Forster: story vs. plot

Let us define plot.

We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence.

A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.

“The king died, and then the queen died” is a story.

“The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot.

The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.

Or again:

“The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.”

This is a plot with a mystery in it, a form capable of high development.

It suspends the time-sequence, it moves as far away from the story as its limitations will allow.

Consider the death of the queen.

If it is in a story we say “and then?”

If it is in a plot we ask “why?”

That is the fundamental difference between these two aspects of the novel.

A plot cannot be told to a gaping audience of cave-men or to a tyrannical sultan or to their modern descendant the movie-public.

They can only be kept awake by “and then—and then—”

They can only supply curiosity.

But a plot demands intelligence and memory also. (70-71)

Forester also suggests that the writer consider the "demand [an element] makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of values for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot" (92).

Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. books.google.com. 2012. Google Books. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.