Writing 101: Story and Plot

  Hi, Musing Matt here and today we're going to talk about some basics of writing. But first, I need to digress a little. You see this is my fourth post and I have said very little to nothing about myself, and since I had a very busy week and was, therefore, unable to gather resources for a full article, this should help pad it out.

Steadman

  As you already have been able to suss out, my name is Matt. I study literature and writing at the University of Montevallo. I read a lot of books, mainly science fiction novels. Right now my favorite artists are Kurt Vonnegut, Issac Asimov, and Chuck Palahniuk. (Don't worry, Michael Crichton and Orson Scott Card, you will always have a special place in my heart.) My favorite artists are Ralph Steadman (http://www.ralphsteadman.com/) and Terry Strickland (http://www.terrystricklandart.com/). They have two very distinctly different styles but I enjoy both the photo-realistic beauty of Strickland and the harsh chaos of Steadman. I also enjoy a good movie. Some of my favorite filmmakers are David Fincher and Christopher Nolan and I've really been enjoying the films that Marvel Studios has been releasing. (Looking forward to "The Avengers" this summer.) There are other filmmakers whose work I enjoy but those two stick out in my mind the most. I play a lot of video games as well. My two favorite developers are Bethesda and Bioware. (Love me some RPGs) Now, to get a little more personal, I am a happily married man and my house is filled with cats, chinchillas, and dogs. My wife and I are both Christian and we try to show God's love to everyone. (Admittedly it is harder on some days than others.) Ok, that's enough personal info for now. I might divulge more later.

  So this week we are going to correct a misconception that I have been noticing more and more lately. My favorite class has been Creative Writing Workshop, mostly because its the most student interactive class that I've ever had and partly because it can be repeated for course credit. In the class we spoke often of the concepts of story and plot and how they need to be utilized effectively for the writing of short stories and novels. Outside of class, however, I have noticed that many see the two as interchangeable. This is not the case as they are two different elements that work together to create a cohesive narrative. The simple way to put them is story is what is happening and plot is how it is happening.

  Story is a sum of many parts: what's happening now, backstory, and character arcs. The plot is the sequence of events that allow the story to unfold. The two elements are different but they have to work together. A narrative can have a great story but if the plot is weak it will not be told well. A common example of this in action is fighting games. Games like "Soul Caliber" and "Twisted Metal" have interesting stories including intriguing characters and good backstories but they only exist to give some level of context to the fighting that the games center around and the rest of the story remains impenetrable. If know that fighting games are not supposed to be about telling a good story through the implementation of a plot and that is part of the reason that I have a hard time maintaining an interest in them. I've played many of them but I never hold onto them for long. Just imagine if fighting games did have more plot elements
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  Plot is, as stated, the events that allow the story to unfold. The plot has no general application it only needs to be as dense as the story requires. Finding the balance between the two is important and not always easy. Narratives without this balance are usually either confusing or boring. Too much plot is very confusing and often leads to the audience not even knowing what the story was. Two good examples of this are the movies "Southland Tales" and "I Love Your Work." I have only a vague idea of what those movies were about because there was so much going on in both of them that the story couldn't breath. If anybody knows what those two movies were about please let me know. I wanted so much to like them but I could not figure them out because there was two much going on. When the narrative has a great story but not enough plot to back it the experience is rather boring. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "2001 Space Odyssey" are two examples of this problem. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed both movies but as a visual and auditory feast, not as a narrative. The problem with these movies is where they had great intriguing stories not much was happening so in the end they were kind of dull.

  Story and plot are different but need to work together in sync to deliver the narrative in the best possible way. This was fun, I do enjoy talking about the writing process and I will do more of these "Writing 101" columns in the future.