Young Writers Society

I'm not a great plot maker, outliner, or whatever you could call it. Basically my plots lack edge, drive and interest. They are usually either boring, uninteresting or very unoriginal.

I want a plot that has mystery, really unexpected twists and such, but I can never seem to be able to think of good things to include. I don't like my standard narrative and I want something much more complex.

Any tips?

My suggestion would be to start with a very basic idea. This would entail basically mapping out the very beginning of your plot, and then what you finally want the outcome to be. And then, I would step aside from that and list any interesting plot concepts you have read and/or heard of and just list them.

After that, I would work backwards from the final outcome; make a line such that one end would be the beginning of your story, and the other end be the outcome to your story. Then, divide that line in half; and divide those halves in half so you have a line with four line segments. At each of those points that you divided those lines, work backwards from the resolution of the story and list all possible complex ideas you previously listed. Then from that point, continue backwards until you have listed all possible ways you could twist your plot and make it mysterious and such.

This may be confusing; if you'd like me to ellaborate, I may do so.

One word: conflict.

It's the most foolproof way to put in twists. And, the great thing is that there's really no way to go overboard (or underboard) with it.

A good way to do this is through Fortunately/Unfortunately excercises. Like this!

Robert Shaw and the gang are eating dinner belowdecks.

Fortunately, David is in charge on deck.

Unfortunately, one of David's guys has wrecked a sail.

Fortunately, there's a place they can get it repaired onshore.

Unfortunately, a French man'o'war is guarding the aforementioned shore.

Fortunately, David's got a plan...

And so on.

Again, don't worry about getting too extravagant- after all, extravagance is only in the presentation.

That's good advice, from both of you. I hope I can utilize it as well.

Ah, good point Sam! I never realised how useful those Fortunately/Unfortunately things could be.

And thanks Gannon, too.

I comiserate Jack, I have very simplistic plots too. It sucks, but I think if you make a whole bunch of story lines in one story, it makes it seem more complicated

For my most recent project, I started with the idea that I wanted my main character to be pursued by a council. then I had to figure out why they were pursuing her. I spend a lot of time inside my "bad guys" head trying to figure out his motives...

Actually, after i wrote my first draft of my novel [90 pages in 6 days =P] I went back through and made the plot even more complex. a lot of times, I come up with scenes and things I want to happen before I know how they fit into the plot; the plot then gives the actions reason behind them...

So what I think I'm trying to say, is that if you have certain pieces you want to fit in, you can come up with a plot to make these actions and scenes seem more justified.

Not that any of that is any particular help now that I go back and reread =P but just my thoughts on the matter. =]