The document provides an overview of the key elements of plot in fiction, including definitions, common plot structures, and plot devices. It defines plot as a sequence of causally related events that drives the story forward around the question "What happens next?". Three common types of plot structures are described: organic, episodic, and static. Plot devices like exposition, beginning in medias res, foreshadowing, deus ex machina, and surprise endings are also explained as tools writers use to develop their plots.

1. The Crux of the Matter
Overview of the Elements
An introduction to Plot

2. Why We Tell The Story
It is in human nature to make stories.
When we talk about the highlights of the day,
We vary in the telling.
We sometimes start from the very beginning,
Or at the most interesting point of our day.

3. FICTION

Defined as any literary narrative, whether in
prose or verse, which is invented of being an
account of events that have in fact happened
-M.H. Abrams, The Glossary of Literary Terms

4. Our lives become the story that we weave.
-'Why We Tell the Story' from Once on this Island

5. ELEMENTS OF FICTION

PLOT

CONFLICT

SETTING

CHARACTER

POINT OF VIEW

SYMBOL AND IRONY

THEME

6. WHAT IS PLOT?

According to most dictionaries, it is a plan or a
scheme.

According to your high school literature classes, it is
“a sequence of causally related events”.

7. Plot is driven by the curious question,
“What happens next?”

8. The Classic Plot, Graphed
German Novelist and Playwright,
Gustav Freytag, devised a system for
dramatic structure

9. Plot is defined by action, a series of
events happening to the characters at
work.

10. Whether it starts at the beginning,
middle, or end, a story isn't a story
unless there is logic to its telling.
Without the logic,
you just have a mess of events.

11. Wait, there's more! 3 Types of Plot

Organic - with a clear beginning, middle and end

Episodic - a series of seemingly unrelated events

Static -a story without any recognizable external
action; static short stories rely on the event of an
EPIPHANY – either on the part of the character, or
on the part of the reader – in order for it to make
sense.

12. Hello Plot Devices!
Exposition - How writers provide their readers
with the necessary background information in
their stories. It could be anything from simply
describing a character or the current scene,
information about the world of the story you’re
reading along with its culture, customs and
traditions.

13. Hello Plot Devices! Page 2
Beginning “in medias res” and making use of
flashbacks. Most stories begin “in medias res”, or in
the middle of the action, flashbacks are then used
to explain what had taken place before, and
sometimes end up framing what is going on now in
a new light.
Foreshadowing. Authors sometimes plug in details
that lead on to what happens later on in the story.

14. Example of In Media Res,
Foreshadowing, and Flashback

15. Hello Plot Devices! Part 3!
Deus ex machina - (translated: “God from the
machine”) – the writer relies on “divine
interventions”, coincidences or chance in order to
tie up loose ends in the plot or to make the plot
move.
Surprise endings - unlike the DeM plots, these
outcomes seem to be plausible and adequately
prepared for.

17. THANK YOU!
Download and View the presentation at
http://slideshare.net/miamarci
Love is why we tell the story,
Faith is why we tell the story
You are why...
-Once on This Island

18. CREDITS
Prepared by Mia Marci, with some text by Pamela
Punzalan (used with permission).
Free for non-commercial use, with due credit
given.