Level Up – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 5
We have developed a story file, found a journey for our main character, created a monster to fight, and then brainstormed more ideas to fill it all out.
Now we’re going to take those brainstormed ideas and fill out the rest of the story. This week is all about depth.
Layer ideas
In Plot Inspiration from Korean Dramas, I noticed that Korean dramas often layer genres on top of each other, creating a more dynamic and intense story.
Take a second genre and layer it underneath your main genre to creating more conflict, tension, and plot obstacles. We see a lot of romance under most genres, but how about a family drama under a thriller? Or a touch of fantasy under a modern romance?
Give your leads their own personal stories underneath the main plot, such as a romance or a family drama. You can also experiment with different genre ideas, public domain ideas, and characters that have opposite goals who actively work against them.
Another way to layer is to give your secondary characters a different story than your main characters. Many secondary characters are flat and stereotypical, only in the story to create obstacles for the main character.
Take secondary characters and give them their own plot lines, desires, conflicts, and obstacles, almost as if you were writing two books. I will say that this is most effective when writing in third person, though you can create the story for your secondary characters and then use your main character’s voice in first person to narrate their story while staying in your main character’s voice.
Combining ideas
Something I do often is borrow one of my ideas or themes from my story file and mash it with another one. This is one reason why having a story file with even your “small” ideas can be handy.
A useful source of storylines is public domain stories or myths. Use your characters, change genres, or bring a story into a different time period. TV shows often use public domain stories for plot ideas. You can do the same. Ask yourself how you can make it completely your own.
In a story I’m currently writing, I added a family drama to a story that is science fiction in genre and coming-of-age in theme. Originally, they were two separate ideas for stories, but I combined them together. The family drama intensifies the coming-of-age story, making the protagonist’s fight to grow up a fight against everything her family stands for.
Most stories benefit from some additional complexity than your basic storyline. Layering and combining flavor your story, while giving the reader a meatier experience. Another benefit of combining ideas is that it can give your secondary character their own storylines and conflicts.
Story Speed
Story speed is an important element of how readable your story is. You can have the most beautiful prose in the world, but if nothing happens in your story, readers will lose interest. Obstacles keep your story moving, but they are also a good way of showing the reader what is happening, as opposed to telling them.
Putting an obstacle in each chapter or every other chapter is the best way to keep the story speed going. These obstacles should be big enough that they make the main character stumble or feel like they cannot complete their goal. A good reference for this type of writing is Jim Butcher’s scene and sequel method (as outlined by RK Athey).
Be careful though. Remember when we discussed support systems in part 3? Don’t move too fast to using supportive characters and situations in your story. Bring crutches in slowly, or tease them and keep them away from your character. You can even offer them, rip them away, and later reveal a more unique method of supporting your character to their goal, one readers might not suspect. An antagonistic character (that isn’t your “bad guy”) might switch sides and suddenly decide to help your character, for their own reasons or not, but bring them in only when all hope is lost.
Move Your Character Around
Many authors don’t think about this, but moving your character from one place to another is an easy way to generate motion in the story. If your story is slowing down, moving them to a new place to confront a new obstacle is an easy way to generate momentum.
Always visualize the location from the perspective of the character whose voice you are in at that moment. What would they notice that others would not? Do they pick out how people act? Their clothing? Do they notice a particular object immediately?
Coming Up
Next week, in our last discussion about developing plot ideas, I’ll go through the steps of the process to come up with a completely new story idea.
Related Posts:
Write What You Like – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 2
The Idea Game – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 1
Fight The Biggest Monster – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 3
Original article: Level Up – Coming Up With Useable Ideas, pt. 5.
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