Structure and plot are getting confused with each other more and more lately. It isn’t surprising. As I’ve pointed out before, writing terminology has never been truly standardized. Many terms, like “viewpoint” get used for more than one thing, and “plot” and “structure” are frequently treated as if they are exactly the same thing. “The standard plot skeleton” is a structure, but it’s called a plot skeleton. 90% of the blogs, apps, books, and how-to-write courses I have looked at (and while that isn’t all of them, it is still a lot) talk about structure in terms of plot…when they talk about it at all.
So I thought I would add to the confusion with a couple of posts about structure. First, let’s have some definitions.
Plot, to me, is what happens. Technically, that means it is a bunch of events that are linked in some way – chronologically/causally is the most common. That is, you can put the events in chronological order, and when you do, some of those events will be the reason why other events happen later on in the timeline. Plot events can also be linked chronologically/physically – where everything happens in the same place, for instance, but to different people as the chronological timeline moves on, or where the plot follows an artifact as it affects the lives of different people over time. Or they can be linked thematically or emotionally (what is “the plot” of the movie Love, Actually?)
Structure, again to me, is the particular way the writer chooses to present the events to the reader. The most common structures of Western fiction focus on where, in a chronological ordering of plot, certain things should happen to achieve an effective multi-act or hero’s journey story. However, structural patterns can involve non-standard viewpoints or narrators, non-linear (non-chronological) presentation, and even differing versions of the plot events (as in the movies Rashomon and Hero).
A writer can change structure without changing the fundamental plot, because structure is about the presentation of the plot. It’s telling that discussions of structure nearly always include diagrams, while discussions of plot usually don’t (unless they mention structure). The basic plot events of “Cinderella” can be done as the Disney cartoon version, as “Ever After,” as “Pretty Woman,” as Ella, Enchanted, “When the Clock Strikes,” Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, or as “Working Girl,” and still be recognizable as the same basic plot (along with 200+ other book titles alone that Goodreads lists).
The basic plot of Cinderella – the main events in chronological order – is roughly this: Cinderella’s evil stepmother treats her as a servant and forbids her from going to the prince’s ball. Cinderella finds a way to go anyway (with or without assistance, depending on which version of the tale you start from). She fascinates the prince, and leaves a token behind (accidentally or on purpose, again depending on version). The prince searches for her, uses the token to identify her, and sweeps her off to marry her.
First change in structure: Cinderella arrives home just as her ball gown changes back into rags. Flashback scene of her appearance at the ball, fascinating the prince. Back in story-present, news arrives that the prince is doing a house-to-house search for the mystery girl. Flashback to the fairy godmother providing Cinderella with gown, slippers, and coach. In story-present, the prince arrives with the slipper, but the stepmother locks Cinderella in the cellar so she won’t have a chance to try it on. Flashback to stepmother’s refusal to let Cinderella go to the ball. In story-present, Cinderella escapes from the cellar, tries on the shoe, and leaves to marry the prince. Flashback to stepmother’s change in attitude, from doting to cruel, following funeral of Cinderella’s father. The End.
Same story, but by opening in the “middle” of the plot and alternating present and past scenes, the structure emphasizes emotional connections and recurring motifs, and by ending with the flashback to the story’s beginning, the author can imply that perhaps the marriage Cinderella is heading off to will not be a particularly happy ever-after. The events are the same, but changing the structure by re-ordering the scenes changes the implications.
Second change in structure: Starts with the stepmother’s story, presenting her treatment of Cinderella as the only logical and reasonable choice. Then the prince’s story, giving his view of the bride-picking ball. Then one of the stepsisters, planning hopefully for the big night. Then the fairy godmother as she sets Cinderella up for the ball. Then the other stepsister’s view of what happens at the ball. We get the search for the mysterious woman from the point of view of the prince’s bodyguard, and the wedding from the viewpoint of the slightly worried queen, the prince’s mother.
This is an episodic multiple-viewpoint structure. Each viewpoint could present a different, entirely plausible view of Cinderella – spoiled brat; an ordinary girl unhinged by grief; clever, manipulative competition; a sweet, helpful innocent; a mysterious and intriguing unknown; a conniving social climber. Alternatively, each viewpoint could build the impression of Cinderella on the one before. Or each episode could focus on some problem the particular viewpoint is having, so that the Cinderella plot is almost suppressed unless one is familiar enough with the story to notice what’s going on in the background.
There are plenty of other structures that a writer can use – branching, spiral, braided, and on and on. I’m out of space for this post, so I’ll leave them as an exercise for the reader.
Changing the structure can force changes in the plot, but it isn’t always required. (The alternating-time structure above does not require changes to the plot events to accommodate it. In the multiple-viewpoint version, the structure may not change what actually happened, but since everyone’s version of what happened is different, each viewpoint essential presents a different plot.) Similarly, changes in the plot can force changes in the structure, but again, it isn’t always required.
“There are plenty of other structures that a writer can use – branching, spiral, braided, and on and on. I’m out of space for this post, so I’ll leave them as an exercise for the reader.”
And it’s an easy exercise; just search on any of those terms right here in this blog, and there’s lots of good content on all of them. 🙂
I use “plot” to mean “the thing that makes it a story, as opposed to a bunch of fictional events thrown onto the page, however connected they may be.”
In my “human woman goes shopping for clothes on an alien planet” story, the clothes shopping went smoothly and without any hitches, with any interest coming from the oddities of it being an alien planet. But the *plot* turned out to involve the difficulties the protagonist faced in finding a suitable thank-you gift for the alien woman who helped her.
A plotless Cinderella version might be: Cinderella’s stepmother treats Cinderella as a servant but allows her to go to the prince’s ball, however reluctantly. There she fascinates the prince, and they agree to meet again. Afterwards, the Prince and Cinderella meet again as agreed, and he sweeps her off to marry her.
No problems with figuring out how to go despite being forbidden, no curfew or deadline requiring Cinderella to flee in haste, no token that needs to be deciphered and used as a clue, no problems, no obstacles – no plot. Although I suppose a sufficiently skilled writer could make the tale interesting despite the lack of problems, obstacles, and tension, giving it a weird sort of non-plot plot in the process.
Defining “plot” strictly in terms of a main character overcomming obstacles is typical of a lot of genre stories in Western literature, so it is what most U.S. and European readers think of when they define plot. I’m going to be pursing the problems this kind of one-trick-pony thinking causes for structure in the next couple of posts, but the same kind of thing can happen when it’s applied to “the thing that makes it a story.” What is the plot of Shirley Jackson’s “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts”? Or the movie “Love, Actually” (even some of the substories in this don’t have anything that fits your description of “plot”)?
Your “plotless” Cinderealla is very close to the events of Tanith Lee’s “When the Clock Strikes,” except for the last bit – in that story, Cinderella faces no true obstacles because the whole thing is her revenge plot against the prince. You could achieve a similar “no obstacles” story by giving it an emotional plot – Cinderella being increasingly surprised and suspicious of all this unexpected good fortune. Or telling it from the viewpoint of the frustrated fairy godmother, who doesn’t get a chance to do her thing because everyone is being so reasonable. (Yes, that puts the story back in the “problems and obstacles” type of plot; it’s just that the problems and obstacles are those of someone besides the person you’re expecting to be the protagonist.) “Marvelous Journey” stories like A Voyage To Arcturas are perfectly fine stories without problem/obstacle plots.
If the only kind of story you can recognize as a story is one that has a typical “problems and obstacles” plot, that’s fine, as long as those are also the kinds of stories you want to write. Problem/obstacle plots are, as I said, very much the basis of most Western genre fiction.
Remember that if you do them out of chronological order, you have to clue in the readers.
I especially like:”since everyone’s version of what happened is different, each viewpoint essential presents a different plot.”
Part of the fun of a well-constructed multi-viewpoint structure is the way it can leave the reader anxious for important characters to figure out what the reader already knows…