How to Write a Good Fanfic

5.1 - Plot and Why Plotlessness is Bad

The first main point to take away right now is there is no such thing as a story without a plot, so if someone calls you out for plot issues, pulling the "I said in the summary there was no plot" card doesn't work.

The term "plot, what plot" actually though doesn't refer to a story being without a plot, but how the events of the story flow together.

Uh-oh...

In other words, when someone tells you that your story is "plot, what plot" they are referring to how the events of the story flow, but also, they're referring to whether these events actually add anything to the story. A few people may be thinking, why does this even matter? In particular, the latter part I find people questioning the latter part more than the first, because they know a story isn't going to make sense if the events don't flow naturally into each other. However, this by itself is not referred to as "plot, what plot", but instead, is called out for being a plot flow issue.

Seriously, though, what is the problem of adding in fluff to the story?

Says Mark Twain on the subject, "a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere". He also says, "the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there." The last thing he says is to "eschew surplusage." Yes, I love Mark Twain's rules on writing. Adding in fluff just for the sake of fluff adds nothing to the story, and just ends up doing nothing.

Stories which are "plot, what plot" in nature are painful to read. A few people may be thinking like Candace, "but I enjoy such stories". I'm going to put forth a few arguments here.

First, many of the people who are fans of these stories, actually don't read but skim for the fluffy romantic bits. In the long run, fluff is the worse culprit for being "plot, what plot" in nature; I'm also going to add here that what people think of as the fluff genre, isn't, but I'm saving that for another essay. Second, if you are reading these stories, you're likely not yet well read, particularly in regards to "plot, what plot" pieces. The first few you read may seem interesting but after the hundredth one, you start realizing there is nothing unique about these pieces. A counter argument here may be to point out that the story is meant to cover the mundane, which is the slice-of-life genre and another essay I plan on writing, but again, it's about how these events tie together, and whether they're actually important towards things like character development.

One of the first main points to take away right now is this; technically there is no such thing as a story without a plot, so if someone calls you out for plot issues, pulling the "I said in the summary there was no plot" card doesn't work. Did you know that there is no actual definition for plotless within the Webster-Dictionary or even the Oxford Dictionaries? The word is simply defined as an adjective of the word plot, or the adjective form of the word. The free dictionary though defines plotless as "having no discernible plot", not "having no plot", or even "without plot".

One of the things I discussed in 5. Elements of a Story was the beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and ending. The beginning is also called the exposition, and the ending is also called the resolution and denouement, but the climax is also in turn known as the middle of the story. Every story has a beginning, where the story starts, and an ending, where the story ends, plus a middle regarding how one gets from the beginning to the end. The beginning, middle, and end don't need to come in those orders, though.

Some stories, for example, start at the end, go to the beginning, move to the middle and back to the end. However, plots which start with these parts out of order are harder to write. In fact, the more out of order a plot is told in, the more likely a plot is to become entangled and convoluted. This is where knowing how the rules work before starting into breaking the rules comes in handy. If one knows how to write a solid beginning, middle and end, they're more likely to be able to do these elements out of order, but not necessarily. This essay, however, is to explain how to write the most basic of plot types, not the most advanced ones, but also delve into why stories aren't without a plot.