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.
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