Action is Pathos

One of my favorite pieces of writing advice [is] from Aristotle’s Poetics: “Action is not plot,” wrote Aristotle, “but merely the result of pathos.” This is not just advice about writing, but about life itself, the whole megillah, the human catastrophe. If you have people, you will have pathos. We are incited by our feelings — by the love, rage, envy, sorrow, joy, longing, fear, passion — that lead us to action. Plot is really just a fancy word for whatever happens, and structure is a fancy word for how it happens. Plot can be as intricate as a whodunit, or as simple as a character experiencing a small but significant shift in perspective. But invariably it comes from the people we create on the page.

DANI SHAPIRO