Fictional plots are sometimes difficult to conceive, but once you understand the formula, creating interesting and exciting plots for your stories will become second nature. The key to successful plotting is answering questions because that is what a story is based on. When you first read a book, several questions are posed through the exposition and through dialogue, the majority of which are not answered until the last chapter. As the author, however, you will need to know the answers before you even begin writing.
Following are fourteen questions that you should ask yourself before you begin writing a novel or a short story. They will provide the basis for your plot, which can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. Obviously, a short story will be less complicated than a novel, but the majority of adult fiction has at least one main plot and at least one minor subplot.
Question #1: Who is your main character?
This is the person from whose point of view your story is told. The reader will root for this character above all the others, and his or her hopes, dreams, problems and conflicts should be at the forefront of your story. Before you begin writing, make sure that you have a flesh-and-blood idea of who this person is, from physical characteristics to personality to identifiable traits.
Question #2: Who are the protagonists?
In some stories, your main character will be the only protagonist, though most adult novels have several protagonists who all work together for the common good. Under this question, you might list friends or family members of the main character or even colleagues at his or her job. These are people who will help the main character to achieve his or her goals or to overcome problems and conflict presented by the antagonist.
Question #3: Who is the antagonist?
The antagonist is the villain of the piece, the person or thing which the reader will come to despise. The antagonist can be a person, a disease or even a thing, but it must be formidable in order for your story to have adequate conflict. In many cases, the antagonist is even more well-developed than the main character because it is the antagonist that your main character must overcome in order to succeed.
Question #4: What are the main character’s goals?
This is the substance of your plot — the reason for writing your story. The main character must have a goal, a purpose, a need that he or she pursues through the breadth of the story. For example, maybe your main character is trying to become the President of the U.S. Or maybe he or she is battling an ancient monster that lives in the Atlantic Ocean. The possibilities are endless, but your main character’s personality and abilities must correspond to his or her problem — success must be attainable, but difficult.
Question #5: What happens if the main character fails?
The other side of the main character’s goals is the consequences of failure. What if he or she does not get elected President or is killed by the monster? Your reader needs to know that failure will result in dire consequences, which is why the reader is rooting so emphatically for your main character. In some cases, the consequences will be life or death, and sometimes they won’t. However, the consequences must be sufficiently vital to maintain the reader’s interest.
Question #6: How will the other protagonists assist the main character?
Your protagonists (other than the main character) must be working toward a common goal. Maybe your protagonists are your main character’s campaign team, or perhaps they are a group of friends who have banded together against the evil Atlantic monster. Whatever the case, they must play a part in assisting the main character with his or her success.
Question #7: How does the main character attempt to achieve his or her goals?
There is nothing more unsatisfying in a story than a main character who succeeds through sheer luck. The trials and efforts of the main character must bring about the final success, and must be both heroic and shocking. Your readers will be let down if your main character fails miserably just as they will be let down if he or she succeeds just because of chance. Make sure that your main character’s efforts create suspense and excitement.
Question #8: What will the antagonist do to thwart the main character’s efforts?
In every good story, there is always conflict, which is generated by the antagonist. The antagonist wants nothing more than to see your valiant main character lose, so what will he or she (or it) do to further the opposing agenda? And how will the main character respond?
Question #9: How will the main character respond to the antagonist?
No good story ends with one valiant try and success; there must be more to the story. Just when it seems that the main character is going to accomplish his or her goals, the antagonist must set the wheels in motion for what looks to be inevitable failure. At that point, the main character must step up his or her game and make another effort to achieve his or her goals.
Question #10: How does the main character deal with impending failure?
In addition to the conflict created by the antagonist, there must also be an inward struggle demonstrated by the main character. He or she must be conflicted about the right versus the wrong thing to do, or to what lengths he or she is willing to go to achieve certain goals or needs. This is often referred to as the “Black Moment”, when the reader is cheering the main character on but may also be frustrated by his or her inward thoughts. You want the reader to question whether or not the main character has what it takes.
Question #11: How does the main character finally succeed?
This is the climax to your story, the much-awaited high point of your plot. What does the main character finally do to pull off what he or she has been attempting from the very beginning? Sometimes this is success disguised as failure, and sometimes it is obvious achievement, but your climax must be both believable and exciting.
Question #12: What happens to the antagonist?
Part of the relief and satisfaction the reader will obtain is from whatever you make happen to the antagonist. Not only must the main character win, but the villain must also lose — sometimes tragically. In dark stories, the antagonist might die or suffer a nearly-fatal wound. This is entirely up to you, but you’ll need to satisfy your readers.
Question #13: What happens to the main character and the protagonist?
It is never enough to say that everyone “lived happily ever after”, nor is it logical. Throughout the course of your story, your main character and/or protagonists have likely suffered, and they will have to deal with what has happened for the rest of their lives. Do they simply go back to their families and move on or do they rally together for a sequel to your story? Readers want to know what happens to the characters to whom they have grown close over the course of your story.
Question #14: What is the theme of your story?
Some fictional works have obvious themes, while others are discretely buried. Whatever the case, you must make sure that you reader walks away with whatever lesson or idea you’ve wanted to impart. Sometimes this is stated blatantly at the end while it can be sprinkled throughout the story; read back over to make sure you have adequately summarized your theme at some point in the work.
Now that you have answered these questions, you are ready to write your story. This can be in place of or a supplement for your outline, depending on how you prefer to work, and as you write your story, feel free to make adjustments to the plot. When you’ve gotten to know your characters and their situations during the actual writing, you might discover a new subplot or two that fits in well with your main plot. You can use an abbreviated version of this list of questions for any subplots you decide to construct.
