Friday, May 11, 2012

How to Create a Plot in a Novel


By Lanee’ Blunt
Writ a plot outline--
Image by Lusi.

Plotting your novel doesn’t have to be difficult. Writing from a plot outline will make your job easier.  A lot of writer's don't want to write from an outline for fear that the novel will sound stale.  Having your novel plotted will help you especially if you have gotten lost and gone off in another direction. Plot is built on significant events that have important consequences.

Start with an idea
Your idea must be big enough for a whole novel. You can have a lot of ideas for a novel but some of them are only fragments of a story and will be difficult to turn into a novel.

Moving
Your plot must have a beginning, middle, and an ending.  When you are plotting your novel think of the idea as a vivid opening. Think about a beginning scene and the next scene after that. What is going to take place in the middle of the novel? What is the final confrontation or resolution of the novel?

Conflict
Plotting a novel is putting your protagonist into conflict with another character, machine, society, or nature.  The conflict will be present throughout the middle of your novel. What is at stake? Is there something that the character is going to lose? What is the struggle in the book, and that is the basis of plot? Show and don’t tell, but show in vivid scenes of what will happen to the characters, and make your readers care about what happens to them.

Reference:
“Plot”; Ansen Dibell; 1988

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