Story .vs. Plot

Part #3 of The ‘Supersize Your Story’ Series

This is often a conundrum that can make a centipede of writers.

Faced with the hundred legs, it’s SO confusing to know which one to walk on first. It’s really quite simple though, bear with me.

The STORY is WHO the characters are, WHAT conflicts they face and the storyworld WHERE this all happens. You can usually find the basic story in the logline — when a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, a local sheriff, a marine biologist and an old seafarer must hunt the beast down before it kills again.

So if anyone asks you what your story is about — the logline is a great place to start.

PLOT, however, flips this and covers the HOW, the WHEN and the WHY. The plot is the tool, the literary device that enables you to tell your story. It’s HOW the characters are confronted with those conflicts, it’s WHEN the story takes places in their lives and WHY they are confronted with the conflict and why they react the way they do. Once you have your story in mind, there are many ways for you to tell it or plot it.