What a plot is and what a story is can be sometimes confusing. If you think they are same… They are not. A plot is outline of your story. The story is everything included.

I will illustrate difference by asking you to visualize two pictures…

1.Visualize a skeleton.

Then

2.Visualize a body.

The skeleton is your plot. It’s outline of your story. It won’t be visible when we flesh it out but it will still be there, holding your story together.

The body is your story. It’s everything, which our story will contain, including plot. The story is plot fleshed out.

What does it mean to ‘flesh it out?’

Let me show you.

I’ll take a brief plot…

A man meets a woman and they fall in love. They encounter great difficulties because their family are against relationship.

I have said above that if a secondary character tells story of main character, then spotlight should be kept on main character.

This shouldn’t be taken to extreme though.

In other words, you don’t just write story of main character without telling your readers a bit about your secondary character.