Pairing Plot with Point

What’s Your Point?

If plot is what happens in the story (external conflict), then the point is why it matters (internal conflict). Readers want to know why your character cares enough to break out of their comfort zone and take risks. Why do they do what they do? Want what they want? What’s at stake? This is the point of your story.

Put another way, your point is the underlying universal message you are conveying through your story. For example, love conquers all, good triumphs over evil, or it’s never too late.

In Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, Jessica Brody explains that almost any point will be derived from one of ten universal lessons:

Plot + Point

You will prove your point through the protagonist’s transformational character arc that occurs internally, while the external plot thickens and leads them to growth. Without an external conflict pushing your protagonist to change, their internal conflict will be dull and boring, plus they’ll have no reason to push for change and growth. Opposite to that, an external conflict means little to your reader if they don’t understand why it matters to your protagonist—we need to know how this will make them become a better person and improve their life. These two things must connect for the story to resonate with your reader.

Character-Driven Plot

Getting to know your protagonist on a deeper level can help you better understand the point you need to make, which in turn, will allow insight into your who your protagonist truly is.

Using this technique of pairing plot with point will ultimately lead to a character-driven novel—nothing happens on the page that doesn’t directly relate what is happening with why it matters. Your protagonist’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and reactions are what drive the story forward in these kinds of novels, and this is what makes a book worth remembering. It’s what allows your reader to connect so strongly with your protagonist that they find it bittersweet to leave the world you created upon finishing your book. Isn’t that a magical thought?

Learn more about Character-Driven Plot.

The Inside Outline

Jennie Nash’s Blueprint for a Book includes a fantastic tool for learning to pair plot (what happens) with point (why it matters) for each event in your book.

The Goal of the Inside Outline

The Inside Outline tool guides writers to better understand the connection between the protagonist’s internal and external conflicts, develop the plot from the point of the book, and allow the characters to move the story forward with more meaning, relatability, and purpose.

Your Inside Outline should show:

• a clear point for the overall story
• a clear and consistent POV
• an arc of change (a problem that needs fixing at the beginning and a satisfying resolution at the end)
• a protagonist who has agency over their decisions
• consequences to every decision (good or bad)
• a cause-and-effect plot trajectory
• someone or something that is standing in the protagonist’s way of attaining their goal
• pacing and flow that is smooth and attention-holding
• adherence to your chosen genre’s conventions

Tips from the Creator of the Inside Outline

Jennie Nash suggests thinking of events rather than scenes when working on your Inside Outline. An event could contain several scenes as long as they all share a point. With this in mind, a typical Inside Outline should “contain between 13 and 22 [event] + point combinations.”

You should also place a three-page maximum on the Inside Outline, meaning you may not be able to include every scene you plan to write for your novel. Nash says, “This is by design; I’m trying to keep you from going down the rabbit hole of plot” because ultimately, your protagonist should be what drives the narrative forward in a cause-and-effect trajectory. Because of this limit, you will need to leave out secondary characters and subplots for now, instead focusing on your protagonist’s transformational character arc.

If you have more than one protagonist, Nash recommends creating separate Inside Outlines for each, making sure they are each capable of creating a plot on their own, and then weaving them together into a single outline.

By developing a concise Inside Outline that adheres to all the rules, you will form a strong foundation upon which to build a compelling novel your readers can’t put down!

Inside Outline Example

The following is the beginning of my own Inside Outline for a children’s chapter book I am writing.

Inside Outline Exercise

• Before you begin this exercise, I highly recommend reading the following Tips for Writers articles and completing their included exercises first:
  • Character-Driven Plot
  • Crafting Effective Opening & Closing Scenes
  • Cause-&-Effect Trajectory
• Download the following exercise and draft your Inside Outline!

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Red Quill Editorial LLC