Editing Plot (narrative) (section)

=== Structure and treatment ===
{{See also|Dramatic structure}}

Dramatic structure is the philosophy by which the story is split and how the story is thought of. This can vary by ethnicity, region and time period. This can be applied to books, plays, and films. Philosophers/critics who have discussed story structure include Aristotle, Horace, Aelius Donatus, Gustav Freytag, Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, Lajos Egri, Syd Field, and others. Some story structures are so old that the originator cannot be found, such as [[Ta'zieh]].

Often in order to sell a script, the ''plot structure'' is made into what is called a [[Film treatment|''treatment'']]. This can vary based on locality, but for Europe and European Diaspora, the ''three-act structure'' is often used. The components of this structure are the ''set-up'', the ''confrontation'' and the ''resolution''. Acts are connected by two [[plot point]]s or turning points, with the first turning point connecting Act I to Act II, and the second connecting Act II to Act III. The conception of the three-act structure has been attributed to American screenwriter [[Syd Field]] who described plot structure in this tripartite way for film analysis.

Furthermore, in order to sell a book within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, often the plot structure is split into a synopsis. Again the plot structure may vary by genre or drama structure used.

==== Aristotle ====
{{Main|Dramatic structure}}

Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with [[Aristotle]] in his ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' (c. 335 BC).

In his ''Poetics'', a theory about tragedies, the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] philosopher Aristotle put forth the idea the play should imitate a single whole action. "A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end" (1450b27).<ref name="fall2">{{Cite book
| orig-date= c. 335 BCE | author-link= Aristotle 
| author=Aristotle | title= Aristotle in 23 Volumes | volume= 23| translator= W.H. Fyfe | place=Cambridge, MA|publisher= Harvard University Press| date= 1932 
|chapter=Aristotle, Poetics, section 1450b|chapter-url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Poet.+1450b&redirect=true|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=22 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422020725/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Poet.+1450b|url-status=live}}</ref> He split the play into two acts: complication and denouement.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book
| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 18 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-19.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724033835/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-19.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He mainly used Sophocles to make his argument about the proper dramatic structure of a play.

Two types of [[Scene (drama)|scenes]] are of special interest:  the reversal, which throws the action in a new direction, and the recognition, meaning the protagonist has an important revelation.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book
| author1= Aristotle 
|title=Aristotle's Poetics 
| translator= S. H. Butcher
| orig-date= c. 335 BCE | date= 2008 | chapter= {{sc|xi}}
|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1974/1974-h/1974-h.htm#link2H_4_0013 |via =Project Gutenberg |access-date=30 October 2021 |archive-date=30 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030202115/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1974/1974-h/1974-h.htm#link2H_4_0013 |url-status=live }}</ref>  Reversals should happen as a necessary and probable cause of what happened before, which implies that turning points need to be properly set up.<ref name="auto1"/> He ranked the order of importance of the play to be: Chorus, Events, Diction, Character, Spectacle.<ref name="auto"/> And that all plays should be able to be performed from memory, long and easy to understand.<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 7 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-8.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416111433/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-8.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He was against character-centric plots stating “The Unity of a Plot does not consist, as some suppose, in its having one man as its subject.”<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 8 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-9.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127045045/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-9.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He was against episodic plots.<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 10 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-11.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724033825/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-11.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He held that discovery should be the high point of the play and that the action should teach a moral that is reenforced by pity, fear and suffering.<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 11 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-12.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724033828/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-12.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The spectacle, not the characters themselves would give rise to the emotions.<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 14 | chapter-url= http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-15.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518102318/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-15.html |archive-date=18 May 2021 }}</ref> The stage should also be split into “Prologue, Episode, Exode, and a choral portion, distinguished into Parode and Stasimon...“<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-13.html|chapter=12 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|access-date=24 July 2021|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724033831/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-13.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Unlike later, he held that the morality was the center of the play and what made it great. Unlike popular belief, he did not come up with the three act structure popularly known.

==== Gustav Freytag ====
{{Main|Dramatic structure}}

[[File:Freytag's Pyramid with English text.svg|thumb|Freytag's pyramid<ref name="Freytag 1900 115">{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|p=115}}</ref>]]
The [[Germany|German]] playwright and novelist [[Gustav Freytag]] wrote ''Die Technik des Dramas'',<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Freytag|first1=Gustav
|author1-link= Gustav Freytag
|url=http://archive.org/details/freytagstechniqu00freyuoft|title= Technique of the Drama: an Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art | translator= Elias J. MacEwan|place= Chicago |date=1900|publisher= Scott, Foresman|edition= Third |ref=none}}</ref> a definitive study of the five-act dramatic structure, in which he laid out what has come to be known as Freytag's pyramid.<ref name="fall3">University of South Carolina (2006). [http://home.earthlink.net/~mr.kilgore/102/handouts/bigpicture_what.htm The Big Picture] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023073242/http://home.earthlink.net/~mr.kilgore/102/handouts/bigpicture_what.htm |date=October 23, 2007 }}</ref> Under Freytag's pyramid, the plot of a story consists of five parts:<ref name="fall4">University of Illinois: Department of English (2006). [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/lit_resources/english%20102/miscellaneous/freytag.htm Freytag's Triangle] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716152819/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/lit_resources/english%20102/miscellaneous/freytag.htm |date=July 16, 2006 }}</ref><ref name="Freytag 1900 115"/>
# [[Exposition (literary technique)|Exposition]] (originally called introduction)
# Rising action (rise)
# [[Climax (narrative)|Climax]]
# Falling action (return or fall)
# [[Catastrophe (drama)|Catastrophe]], denouement, resolution, or [[Reveal (narrative)|revelation]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freytag |first=Gustav |url=http://www.matoni.de/technik/tec_inh.htm |title=Die Technik des Dramas |year=1863 |language=German |access-date=2009-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116004731/http://www.matoni.de/technik/tec_inh.htm |archive-date=2009-01-16 |url-status=dead}}</ref> or "rising and sinking". Freytag is indifferent as to which of the contending parties justice favors; in both groups, good and evil, power and weakness, are mingled.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=104–105}}</ref>

A drama is then divided into five parts, or acts, which some refer to as a '''{{visible anchor|dramatic arc}}'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and [[Catastrophe (drama)|catastrophe]]. Freytag extends the five parts with three moments or crises: the exciting force, the tragic force, and the force of the final suspense. The exciting force leads to the rising action, the tragic force leads to the falling action, and the force of the final suspense leads to the catastrophe. Freytag considers the exciting force to be necessary but the tragic force and the force of the final suspense are optional. Together, they make the eight component parts of the drama.<ref name="Freytag 1900 115"/>

In making his argument, he attempts to [[Retroactive continuity|retcon]] much of the Greeks and Shakespeare by making opinions of what they meant, but did not actually say.<ref>Freytag. pp. 25, 41, 75, 98, 188–189</ref>

He argued for tension created through contrasting emotions, but did not actively argue for [[Conflict (narrative)|conflict]].<ref>Freytag. p. 80–81</ref> He argued that character comes first in plays.<ref>Freytag. p. 90</ref> He also set up the groundwork for what would later be called the inciting incident.<ref>Freytag. pp. 94–95</ref>

Overall, Freytag argued the center of a play is emotionality and the best way to get that emotionality is to put contrasting emotions back to back. He laid some of the foundations for centering the hero, unlike Aristotle. He is popularly attributed to have stated conflict at the center of his plays, but he argues actively against continuing conflict.<ref>Freytag p. 29</ref>

Freytag defines the parts as:

;Introduction: The setting is fixed in a particular place and time, the mood is set, and characters are introduced. A backstory may be alluded to. [[Exposition (narrative)|Exposition]] can be conveyed through dialogues, flashbacks, characters' asides, background details, in-universe media, or the narrator telling a back-story.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=115–121}}</ref>
;Rise: An exciting force begins immediately after the exposition (introduction), building the rising action in one or several stages toward the point of greatest interest. These events are generally the most important parts of the story since the entire plot depends on them to set up the climax and ultimately the satisfactory resolution of the story itself.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=125–128}}</ref>
;Climax: The [[Climax (narrative)|climax]] is the turning point, which changes the protagonist's fate. If things were going well for the protagonist, the plot will turn against them, often revealing the protagonist's hidden weaknesses.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=128–130}}</ref> If the story is a comedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from bad to good for the protagonist, often requiring the protagonist to draw on hidden inner strengths. A plot with an exciting climax is said to be ''[[Climax (narrative)|climactic]].'' A disappointing scene is instead called ''anticlimactic.''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/climactic|title=Climactic: Definition, Meaning, & Synonyms|date=June 23, 2018}}</ref>
;Return or Fall: During the Return, the hostility of the counter-party beats upon the soul of the hero. Freytag lays out two rules for this stage: the number of characters be limited as much as possible, and the number of scenes through which the hero falls should be fewer than in the rising movement. The falling action may contain a moment of final suspense: Although the catastrophe must be [[foreshadowing|foreshadowed]] so as not to appear as a [[Non sequitur (literary device)|non sequitur]], there could be for the doomed hero a prospect of relief, where the final outcome is in doubt.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=133–135}}</ref>
;Catastrophe: The [[Catastrophe (drama)|catastrophe]] (''Katastrophe'' in the original)<ref>Freytag. p 137</ref> is where the hero meets his logical destruction. Freytag warns the writer not to spare the life of the hero.<ref>{{harvtxt|Freytag|1900|pp=137–140}}</ref> More generally, the final result of a work's main plot has been known in English since 1705 as the '''denouement'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> ({{IPAc-en|UK|d|eɪ|ˈ|n|uː|m|ɒ̃|,_|d|ɪ|-}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|d|eɪ|n|uː|ˈ|m|ɒ̃}};<ref>[http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/denouement?q=D%C3%A9nouement "dénouement"]. ''[[Cambridge Dictionary]]''.</ref>). It comprises events from the end of the falling action to the actual ending scene of the drama or narrative. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of [[catharsis]], or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. [[Etymology|Etymologically]], the French word {{Lang|fr|dénouement}} ({{IPA|fr|denumɑ̃|lang}}) is derived from the word {{Lang|fr|dénouer}}, "to untie", from {{Lang|la|nodus}}, Latin for "knot." It is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot.<ref>Merriam-Webster. (n.d.) Denoument. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary.  Retrieved May 29, 2023 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denouement</ref>