Practical Plots
By Jessica Lynn
So, you have this amazing idea for a story. You're not quite sure how it's going to end yet, but you have the basic details swimming around in your mind and you're feeling pretty confident. Should you jump fully in and start from chapter one, or just dip your toe and work on whatever scenes first bubble up? Coming from someone who has done both, I'm going to suggest you do neither.
Let's explain why.
So, you have this amazing idea for a story. You're not quite sure how it's going to end yet, but you have the basic details swimming around in your mind and you're feeling pretty confident. Should you jump fully in and start from chapter one, or just dip your toe and work on whatever scenes first bubble up? Coming from someone who has done both, I'm going to suggest you do neither.
Let's explain why.
The Burn Out
This is when you dive head first into a brand new story without any notion of how deep or how dark the water truly is. With no sense of direction, merely the ability to swim, chapter by chapter, you find yourself getting more exhausted. There's no land in sight. You swim circles, changing directions multiple times, get lost, lose hope, stop swimming and then... your beloved story sinks to the depths. Forgotten beneath the murky shores. Why? You had no course. A ship setting sail without a destination is asking for trouble.
The Touch and Go
This is when you have only fractions of an idea, all scattered about in your brain. You're not quite sure where to start your story, or how it's all going to tie together, but you see all these different individually juicy pieces and you don't want to forget them. So you start writing them down into separate paragraphs. Soon, you realize you have no idea how to bridge the gaps and tie these pieces together. Months pass and separate they remain, forever to float alone.
Unfortunately, I have been guilty of both of these methods many a time and thankfully, I've since learned better!
Alright, we've talked about what not to do. Now for the solutions! Here is my personal, seven step template for how to go about constructing your amazing, one of a kind story!
Unfortunately, I have been guilty of both of these methods many a time and thankfully, I've since learned better!
Alright, we've talked about what not to do. Now for the solutions! Here is my personal, seven step template for how to go about constructing your amazing, one of a kind story!
The Game Plan
Step 1: Plan Your Ending
This step may take a while of thinking before you decide on an ending that you think will satisfy you and your readers. However, once you have it, it will set the whole direction of your story. When it becomes clear, those random little thoughts of inspiration that strike you as you write will be far less likely to drift you off course from your main goal.
Step 2: Set the Opening Scene
Assuming you've already read my page "Crafting Characters" (which you can find on my main menu), you know who your characters are and you understand them pretty well. Now you have to drop them into the setting of the story. Choose a day, time, situation, and make it significant. Every opening sentence to your first chapter is what grabs the readers! But be careful not to information dump in your first chapter. This is a major no, no. Readers don't want to open the first page to a Wikipedia of everyone and everything and what their names mean, what their favorite colors are and the history of their entire world etc. You can weave it in subtly. Subtly is key!
Step 3: Introduce Conflict
Now you must decide how and when you want to introduce your conflict. For some stories, the conflict doesn't come till a little while after the stage has been set. For others, conflict is right there on page one. It's my personal recommendation to bring in the conflict sooner rather than later. Especially in cases where your story is war/fighting based. It gives you a nice jump start and some action to thrill your readers. Engaging them from the get-go is the goal!
Step 4: The Calling
In every great story, the main character reaches a point in the narrative where they encounter something or someone who helps give them the initiative to start their quest. Be it a sub-character, a catastrophe or the enemy, this place in the story is essential to giving your character his/her mission. They need a reason for the journey. This is it. Make it realistic and unavoidable.
Step 5: Defeat
Well, your MC (Main character) just tried and failed. Failure is necessary for character building and for your readers to understand what they face is no small thing. Whatever the opposition, it must cost the MC something to accomplish. The greater the trial, the greater the rise to victory!
Step 6: The Enlightening
At some point, your character will come to the realization that they cannot accomplish their goal without greater power/knowledge/resources in order to defeat their enemy. There are a few ways to spin this segment into your story. You can use a superior character to help them, or an item of some kind, but either way, the result should be the same. Your MC will come away from this experience enlightened and ready for the finale.
Step 7: Endgame
We've reached the end! This is what you've been leading your character towards this entire time! If you followed Step 1, you already have set in your mind what is coming, but trust me, writing it when the time comes can sometimes be daunting. By this point you have probably come up with dozens of other interesting ideas to replace- or include in the ending. That's okay! Stories evolve and find a life of their own. The main thing to remember is that- while technicalities are likely to change- you don't want to mess with the main essence you've originally planned for the ending. Drastic changes this late into the story are never a good idea.
So stick to your guns and don't loose sight of what you set out to accomplish from the beginning!
And there you have it. My Seven Step process to writing a practical plot!
This step may take a while of thinking before you decide on an ending that you think will satisfy you and your readers. However, once you have it, it will set the whole direction of your story. When it becomes clear, those random little thoughts of inspiration that strike you as you write will be far less likely to drift you off course from your main goal.
Step 2: Set the Opening Scene
Assuming you've already read my page "Crafting Characters" (which you can find on my main menu), you know who your characters are and you understand them pretty well. Now you have to drop them into the setting of the story. Choose a day, time, situation, and make it significant. Every opening sentence to your first chapter is what grabs the readers! But be careful not to information dump in your first chapter. This is a major no, no. Readers don't want to open the first page to a Wikipedia of everyone and everything and what their names mean, what their favorite colors are and the history of their entire world etc. You can weave it in subtly. Subtly is key!
Step 3: Introduce Conflict
Now you must decide how and when you want to introduce your conflict. For some stories, the conflict doesn't come till a little while after the stage has been set. For others, conflict is right there on page one. It's my personal recommendation to bring in the conflict sooner rather than later. Especially in cases where your story is war/fighting based. It gives you a nice jump start and some action to thrill your readers. Engaging them from the get-go is the goal!
Step 4: The Calling
In every great story, the main character reaches a point in the narrative where they encounter something or someone who helps give them the initiative to start their quest. Be it a sub-character, a catastrophe or the enemy, this place in the story is essential to giving your character his/her mission. They need a reason for the journey. This is it. Make it realistic and unavoidable.
Step 5: Defeat
Well, your MC (Main character) just tried and failed. Failure is necessary for character building and for your readers to understand what they face is no small thing. Whatever the opposition, it must cost the MC something to accomplish. The greater the trial, the greater the rise to victory!
Step 6: The Enlightening
At some point, your character will come to the realization that they cannot accomplish their goal without greater power/knowledge/resources in order to defeat their enemy. There are a few ways to spin this segment into your story. You can use a superior character to help them, or an item of some kind, but either way, the result should be the same. Your MC will come away from this experience enlightened and ready for the finale.
Step 7: Endgame
We've reached the end! This is what you've been leading your character towards this entire time! If you followed Step 1, you already have set in your mind what is coming, but trust me, writing it when the time comes can sometimes be daunting. By this point you have probably come up with dozens of other interesting ideas to replace- or include in the ending. That's okay! Stories evolve and find a life of their own. The main thing to remember is that- while technicalities are likely to change- you don't want to mess with the main essence you've originally planned for the ending. Drastic changes this late into the story are never a good idea.
So stick to your guns and don't loose sight of what you set out to accomplish from the beginning!
And there you have it. My Seven Step process to writing a practical plot!
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