This week we discussed one of the most important moments of the book--like literally, you can't do without it. Yes I am talking about the plot of your book. Whenever you begin a new book planning out the story line can feel overwhelming. Where on Earth are you supposed to start?
Well you can begin by asking yourself three important questions about your plot; does it have passion, potential, and precision?
Passion: Trust me. You're going to be writing this story for a long time. In fact, you're going to be writing this story in several different variants, constantly changing your characters, your plot, your world. You're going to write the same chapter over and over again, constantly "improving" it. In order to go through this without going absolutely insane, you have to really, really love your story. You have to unless you want to risk smashing your laptop in frustration after the fourth, fifth or sixth rewrite.
Potential: You may think that your book is going to be the biggest deal since Harry Potter; but it's important to remember that most of the stuff that you're getting for your story isn't completely new or groundbreaking. We all draw from sources such as other books or movies for ideas in our story; we have to. It's how we grow and develop as writers. As has been said before, there are no original plots. However it is important to keep track of where exactly you're getting your ideas from, to make sure your story isn't too similar. Split your novel into world building, character development, climax and plot, and write down where you got each of your ideas in each of these areas from. You might surprise yourself, and you might be inspired to come up with even more ideas.
Precision: This has more to do with the structure of the plot itself. How so? Well you want to make sure that you have all the necessary steps in a plot arc--rising action, the climax, falling action, and then denouement. You cannot begin a story at the climax with nothing to set it up, just as you cannot bore the reader by only having rising action with no pinnacle. When you are organizing the main arc of your story, it is also necessary to figure out your key scenes. What are key scenes? The scenes most important in progressing the plot--the ones that lead from the rising action to the climax to the falling action and so on.
Conflict
However despite all these points, the most important part of a plot is the conflict. You cannot have a plot without it. And there are three major kinds.
Man VS Man
Man VS Nature
Man VS Self
. Examples of Man VS Man often include the main character struggling against a human antagonist--the evil sorcerer or the corrupt government. An example of Man VS Nature can be seen in the book "Hatchet", where the teenage boy struggles to survive on his own in the Canadian wilderness. And Man VS Self is the personal growth of the character as they combat against their inner demons. What do all of these have in common? All of them have one main element in common--they both represent something major at stake. Something is at risk, and it doesn't necessarily have to be the fate of the entire planet or the extinction of the main character's race. It can be something as simple as the risk of failing school or dealing with family issues. However a good novel will have the stakes at risk continue to increase--sometimes dramatically as the story goes on. Smaller stakes will help us relate to the character in the beginning, but don't make the entire plot about only boyfriend troubles or school issues. We get enough of that in real life.
Here are some links to older posts discussing plot:
http://ypublish.blogspot.com/2014/03/plot.html
http://ypublish.blogspot.com/2013/07/being-unique.html
http://ypublish.blogspot.com/2013/05/openings-for-your-story-novel.html
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