I just started to plot out my scenes like this in bullet points
- Tess runs away
- Tess fights the bad guy
- Tess gets injured
and so it goes on. So far I got 30. I know that I need a lot more. I am aiming for 300 pages. Are these called plot points?
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Sign up to join this communityA plot point is a turning point. It is something that turns the the story in a new direction. Taken together, a set of plot points describes a complete story arc. What you are describing are incidents. Incidents get you from one turning point to another (and every incident should contribute to getting you to the next turning point).
It is not about how many plot points you need, it is about whether your plot points work together to form a complete and satisfying story arc. It is about whether they bring your hero to the moment of moral crisis where they have to ask themselves hard questions about who they are and what they are going to do.
Some stories get there fast. Some stories get there slow. As long as the reader feels that they are moving towards that point, though, fast or slow does not matter. Every part of the story arc is satisfying as long as it feels like we are on the story arc and it is moving forward.
No. They are not really plot points. They are scene or chapter summaries.
From tone of your question I'm guessing you're new to this. Contrary to everything you've been told you are unlikely to write a 300 page novel of any worth using the the technique you describe. It'll work for a 1950's 80 minute movie script or a comic book strip. But as an event-driven modern novel - they don't work that way. This is what you may be taught but if you read modern novels you'll see they bear no resemblance.
Unless your writing is exquisite and you use a lot introspection you cannot follow a single character for 300 pages.
At some point you may need to use the "meanwhile back at the ranch" scenario. This enables you to SHOW events which your MC is unaware of, villains plotting against the MC, the love interest being kidnapped etc.
I say all of this because I can remember writing the few chapters of my first novel. And I am grateful to my sister for stopping me continuing the way I was going. I was about to waste 3-6 months of my life that I couldn't ever get back.