In fiction writing, what does the phrase "tightly plotted" mean?

Question

Normally a good novel (especially mystery or thriller) is often said to be "tightly plotted". What does it mean? In contrast what does "loosely plotted" mean?

Please give example in your explanation.

I have read somewhere that John Grisham is a master plotter and all (or most, if not all) of his novels are tightly plotted. What does it mean?

Answer 1

Some narratives are very tightly plotted , everything happens for a reason or a purpose and one event is the consequence of another. Quest-stories, fairy tales, thrillers etc. are usually tightly plotted. When each plot-line is brought to a satisfactory ending one also talks of a closed structure (for example the death or marriage of the protagonist or the final defeat of an evil force). This is often the case in Victorian novels where there is frequently an entire chapter at the end, tying up all the loose ends of the plot and giving a short glimpse of the characters' future (see for example George Eliot, Middlemarch or Charles Dickens, Hard Times).

A tight plot also contributes to increased suspense. Conversely, lack of suspense or tension in a narrative can in part be explained by the absence of a tight plot. There is very little tension, for instance, in Virginia Woolf’s short-story Kew Gardens, mostly because practically nothing happens: A person sits down on a park bench, watches people go by, gets up again. There is a similar lack of events in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Many modern and postmodern writers deliberately try to eschew event-dominated stories and tight plots because they feel it is not an accurate rendering of reality and they claim to be more interested in character than in plot. Plot and character depend on each other of course. No plot or story can develop without characters and characters are frequently, though not always, developed through plots. As the novelist Henry James remarked in a much quoted phrase: “What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?” (James 1948: 13).

Some narratives place less emphasis on the causal connection between events, though there are still plenty of events and actions. Instead, episodes might be linked by a common character, such as Moll Flanders in Daniel Defoe’s novel Moll Flanders or Sam Pickwick in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, or a common theme. Such narratives are described as loosely plotted or episodic. Plots that are not brought to a final or preliminary conclusion are called open-ended plots or just open plots. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for instance, is much more open-ended than the previous Harry Potter volumes. While volumes one to three end with a fairly definite preliminary defeat of the evil force, in The Goblet of Fire Voldemort has clearly returned to power and a massive attack on the good powers is imminent at the end of the volume.

Answer 2

I disagree with most of the answerer's, at least the one I read. I think that it does take life experience to write a great novel. The first reason being that it makes the writing more believable. If someone has never been in love the feelings can not be properly invoked, or if the story is about drug use a person who has never used drugs will get some things wrong. The second is that life experience makes the story more powerful because the author has experianced what they are writing about. No amount of research can properly describe the feelings of a rape victum and the like. Now what I am not saying however is that teenagers can not be great and noble authors. Teens go through more today then they have years in the past. If the novel deals with a topic that the writer has never experianced or witnessed first hand then it will be slightly awkward. When dealing with a difficult topic the writer should have at least some experiance in the field, no matter what the age. There are no limitations on age per say just what the author has experianced and what they are trying to convey in their writing.

Answer 3

Plotted Definition

Answer 4

"Tightly plotted" just means that the novel is plot-driven rather than character-driven. A good recent example of this is the da Vinci Code, but most suspense novels are "tightly plotted," as are most murder mysteries. A good way to tell is to ask yourself if what happens (plot) is more important than who it happens to (character) in a given novel. Many "page turners" are of necessity tightly plotted.

Answer 5

Tightly plotted means things keep happening one after another while losely means that there is a patch of boredom somewhere in between.