Children (& most adults) want the same thing in literature....
ACTION.
We want 'happenings', questions that need answers, glimpses of both happy and sad outcomes, want to discover how events grow and turn.
"Plot is the sequence of events showing characters in conflict"
-Lukens text
The element of possibility, of possible action and reaction, builds the plot.
As literature for children has become increasingly sophisticated, representations of time have also become more nuanced.
Many picture books represent changes in time through the use of colour.
Some books may show two different time periods at one - running parallel.
(Examle - Holes by Louis Sachar.
Person-Against-Self
Person-Against-Person
Appears in many children's books.
Example - Charlotte's Web.
Wilbur's struggle (life and death) can be defined as a struggle of person-against-society.
In this case, society being the farming business.
In person-against-nature conflict patterns, classic stories set the plot to represent people overcoming nature and defeating it.
'Plot' is more than the sequence of action, also describes pattern of actions.
Complex plot pattern. Story moves from one incident to another related incident. Rises to climax, and clearly concludes.
Looks like a hill/ rising line with climax at top.
Second type of plot pattern - looks more like a straight horizontal line.
Often seen in stories for younger children.
Tension does not mound, but there is enough interest to keep turning the pages.
It is the emotional pull that keeps up reading.
"Where's Papa going with the ax?" - Charlotte's Web
Stories for younger readers, tend to balance suspense with reassurance. So children are not left feeling fearful.
Exciting ending making it difficult to put the book down.
Examples of this:
- Goosebumps series
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(One chapter concludes with gigantic Hagrid knocking on the hut door, suggesting ominous possibilities. Another ends suggesting disaster when Harry leaves his cloak behind).
Authors of children's literature must decide how much suspense the child can sustain and how much reassurance is necessary to balance that suspense.
In order to relieve the reader's anxiety and produce satisfying sense on the inevitable, the writer must drop clues about the outcome (without destroying the suspense created).
This is called foreshadowing. Inadequate foreshadowing leaves readers surprised or even shocked.
Unrelieved suspense makes a story sensational.
It plays its readers like instruments - keeping them holding their breath in crescendos of anxiety.
Peak and turning point of the conflict. The point at which we know the result of the action.
Begins at the climax - at the point where the reader feels that the protagonist's fate is 'unknown'.
From this point the action of the plot is call the falling action.
Final resolution in an [intricate] plot
Reader is assured all is well. There are no unanswered questions.
Reader is left to draw their own conclusions.
Climax
Whether intense or quiet, the climax comes when we know the outcome of the conflict.
What is 'Plot'
Sensationalism
Narrative Order
Our own lives are one 24 hour period after another. This time order is simple chronology. If a story relates the events in the order that they happened, then that story is in chronological order.
Mysteries
Murder thrillers
Spy stories
Survival adventures
In fiction (particularly for mature readers), narrative order may involve a flashback
The writer disrupts the normal time sequence to recount some aspect of the characters past - often to show how these events influence the characters response to an even in the present.
Without plot, would we continue to read a story?
Plot
Patterns of Action
Types of Conflict
In which protagonist may face two possible choices - thus causing them internal conflict.
e.g. Harry Potter - Horcruxes or Hallows dilemma
Suspense
Foreshadowing
Cliffhangers
Person-Against-Nature
Closed Ending
Denouement
Open Ending
(Called the 'unknotting of ends' or the 'tying up of loose ends'.