Story Line & Plot Line: Start Your Story on Page One

Romeo and Juliet begins by introducing a young man and woman who are in love with the idea of love. When they fall in love, to be together these young characters must act in spite of the escalating mutual hatred of their families. By being willing to die to prove their love, they act out the power of great -- if tragic -- love.

Beginning, middle, end.

The plot line of Romeo and Juliet could be described as follows...

A young man falls in love with a girl who belongs to a clan his family has been feuding with for generations. They both must resort to increasing acts of defiance to be together in spite of the hatred of their families. In the end, each chooses death rather than to be apart from their beloved, acting out that great love cannot be denied.

Beginning, middle, end.

I came onto the idea of story line/plot line while teaching an on-line class. The structure of the class was that I would meet 3-4 people as a group in a chat-type environment, then the following week I would meet with people individually.

During a private session, I described to each writer a story line for his or her story. I then asked each writer to repeat back that simple story line. Each repeated back to me a plot line, even though the description of a story line was still on the screen.

I then asked each writer to send me the first page of their novels.

Not one of them wrote anything that suggested in the slightest the beginning of a story. It was all plot details and descriptions of things.

That was a great AHA! moment for me. This is the most common failure in weak writing, no clear sense of purpose or drama from the beginning of a story.

To understand the connection between story line/plot line is to see into the foundation of a story, to see whether every element is advancing the story in a purposeful way. If you understand story line/plot line, you can tell a story with multiple time lines or multiple narrators.

New writers tend to start by describing an event, or a character, or a situation. That may set a plot into motion, but not a story.

I've read manuscripts by new writers where I only fully understood a novel when I reached the final scenes. Such novels need to convey a character's journey at the beginning of a novel, for an audience to feel invested in a main character.

To help writers do this, I suggest a 0-5-10 system. 0 is to be totally obscure about what a story is about. 'My name is Tom Wingo. I coach high school football and I'm currently separated from my wife' is not the same as 'My wound is geography. It is my anchorage, my port of call.'

Five is to be obvious what a story is about. Tom Wingo is emotionally numb and he can only save his sister who has attempted suicide by talking to her therapist about his dysfunction upbringing that has left him numb and at risk of his marriage ending.

To be suggestive is 'My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.'

New writers can work from being obvious about what a story is about to being suggestive.

It's an important skill worth learning so a new novel has an engaging, interesting, and potent beginning.