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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/20938
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Plots are like skeletons. They're made up of individual bones called plot-points.

You can look at any specific plot-structure and see how its plot-points are arranged. You can perceive where the high and low points are, and with a little study, you can even find out why those points are where they are.

...but that doesn't make any specific plot-structure/skeleton universally right and all other bones arrangements wrong.

You wouldn't use a human skeleton to build a horse, nor would a horse skeleton work for a whale. No plot-structure will serve every writing task, and a body of writing isn't necessarily bad just because it doesn't strictly adhere to your favorite plot-structure.

I would suggest that you plot first and apply structure later. Get the important plot-points out on a sheet of paper, then see which skeleton best fits the resulting story. Once you find a structure that your story can live in, study it closely and follow or ignore its guidelines as your story demands.

Let's say that you are lucky and the story that is growing inside you seems to fit a Hero's Quest plot structure. In a hero's quest, a lone hero leaves a life of normality to find friends, fight enemies, face challenges and finally defeat evil; returning to his normal life with improved wisdom and maybe wealth.

I like to think of the Hero's Quest as a horse skeleton. It has an obvious front where we meet it's character, the kind eyes and a noble long nose.

Climbing aboard near it's shoulders, we are completely divided from our world; literally, our feet can no longer touch the ground.

Lacking both bridle or saddle, we slide down our mount's back, in constant terror that when we run out of horse, we will return violently to the ground. Our quest is to grab the mane and take control of beast before it bucks us off. If we can do that, the horse will take us to whatever destination we desire.

Our struggles to stay on board and avoid the looming calamity, are the middle plot points. These are the opportunities that yield the minor victories and defeats which make the ride interesting. Finding that a shoulder blade provides a hand-hold. Victory! Discovering that sweaty palms can't hold onto horse hide. Defeat!

The adventure is in the details, not in the destination. But those details can take on many forms. By the time your story is finished, your horse might look more like a camel or maybe even like a centipede, with dozens of bumps which offer your hero hope. The important part isn't how many plot points occupy the back of your horse. It is the constancy of the quest and the turmoil of the ride.

What you can learn from a plot structure is subtler than simple plot point counts. Hidden in the structure is valuable advice on how to handle the transitions between points, a.k.a. the joints. In the case of my own use of the Hero's Quest, I have discovered that hopeful climbs should be slow and carefully-arduous. Falls from hard won heights should be fast and chaotic and hope-shattering. Then in the plains between each mountain (or camel hump), your hero should be quick (but only believably quick) to get back to climbing.

It is the cadence of the story that I get from its plot structure. That is how these valuable tools continue to help me write.

Original score: 2