Plotting the short story : $b a practical exposition of germ-plots, what they are and where to find them : the structure and development of the plot; and the relation of the plot to the story
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2026-01-09 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77656 |
Description
Plotting the short story by Seymour Cunningham Chunn is a practical writing-craft guide written in the early 20th century. It teaches short‑story writers how to find, shape, and refine plots, emphasizing workable techniques over inspiration. The likely topic is how to generate “germ-plots,” organize them into strong structures, and translate them into concise, marketable stories. The book opens by defining germ-plots and showing where to find them—newspapers, advertisements, overheard remarks, striking titles, names, and character types—while urging writers to keep a dedicated plot notebook. It then lays out a clear outline for plot construction (openings, body, and closing), with balance and movement, moments of suspense, crisis, crucial situation, climax, and denouement, plus a chart to “place” an idea by action, time, setting, atmosphere, and mood. The core chapters demonstrate step-by-step development: first simple plots (e.g., “The Red Flame,” a signal-trap mystery; a church-aisle stabbing with a restorative twist; a war romance hinged on memory and identity), then more complicated plots (a mountain blood-oath feud resolved by a deathbed confession; “The Mug of Death,” a detective puzzle solved via a gas-charged beer stein and a sting). The final chapter shows how plots become stories, stressing brevity, proportion, revision, and the difference between short story and novelette, and concludes with a complete example, “God’s Will,” expanded from a working plot about a desperate theft that ends with a moral reversal. (This is an automatically generated summary.)