Munday Story Pyramid
At some point in our lives - whether at school, or a writing site - we've seen a plot diagram.
Our challenge is to take your one of your stories' plots and place it on the diagram (either visually, or writing about it, or both).
What parts of your story are exposition? What constitutes the rising action (conflict)? Where is your story's climax? What events are part of the falling action? What is your conclusion? If you are missing some of these classic plot elements, it's a good time to plan them out.
All right, list time:
So, in visual format, I think the plot structure of "Secundus" would look rather like this:
hosting images
More of a right triangle than an equilateral one -- a lot of rising action, not much falling. It's just how the story came together, really. (And "Secundus 2" is probably going to be much the same way. We'll see.)
Our challenge is to take your one of your stories' plots and place it on the diagram (either visually, or writing about it, or both).
What parts of your story are exposition? What constitutes the rising action (conflict)? Where is your story's climax? What events are part of the falling action? What is your conclusion? If you are missing some of these classic plot elements, it's a good time to plan them out.
All right, list time:
- Exposition: I'd say Chapters One through Five, since the focus of those are Victor adjusting to life in Secundus. A lot of the dialogue and descriptions in those chapters are info dumps on everyone's backstory, talking about the main places we'll see in the city, and getting Victor acquainted with all the other main characters (barring Christopher, Victoria, and Emily). By Chapter Five, Victor's become an accepted member of the group, and the main conflicts can start.
- Rising Action: Chapters Six through Nineteen. Chapter Six introduces two conflicts -- the arrival of Nell and William, wanting to bring Victor home; and Victor realizing he's in love with Alice. Chapter Eleven resolves the romance between Victor and Alice, but Chapter Twelve introduces two new conflicts -- Victoria's parents refusing to let her marry the man she loves, and Lewis creating the Queen of Hearts. And Chapter Fifteen ratchets things up with the Queen of Hearts subplot by having her attempt to take over the city and take hostages, forcing multiple characters to go in and fight her. There's also the hidden subplot of Victor's impending "going Creative," turning him into a Touched, sprinkled in throughout (the dreams and the headaches, to be precise). So yeah, conflicts galore in these chapters.
- Climax: Chapter Nineteen, though I'd say there's a mini-climax in Chapter Eleven. Like I said above, Chapter Eleven resolves the romance subplot between Victor and Alice, more or less -- I feel the high point of that conflict is them going on their successful date and getting together. The rest of the conflicts, however, pretty much hit their highest point in Chapter Nineteen. Granted, Victor finally goes Creative at the end of Chapter Seventeen, but he doesn't show his true potential until he confronts the Queen in Nineteen. I'd say the true climax of the story comes in the middle of Chapter Nineteen, when Victor defeats the Queen and has his little rant. After that, we start the falling action.
- Falling Action: The end of Chapter Nineteen and Chapter Twenty. After Victor is sedated, plot threads start wrapping themselves up. The Queen (and her accomplice) is dead and her hostages rescued; the Everglots abandon their objections about Sir Christopher as Victoria's husband; Victor is now a full Touched, and Alice manages to help him accept that properly. Chapter Twenty also provides us with a little exposition on how the city's starting to recover and suchlike. I think the only conflict that isn't really wrapped up is the one about Victor's parents wanting him to come back with them, but it's hinted that they've given up on Victor altogether, and by the Epilogue, it's clearly stated they and Victor are estranged. (And if you've read my drabbles here, particularly the last of my last set of 100 Drabbles of Summer, you know exactly what happened between them.)
- Denouement: The Epilogue, which wraps everything up with Victor and Alice's wedding. Little note of interest here -- I tried to bookend the finale, with Victor and Alice's flight on Ferdinand, with Victor's first arrival in Secundus. In Chapter One, Victor viewed it all with awe and not a little terror; by the Epilogue, it's home. Everything is (more or less) wrapped up -- he's married, he's happy, and he's going to get a break from major adventures for about two years. What more could you ask?
So, in visual format, I think the plot structure of "Secundus" would look rather like this:
hosting images
More of a right triangle than an equilateral one -- a lot of rising action, not much falling. It's just how the story came together, really. (And "Secundus 2" is probably going to be much the same way. We'll see.)