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STEVE CAVERNO: Hi, I'm Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village. And today, I'll be talking
to you about developing your plot. Now, we're going to talk about what is a plot. A plot
is a conflict, it's a series of events and the way we can lay out a plot is through a
plot diagram. You start here at beginning of the play when the curtain opens where we
come on. And then, of course, and at the end, between, off the middle and the course of
action. Starting out, we'll have what we call the status quo. This is basically where we
start. Whatever is going on when we first start the play, that's the status quo. Then
we'll have an inciting incident. Our reference is to, perhaps, starting your car engine.
So, the status quo, your car sitting in the driveway, you're getting in the car and then
the inciting incident is when you crank that engine and you're back out on to the road.
That's when the plot jump starts. This is what happens that jump starts you in to the
rest of the action of the play. And then here at the middle in a play, in a full length
play, you will have a confrontation and a hook. This is a moment where we have set up
all the action and we'll bring it to the moment where we'll set up a hook, we'll bring the
audience back for act two. You'll say, "Wow! You guys see what's going to happen in the
next act." In the next act, which is typically sure, once people have been through an hour
of your play, they gone out and got a Coke in the lobby and now they're ready to catch
the rest of it. You really want to drive the action home to the climax, the highest point
of action. Everything is at stake and then after the climax, you have the resolution
where we tie up our loose ends and answer all the questions that are still remaining
after the climax until the curtain falls, the actors come out and take their bows.