The Plot Skeleton

By Angela E Hunt

In high school English class, our teachers made sure we understood how to write a five-paragraph theme: introduction, thesis sentence, points one, two, and three, followed by the conclusion. But rarely did any teacher tell us how to write fiction--they simply urged us to write a story. But how is that don

• Language: English
• Publisher: HuntHaven Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781961394469

Book preview

The Plot Skeleton

THE PLOT SKELETON

WRITING LESSONS FROM THE FRONT, BOOK 1

ANGELA HUNT

HuntHaven Publishing

Visit Angela Hunt’s Web site at www.angelahuntbooks.com

Copyright © 2013 by Angela Hunt. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1961394452 paper

978-1961394469 ebook

CONTENTS

Diagram

Chapter 1

Afterword

About the Author

Also by Angela Hunt

To all the teachers who ever scribbled my pages

with a red pen: thank you.

Other Books in the Writing Lessons from the Front Series

The Plot Skeleton, Book 1

Creating Extraordinary Characters, Book 2

Point of View, Book 3

Track Down the Weasel Words, Book 4

Evoking Emotion, Book 5

Plans and Processes, Book 6

Tension on the Line, book 7

Writing Historical Fiction, book 8

The Fiction Writer’s Book of Checklists, book 9

Writing the Picture Book, book 10

The First Fifty Pages, book 11

The Art of Revision, book 12

A Christian Writer’s Possibly Useful Ruminations on a Life in Pages, supplemental volume

CHAPTER ONE

When we were in school, our English teachers gave us explicit details about how to write a five-paragraph theme: introduction, thesis sentence, point one, point two, point three, and conclusion. But when it came to writing creative fiction, odds are that your teacher said, Just tell me a story.

No wonder so many storytellers falter when it comes to creating their own stories! We move from the ordered world of nonfiction into a world that can appear to be a whirling ebb and flow of ideas. To the uninitiated, it can feel like a riptide and it’s hard to make any headway.

But creative fiction does have a structure, and it’s been around for ages. From Joseph Campbell’s study of the hero’s journey to Syd Field’s exploration of screenwriting structure, others have found and analyzed plot structure with sometimes confusing terms.

A few years ago, I was hired to teach writing to homeschooled students from third through twelfth grades. I wanted to teach them to plot, so I searched for a method that was easy to understand and yet completely sound. After studying several plotting techniques and boiling them down to their basic elements, I developed what I call the plot skeleton. It combines the spontaneity of seat of the pants writing with the discipline of an outline. It requires a writer to know where he’s going, but it leaves room for the joy of discovery on the journey.

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