Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "developing-a-plot"
Developing My Melodrama Plot
How do my characters relate?
Andromeda works for Franz as his receptionist. Andromeda is Margaret's daughter. This makes Andromeda the link between my three main characters.
What are my characters' aspirations?
Andromeda may be working as a receptionist but she wants to work outside, preferably in a state or national park as a ranger.
Franz is a financial consultant with an established clientele. Since the death of his wife, he has buried himself in his office.
Margaret is getting older and afraid of being left alone. Her husband found a new love and left her. One by one two of her children have left home. Only Andromeda is left.
The trite plot would be for Margaret to use guilt as a weapon to keep Andromeda from becoming a person in her own right, trapping her into taking care of Margaret as she grows older. Franz comes in as a mentor encouraging Andromeda to pursue her dreams.
This would work. Yet it leaves the characters little more than stereotypes and the plot stale.
How can this plot be changed to make it more interesting? The key must be buried somewhere in my character sketches. I must go looking.
Andromeda works for Franz as his receptionist. Andromeda is Margaret's daughter. This makes Andromeda the link between my three main characters.
What are my characters' aspirations?
Andromeda may be working as a receptionist but she wants to work outside, preferably in a state or national park as a ranger.
Franz is a financial consultant with an established clientele. Since the death of his wife, he has buried himself in his office.
Margaret is getting older and afraid of being left alone. Her husband found a new love and left her. One by one two of her children have left home. Only Andromeda is left.
The trite plot would be for Margaret to use guilt as a weapon to keep Andromeda from becoming a person in her own right, trapping her into taking care of Margaret as she grows older. Franz comes in as a mentor encouraging Andromeda to pursue her dreams.
This would work. Yet it leaves the characters little more than stereotypes and the plot stale.
How can this plot be changed to make it more interesting? The key must be buried somewhere in my character sketches. I must go looking.
Imagining Plot Points
Any story rests on three legs: characters, setting and plot. My new story rests heavily on plot as each chapter must confront a new challenge and end with another challenge rearing its head.
A comfortable place for me to be to start writing is to have a list of possible plot points, those challenges. The list can have any number of these challenges on it. They can be fanciful or serious. They may get used. They may not.
First I need my list. Where can I find these challenges? One place to look is with the setting and the characters.
The Carduans will face many challenges back in that Ozark ravine. (For those interested, a summer picture of the ravine will be on my website High Reaches post this week.) Each of these challenges should become a plot point.
Some of the challenges will come from the setting. Luckily I live near several Ozark ravines. I went exploring. This brings up wildlife like coyotes, deer, opossums, raccoons, mice, rats, snakes plus smaller denizens like insects (think mosquitoes, tiger beetles) and ticks. Many of these will not be a problem in the winter, but some big ones would be like opossums and coyotes.
There is the terrain. The floor of the ravine is often a wet weather creek subject to flooding. There are small bluff rocks, fallen trees, vines, bushes, thick small vegetation. Of course this is in the summer. In the winter there is ice, snow, cold, wild temperature swings, storms.
The Carduans will need to gain three things: food including water, energy and shelter. Their ship is designed for space, not planetary living. Their on board supplies are meager. They must brave the elements and the wildlife or perish.
There is one other source of plot points. Nine Carduans are on the spaceship. Three are adults. Six are young people. Each is an individual with different emotions, reactions to disaster, ideas of what to do and feelings about the others.
The story does open in February, but February doesn't last forever (thank goodness) so even those ideas from warmer seasons might play into this story. With this list of challenges, surely I can come up with a list of possible plot points.
A comfortable place for me to be to start writing is to have a list of possible plot points, those challenges. The list can have any number of these challenges on it. They can be fanciful or serious. They may get used. They may not.
First I need my list. Where can I find these challenges? One place to look is with the setting and the characters.
The Carduans will face many challenges back in that Ozark ravine. (For those interested, a summer picture of the ravine will be on my website High Reaches post this week.) Each of these challenges should become a plot point.
Some of the challenges will come from the setting. Luckily I live near several Ozark ravines. I went exploring. This brings up wildlife like coyotes, deer, opossums, raccoons, mice, rats, snakes plus smaller denizens like insects (think mosquitoes, tiger beetles) and ticks. Many of these will not be a problem in the winter, but some big ones would be like opossums and coyotes.
There is the terrain. The floor of the ravine is often a wet weather creek subject to flooding. There are small bluff rocks, fallen trees, vines, bushes, thick small vegetation. Of course this is in the summer. In the winter there is ice, snow, cold, wild temperature swings, storms.
The Carduans will need to gain three things: food including water, energy and shelter. Their ship is designed for space, not planetary living. Their on board supplies are meager. They must brave the elements and the wildlife or perish.
There is one other source of plot points. Nine Carduans are on the spaceship. Three are adults. Six are young people. Each is an individual with different emotions, reactions to disaster, ideas of what to do and feelings about the others.
The story does open in February, but February doesn't last forever (thank goodness) so even those ideas from warmer seasons might play into this story. With this list of challenges, surely I can come up with a list of possible plot points.
