The Absolutely Simplest Plot Structure Ever

A lot of the writers I teach get really freaked out about structure. They go on multiple craft book journeys trying to find the structure that resonates with them, the one that gives them that beautiful a-ha moment. Who can blame them? Don't we all want that beautiful a-ha moment? They learn about pinch points, rising action, falling action, subplots, inciting incidents, midpoints, themes, narrative arc, emotional arc, hamster zombies (just kidding) and they hyperventilate along the way. There is no reason to hyperventilate if this way of looking at writing structure doesn’t work for your brain. You can simplify it a lot with no zombie hamsters involved. Ready? Here is the simplest structure choice. You have a character. Your character has a problem. Let everyone reading know she has a problem. How will she solve it? Make her try to solve it. Make her fail. Make her try to solve it again. Make her fail again. Do this until near the end (¾'s in) and make everything seem absolutely hopeless. Let her solve the damn problem. Let her rejoice. How many times should she try? In our Western culture, we like the number three for some reason. I'm personally more of a fan of the number four. But we authors tend to give the main character three big attempts to solve her issue before we let her succeed. We're mean like that. Make it tougher We call this the rising action, but basically it means that each time she tries to fix things, it should be harder, there should be more at risk, she should be more desperate and emotionally invested. We, the readers, should also be more invested as it goes along. When the attempt fails, the tension gets a bit mellower until it rises again even higher for the second and third attempts. It becomes a pattern. That's It - The Simplest Plot Structure Ever Really. It's a pretty simple plot structure but it works. No, I didn't mention inciting incidents and midpoints and other things, because this is the simple plot structure. Key word: simple. But, don't forget that even with the simplest of plot structures, the point of the story is to have it make sense. When your character does something, let there be consequences that logically move us to the next part of the story. Remember cause and effect? That's important to us writers. DOG TIP FOR LIFE Pogie says to just keep trying. PLACE TO SUBMIT Shenandoah. Genre: Fiction. Payment: $80 per 1000 words of prose up to $400. Deadline: Opens September 10, 2024, and closes when they reach capacity.  The Last Line. Genre: Fiction that ends with the last line provided. Payment: $20-$40. Deadline: October 1, 2024.  COOL WRITING EXERCISE This is via Reedsy: “The Outsider “If you're working on a novel or short story, write a pivotal scene from an outside observer's perspective who has no role in the story. HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday! Or, um, just subscribe to this blog and maybe even pay $5 a month to get the paid-subscriber only posts. Why? Because I do not want have to start an Only Fans. Just kidding! Sort of. It would have to be about my feet. OR BUY ART? You can buy some of my art. I paint to help inform my stories and some of the prints are available now. There will be more soon. You can check it out here.  SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It's pretty awesome. We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream biweekly live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here. Carrie is reading one of her raw poems every once in awhile on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That's a lot! Subscribe