What is the easiest way to get a decent plot going for those of us who are horrible at plotlining, or maybe less imaginative?

Mike Wells Very good question, Quinesia. First, when you say that you’re not good at plotting, the first thing that comes to mind is that maybe you shouldn’t worry about this so much in the first place. There are tons of commercial bestsellers and probably even more literary fiction that have extremely simple plots. After all, plot is just one of many aspects of a story. One such book (and movie) that immediately popped into my mind was Accidental Tourist. The plot was: a married couple breaks up and husband finds new girlfriend. Period. That’s it. Yet I was engaged by that beautifully written book from Page 1 all the way to the end, and so were millions of other readers.

So, one answer could be for you to just focus on the aspects of a story that are naturally good at and don’t worry about coming up with a spectacular plot. Keeping readers pinned to the story with the question of “How will this turn out” is all that matters. In the book I mentioned, the main question was would this man go back to his wife, or not? And it worked.

Having said all that, I believe that if you set your mind to learning how to come up with good plots, you can do that as well. You’ve already taken the first step by seeking more information on this. There are many books, blogs and websites that have extensive material on how to create good plots, plot twists, etc. Just Google that and you’ll find them. A good place to start is with articles that say there are only seven (or nine, or ten, etc.) basic plots and that every book that’s ever been written follows one of those plots (Rags to Riches, Man Against the System, and so on)

Some practical advice: one thing I do, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, is “lift” plots, usually from movies or TV series. As Picasso said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” What I think he meant is that every great artist builds his/her work on the work of others—we all have influences—and that a painting (or story) that appears “original” in fact has probably been done before, and usually many times—it’s just been disguised and used in a different context, which is the only original part. I don’t usually copy whole plots, just pieces of a plot, or a subplot, and then I change it around to the point where no one would ever recognize it. I don’t do this because I’m lazy—sometimes I just see a movie or TV episode and think, “Wow, what a great plot line—I love it! I’m going to use that sometime!” And I write it down—I actually keep a Plot Ideas file that is full of these notes, along with ideas I get on my own, ideas from the news, from some anecdote I hear, all kinds of different sources. Again, if you want to become good at plotting and have plots be one of the better aspects of your books, you can do it—I fully believe it CAN be learned.

I hope that helps!

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