“Later on, when I had written two or three books, I learned that style is something that can be applied at the later stages of writing. The most important thing, the all-important thing, is to get the story right. Write, rewrite, rewrite again, and do not worry about anything except story. It is story, story, story. That is your business.” Bernard Cornwell
By story, Cornwell might mean plot, but according to Stephen Koch (The Writer's Workshop), the two are different, though related. The story is "an account of . . . a sequence of linked events" (p. 65) and, as such, can be told in one sentence or thousands: the story should work either way because it can be paraphrased.
Every story has a plot, which is the sequence of events that makes the twists and turns, the organization of the work. Concrete is the word Koch uses. Story is the Mercedes Benz; plot is the engine, block, steering wheels, tires, etc. One can't exist without the other and so in that way, they are inseparable, yet for the writer's purpose, they must be separated. The writer starts with the story and constructs the plot step by step, asking questions like "What happens next?" "And after that?"
In The Weekend Novelist, Ray and Norris have added a new section on plot so that they begin their book--and thereby their readers' novels--with plot, focusing on the 3-part plot, which works like a 3-act play.
Careful, they warn, with the bottom half of the second act; that's where authors fall flat. So true. I realized when I read that line that the bottom of the second act is where I grow weary with so many novels and flip to the last chapter.
Plot is what I'm currently spending my weekends on, drawing graphs of every plot structure, making lists beginning with actions that can evolve into scenes, and scribbling in my notebook, not character descriptions but start lines.
Why? Because the all-important thing is, indeed, to get the story right. It's what keeps readers turning pages without skipping to the last chapter.
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