Plot Diagram Introduction to Plot Diagram Terminology Short

Plot Diagram Introduction to Plot Diagram Terminology

Short stories � All short stories have a plot that follows basic pattern

Freytag’s Pyramid Climax ) on Ac ti ing Ris Co mp li ca tio ns ( on cti g. A llin Fa Exposition Resolution

Exposition (basic Situation) � opening of the story � characters and their conflicts are introduced � Attention: You must follow the story until the main conflict is introduced. This may be a few pages into the story.

Rising Action (complications) � main character takes action to resolve the main conflict, but he/she meets with more problems or complications: � danger, hostility, fear, or even a new threatening situation

Climax peak of the plot diagram • most important things about the climax: • • turning point of the story • something happens that can’t be reversed • most emotional part • key scene in the story • the tense, exciting, or terrifying moment when our emotional involvement is the greatest

Resolution � Occurs at the end � all struggles are over � Wraps Up the story: › We know what is going to happen to the characters.

The Wait by Patrick Johanneson She planted the seed and waited. After a while rain came down from the sky, pelting her skin, chilling her. She shivered but didn't leave, not yet. The sun came out, warming the soil, driving the cold from her bones. She waited. Clouds scudded by overhead, in a hurry for some reason. The moon rose, stars wheeled, and then the sun rose again. She didn't just wait, of course. She prayed, she sang, she read the old stories, the myths and the legends. On the seventh day she snoozed under a cloudless sky, waking only briefly when a dragonfly happened to touch down on her nose. She observed its cathedral-window wings, iridescent with refracted sunlight, and drowsed once more after it left her. Rain, sun, moon, stars: she endured them all. The seedling broke the soil with a questing green curlicue, looking for all the world like a question mark in the Old Tongue. She sat on it and waited more: days, months, decades. A boy came along and asked her why she'd climbed to the top of the tree. "I didn't, " she said.

Climax: Bloom broke soil Complications (Rising Action): -It rained, but she didn’t leave. -Sun came out, set, and rose again. -Slept, sang, prayed Exposition: Planted a seed Falling Action: Sat on it and waited longer - decades Resolution: She was at the top of her tree.