn’t over yet. The author also should briefly detail the effects that the climax has on the characters and tie up loose ends.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
Check out some of my guidebooks for plotting your story:
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