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What’s a good way to plot out your story line & characters? Do you have any websites or tips to help?
Plotting Your Story: Mini Masterlist
Here are some previous posts that should help!
Turning a Barrage of Ideas into a Plot
How to Turn Ideas into a Story
How to Move a Story Forward
How to Outline a Story
Filling in the Story Between Known Events
Character Levels and How to Portray Them
Fleshing Out Characters
I get lots of ideas for stories which are just like a 'concept' of a character or a setting that I really want to write, but I can never turn it into a real plot no matter how long I try. For example I can imagine a character in my head fully formed, and the setting, and an internal struggle, but I can never turn that into a plot with actual things that happen. How can I start doing this?
Guide: How to Turn Ideas into a Story
1) Fill your “creative well” and keep it full.Our storytelling brains need fuel just as a car needs gas. If you’re not constantly feeding other stories and inspiration into your brain, writing a story is like trying to drive a car on only gas fumes. You’re not going to get very far. Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to continually fill your “creative well” and keep it full.
Consume other stories by reading a variety of fiction, poetry, and short stories. Watch TV shows (not just an episode, but entire series), movies, and documentaries. Learn history, ask family members and friends to tell you stories about their childhoods or interesting things that happened to them, and research your ancestry/family history. Stay up-to-date on local, national, and global current events. Play board games and video games. Listen to music, really paying attention to the lyrics and thinking about their meaning. Listen to storytelling podcasts like This American Life and Radio Lab. Always be observant of the stories unfolding all around you.
Get out to see the world any which way you can. Even if that just means paying attention to your surroundings during a bus ride or taking a walk around the block. If you can travel, travel. If you can’t travel, explore your town if you can. If you can’t explore your town, do some armchair travel by reading travel books, looking through coffee table books about different places, watching travel shows and documentaries about places. Get onto web sites catering to people who want to visit different places. Send away for free travel guides and brochures to interesting places. Look online for web cams in cool places, or for interactive web experiences, such as on museum web sites. Use Google street view to explore places “on foot.” Go to YouTube and look for video tours of different places and attractions.
Actively pursue new information about the world. Watch documentaries or videos on a variety of subjects. YouTube, Vimeo, OnDemand, and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are great resources for this. Learn how people did their hair or dressed in different time periods. Learn about the different foods or cooking methods in a certain time or place. Learn different dance and music styles. Learn about myths, fairy tales, and folk tales. Learn survival tactics, what the future of space travel might be like, or what it’s like to be homeless in a big city.
All of these things will get filed away in your mind. And then, when you’re trying to think of a plot for a character idea or ways to flesh out a concept, you’ll have all of this amazing information to pull from. Ideas will be popping into your mind faster than you can write them down.
2) Understand how basic stories generally work.
There are all different kinds of stories, different structures, different “rules” and methods. A story can be anything you want it to be, but understanding a basic story structure can help you put a story together, even if you eventually stray from the basic formula.Most stories are about a person who wants something (the protagonist), why they want it (the motivation), what they do to try to get it (the action), someone or something throwing obstacles in the protagonist’s path (the antagonist), and the protagonist’s struggle to overcome those obstacles (the conflict). As long as you have all of these things in place, you should be well on your way to having a basic story.Basic story structure looks like this:
Introduction - we meet the protagonist in their every day life, possibly meet a few other important characters, and learn important basics about the setting. We learn about the protagonist’s internal conflict.
Complication - aka “the inciting incident.” Something happens that turn’s the protagonist’s life upside down. This is usually when we meet the antagonist or antagonistic force, or at least some facet of them/it. The situation forces the protagonist to declare a goal, and they formulate a plan to reach this goal, or get sucked into someone else’s plan to reach it.
Middle - the protagonist pursues their goal while the antagonist/antagonistic force throws obstacles into their path, which the protagonist must then overcome. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail and have to try again or find a way around it.
Climax - this is the “big showdown,” where the protagonist faces the antagonist head-on, and usually (but not always) defeats them.
Denouement - this is the aftermath of the big showdown, where the dust settles and all the final pieces come to rest. Most of the story’s loose ends will be tied up here if they weren’t tied up already.
End - this is where the story is wrapped up once and for all. We see the protagonist (and other characters) settled back in their old life or getting used to a new normal. If there is a moral to the story, it is revealed here. If the story is leading into a second book, a little bit of set-up for the new story will occur here.
3) If necessary, use tools and resources to help get your story off the ground.
If you’re still having trouble, don’t be afraid to use different tools and resources like plot generators, inspiration dice, the Writer’s Toolbox, the Storymatic, writing prompts, existing stories (myths/faerie tales/folk tales/ghost stories/legends), real life, etc. as inspiration and to give you ideas.
4) Keep a writer’s notebook to collect ideas, dreams, and other inspiration.
Every writer should have a dedicated notebook where they can write down character and plot ideas, interesting dreams, fun snippets of overheard conversation, beautiful words or descriptions, favorite quotes, inspiring song lyrics, etc. Notebooks such as these can be immensely helpful when you’re stuck fleshing out a story idea.5) Be patient.
This is probably the most important. Great story ideas sometimes take time to percolate. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t come up with the perfect plot after a few minutes of thought. Try writing about your character in their every day life. Follow them around through an average day or week as though you’re a reality show camera crew. Write about what they do, who they talk to, and what weird things happen to them. Sometimes this kind of free writing can lead to plot ideas that wouldn’t have occurred to you otherwise. And if worse comes to worse and you write a whole week of their life and no plot occurs to you, just figure out the worst thing that could happen to them and do that. A lot of the time, the story was just there waiting for you all along.
Good luck!
Write It (and Say It) Right! :)
Inspired by an old post batting around, I wanted to make my own list of words and phrases I often hear people misusing:
Incorrect: “That documentary peeked my interest!” Incorrect: “That documentary peaked my interest!” Correct: “That documentary piqued my interest!”
Incorrect: “He supposively wasn’t there last night.” Correct: “He supposedly wasn’t there last night.”
Incorrect: “She supposably gave it to Ted.” Correct: “She supposedly gave it to Ted.”
Incorrect: “I’m suppose to fly there next week.” Correct: “I’m supposed to fly there next week.”
Incorrect: “She will defiantly be there at six.” Correct: “She will definitely be there at six.”
Incorrect: “This is fine for all intensive purposes.” Correct: “This is fine for all intents and purposes.”
Incorrect: “You should of come to my party last night!” Correct: “You should have come to my party last night.” Correct: “You should’ve come to my party last night.”
Incorrect: “Irregardless, you shouldn’t have done it.” Correct: “Regardless, you shouldn’t have done it.”
Incorrect: "It’s honestly a mute point now anyway.” Correct: “It’s honestly a moot point now anyway.”
Incorrect: “I was wondering through the woods.” Correct: “I was wandering through the woods.”
Incorrect: “Did they appraise you of the situation?” Correct: “Did they apprise you of the situation?”
Incorrect: “Would you order me a large expresso?” Correct: “Would you order me a large espresso?”
Incorrect: “By in large, things are getting better.” Correct: “By and large, things are getting better.” Incorrect: “She won’t be at your beckon call.” Correct: “She won’t be at your beck and call.”
Incorrect: “Clara listened with baited breath.” Correct: “Clara listened with bated breath.”
Incorrect: “The spices wrecked havoc on my stomach.” Correct: “The spices wreaked havoc on my stomach.”
Incorrect: “The food wasn’t expecially good.” Correct: “The food wasn’t especially good.”
Incorrect: “The locked door gives me piece of mind.” Correct: “The locked door gives me peace of mind.”
Incorrect: “The book was rather anti-climatic.” Correct: “The book was rather anti-climactic.”
Incorrect: “Here’s something to wet your appetite.” Correct: “Here’s something to whet your appetite.”
Incorrect: “I need a drink to whet my whistle!” Correct: “I need a drink to wet my whistle!”
Incorrect: “Let’s chock it up to a coincidence.” Correct: “Let’s chalk it up to a coincidence.”
Incorrect: “He has a deep-seeded fear of snakes.” Correct: “He has a deep-seated fear of snakes.”
Incorrect: “I’m going to eek out a name for myself.” Correct: “I’m going to eke out a name for myself.”
Incorrect: “I’ve had hunger pains all day.” Correct: “I’ve had hunger pangs all day.”
Incorrect: “Stop taking me for granite!” Correct: “Stop taking me for granted!”
Incorrect: “Please bare with me while I sort it out.” Correct: “Please bear with me while I sort it out.” Incorrect: “I love dogs, cats, horses, ex cetera.” Correct: “I love dogs, cats, horses, et cetera.” Correct: “I love dogs, cats, horses, etc.”
Incorrect: “Please allow me to say my peace.” Correct: “Please allow me to say my piece.”
Incorrect: “Case and point, he was late to my show.” Correct: “Case in point, he was late to my show.”
Incorrect: “Ted tows the line between boring and fun.” Correct: “Ted toes the line between boring and fun.”
Incorrect: “The police are honing in on the truth.” Correct: “The police are homing in on the truth.”
Incorrect: “We’re chomping at the bit to go home.” Correct: “We’re champing at the bit to go home.”
Incorrect: “He came here on accident.” Correct: “He came here by accident.”
Incorrect: “What’s the statue of limitations?” Correct: “What’s the statute of limitations?”
