McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Plot Helpers

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Cooper:
I do have an idea for a book series, but I can't seem to think of any plot ideas.  Besides driving around in my car talking into my little voice recorder, is there anything else that will make me think of plot ideas?

Murphy's Stunt Double:
I like to put a spin on historical events. Take something that happened in real life, and then flesh it out to see how it could have happened if magic was involved along the way, trying to stay as true to what happened in reality as possible. Quite a challenging way to stretch my abilities. Try it.

Josh:
If you have characters in some form, ask yourself this: "What is the worst thing that could happen to this person/these people?"

Then make it happen and force them to deal with it.

Then, just as they're climbing out from under that boiling waterfall of tar, hit them with something worse.
Interview them, figure out what they'd absolutely hate and abhor dealing with, whether physically, emotionally, etc. and then slap it in their face. Sometimes the character motivations will be a great thread to snag on and draw a plotline out of.

WyldCard4:
Have a good king or other leader as you desire.

He is loved by his family and his people and brought his nation up from barbarians

Have him have many allies that together form the strongest power in the known world but might fall apart without him.

And have him die without a successor.

Have his children be competent but to young to lead, have the only relative who is fit to rule a violent sadist.

Have every minor noble house wondering if they can defeat him, even the good ones and his allies or considering it because they are afraid of his evil male relative.

Then you have someone claiming to be his long lost and long forgotten brother or son come into the picture, and have him be insane, he seeks to destroy the kingdom and create a republic of some kind that would not survive.

Change this to go with your setting as desired or simply use fragments of inspiration from it, or don't use it at all.

I hope that helps.

Quantus:
I have the same problem.  I tend to build interesting worlds, and even interesting characters, but finding an engaging story arc for them to follow gets a bit harder. 

Can you tell use a little more about the idea?  Is is urban fantasy?  Space sci-fi?  old fashion sword and horse?   Do you want a Save-the-world sort of story? a Save my own ass story?  a Solve the mystery type?

In general, a few things you'll need to figure out before the details start to come (And i cant say what the best order for tackling these might be, thats kinda up to you and your style).  Figure out the world (modern reality, urban fatasy, post-apocoliptic, sword and sorcery, etc), Figure out the genre (mystery, political, save the world, etc), find a character you can really feel and get behind (that sounds a bit dirtier than it should :P), figure out what the primary conflict is and then figure out what makes that character the right/only person to solve it.  Once you can decide on the basic path of the story, you'll find more and more as you start walking it.

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