What are Tentpole Events?

Tentpole Events are intended for pantser use. They are the pantser equivalent of a plot.

Tentpole events are specific events during a story that, like a tent, is held up by a series of poles, serving as a foundation to support the rest of the story.

When do you create the tentpole events for a story?

During the final stages of outlining the story – before beginning to write the first draft.

Who uses the Tentpole Method to write?

Technically, anyone can use it. However, pantsers tend to be the ones who derive the most use from it. They can “pants-away” with their story, evolving as it goes, all-the-while using the next tentpole as a guide for where they’re eventually going. All they have to worry about in the first draft is how to get there.

Why Use Tentpole Events

1. Depending on the genre, readers have an unconscious expectation for:

a.   what must be in this genre or type of story

b.   What must be in any type of story in general

  If you chose to deviate from these accepted norms

a.   You better have a good reason for doing it

b.   You better give foreshadowing of it before the reader gets to the first expected tentpole

c.   You better be a gifted writer and give the reader extra pleasure to make up for buying a book that wasn’t exactly what they thought they were getting

d.   If you haven’t satisfied all three of the above – don’t do it

2. This type of thinking can be included in any type of plotting methodology for planning any genre of story. It can be used by pantsers, plantsers, and plotters with equal success. The key – and was repeated for good effect – each tentpole is a one-scene event.

Examples:

Pure Tentpole: 14 Signposts by James Scott Bell is the quintessential tentpole example. There are only tentpoles to use as a structure.

Hybrid Tentpole: Sat the Cat. The single-scene events are the tentpoles. The multi-scene events are a plot sequence of scenes that “fill-in” between the tentpoles.