Plots are the steel frame to the roller coaster of the novel that we build. Our characters, theme, settings, prose, word choice, ad style are everything else. What is a roller coaster with out the frame? Nothing besides a bunch of mismatch objects. One problem that people who want to write, whether they be novices or professionals, come across at one time or another in their writing career is the lack of plot ideas.
How do you make plots you ask, well, in very simple and somewhat obvious places. Let's go through your normal day and see what we can find for plot ideas, I'll leave an * by each place with ideas!
6:00 a.m. you wake up and head towards the shower. Once done with showering you brush your teeth, do your hair, etc. You head to the living room where you have the paper (don't ask how it got there, I don't know it was magic) sitting on the kitchen counter. You get some breakfast and coffee/tea and read the paper***. It's off to work. On your way to work there is a car crash that makes you take the detour route*, which makes you late. Your boss comes and yells at you, which is more than what they usually do which is sitting at their desk watching YouTube videos, something must be wrong in their life*. You go to your desk after the scolding and check your email. You have a few new messages, one from your sister vacationing in Peru that has lots of pictures attached, so many that you can't even download them all*. You get to work. During lunch hour you and your friends go out to the town, where you come across an old man sitting on the sidewalk that says 'Fortunes for $'*, you hand him the change in your pocket but don't stay for the fortune. During lunch you overhear the people behind you arguing about their relationship, apparently one of them slept with the other's sister, who's married and has 2.5 kids in a house with a white picket fence and a golden retriever named Fido*. After lunch you head back to work. During your break time you head on over to Time.com and read through some articles and head on to mynicheoftheuniverse.blogger.com where you read fabulous post***. After work you go pick up the dry cleaning from the little old Asian lady who always has a smile on her face, today the glass windows are shattered, someone tried to rob the place*. You get your clothing and leave. Once home you change out of your clothes and listen to your spouse babble about their day* while flipping between the evening news and E! News. During dinner your children overload your ears by telling you every grueling detail about their school day*. You all watch a movie*, then send the children up to bed. Before going to sleep yourself you finish that novel that you picked up last weekend from Barnes & Nobel*.
From Here |
Another good idea is find headlines from a newspaper or magazine, write down the ones you like, put them in a bag and pull out a few. There's your skeleton of a plot line.
So, for all of you lazy people out there that don't like reading here's a list of everything:
- News Paper Articles
- Magazine Articles
- Radio
- Television
- Books
- Emails
- Everyday Activities
- Blogs
- People Watching
- Fairy Tales
- Movies
- And the list could keep going!
Plots are about relationships, conquests, missions, adventures, and so much more! They're everywhere, now go find one!
I agree - while BIC time is important so is getting out there and exploring to find inspiration! Oh, and as a fantasy writer, it's okay, I'm not offended ;)
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