The literary community often talks about plot and character as separate entities, and for many reasons that’s a useful way to discuss those components.

But the reality is more nuanced.

Plot is built from character action. Without action there is no plot; without characters there is no action.

So how do throughlines, spines, and big questions help writers build both plot and character?

I like to talk about throughlines as bread crumbs through the forest. Each one must be visible to the next or the trail ends. If they’re too close together, the reader can get irritated because the scenes are redundant or repetitive, just as a person searching for the next bread crumb in the forest doesn’t need a marker every few inches.

Each scene, each chapter, is a bread crumb, leading the reader from beginning to end.

Spines are like the binding on a book. They hold the pages together—in a specific order. Without a spine, the book would fall apart, the pages becoming hopelessly jumbled. Readers faced with a bound book versus a pile of unorganized pages will choose the bound book every time.

Stories are similar. Readers want the scenes to connect … eventually. Scenes can appear to occur out of order, jumping around in time, place, and viewpoint character. But by the final page, readers can look back and understand that what appeared as disorder was actually a carefully crafted plot held together with the spine.

Big questions are those wonderful openings that hook readers, culminating in a satisfying answer at the end. Writers can use a big question to help them understand what the book is really about, then be confident in a solid ending by answering the question. The answer might be yes or no, or even maybe, but regardless of the answer, the question is addressed fully during the climax of the story.

Each of these concepts can be applied to any manuscript. By understanding and using them during the writing process, complex characters will emerge, and a tight, engaging plot will take readers—including agents and editors—on the thrill of the adventure, the sweetness of the love story, or the poignancy of the coming-of-age. All genres can be improved with the use of throughlines, spines, and big questions.

Writers of narrative nonfiction also benefit from these concepts. Any story, regardless of whether it’s fiction or a retelling of a true event, needs structure and complex characters to truly shine.

IMAGE ID: Elena, a white woman with long blonde hair, smiles at the camera.

Elena Hartwell Taylor is the Senior Editor & Director of Programming at Allegory Editing. In addition to working as a developmental editor and writing coach, Elena is a published author. Her most recent novel, All We Buried, appears under the name Elena Taylor. The Eddie Shoes Mystery Series appears under Elena Hartwell. Prior to writing novels, Elena worked extensively in the theater as a playwright, director, educator, and designer. She has taught writing and theatre courses at the college/university level for more than twenty years. She holds a PhD in dramatic theory and criticism, a Masters of Education with an emphasis in teaching theatre, and a BA in Mass Media Communications. For more information about Elena, you can visit her website and read her blog about authors, new books, and the writing process. You can contact her at elena@allegoryediting.com.