Questionable: Turning an Idea Into a Plot

Georgia wrote:

I’d like to know about how to turn an idea into a plot . . . At this point I sort of go “Okay, so what do you want?” and if the character doesn’t know the whole thing stalls. If they do know, I can randomly follow that thread (poke the sore spot and see what happens), but that approach doesn’t lend itself so well to a structured narrative. So I’m guessing that it starts with a goal, but building an actual plot beyond that leaves me completely bewildered…

Okay, THIS one I can answer.

There are any number of ways to turn an idea into a plot, but the big two are:

1) Discovery, also known as pantsing (as in “flying by the seat of your pants). In this method you just start writing and keep going until you have enough stuff on the page to see where the idea is going, usually at least thirty thousand words, many of which you’ll cut. Then you break down what you have by analyzing it according to the kind of structure you want (linear, patterned, epic, etc.).

2) Outlining, which means you take your idea and analyze it before you write. You figure out who your protagonist is, what he or she wants, and why he or she can’t get it. Then you figure out who your antagonist is (the person preventing the protagonist from getting the goal) and what he or she wants. You analyze the conflict (a conflict box comes in handy), try to tweak it so it’s a conflict lock (neither can escape from the conflict). And then you start writing.

Whichever way you start, at some point you have to look at the story overall to see if it’s a short story, a novella, a novel, whatever; what POV is going to best communicate the story; and how you’re going to structure everything. How much plot do you have? What are the turning points? Do the acts escalate? Do the turning points make the story new? Does your climax pay off the promise of the first scene? And ten million other structure and character details.

After that it’s lather, rinse, repeat. (Write, analyze, revise.)