1. Plot refers to the structure of a story and typically involves five stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
2. Virginia Woolf argued that if writers were free to write based on their own feelings rather than conventions, there would be no traditional plot structures.
3. Under new psychological theories, life was seen as a series of moments rather than a narrative, influencing novelists to abandon traditional plot structures in favor of stream of consciousness writing focused on internal thoughts and feelings.