incidents in a
narrative to achieve a desired effect.
Plot
is more than simply the series of happenings in a literary work.
It is the result of the writer’s deliberate selection of interrelated
actions (what happens) and choice of arrangement (the order of happening) in presenting and resolving a conflict.
In Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster explains the difference between plot and story in this way:
We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.