Plot Pattern

Narrative Tension

Interresting stories don't just tell an action. The spectators can feel the story unroll before them, they want it.

An interesting story should provide:

1. entertainment through actions
2. self-identification of reader through emotional characters and situations
3. reflexion through spiritual subjects
4. education through informative details

The tension in a story is made of three aspects:

1. Suspence (uncertainty)
2. Curiosity (mystery)
3. Surprise (unexpected)

Tensive Model

The tensive model of J Fontanille and C Zilberberg puts in relation:

1. the intensity (strength) of a tension with
2. its extensity (diversity, university, range of impacted areas).

Plot Pattern

A plot is a sequence of scenes that drives the story from the beginning to the end.

G Freytag's pyramid is one of the most simple patterns of plot.

This very simple and generic plot distinguishes five mains parts in a story:

1. The exposition (Once upon a time there was a quiet kingdom.) of the situation presents the initial state, the characters, the original places, etc.
2. The rising action (Suddenly some ennemy spy took the Princess to their tower.) triggers a conflict. Tension is rising from an almost negligible level up to a life and death or to an end of the world level.
3. Until it reaches the climax (The Prince has trained enough to go and attack the enemy tower.) where the story turns to a no return decision or event to will lead to the good or bad end of the story.
4. The falling action (The Prince rescued the Princess just before she would have been executed.) shows that the quest is desperate, almost lost, even after several tries when finally the quest succeeds definitely or is lost definitely.
5. The denouement (The King congratulates the Prince and offers him half of him kingdom. The Prince and the Princess married and got many children.) is the resolution of every problems and mysteries.

Some other kinds of plots:

1. Overcoming a "monster"
   A hero prepares to face a danger that threatens. The monster might be: Another Man, Nature, itself, God, society, machine, fate, the supernatural. This is the basic plot of the most common.

2. From Poor to Rich
   A hero comes to the end of a difficult and unfortunate situation. (The Count of Monte Cristo)

3. The Quest
   A hero goes in search of any item, often with companions. (Indiana Jones adventure movies)

4. Travel and Back.
   A hero visits exotic lands, triumphs, then turns back. (The Lord of the Rings)

5. Comedy
   An atypical hero must overcome misunderstandings and misconceptions to have a good relation (or to be) with someone.

6. Tragedy
   The story of an average hero (neither good nor bad) pushed into misfortune through life, God or Fate, which, because of any fault (present or past) done by him falls in misfortune, suffering increasingly, being the victim of a spiral of violence that he knows he can not stop until his defeat AND his death. (Gangsters movies, Falling Down)

7. The Reborn
   A hero turns his fall (or misfortune) to something "scary". (Dracula, Batman, Joker)

8. The Revenge
   Because they killed his wife and children (or murdered his master), a hero promises to avenge the death of his family (The Count of Monte Cristo, most action movies, karate and Chinese martial arts).

9. The Romantic Comedy
   The diagram "Boy Meets Girl" in five steps. Boy meets girl. The guy likes the girl. The guy loses the girl. The guy finds the girl. The guy marries the girl.

10. Detective Story
    A hero (police officer, investigator, detective, reporter, etc.) investigates to find a culprit (a thief, a murderer), collecting clues, either through science, with the help of witnesses but also by deduction (Tintin)

11. The Fugitive
    An ordinary hero, unjustly arrested and treated as a criminal, managed to escape the vigilance of his captors and escape. Chased by them, he must fight to survive until he can prove his innocence and / or find the real criminal.