What’s the Deal with Plots?

I completely mean the question I posed in the title. The longer I spend writing and the more books I read, the more I am convinced an incredible plot is absolutely essential and extremely difficult to produce. With this fast paced, advanced world, we demand more of the same tension-filled stories with new angles. In the competition to produce this, I see more of the ridiculous and I wouldn’t just confine this opinion to books.

So why are plots such a complicated animal? Well for one, as a writer we sit there and stare and work with our stories for hundreds or maybe thousands of hours. After a while, it becomes just one big convoluted lump of words. It’s hard to pull things apart even if you sit and plan them out beforehand (at least that is my experience). That inability to step back blinds us from scenes that might not be necessary or may be completely illogical. For these reasons, it really is important for us to have beta readers.

Now, I can sit here and go through plot steps which I may do some day, but I also realize there is a lot of material out there better suited to help you than I. My main piece of advice is to ask yourself a few questions:

1)      What is the purpose of this story?

2)      What is my hero/heroine trying to do? Or what motivates them?

3)      What is my villain’s purpose and what motivates them?

Once you answer all your questions, take your answers and think about how you can push that story even further. What do your characters have to lose? If nothing, you need to rethink your story. If your answer is everything, you’re heading down a good path.

Happy writing this week!

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life