Elements of a story
Every scenario of a plot has been written.
So what will make your story unique is you, your writing style, and your unique point of view.
A plot is a series of events that make up a story. Writers usually link these events chronologically in a cause-and-effect sequence.
We should not view plotting as a creative passion killer.
Plotting is a creative process
You’re creating an entire story in short form, providing an outline framework that will have the blanks filled in during the writing process.
What can be more motivating than when you have a complete outline for your novel to guide you from “once upon a time”… to … “They lived happily ever after”?
What can be more discouraging than coming to a grinding halt on a manuscript 30,000 words shy of your target with nothing left to say?
Plotting is an excellent helper to the writing process.
Plotting ensures your novel has a balanced beginning, middle, and end.
The writer must divide the story into 25% beginning, 50% middle, and 25% end.
The rule of thumb is that the beginning accounts for 25% of the story’s length, as does the end, with the middle making up the bulk at 50%.
A writer’s worst nightmare is to discover he or she has run out of things to say well before the end of the story.
You either have to trash the story, rethink it, hope inspiration strikes, or, worst of all, just slap an ending on it and hope no one notices.
By plotting out your story, the “what happens now?” We eliminated the scenario.
Let’s work on scenes
Estimate upfront how many significant scenes you’d like to occur. Let’s say you pick a hundred. To maintain the classic structure, the beginning would have 25 scenes, the middle would have 50, and the end would have 25.
Next, work out what will happen during those scenes.
You can do this in various ways. You can write the scenes out on index cards, or some people prefer to use a spreadsheet.
Writing your scenes on index cards allows you to rearrange them as needed to keep readers intrigued, encouraging them to turn the pages.
Color-code your index cards or spreadsheet.
By color-coding each card, you can see if the subplot or a single character dominates the story. You may think this is overkill, but it’s better to think your story through now than to have 50,000 words and be totally lost.
A well-planned plot ensures a smooth transition.
This is especially appropriate for novel-length fiction, where there are main storylines, subplots, and multiple points of view from characters.
When switching between plotlines, you don’t want that subplot becoming the story’s primary focus or the main plot becoming the subplot.
In juggling changes in point of view, the protagonist and antagonist points of view should be the dominant voices the reader hears, so keep the voices of secondary characters in check.
Again, maintain the balance. Don’t let the major story or subplot take over for long sections and don’t let point-of-view characters dominate the voice of the book while others go into hibernation.
If you are familiar with the story’s development and plan, you can easily visualize where the story is headed.
You can eliminate silences in the story
If the subplot or a particular character’s viewpoint dominates the storyline, trim it back. If you do an excellent job of plotting, then the story will build tension from its initial conflict to its eventual climax.
Following these elements of a story will make your story transitions effortless and will lead you to write “page-turners” that will leave your reader breathless.