This is probably you:
"NOOOOOOOOOO WHERE HAVE THEY GONE I AM MELTING MELTING OH CRUEL WORLD I NEED TO BE FULLED UP WITH A BUNCH USELESS JUNK ABOUT WRITING!! *wails*"
And this is me:
"IM HERE TO HELP YOU!! *whimper whimper* DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE!!"
And this is everyone else:
"How has Emilie survived this long… o.o"
But this is the truth. I've been super busy and I've been wanting to post for a long time, so here I am! :D And now we're going to be talking about PLOTS, again.
~ ~ ~
Considering that the world "plot" covers a very vast subject, I think it is a good idea to continue discussing it. If you start writing a book without a plot in mind, the book will train wreck and it will basically go nowhere, and you will be very sad. But here's the good news! It's easy to think of a plot, if you have an imagination. Here's the framework we will be discussing.
1. Characters
2. Motives
3. Antagonists
4. Obstacles
5. Climax
That's a very messy list, but it will help you make the skeleton for your story. We've talked a lot about characters, but here's the deal. You need to kill some of them, add them, and make the bad guys just as developed as the good guys. Here's what I mean. It's super fun to make characters, right? And if we're not careful we can make too many, and then the story will go bland because we can't develop all of them enough to make them realistic. So here's what I suggest. WITHOUT making them up, make a list of all the characters you will need. For example.
1. Main character
2. Bad guy
3. Supporting character 1
4. Supporting character 2
5. Mother of main character
6. Teacher of the main character's school
7. Bully at the main character's school.
Et Cetera.
After you have this list, you can fill in the blanks. Make up the the characters. Now, if you want love interests, you can make the supporting character and the main character opposite genders, but you can't add characters in randomly or else the story will become random and unorganized. You already know all that junk about making up characters, so we don't even need to discuss that.
Next are the Motives. This is probably the most important step of all. What is the reason that the characters are doing what they're doing? If you need help to clarify, here is an example. And because I love him, I'm going to pick on Percy. Again.
Percy Jackson
Black hair, green eyes, grew up with his mom, is the son of Poseidon, very quirky and insecure
Discovers a camp full of people like him
Finds out that Kronos wants to wipe out Olympus (DING DING DING! MOTIVES COMING UP)
Goes out with his friends to stop him because he is loyal to his dad and Olympus. He knows it is his destiny and his duty.
That whole thing about his background and description wasn't part of the motives thing, but I decided to throw it in there because it clarified the whole character thing. But you see what I mean. Without motives the story has absolutely no direction. You need the character to have a strong enough motive so that they will not give up after they are thwarted more than once in their efforts.
Next are the Antagonists! DUN DUN DUUHHHHHHHH. These bad guys, of course, are all like, "Hey, lets stop this guy because we have a good reason and they're the bad guy and we're the good guy" blablabla. Remember that they also need to have motives, and good ones at that. No one realistically goes out and tries to ruin someone's life just because they feel like it. Your options for motives are greed, revenge, justice, or just plain because-it-needs-to-be-done. It needs to be believable that this villain isn't your classic "EVIL IS BETTER THAN GOOD" but that this villain is more like "IM THE GOOD GUY HERE". Remember that this villain's choices should be very personal, therefore strengthening his will to succeed.
And then there are the Obstacles. The bad guy will be doing everything in his power to stop the good guy, of course, but have you ever considered the fact that maybe the bad guy is not the only source for obstacles? *gasp* SACRILEGE. But seriously, there are two main other options to make your story as realistic as possible.
The first one is NATURE. Is there bad weather? Maybe mountains your hero has to cross, or oceans to swim. Maybe he has a disease, or a sickness.
The other one is SELF. Is he battling his conscience? Does he grow to be more mature? Does he make a hard choice or a sacrifice?
Considering that, you have probably realized that you will be laying the hard stuff down thick on this character. Make your character suffer! Make him go through struggles, and pain! LAUGH MANIACALLY AS YOU WATCH THEIR SITUATION GET SEEMINGLY HOPELESS!! GWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAH!
Hem hem.
Finally, we have the part where the reader will lay down the book, grab their pillow pet, dive under the covers, and shout, "EVERYTHING IS WRONG". Because you will be presenting them…. The Climax.
The Climax is that terrible moment of either peril or realization, where the book will take a sharp turn and nearly throw the reader out the window. This is the part where you reach the top of the mountain and begin to go downhill. You need to make sure you have a climax, or else your book will be bland and pointless.
Okay, now we have our five main points. Just for fun, lets take a look at what it would be like if we didn't use these five points.
Once upon a time, there was a girl who woke up in her bed and went downstairs to have breakfast. The end.
Pretty boring. Okay, now let's add those five points and see what happens.
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Ellie who went downstairs to eat her breakfast. But suddenly, as she was sitting there, her mother got snatched out the door by a bunch of slimy tentacles! She knew it was up to her to save her mother. So she leapt after her, grabbing onto her dear mother's foot, but as she did so she slipped and fell into a big canyon full of boiling lava. Hanging desperately on a lifesaving ledge, she grasped her mother's arm, and pulled herself up to her feet, helping her mother do the same. They both crouched at the ledge, watching the monster swim in the boiling lava beneath them. The tentacles reached up to grasp them, but suddenly Mother pulled out a bow and arrow! She was the female version of Robin Hood! She shot arrows, riding her brilliantly pink unicorn, galloping like a beautiful archer queen, and swooping down, she picked up Ellie and they rode away to safety.
So, there you go. Have fun spicing up your plots!
Keep writing!
- Emilie
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