A plot diagram is a visual map of a story's structure, drawn as an arc that rises through the action to a climax and falls to a resolution. It marks five stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Based on Freytag's pyramid, it's used in English classes and by writers to break a narrative into its parts and study its pacing.

Exposition introduces the characters, setting, and situation. Rising action builds conflict and complications. The climax is the turning point of highest tension. Falling action shows the consequences as tension eases. Resolution, sometimes called the denouement, ties off the conflict and ends the story. Plotted on the arc, the climax sits at the peak, with rising action climbing to it and falling action descending after.

Freytag's pyramid is the model this template is based on, named after Gustav Freytag, a nineteenth-century German writer who drew dramatic structure as a triangle. It places exposition at the start, rising action up one side, the climax at the apex, falling action down the other side, and resolution at the end. It's the most common way to teach and analyze story structure.

Take Cinderella: exposition introduces her hard life, rising action brings the invitation and the ball, the climax is the clock striking midnight, falling action is the search with the slipper, and resolution is the reunion. The first Harry Potter book follows the same arc, from the Dursleys through Hogwarts to the confrontation with Quirrell and a return home. Any tightly plotted story maps cleanly onto the five stages.

Lay out the five stages along the arc, then fill each with what happens in your story. Start with the exposition, build events through the rising action, place the turning point at the climax, trace the consequences in the falling action, and close with the resolution. Check that the climax sits near the end of the curve rather than the middle, which is the most common pacing mistake.