Comments on: Story Structure Series: #8 – The Second Plot Point

By: jeannieruesch.com » Blog Archive » Understanding Story Structure from the Movies

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:45 +0000

[...] #8: The Second Plot Point [...]

By: Trina

Trina — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:23:49 +0000

I was just wondering how to construct a short story using these principles. I guess things happen quicker. You are right, I will never watch another movie the same way. Because of your examples, I can pinpoint areas in other movies where these points are strong and where they get obscured. The last Star Wars movie used this structure pretty well. The last Transformers movie didn’t do as well with this structure….but the action and great robots made up for that.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:11:01 +0000

O.K. Ready for 9 and 10 now!

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:25:50 +0000

The nice thing about short stories is that they can basically be anything you want them to be in terms of structure (can’t say that about a novel or screenplay). Which means you absolutely can take this entire 4-part stategy and shrink it down, or you can take a microcosm of it and build a story or vignette (which passes as a short story) from it. If you do the latter, however, you need some sort of resolution, or an ending that leaves the reader gasping without much resolution.

In short stories, though, there needs to be some semblance of the basic criteria of storytelling, even if you don’t use the entire 4-part model. That is, there needs to be a hero, they need to want or need something (in a short story you can cut into that need sequence without showing us the plot point), and there needs to be opposition to it (often in the form of the character’s inner demon).

About pacing… these major story points are all really more than pacing devices, since the sequences and scenes between the plot points required escalating pacing, as well. These major plot point tent pole milestones (maybe I’ll throw in some more adjectives for them soon ) are as much the elements that the pacing drives toward and from, as they are factors of the pacing itself.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:07:53 +0000

I’ve also been wondering if this structure would work in a short story. Perhaps elements that would encompass several scenes in a novel or screenplay would be manifest as just single paragraphs, or a couple lines in a short story? (For instance, Part 2 “The Response” = the Hero thinking about the problem for 2 paragraphs.) Would ALL of the various milestones and pinch points be necessary though?

By: poch

poch — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:20:29 +0000

‘Spring it on the reader too soon and the tent becomes lopsided. Wait too long and the suspense and dramatic fabric of the final act (Part 4) is compromised.’

Pacing, isn’t it?
I second Janice’s good question too.

By: janice

janice — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:36:05 +0000

You’ve made me want to re-read a Grisham or Patterson this weekend to see how these fit. I need to see the tent superimposed on something soon, or it’ll start to feel like maths again.

Just out of curiosity, because I know you like stuctures within structures, are there any famous short stories that leap to mind that your architecture fits over, too?

I’ve just been over to Men With Pens. Nice guest post!