1. Plot
A Sequence of Events

2. What Is Plot?
Plot is a series of related events that make up a story or drama.
Plot is “what happens” in a story.
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3. Basic Situation (Exposition)
What Makes Up a Plot?
A plot has four parts. A basic story map shows the basic parts of a plot.
Basic Situation (Exposition)
Complications
Climax
Resolution

4. Basic Situation (Exposition)
Parts of Plot
The basic situation (also called the exposition) is the first part of a plot, which presents the main characters and their conflicts.
Basic Situation (Exposition)

5. Basic Situation (Exposition)
Parts of Plot
Complications arise when the characters take steps to deal with the conflict introduced in the exposition.
Basic Situation (Exposition)
Complications

6. Basic Situation (Exposition)
Parts of Plot
The climax is the most intense moment in the plot, the moment at which something happens that reveals how the conflict will turn out.
Basic Situation (Exposition)
Complications
Climax

7. Basic Situation (Exposition)
Parts of Plot
In the resolution, or denouement, some or all of the problems in the story are resolved, and the story is brought to a close.
Basic Situation (Exposition)
Complications
Climax
Resolution

8. Revealing the Plot
A writer typically reveals the story’s events in chronological order—starting at the beginning of the story and telling about each event as it happens.
Beginning
End

9. Revealing the Plot
Some writers interrupt the chronological order of events by inserting flashbacks in which they show a scene or scenes from the past.
Past Event
Beginning
End

10. Revealing the Plot
Foreshadowing is the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot.
Foreshadowing arouses reader curiosity and increases suspense.
I followed them, at a distance, waiting for what would happen. My heart was troubled about going east, yet I knew that I must go.
from “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét
From “By the Waters of Babylon” from The Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Benét. Copyright © 1937 by Stephen Vincent Benét; copyright renewed © 1964 by Thomas C. Benét, Stephanie P. Mahin, and Rachel Benét Lewis. Reproduced by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

11. What Have You Learned?
Match the terms in the box with the correct definitions.
Resolution Flashback Basic situation
Resolution
Flashback
Basic situation
_____________—The first part of a plot, which presents the main characters and their conflicts
_____________—An interruption in the chronological order of events in which a scene or scenes from the past are shown
_____________—The last part of a plot, which brings the story to a close

12. The End