Source¹¹1 “Lecture #2: Plot Part 1,” 2020 Creative Writing Lectures at BYU: Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, YouTube video (Brandon Sanderson, 2020). 

Next: Video: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Lecture #3 (Brandon Sanderson)

Stories are made up of plot, character and setting, glued together by conflict. Stories can start with any of these three elements.

For Sanderson, books come out of combining multiple ideas together (like a chemical reaction). Books need more than one idea (short stories can be just one).

Three elements to a plot: Promise, progress, and payoff.

Promise:

• Tone promise. Is this a serious story or a comedy? Cold open and prologues are means to make the tone promise. Cold open: start in the middle of the story to set the tone. Prologue: start with action unrelated to main story to set the tone right away.

• Character arc promise: What is missing from the character’s life (what do they want/need) and what is preventing them from having it? (Not all characters have arcs — iconic characters, like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond, do not.)

• Plot promise: What sort of story can the reader expect? Umbrella plot (visible, obvious) versus core plot (hidden). For example, umbrella plot is alien invasion and core plot is romance.

Progress: Create the illusion to the reader that a steady progress towards an inevitable and exciting goal is happening.

Payoff: Make good on the promise. But not necessarily always exactly:

• Plot expansion delivers much more than the promise (e.g. toy car promised, but real car given).

• Substitution plot convinces the reader that you want something else (e.g. toy car promised, twisted until it becomes a toy plane).

Best stories follow from the progress, and give everything what is promised at the beginning, plus something more.