Do You Know What A Plot Is?

Creative Writing Tips ?

What a plot is and what a story is can be sometimes confusing. If you think they are the same? They are not. A plot is the outline of your story. The story is everything included.

I will illustrate the difference by asking you to visualize two pictures?

1. Visualize a skeleton.

Then

2. Visualize a body.

The skeleton is your plot. It's the outline of your story. It won't be visible when we flesh it out but it will still be there, holding your story together.

The body is your story. It's everything, which our story will contain, including the plot. The story is the plot fleshed out.

What does it mean to 'flesh it out?'

Let me show you.

I'll take a brief plot?

A man meets a woman and they fall in love. They encounter great difficulties because their family are against the relationship.

This is the outline of the story.

Now we are going to flesh it out and make it into a story. Fleshing it out means adding things to make this basic plot into a story. To do this we will add the rest of the ingredients such as?

• Setting ? Where will our story take place

• Dialogue ? What will be said and by whom

• Characters ? How many characters will our story contain? Who are they? What is their role?

• Problems ? What and how many problems will the couple encounter

• Goal ? What is the couple's goal?

• Conflict ? What is the conflict?

• Climax ? How is the conflict going to come to its peak?

• Ending ? Will their love win in the end?

• And anything else I'll need in my story

Once we have written up all these ingredients, this will be our plot fleshed out into a story.

About The Author

Besides his passion for writing, Nick Vernon runs an online gift site where you will find gift information, articles and readers' funny stories. Visit http://www.we-recommend.com

---

Recipe for a Style Guide

Wired Online has recently announced its plans to drop capitalization... Read More

Beginners Blues: How to Collect Samples, Testimonials, and References as a Freelancer

Beginner's Blues: How to Collect Samples, Testimonials, and References as... Read More

How to Create Incredible Characters Easily

Creating incredible characters can be easy if you know of... Read More

Rejection ? Have the Right Perspective and Don?t Quit

If you're getting rejections from your submissions, please don't quit... Read More

English Grammar ? Seven Outdated Rules You Can Ignore

No matter what your fifth-grade English teacher says, some grammar... Read More

Recommendation Letters Demystified

There is a lot of confusion about recommendation letters.Recommendation letters... Read More

The Writer and the Web

If your dream is to get published, the chance is... Read More

Format Each eBook Chapter Before you Write It

Do you have a problem creating a focus in your... Read More

How to Create Stories that Sizzle

How to Start Your Story with a BangThe purpose of... Read More

Screenwriting ? The Lone Wolf Story Structure Template

Story Structure Templates are the fastest way to write screenplays.... Read More

How To Write for the Web

The Scanning ReaderWriting for the Web is different than writing... Read More

Write With Passion: 4 Steps To Emotionally Charge A Nonfiction Article

You have just completed a draft of an article. It... Read More

Local Knowledge: Background and Historical Setting in Novels

You're writing a story set in your local city, but... Read More

The Self-indulgent Writier

A writer can never be self indulgent whether writing fiction,... Read More

Should I Keep Writing?

Writers are an insecure lot.It's easy to understand why. You... Read More

To Tell If You Are A Literary Snob

"I don't know if I should put 'writer' on my... Read More

How To Publish Your Own Newsletter

With the expansion and diversion of businesses, manufacturers, and even... Read More

Need a Book Coach, Ghost Writer, or Editor? Part 2

If you either want to write a book to help... Read More

Good Writing

Good writing is like sex. Two people are involved ?... Read More

A New Way To Self Publish

More and more good authors are turning to the Internet... Read More

Masquerading As Novel ~ Can Author?s Work Convey Important Perceptions?

While novels do not usually attempt to convey concepts about... Read More

Letter Writing Journaling

When you read a letter from someone, we are immediately... Read More

6 Ways to Toot Your Own Writing Horn

You know you've got writing talent. Others enjoy your work... Read More

Zany Ideas That Increase Writing Productivity And Quality

Welcome to the zany ideas of a productive writer. My... Read More

Writing the Chapters of Your Life: Surprising Insights Using This Special Journaling Technique

List-making is a favorite journaling technique and is often used... Read More

Spiritual Journaling

Whether you keep a separate spiritual journal or just want... Read More

Keep your Book Dream Alive

Is your book nearly finished, finished, published, or even in... Read More

Seven Suggestions To Develop a Superb Writing Style

Every writer eventually develops her own unique style of writing.... Read More

Important Points of Fiction

Fiction manuscripts receive feedback that addresses and scores:· The theme... Read More

Make Your Mark Upon Humanity

The greatest gift you have to give to yourself and... Read More

Revising Your Manuscript: Fourteen Questions to Ask Yourself

1) Can you summarize the story in about a sentence... Read More

Unusual Points of View

Most writers are familiar with first and third points of... Read More

Be Concise

Concision. (Sounds like I made up another word.) It's the... Read More