DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT WRITE THIS. I DO NOT KNOW WHO DID.
Before words can become a tale, before ideas can become a story, and before scenes can become a saga, plots are created. Everybody who has ever tried their hand at writing has had difficulty with plotting at some point or another.
You know the drill: your characters seem bored. They are wandering aimlessly, from task to task, with no theme, and certainly no goal. That could be why you've wandered into this file. Now, I am aware that no method of anything is perfect for everybody; if you have a method that works well for you, stick with it. If I don't mention your plotting method here, I'd actually like to hear about it.
Plotting is actually a very complicated process, and can be looked at differently, depending on the genre. The rules I have listed in this article (the basic level) are universal; that is, they are true across all genres. The descriptions I give to explain what the rules mean are tailored to a fantasy / science fiction genre. There is another article called Advanced Plotting, as well; these two articles go hand in hand.
The Eight Rules of Plotting
1. Nothing should EVER happen without a reason
If I describe a room, and tell you about a pair of crossed swords above the fireplace, there had better be a scene somewhere in my tale in which these swords are used; otherwise, why would I mention that they are there?
Names, places, actions, and events all need a reason. I always ask myself why I have selected the names that I use. Do they have a special significance to me? To the story? Does the name actually mean something, that hints at the character's true being?
Also, why did the tale take place on Planet 2975, when it could have been told just as easily on Earth? Why did the hero's best friend, who happens to be a master thief, trip over a root and end up getting captured? Whatever the question, the answers must all be similar.
The first answer is to convince the reader that the story is plausible (that thief should never have been captured in that manner!). That doesn't mean that ridiculous events cannot occur; there just has to be a method to the madness.
The second answer would be to convey meaning about the theme of the story. Every story needs a theme, or a goal; this is discussed below.
Finally, the reason could be simply to lead up to the climax, so it seems plausible, and keeps with the theme. Sometimes, the climax is ridiculously huge, especially in this genre, so it takes a lot of time to build up to something. This final reason is probably the most common answer, but at least one of the other two should be true, as well, or the story feels pasted together. If I were to forget the theme in a crucial scene that leads to the climax, my entire tale would be garbage.
2. True character is only revealed in a storm
Only when a character is presented with a conflict do we see who they really are, and what really makes them tick. Load stress onto a character's back; just make sure you follow rule number one. The shy character who never speaks isn't about to launch into a three hour speech when they sees something they don't like; nor is the violent warrior going to ask the enemy why they are fighting.
Now, people do sometimes do things completely out of character; just make sure that there is a very good reason, or build up to it, or else you run the risk of losing the reader. If my character is battling inner daemons, and I show you this so you believe it first, then he can go berserk. If I haven't told you of his inner turmoil, and he flips, than you would go berserk, and throw the book away.
3. Each Character Has their own Urgent Agenda
In the genre of fantasy, every tale is a big deal. The stakes are terrifyingly high, so there is no such thing as compromise. Therefore, there had better be a very good reason for a character to abandon their personal agenda. We must be able to see why a character cares so much about something, even if we don't agree with it. If the only reason a character does something is to give the readers a thrill, than the story is already dead in the water.
This rule applies equally to villains and heroes! Why does the villain want to capture this person, who just so happens to be the most important person in the world to the hero?
Remember: something terrible has happened (or is about to), and that makes the characters insecure. They want their security back, and their agenda is the only way they can get it. So, their actions must fit with their own personal goals; they can't just do any random thing.
4. The Story's Plot is the Characters' Plots
This rule is pretty self explanatory. If every character has their own personal agenda, and their own goals, these goals need to mesh together to create the story, somehow. Each character will have to modify their agendas, due to conflict, or the agendas of others in the tale. That said, their agendas are not (excepting in very rare circumstances) abandoned entirely.
Something to remember: the villain doesn't get everything their way, anymore than the hero does, as they keep thwarting each other. They are forced to improvise under the new pressure, and both end up going somewhere neither wanted to go in the first place.
5. The Plot Begins Long Before the Story
If the stakes are as high as the genre dictates, whatever the problem is didn't happen overnight. There has been many eons of preparation. Remember: the story should be at the latest possible moment BEFORE the climax, so the reader has a reason to be interested.
The tale should begin when events have taken a decisive and irreversible turn. In other words, don't tell the life history of the hero. The character becomes the hero when immersed into conflict, and they prevail (or, quite possibly, fail, yet somehow survive); it is this turning point, or a scene just before it, that the tale should begin. Go ahead and show the hero tending a normal life to introduce him or her, but make sure something goes wrong very soon after introduction.
If desired, the use of flashbacks and inference can show some of the hero's history. Don't overdo this, however; only show as much as you need to. When in doubt, remember rule number one.
6. Foreshadow all important events
I cannot stress this enough. A story is dull, and flat without foreshadowing. According to Northrop Frye, the first part of any story is a sort of prophecy, and the second part is the fulfillment of said prophecy. That strikes to the very essence of foreshadowing.
Readers don't want to be told what's coming, especially if the characters seem too stupid to see it coming themselves. Nor can something mysteriously happen without any hinting (that would be deus ex machina, otherwise known as act of God). Instead, there is a fine line between these two ideas. Put the plot elements into the story without making the readers too aware of the importance of what they are reading.
Back to the crossed swords over the mantle. If I were to simply mention them in passing, chances are, most people won't think twice about them. However, if I go into gory detail describing them, and have a character think about how nice it would be to wield such a weapon, than everybody will be asking when somebody is going to get killed by one of these blades. That is undesirable; the reader should not be preoccupied with a single plot element, to the exclusion of everything else.
However, if there is a major event taking place in your tale, do not overlook foreshadowing during the scene. The reader will be paying close attention to the scene, to soak in every detail; this is a perfect opportunity to foreshadow.
7. Counter Thrust
Plots are all similar in a broad sense. The hero starts off passive, and only reacts to stress loaded onto him or her. At some point, (s)he tries to take charge of the events, and, ultimately, succeeds, or fails. This is the point of the tale that the story is kicked into high gear: this is the counter thrust.
Looking more critically, every scene should be built in this fashion. A scene will present a character with a problem, and the character will either respond with a counter thrust, or die out. Even if the character doesn't actually die in the tale, if they do not respond to the problem, they might as well be dead in the reader's eye. If a problem targets a character, and they play no part in resolving it, there is no reason for that character to exist any more.
Looking again at the larger plot; the main counter thrust always occurs just after the hero has been dealt the most severe blow in your tale. Your hero has now learned some hard lessons, and will now apply them in order to succeed, and enter the climax.
8. Plot Dramatizes a Character
A story is, quite simply, a search for one's identity. The hero is lost, and finds his or her identity in the course of fighting the evil. As this is the case, one can look at the plot as the roadmap to aide with this search. Plot elements are used to demonstrate some quality about a character. If a plot element is used only for its own sake, than it is a needless burden to the tale.
Also, a reader will not believe a character's trait if it has not been dramatized with a plot device of some sort. Telling the reader that a character is shy isn't good enough: prove it. Show, don't tell.
If you remember these basic rules of plotting, it will automatically become a lot easier. You'll know the difference between a good plot, or just a bunch of words. I realize that some writers do not take all of these rules into account, and they are still very successful; however, they are the exception, not the norm. Next, I'll take a critical look at the layout of the story, and how that must relate to plotting.
The Introduction to a Story
There are many things that can be considered at the beginning of a story. No tale uses all of them; to even attempt such a thing would make the introduction take up half of a novel. I'll discuss, briefly, some of the elements that relate to plotting in some way.
To begin with, the introduction should introduce the main characters - or, at the very least, foreshadow them. A village is attacked by a mysterious beast, and the hero, a valiant warrior who is skilled at hunting mysterious beasts, will be summoned for aide. Alternatively, we can see something happens that will ultimately spell disaster for the hero, at some point.
The brings up the second point that could be raised in the introduction: foreshadowing. While this is rule number six, it is important enough to be mentioned again. If the hero is destined to die by sacrificing him or herself to stop a terrible beast, than have somebody else perish in the first chapter in a similar manner, yet not nearly as impressive or meaningful.
Even in the introduction, the hero must have stress loaded onto them. If the hero will lock swords with the villain in the end of the tale, than perhaps the hero could try to fight off the villain in the first chapter as the villain commits some terrible evil. The hero will, of course, lose the battle, but will somehow survive. Then, the plot can be an effort to build up the hero's abilities, in order to destroy the villain in their next encounter.
Some writers say that you should be crystal clear from the get go about who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. Whose side are we on, anyway? The villain can be a good guy overall, but set on some plan that we must see as the wrong path. All the major characters in your tale need to have a burning passion for something; in the case of the good guys, they need to care about other people. In other words, make sure we know who is on whose side, and what they are fighting over.
If the villain were to be victorious, what would happen? What's at stake in this tale? It needs to be a life or death struggle, either for the main characters personally, for entire societies, or for entire races. Make sure that the readers know that if something goes wrong, the results are catastrophic.
In the introduction of a story, you need to introduce the setting. The setting needs to be established right away, but not through the over use of exposition. Show, don't tell. If telling the story through the eyes of a single character, don't have them fascinated by things that are ordinary for them. If, for example, puks (dragons the size of household cats) reside in nearly every house in the world, the character should not comment on every single one they meet.
The Body of a Story
There are seven main elements in the body of a story: scenes, inclusion of all elements, motivation, progressive problems, suspense, changes in characters, and the depths of despair.
In any story, the author must use scenes to tell the story. A tale isn't just the amalgamation of words and thoughts; it's a mesh of scenes. Each scene follows the rules listed above, and develops characters through action, and dialogue. SHOW, don't tell!
When you get to the climax of your tale, stop and think. Has the stage been set for every last detail to occur? Did I mention hiding that blaster behind the third pillar earlier, or is it going to feel like it's been pulled out of thin air when my hero grabs it to win the day? Just be careful not to draw too clear a map; in hiding that blaster, the hero should also hide a lot of other things. In this way, you won't be too obvious about the ending.
Next, all characters need REAL motivation. Make sure your characters are doing amazing things for very good reasons. If the villain stepped on my toe, I'm not going to hunt him down to cut off his head. Even if he flattened my hometown, I still wouldn't hunt him down and kill him (I'm not big on this whole revenge thing). I would certainly help anybody trying to oppose the villain, but I wouldn't be the hero in this case.
However, if, in flattening my hometown, the villain kidnapped the love of my life, or a close friend or family member, then I'd hunt him down. This would classify as a very good reason; the other two reasons are not as good. Be careful not to have any characters, with the possible exclusion of the villains, do amazing things for stupid, trivial, or non existent reasons.
On that note, there is a simple method to create an effective villain. Make the villain do amazing things for stupid, trivial, bad, or simply non existent reasons. The villain would be somebody who uses power with too much confidence, and too little caution. That, however, is the topic for an entirely different article.
If the villain isn't at least a little stupid, the story would end almost immediately. Contrary to 100 Things I'd Do If I Were An Evil Overlord, if the villain's weakest troops failed against the hero, and then he sent out his strongest, the hero would die (barring a deus ex machina). Actually, there are a lot of ideas in that article; go and read it. Just remember, if you follow every suggestion on the list, than the villain would be unstoppable. Somewhere along the lines, your villain has to make a mistake; otherwise, the hero will ultimately fail.
Back to what I was saying with the troops. Everything needs to be progressive. The plot, therefore, is a series of ever increasing problems, getting so serious that there's only one thing left to do. Then, you've entered the climax. Each scene presents the characters with a problem; each solution tells us more about the characters, and raises the stakes even higher.
As the plot progresses, and the characters face more and more problems, they will change. Show them changing. Make sure they do change. If they don't change, then you have to ask yourself why they aren't. Are the characters really that brain dead? They are probably still heeded for the same goal, but for a very different reason. Also, when loading more problems onto the heroes, don't solve them all at the same time. Every story needs some element of suspense.
Going back to rule number one for a moment: Why did the villain not send out his best troops to deal with the hero? This is a question that will have to be answered at some point, or the story isn't plausible anymore. But, at first, it creates some nice suspense, especially knowing that the hero could be crushed at any moment. This, however, is a trivial suspense item. More immediate suspense is needed to make a good plot.
To create good suspense, the solutions to the problems the hero faces cannot be certain. If your hero escapes one thing, what is to stop them from being destroyed by this other thing? There is a saying that all fantasy / science fiction writers should not only know, but adhere to: Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
Finally, take characters into the depths of despair. Keep loading the problems onto the characters, until a point is reached that something has to give. At this point, it seems that all hope is lost, and victory for evil seems guaranteed. Either your hero will give up - in which case he's not a very good hero - or your story will enter the conclusion. This is the main counter thrust for the entire story.
The Conclusion of a Story
The shortest part of the story, the conclusion is the resolution of everything that has happened thus far. This is the crucial battle, where everything hangs in the balance. Life and death hang in the balance, and each could be gained by a single word, or deed. This is the climax.
Whatever the climax, it doesn't have to answer every single question raised in the telling of the tale. It needs to become the final proof of your theme, and show each of the characters in a final, new light. This is the ultimate resolution in the story, the knockout punch.
However, the story cannot end just with the final problem resolved. If it does, the reader is left hanging. They have grown to care about the hero, and now, they have no idea at all what happened to them. The climax is the resolution of the major problems in the tale, but the hero needs to have a resolution, too. After all those problems, it makes a reader feel really good about the tale if something good finally happens to the hero.
I make no claims that following what is suggested in this article will make you a world class writer. You could follow every rule I have listed, and every word of advice out there, and still end up with a boring, dull, dry story. What is always needed in addition to these rules is a healthy dose of imagination: yours. My advice to you is this: know how the rules and elements I have described above function. Abandon them only in the rare case that you can think of a very clear reason to do so. If you ignore these elements just for the sake of being different, I assure you, you are giving your readers a very clear reason to abandon you.
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