Writing Craft: How I’m learning to plot my way out of a paper bag

I’ve talked often about how I can’t really plot my way out of a paper bag. Much of this is simply due to lack of practice. When I started writing stories, I was far more interested in the people, and later, the settings, to care much about why and for what overall purpose and to what end all these people were exploring a haunted house, or another planet, or butchering unicorns (like you do). I was more interested in how they got along with each other and how the mountains on Mars blew out gre...