Story, Structure, and Plot

Today's topic is Story, Structure, and Plot, or, I should say, the beginnings of my ruminations on these oft-discussed (by many) and little-understood (at least by me) terms. My starting point is the revealing work of Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writers Workshop.

In chapter 3, "Structuring the Story," Koch states the following:

1. Plot and story naturally reinforce each other at every stage of their development, but the rule of thumb has to be that, generally speaking, just as intuition tends to precede calculation, so story precedes plot. YOU CANNOT "PLOT" A STORY THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW.

2. Plotting becomes possible when--and only when--this intuitive knowledge has emerged with enough clarity for you to identify details. Once that has happened, the two processes--feeling the story, followed by figuring the story--can start working together in a dynamic reciprocity from which the real shape of the story can emerge in an alternating shimmer of certainty and surprise.

3. So story precedes plot. Always. Story precedes plot even in "formula fiction"--although most people miss that fact, because in formula fiction, the story starts out as a given, a cliche so familiar that the writer knows it before she or he even begins.

My novel in progress is a mystery, more specifically, a police procedural, set in a small town, so my story and plot will likely cover the familiar formulas of this genre of crime fiction. But somehow I still cannot know the plot before the story, despite the familiarities of "formula fiction."

How can I write my novel to avoid the cliches of crime fiction? Is this even possible or advisable?

I will explore answers to these questions tomorrow, using Koch's further discussion of story, structure, and plot.