"I describe my plots as follows; A character is walking down the street when all of a sudden a piano falls on them. They spend the rest of the story digging out from under that piano. How they dig, how long and how well, this all depends entirely on the character"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet argument against plot-as-puzzle and twist-as-personality. In a lot of commercial storytelling, character becomes a vehicle for set pieces. Zettel flips that: the set piece is deliberately blunt, even interchangeable, and the real narrative labor is the aftermath. “They spend the rest of the story digging out” reframes plot as recovery, adaptation, and damage management. It’s not the catastrophe that’s interesting; it’s the granular choices made when the catastrophe becomes your new landscape.
There’s also a writerly ethics embedded here. The author can drop the piano, but she can’t dictate the dignity of the struggle without falsifying the character. How long it takes, what tools they reach for, whether they ask for help, whether they turn bitterness into ingenuity - those are identity tests, not plot beats.
Contextually, it’s a craft note that nods to genre without being trapped by it: speculative fiction loves big premises, but Zettel insists the lasting charge comes from consequence. The inciting incident is just impact; the story is the excavation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Zettel, Sarah. (n.d.). I describe my plots as follows; A character is walking down the street when all of a sudden a piano falls on them. They spend the rest of the story digging out from under that piano. How they dig, how long and how well, this all depends entirely on the character. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-describe-my-plots-as-follows-a-character-is-147979/
Chicago Style
Zettel, Sarah. "I describe my plots as follows; A character is walking down the street when all of a sudden a piano falls on them. They spend the rest of the story digging out from under that piano. How they dig, how long and how well, this all depends entirely on the character." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-describe-my-plots-as-follows-a-character-is-147979/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I describe my plots as follows; A character is walking down the street when all of a sudden a piano falls on them. They spend the rest of the story digging out from under that piano. How they dig, how long and how well, this all depends entirely on the character." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-describe-my-plots-as-follows-a-character-is-147979/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
