In the story of resolution, we get the “plot skeleton”:

1. A believable and sympathetic central character

2. has an urgent and difficult problem

3. attempts to solve the problem, fails, and the situation becomes more desperate

4. encounters a crisis, a final chance to win

5. through the character’s personal qualities of courage, perseverence, cleverness, etc., manages to win (or, in a tragedy, fails through his flaws).

In practice, the full plot skeleton is seldom seen in short fiction. There’s no room for step 3, and step 5 is too predictable. Instead, we see a conflict, with the outcome in doubt, and we get:

1. The terms of the competition set out

2. The contest itself

3. The outcome

The short fiction author will usually use this for misdirection, since otherwise it’s too predictable. The meaning turns out to be something other than the outcome of the contest. The conflict exposes character and keeps the reader interested until the revelation.

The story of revelation replaces the resolution (one outcome of the contest or the other) with a third thing that is a revelation. Or else it achieves rising tension in another way, without conflict (e.g. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, where the choice gradually narrows down to one person), then springs the revelation (what’s going to happen to that person).

The trick ending does a bait and switch.

The story of decision needs to have a genuinely difficult choice that could go either way.

The story of explanation builds up the strangeness, then explains it at the end.

The story of solution is a puzzle or mystery (puzzles are solved by the characters, mysteries by events). Don’t attempt puzzle stories unless you’re familiar with what’s been done already.

The story of illumination is not a plotted story. A sequence of events reveals the meaning of a character’s life.

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Plot is a series of imaginary events designed to create anticipation, either anxiety (over the outcome of a conflict) or curiosity (over the solution to a puzzle).

The ending may take the form of a resolution (one side of a conflict wins), revelation, decision (about something important or difficult), explanation or solution.

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Conflict is something pushing back. If the character has nothing pushing on her, and she’s pushing on nothing, there’s no conflict.

Confrontation is not necessarily conflict. Violence loses its power very quickly, and should be used sparingly, and only when the story demands it.

Things being difficult can provide conflict – solving a mystery, having to make a hard choice.

Wish-fulfilment fantasies, in which a sequence of nice events occur, are not stories, because they lack conflict. Ask: What’s the catch?

A character who’s driven (by external forces) or obsessed (with an internal goal) isn’t going to walk away from the conflict when it becomes hard. We will find them interesting to watch. This is because we admire someone who, unlike us, has a clear goal; and we expect them to encounter trouble and exhibit their character in overcoming it.

The threat of loss of something the character values gives power to conflict.

People practicing their professions, even interesting professions, don’t make stories until something becomes personal.

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Situation: A dramatic situation is unstable. It will not stay as it is, and it has at least two possible outcomes, one desirable and one undesirable.

In a plotted story, the situation contains the germ of conflict, leading to change.

In an unplotted or circular story, the situation at the end is the same as at the beginning, but the reader understands it better.

If you start your story with a situation in mind, look for a character who has a stake in the outcome.

A story will often pass through multiple intermediate situations, some of them unexpected, on the way from beginning to end.

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Natural series and dramatic series:

The natural series of events is the mundane things that happen as we go about our lives. We need to mention them occasionally in fiction to fill in the pauses between dramatic events and give a sense of reality.

The dramatic series of events makes up a story. Real life seldom provides these (or we wouldn’t need fiction). A natural series will not naturally become a dramatic series.

Coincidences commonly happen in the natural series, but should be kept out of the dramatic series, because despite happening all the time in real life, they’re implausible in fiction.

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Damon Knight on structure:

Structure is there to draw the reader into the story, keep them reading, and satisfy them at the end. “Whatever in a work of art is not used, is doing harm.” (C.S. Lewis.)

If tension falls to zero anywhere before the end, the story will probably fail.

Plot is one way of organising a story – not the only one. In the “lean-to” story, the structure leans against our expectations of how things work, for example.

Physical movement through different spaces is another structure, economical because it also provides setting and background at the same time.

A group of people anticipate an arrival, then there’s conflict, then a resolution. That’s a structure.

Beginners often have “tunnel vision” – they look down the story from the beginning, hoping to reach the end, but can’t see (or create) the structure until they look at the tunnel from the side.

To fix:

– Vivid image. If you started with one, look for one at the end. You may need one in the middle as well.

– What else is nearby?

– Who else is nearby? What’s their relationship with the main character?

– What happened before the story started that’s important to how it unfolds? Does the character have a secret?

– What does the story mean? Does the ending support that?

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Story form (Damon Knight):

Stories need coherence, balance, and proportion. The parts must fit together, must balance by contrast of opposites, and must be at the correct scale to work together.

Some story forms:

Inwards spiral: begins far from its central mystery and gradually approaches.

Plot skeleton: a straight course with a series of obstacles. Hard to do at short lengths.

Braid: two characters or plot lines keep intersecting and diverging until they meet and resolve together at the end. More common in novels.

Target: the story with the obvious and inevitable ending.

Circular: the end takes us back to the beginning.

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Story building: It’s like a stack of boxes, says Damon Knight. From base to apex:

Impetus: Why do you want to write this story? What inside you is trying to get out?

Idea

Materials – characters, background, setting, etc.

Form

Surface – what the reader sees, the sentences and words.

If your story isn’t working, find the earliest level where it fails, and fix that.

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“In a story we expect a quality of completion, of roundedness, which sets it apart from a sketch, an incident, or an anecdote.”

After some examples of sketch, incident and anecdote, Knight demonstrates how each could become a story, and summarizes: a story requires an emotional relationship between at least two people, and an impediment to a satisfactory conclusion.

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“Over a period of time you may find your stories saying again and again something you didn’t know you intended to say. It is just as well not to worry about this, because it will happen whether you do or not.”

– Damon Knight, Creating Short Fiction

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