{"id":188,"date":"2020-11-14T08:01:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T08:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=188"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:39:14","slug":"how-to-chart-your-plot-mountain-or-plot-diagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-chart-your-plot-mountain-or-plot-diagram\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Chart Your Plot Mountain Or Plot Diagram"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plot<\/a> structure is one of the trickiest and most vital things to get right in a story, but using the idea of a plot mountain can be a great way to solve your plot problems<\/a> \u2013 and deliver a great experience for the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plot is loosely defined as a chain of events in a story \u2013 i.e. this happened, so that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice that little word \u201cso\u201d \u2013 it means that Y happened, because X happened. That everything in your story is linked together, literally like links in a chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A linear, logical chain of events, though, isn\u2019t all that exciting. You need a story arc \u2013 a plot mountain \u2013 to engage readers, to build tension and excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use A Plot Diagram For Story Momentum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A plot diagram (or plot mountain or story arc) will deliberately look like a triangle, with action and drama building to excite us before subsiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It mightn\u2019t sound inspired. To most readers, a story is a living thing and you\u2019re alive in those writers\u2019 very dreamscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, though, rules can help keep a writer on track. (And once understood, they can be bent and broken a little.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider a plot mountain your roadmap for sustaining emotional momentum through the story \u2013 and let\u2019s cover some points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plotting Your Foundations (Your Characters)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Any foundation for a good story is character<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may veer on a clich\u00e9, but think of it as inverse pot-of-gold at the start of a rainbow. The more you bury early on, the more you can mine and dig up later over your plot mountain. Character is only the start of good plotting, but it is no less than that. The best stories are essentially character journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your protagonist<\/a> will need to be human and compelling. Your protagonist will also be in<\/em> need for a story arc to take place, so they must lack something. This is your foundation for a good story. Start here and think of both your character\u2019s goal or goals, as well as your character\u2019s motive(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This distinction between goal and motive is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J.K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter needs love and acceptance (motive), having grown up uncared for under his uncle and aunt\u2019s roof. Then Hagrid appears and Harry \u2018needs\u2019 to escape to Hogwarts (goal). Harry\u2019s goals change through the books (going to the Quidditch World Cup, winning the Triwizard Tournament). But his motivation is to fight throughout for peace and tolerance \u2013 and his overarching goal has evolved by the last book to be the death of Voldemort and peace for the wizarding community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So map goal to motive as you plan for your character\u2019s growth, their story arc and your plot structure \u2013 and take a look at our character building page<\/a> for help, ditto how authentic characterisation<\/a> is essential to help drive a plot forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Character needs may evolve as your hero or heroine grows, but goals and motive can\u2019t be \u2018illogical\u2019 and cancel out the other (e.g. you write in a goal not in keeping with your character\u2019s nature).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And remember any story is born out of your protagonist desiring something, rooted in overcoming weakness to get to a stronger new equilibrium. (We\u2019ll get to this soon.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plotting Your Initiating Incident<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having mapped out your foundation and novel beginnings, you can tie in your initiating incident. A good example might be Harry Potter receiving his Hogwarts letter. Out of the Cupboard under the Stairs, onto Hogwarts. And any initiating incident or call-to-action, no matter how over- or understated, must actually throw the character into a worse-off situation than the start in order to set your novel off on the right trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story charts are called \u2018story mountains\u2019 in schools, after all, because stakes get higher and things need to get emotionally a lot tougher before they can wind down to a happy ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the initiating incident you just kindled should spark drama. It should lead your protagonist into what we\u2019ll (loosely) call a fraught setup where drama will unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks as if Jon Snow\u2019s going to the Night Watch will result in a quieter life than the trauma unfolding for his family in King\u2019s Landing. Jon\u2019s choice leads him to danger instead. And it looks as if Harry Potter will be safe at Hogwarts under Dumbledore\u2019s watch. And it looks as if Jane Eyre will be settled and happy at Thornfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good plot<\/a> subverts such hope. Your drama builds from this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protagonist is placed, somehow, in some jeopardy that rivets us and pushes us to read more, so bear in mind your initiating incident carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll later need to subvert our sense of safety as you \u2018bridge\u2019 your way to your next plot points and remember your initiating incident should map back to earlier foundations (your character\u2019s nature). Will they take up their call and be right for your plot structure and story arc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure it marries up to motive, with the person they are at heart. You need a protagonist to actively take this call-to-action up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is true even for reluctant heroes, i.e. Arthur Golden\u2019s Chiyo in Memoirs of a Geisha<\/em> or Suzanne Collins\u2019 Katniss in The Hunger Games<\/em>. Chiyo tries to run away at first, fails, but she finds other reasons to train as a Kyoto geisha and remain in her okiya<\/em>. Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games in her sister Prim\u2019s place, with no choice but to fight to save her sister. Once she\u2019s committed, she\u2019ll fight to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some protagonists are more proactive and will create their own \u2018call\u2019, rather than fairy-godmother-summons. Jon Snow, for instance, opts to leave home and \u2018take the black\u2019 in A Game of Thrones<\/em>. Jane Eyre is at first sent to school, then creates her \u2018call\u2019 because, bored years later, she advertises herself as a governess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether your protagonist knows an initiating incident could lead them to danger (as Katniss does), they still can\u2019t help taking up the mantle. They\u2019ll always choose to take up the call, and so it always maps back to intrinsic needs. In The Hunger Games<\/em>, Katniss needs to save her sister because she couldn\u2019t live with herself if anything happened to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the rest of your plot is about mounting drama and the protagonist reaching their end goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Creating Plot Development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plot development\u2019s where you get to wreak havoc and brew drama, the clouds and storms gathering up the plot mountain. So play with scenarios and ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be sure everything is done right when you edit your plot, keeping all that happens to your protagonist relevant and necessary, and don\u2019t meander, but do get your ideas down. Plotting should be fun and, like a first draft, you can edit and hone as you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Edgar Allan Poe wrote, \u2018no [plot] part can be displaced without ruin to the whole.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also need here to accordingly sketch your antagonist (if not fleshed out yet), and they\u2019ll compete for the same thing as your protagonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to storyteller John Truby in The Anatomy of Story<\/em>, a good protagonist and antagonist compete for \u2018which version of reality everyone will believe\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of everyone in A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> vying for the Iron Throne. This is a story of many people believing they should rule \u2013 and George R.R. Martin\u2019s multiple protagonists work as one another\u2019s antagonists. Each has a version of reality they want to assert. And we\u2019ve invested emotionally in all these characters and rivals, which is why A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> is so gripping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your story arc (or the bulk of it) is in fact about which reality will be established if your protagonist fails and the conflict resulting from this threat is the rising action. This is where your story tension, drama, poignancy and urgency will be born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there\u2019s just no point in mismatching protagonist and antagonist, any more than you\u2019d mismatch your love interest in a romance novel, if you want drama ensuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create your character\u2019s very antithesis, then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019d be the worst antagonist for your protagonist to be faced with? Bring them to life. Which gifts would be the ultimate worst-case scenario for your protagonist to deal with? Give them those gifts. Make it personal and keep it human. This isn\u2019t just about plot mechanics, either: a protagonist-antithesis means your character\u2019s journey will end in real growth and change, that stakes will be heightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a face often grips us more than a secret network, machine or monster. There are exceptions, i.e. Frankenstein\u2019s Monster, or White Walkers, but there\u2019s still a \u2018humanness\u2019 in really monstrous beings that makes them more sinister. Cersei Lannister is more ominous than Daenerys\u2019 dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em>. Cold Aunt Reed and petulant Blanche Ingram aren\u2019t larger-than-life murderesses \u00e0 la Cersei, but they\u2019re larger-than-life threats to Jane Eyre<\/em> and Jane\u2019s hopes for happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bar a gripping (powerful, threatening) antagonist, there aren\u2019t set rules for rising action, but a good story checklist of things to include could be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n