Three foundations of plot: Promises, Progress and Payoffs. These are Brandon Sanderson’s three P’s from his 2020 BYU writing course available to watch for free.
A Philosophy of Plot
The best-selling author of the Mistborn and Stormlight series revealed his approach to plotting a novel:
- Promises
- Progress
- Payoff
According to Sanderson, your novel has to set out a number of promises at the beginning. What’s the central conflict your characters have to resolve, in what kind of world?
There has to be ongoing progress toward the final resolution. The obligatory set-backs and failures along the way must relate directly to the promises of the plot. The plot must progress, throughout the trials and tribulations that prevent the characters achieving their goals.
The payoff comes in the final resolution with a satisfying conclusion. Deus ex machina rescues, unlikely coincidences and other author cheats are strictly verboten. The best payoff builds out of the initial problem and the breadcrumbs of clues and progress in the course of the story.
Wholly Qualified
In order to better fit the three P’s to the story, Sanderson adds three qualifiers:
- Tone
- Genre
- Character
Tone varies from gushing romance, grim-dark fantasy and hard-boiled crime-noir. The tone of P.G. Woodehouse, Dashiel Hammett or Jane Austen becomes part and parcel of their delivery. You don’t frame Middle-Grade fiction with nihilistic, profane or pornographic material.
Genre carries certain expectations be it shoot-outs, sword-fights or happy-ever-afters. Authors have to work within the boundaries of the genre they promised at the beginning. Genre-mixing and genre-crossovers are fraught with risk, bewildering or alienating readers.
Character is the vehicle for most genre fiction. Character goals and desires have to be respected. Plot should always serve character, not the other way around. Dramatic shifts and betrayals of character in the service of plot always looks like cheating to readers. We expect characters to stay true to a set of traits or values, or at least develop and grow into them.
In one bound…
Of course, for every rule, there’s an exception. Psychological thrillers, mysteries, horror and crime like to do their own thing – readers love or loathe Stephen King’s cavalier approach to plot. But authors need to know the rules in order to break the rules and get away with it.
Keep referring back to Sanderson’s three P’s of plot:
- does the story deliver on the initial promises?
- does each scene and chapter progress the plot? No filler allowed
- and does the story payoff against the promises and payoffs to deliver satisfying outcomes for characters, incidents and the over-arching plot?
Keep asking these questions and Sanderson’s method of Promises, Progress and Payoffs will steer you right.
One of the smartest people on the planet re. writing craft.
I love Sanderson’s lectures. Amazing thing is the (almost) complete lack of ego. The guy knows he’s good based on sales. He doesn’t make it all me, me, me or even say ‘this is the only way to do it.’
Not only ego-free. but good, sound, common sense without a lot of literary bunkum.