Plotery

Plotery is a term that appears in discussions of storytelling and data visualization to describe the deliberate construction of plots. It is not a formally defined concept and its meaning can vary across communities, leading to multiple interpretations depending on context.

In the realm of narrative design, plotery refers to the craft of arranging events so as to produce a coherent and engaging narrative arc. Practitioners consider elements such as exposition, inciting incident, rising action, turning points, climax, and resolution. They may employ well-known structure templates, such as the three-act structure or the hero’s journey, to manage pacing, foreshadowing, and reversals. The emphasis is on the architecture of storytelling—the planning and cause-and-effect wiring of events.

In data visualization and software contexts, plotery describes a workflow or toolkit for generating plots that convey a story with data. It can involve selecting appropriate visual encodings, combining multiple visual outputs, and scripting reproducible visual narratives. Some projects use the term to refer to libraries, templates, or guidelines that help automate plot assembly and the addition of narrative annotations.

History and usage of the term are informal and heterogeneous. The word has appeared in online writing and design discussions since the 2010s and 2020s, but there is no single, widely adopted definition. As such, its precise meaning tends to reflect local practices in writing, design, or data storytelling.

See also: plot, plot structure, narrative theory, data visualization, plotting library, storytelling with data.