Any tips for coming up with a plot for a book?
I almost said that I don’t have any tips because the plot is often the first thing that comes to me with a story, but I’ve actually been playing with a plotless WIP idea atm so I actually have more ideas than I would have had six weeks ago!
if you have characters: what do they have strong opinions on? what do they want most in life? what do they fear most? what’s the funniest, most ironic situation you could put them in, and what’s the most heartbreaking one? what fundamental differences do your characters have and what would they fight about? (as an example, I had an angry orphan from the slums getting accepted into the country’s most prestigious university--I immediately had plot options from dealing with snooty girls to using student radicalism to foment a communist revolution)
if you have worldbuilding: what kind of characters inhabit this world? who is the most privileged person you could create, and who’s the most downtrodden? is there a war, class conflict, religious persecution, gender discrimination, or anything else that divides society and makes people hate each other? are there problems that need to be solved? are there problems that could be deviously created or worsened? who’s in a position to create/worsen these divisions, and why do they want to do that? (for example, I had a dark academia vibe that I wanted to situate in an environment of radical student protest, so my question was who wants to start some riots and who wants to stop them?)
if you have snippets/scene ideas: what would have to come before this for it to make sense? why are these characters fighting/in love/betraying each other--what events could drive them to this? what’s the biggest twist you could put on this scene (e.g. is the declaration of love a lie?) what are the backstories of these characters? if they’re in love what’s the big thing they disagree on, if they hate each other what’s the one issue they agree on? (e.g. I know how the series ends, so now I’m trying to work out how the characters got there)
if you have vibes: what’s your favourite kind of plot (heist, superheroes, love triangle, dsytopian revolution)? what other related media can you look to for inspiration? what genre would stretch you the most to attempt? what specific knowledge or hobbies do you have that could be super helpful in creating a book that no one else could write? (e.g. I study politics at university and have taken classes on terrorism and leftwing protest movements, so I can use this to make my student protest movement more realistic!)
this is basically the loose process that I’m going through at the minute, so I hope this helps! 💚💚