DEVELOPING THE PLOT LINE

DR SERAH N. KASEMBELI
THE PLOT CAN BE SIMPLE OR

COMPLEX UNCONFESSED

Plot: Achebe
Complex- Unconfessed
TIPS ON DEVELOPING A CONVINCING PLOT LINE

FOR THE PLAY, NOVEL AND SHORT STORY

The plot should have the following :

The exposition,
The rising action
The climax
The falling action
The denoument
TIP 1: HAVE A HISTORICAL TIMELINE

• Have in mind the historical setup of your creative work – for the novel, short story
and the play-
• For example: A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in
London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the
plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years
leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the
revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and
many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. A Tale
of Two Cities is one of only two works of historical fiction by Charles Dickens (the
second being Barnaby Rudge ).
TIP 2: THE CLOCK TIME

• A creative work should demonstrate the time that the narrative covers
• Think of hours, days, months, years
• The three genres are not likely to be a lifetime except for the cases of
autobiographies
TIP 3: HAVE A PHILOSOPHICAL/AN IDEOLOGY
THAT YOU WANT TO PROPOSE
• Creative writing is out of /passion/
• The essence of creative writing is to share ideologies, histories, philosophies
• E.g one would think of dismantle stereotypes, archiving contested information
etc
• See the case of Unconfessed by Yvette Christianse that I discussed in class
4. DO RESEARCH
See the case of Animal Farm below
ANIMAL FARM

• Animal Farm, known at the beginning and the end of the novel as the Manor
Farm, symbolizes Russia and the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule. But
more generally, Animal Farm stands for any human society, be it capitalist,
socialist, fascist, or communist.
• ON LENIN AND STALIN
EXAMPLES OF THE PLOT LINE

• The plot line in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

YVETTE CHRISTIANSE: UNCONFESSED

• Yvette Christianse first paragraph begins in a flash back, when Sila is alsready in
prison. She has beed sentenced of the killing of her son. The event of the killing
of her son, the arrest and court proceedings could have in essence come earlier,
if this was alinear plot line.
• The plot is developed in foreshadows and flash backs.
THE INTRODUCTION SHOULD ALREADY
FORETELL THE PLOT AND THE
CONFLICT
The Introduction of Nazer already foretells how the story is likely to unfold. From
this day on, her life will shift from what she knew, to something else.
SLAVE: MENDE NAZER