Monday
Monday: The Story Mountain
Rocket tapes a sheet of butcher paper across the Signal Desk and draws a mountain on it.
"Every story climbs," he says. "Problem at the bottom, trouble on the way up, a turning point at the top, then down to the ending."
Raven studies the drawing. "What do you notice about the slope? The way up is longer than the way down."
"Because trying things takes longer than fixing them," Rocket says. "Usually."
Nova hovers at the peak. "This week's story is in five episodes," she says. "Where on the mountain does each one go?"
"We will find out one episode a day," Raven says. She writes Episode One at the foot of the mountain.
"The Missing Master," Rocket reads from the first card. "I already do not like the sound of that."
Learn it: plot unfolds in episodes
A plot is the chain of events in a story. It unfolds in episodes, one scene at a time, each with its own small beginning and end.
Most plots climb a mountain. At the bottom, a problem appears. The rising action is the climb: the problem grows and characters try things.
At the peak is the turning point, the moment that decides how things will go. Then the action falls to the resolution, where the problem is settled.
Raven thinks aloud: "The text says the folder is empty. That is the problem at the foot of the mountain. Everything after it is the climb."
- Find the problem. It usually appears early.
- List each attempt to fix it. That is the rising action.
- Find the moment that decides things. That is the turning point.
- Find how it ends. That is the resolution.
Read it
On the Thursday before Press Day, the master copy of The Signal lived in a blue folder on the Signal Desk.
The master was the one clean, hand-lettered sheet the crew carried to the library branch each Friday to make copies.
Rocket had finished lettering it at four o'clock. He remembered sliding it into the folder. He remembered the sound.
At five, Raven came up the porch steps with her notebook and asked to check one spelling.
Rocket opened the blue folder. It was empty.
He turned it upside down and shook it. He looked under the folder, then under the table, then in the jar of pencils.
"It was here," he said. "I put it here. I heard it go in."
Raven did not say anything at first. She looked at the desk, the corkboard, the porch rail, the steps.
"What do you notice?" she asked at last. "What is different about the desk since four o'clock?"
Rocket looked. The reading lamp was off. The stack of old issues had been moved to the rail. The screen door was open.
"I did not move the stack," Rocket said slowly. "And I shut that door."
Nova drifted in through the open door, her light flickering. "The wind picked up at half past four," she said. "I was outside."
Rocket sat down hard on the bench. "Press Day is tomorrow. Without the master, there is no issue."
"Then we have one evening," Raven said. She wrote the time at the top of a clean page: 5:05.
Below it she wrote: Problem. Master missing. Door open. Wind. Stack moved.
- Read the question.
- Tap your answer.
- Read the question.
- Tap your answer.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Rocket finished lettering the master at four o'clock. | ? |
| Raven found the master in the pencil jar. | ? |
| The stack of old issues had been moved to the rail. | ? |
| Nova was inside the whole afternoon. | ? |
- What happened first?
- Tap the cards in order.
Keep the drawing. You will add one episode each day this week.
The problem is on the table and the climb has begun. Tomorrow the weather joins the story, and the setting starts to push.