Plot & Setting

1. Plot & Setting Unit 1 C.P. 9 Lecture Notes

2. Review of Plot • Plot • Sequence of related events that make a story hang together. • Includes characters who experience some conflict or problem. • Details are filled in before, during and after the problem takes place. • The story takes place within a specific span of time.

3. Plot Structure • A plot has five basic parts: • Exposition • Rising Action • Climax • Falling Action • Resolution

4. Parts of a Plot • Exposition • Also called the Basic Situation • Opening / Introduction • Introduces a main character who wants something very much and who encounters a problem or conflict while trying to get it.

5. Parts of a Plot • Rising Action • Otherwise known as “the complication” • The writer develops the elements of conflict further, and new complications or problems arise. • Conflict – struggle, clash, or problem between opposing forces, characters, or emotions. • Internal – a struggle between opposing needs, desires or emotions within a single character. *A struggle inside their own mind or heart. • Man vs. Self • External – A character struggles against an outside force – another character, society, something in nature, etc. • Man vs. Man • Man vs. Nature • Man vs. Society

6. Parts of a Plot • Climax • High point of the plot • The most exciting or suspenseful moment in the story • The climax is when something happens that decides the outcome of the conflict.

7. Parts of a Plot • Falling Action • The after-effect of the climax • The story just begins to wind down; however, the problems are not necessarily solved yet. • Resolution • Sometimes called the denouement • The problems are resolved and the story ends.

8. Plot Timing • Sequence of events in a plot • Most common • Chronological Order – start at the beginning and tell the story in the order that it happened • However… • Other techniques can be used to manipulate time and control the reader’s feelings. • These other techniques may help create suspense or dramatize a moment as well. • Slowing time down can help accomplish this.

9. Plot Timing continued… • Other techniques used to manipulate time • Flashback – the present action is interrupted with a scene or scenes from the past • Can reveal the past life of a character or explain why someone is in a current situation • Flash-forward – visiting a character’s future • Foreshadowing – a writer plants clues that hint at something that will happen later in the plot

10. Review of Setting • Setting • Where and when a story takes place • Is it possible for an interesting story to have no setting … no indication of where or when the action takes place? • Yes! • If the characters and situations are strong enough, they will hold our attention in empty space, just as a play presented on a bare stage could hold our interest.

11. The Importance of Setting • In real life, events occur somewhere… so, fiction specifies a setting most of the time. • Think of how crucial setting would be in: • a story about a prisoner • a story about a castaway on the Pacific • a story about a colony on Mars • What details would you need in the setting to make each of the above stories a success?

12. Setting, Mood, and Tone • Setting can contribute to a story’s emotional effect. • Mood – the story’s atmosphere • gloomy, cheerful, etc. • A setting in the spring can give a sense of hope or rebirth. / A setting in the winter can give a sense of death. • Tone – the writer’s attitude toward a subject or character (like a tone of voice) • mocking, tender, joyful, vindictive, etc. • Setting details can help to reveal the tone.

13. Setting and Images • To create a believable setting or one that can make us feel joy, mystery, or fear, the writer must select the right details or images. • Images - words or phrases that call forth a response from our senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste). • When the writer supplies a few right images, the reader will fill in the rest through their imagination.

14. Setting, Character, and Conflict • Setting can help reveal character. • Characters affect environment • If the author wishes to portray an “untidy” character, he/she may show us a setting from the mess in their room. • Sometimes, the setting can provide the main conflict. • A group of tourists get lost in the Arctic or in the jungle = a fight for survival.