" Story and Plot
What is the Story and what is the plot?
What is the difference between them?
Our book is called the narrative, it is the plot. The story is something before writing, it is NOT art. The plot is NOT only writing, it is writing rearranging the story. The plot is NOT writing the story, it is rewriting the story, it means changing the story, it destroys the story.
For instance, when we say that someone goes to school, then he goes to university, then after graduating he gets married . . . etc. This is a story, it follows the sequence of events, but if you become aware of something, it is a plot.
How does the plot change the story? Here we talk about two things:
1-We talk about a flashback  which means to go back to the past. For example, now we are in [2008], if we talk about 1972, we go back the past, in order to talk about 1972, this is what we call a flashback.
The story goes forward. When we read a certain book, when we read a narrative, we notice that it goes forward, but when we see something strange in front of us, such as the flashback, it is the destroying of the story. When the writer goes  back, he goes back on purpose. When you read the flash , you notice that there is a mystery, you ask why? It means that you do NOT know and you want to know the reason, you know causality.

 
Why the things happen?
When you read a book, you will find the flashback. When you read the book, you will immediately discover that it is art as if the writer says, reader, look, there is something, you will see the structure, the skeleton of the text NOT the flesh of the text.

 
The plot is rewriting a new arrangement. There is what we call chemistry of writing. We notice that the first thing the plot does to the story is flashback, going back in time. Then you will ask why, Why? It means you will understand something.

 
2-The second thing we are going to talk about is foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is the opposite of flashback. Notice that the first sentence in  Anna of the Five Towns is :
" The yard was all silent and empty under the burning afternoon heat, which had made its asphalt springy like turf . . . "
Notice the words "silent", " empty" , this is foreshadowing that Anna's heart is empty and silent and she is going to fall in love. Sometimes there is something terrible. When the writer goes back to the past, he talks about the future. When Anna talks about her mother, this is going back to the past, but it is a kind of reading the future.

 
The writer goes back to the past as if he is jumping to the future. Sometimes the book freezes. When Anna appears on page 5 the writer says, "Anna Tellwright stood motionless . . ." , it means that the story stops ; the writer does NOT move and the narrative does NOT move as well.
Do NOT forget that we are talking about what the plot does to the story. Sometimes the plot goes back to the past, sometimes goes forward, and sometimes throws away the story.

 
The most  important  thing is that every story starts from number 1 till the end. Number one and then number two . . .  etc.
The plot begins in the middle , whereas the story begins at the beginning

 
What do we mean when we say a successful?
A great plot destroys the story and makes the story storyless. The book is written in a way  of flashback and foreshadowing till you forget the story. The most dangerous thing is that there are some novels that are written in a way which will make you think and make you forget that this is literature. Some novels hide art and some novels hide the story. Notice at the end of chapter 8 :

 
When the writer gets angry from Anna, he says that fools and children should never see anything until it is done.

 
Fools and children should NOT  see art. You should see art."