We don't usually think of non-fiction as having a plot! After all, you might say, "Non-fiction should earn its keep through meaning and relevance—not through something as artsy as a 'plot.'"
But what is a plot? Dictionaries might claim that plot is the sequence of inter-related events in a play, movie, or novel.
That's what plot is. But, as story-crafters, we need to know what a plot does.
For me, a plot must do three key things:
It gains a listeners' attention;
It retains the listener's attention for the entire length of your piece; and
It repays that attention, so that, at the end, your listeners feel it was worth the trip.
Those are the three key functions of plot.
In fact, if any of those three functions are missing, readers will feel dissatisfied—and may even stop reading, which is the kiss of death for most books.
But How Does a Plot Do Those Three Things?
Think about our lives: they are made of actions and reactions—of questions, goals, judgments, and our struggle to understand.
A plot distills a piece of life into something clear and clean enough to be understood. It asks questions, in part, so that we may be satisfied with answers. Other times, it fails to answer questions, so that we may yearn to know more.
Life is enormously complex. Stories, by and large, reduce that complexity enough for us to make sense of some portion of life. But for that complexity to be meaningfully reduced, we need to puzzle over it first.
That's part of the function of a plot: to pose a problem and then let us experience some ways to deal with it—and with its possible consequences.
Although real life is infinitely complex, stories are condensed and simplified. Some plots work by wrapping a mystery into an understandable package. Other plots work by unwrapping something simple to reveal more of its complexity.
Plots For Non-Fiction?
Yes, we're accustomed to associating plot only with fiction—but, surprisingly, the same three functions (gain, retain, and repay the reader's attention) are necessary for non-fiction as well!
That's right. This applies to memoirs. To travelogues. Even to "how-to" books!
All stories need to speak to a yearning, whether to understand, to experience something new, or to simplify a mystery to the point where we can be at least somewhat satisfied with our limited understanding of the answers.
Non-fiction, of course, can be more complex than fiction—which is a good reason to include a "plot." Unless a non-fiction book gains, retains, and repays the attention of readers, readers will have little reason to continue reading—or to recommend the book to others.
To be sure, I fail to finish reading more non-fiction books than fiction books. Sometimes that's because I picked up a book to learn something particular—and, once I had learned that, I felt no impulse to continue.
But other non-fiction books compel me to keep reading until the end—in spite of my initial purpose for reading the book. That's a key advantage of giving your book a plot!