Principles of Plotting Part IV: Intersection and Redirection

Katsushika Hokusai from Fugaku sanjūrokkei (Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji)The Principle of PrinciplesHello readers,I’m pushing through to finish this Principles of Plotting series, so this Part IV post immediately follows “The Principles of Plotting Part III: Variation.” If you missed the other posts, I would read them in order as I explain the idea behind the series and also describe the principles in roughly descending order of importance. Here are the links to Part I, Part II, and Part III. I’ll repurpose my recap from the last post: Counter Craft is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I find myself annoyed at both the vague literary world aphoristic advice1 and the absurdly prescriptive rules found in many genre and Hollywood screenwriting guides.2 So, this series is my attempt to offer flexible plot principles that can apply to (almost) any type of story. Or, at least any type of story that wants…