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Plot vs. Story

October 30th, 2008

One of the things that every writer needs to know is the difference between story and plot. It’s very easy to confuse the two and many people often do, most typically the blue-suited penguins knowns as movie producers and studio executives. So what is the difference between story and plot?

Writer E.M. Forster once wrote in Aspects of the Novel, defined a story as ‘a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence.’ Forster wrote: ‘it (a story) can only have one merit: that of making the audience want to know what happens next. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story.’

‘A plot’, Forster wrote, ‘is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.’ Thus, ‘“The king died and then the queen died” is a story.’ But ‘“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.’

Confused? That’s ok. The Moose is here to explain the difference between plot and story in a less abstract manner. To put it simply, “plot” is the sequence of events that happen in a story. On the other hand, “story” is what the work is all about. Another way to put it is that plot is what happens, story is what it is about. Still a little abstract, I know. That’s why I’m going to illustrate these concepts with the following three examples. Let’s start with one of the Moose’s favorite movies, Rocky.

Rocky poster






The Godfather Poster

The Godfather








Sling Blade poster

Sling Blade





Final Thoughts:

As you can see from the examples above, plot is almost aways more complicated and long winded than story. Plot is nothing more than the logical progression of events that is used to tell the story. Story is what the movie (or book, etc.) is about. Very rarely are the two ever the same. Some of the Bond movies come to mind as examples when plot and story are the same. When in doubt, just remember that plot is what happens and story is what it is all about.

Feel free to leave comments or your own examples of movie plots and stories.

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