Flipping the Script: The Inverted Plot Pattern

The First in Our Series on Plot Patterns: Prioritizing Immediate Clarity

In most of our posts, we’ve been diving into the short stories that emerge from our Play & Ponder sessions.

We’ve seen the steady climb of the Monomyth as well as the slow-burning mystery of the Frame Tale. But as we begin these new series, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each of the six Plot Patterns we’ve designed for PlotWeaver: Cards of Creation.

Plot Patterns are the narrative structures that shape the flow of a story, act by act. For the first in the series, we are starting with the one that prioritizes impact from the very first act.

The Inverted Plot Pattern is for the moments when you don’t take your time and create a slow build. It is the tool for when the most important or climactic part of the story needs to be front and centre.

This Plot Pattern can be the engine behind crime mysteries, thrillers, and other suspenseful genres, where the big event is revealed right at the beginning. In the world of non-fiction, the Inverted Plot Pattern can be used to tell high-stakes or time-bound stories, such as breaking news, executive summaries, and retrospective reports, where we analyze cause-and-effect relationships after an event has taken place.