num_pages: 438
description: A classic how-to manual, William Wallace Cook’s Plotto is one writer’s personal method, painstakingly diagrammed for the benefit of others. The theory itself may be simple  "Purpose opposed by Obstacle yields Conflict"  but Cook takes his "Plottoist" through hundreds of situations and scenarios, guiding the reader’s hand as a dizzying array of purposes and obstacles come to a head. Cook’s method is broken down into three stages: First, the master plot. This four-page chart distills the most basic plot points into a three-line sentence. Next, the conflict situation. Each master plot leads the reader to a list of circumstances, distributed among 20 different conflict groups (these range from Love’s Beginning” to Personal Limitations” to Transgression”). There are over 2,000 unique conflict situations in the book, and each is cross-referenced with designs for how the situation might have started, or where it might go. Finally, there are character combinations  Cook offers an extensive index of protagonists, each cross-referenced with various supporting players  themselves tied to various conflict situations, for what appears to be an inexhaustible reservoir of suggestions and inspiration.
language: English
title: Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots
publisher: Tin House Books