Creating a Plot for a Novel

There really is no magical way that authors come up with their plots. To be sure, they all have their way of plotting their novels, but no one way is the right way. The right way is what works for you. That's easy enough to say though. But what if you don't know what your way of plotting a novel is yet? Here are a few things that I do for short stories and novels.

First, I would start brainstorming scenes that I would want to write. This will get the juices flowing and get me thinking about different aspects of the story. For example, say I'm writing a story about a detective who is looking for a murderer. I'm going to start writing on paper, which is how I do my best thinking, scenes that I'm excited about now. This would be roughly one to two sentences. Nothing elaborate here in my notes, just something that I will remember for when I'm ready to start working on the outline.

So I have my detective and he is in an alley. He sees a few kids, probably dealing drugs. What does he do? Is he the type that wouldn't be concerned with this since it isn't his main priority right now, or would he nab the kids to teach them a lesson?

See how thinking through scenes lends to asking questions. It can be questions concerning the characters, the world that they live in, the motivations for those involved in the story and it could lead to other scenes and ideas for the overall plot of the story.

Okay, so now you have some scenes, but scenes alone don't make a plot. What's next?

Second, is looping all these scenes together, and you may find that after developing so many scenes that some are better then others, or they take off in a direction that wasn't necessarily where you had planned to go. This is okay. Go with it for now. This time is all about brainstorming and coming up with ideas for scenes and plots; you just never know where the next idea is going to come from so don't stiffle yourself.

If after you have created a bunch of scenes and you still haven't figured out a strong plot, then put it down for awhile. I find that my subconsious will actually do a lot of the work for me when I'm off doing something else. I know...it sounds a little cliched to do this, but trust me it will work.

Try working on a different project. If your brainstorming this idea do something unrelated like editing a different story. In time, something will spark in your imagination that will give you the 'Aha!' moment that you have been waiting for that will tie your whole novel together.

Good luck on plotting your novel and I hope this blog helped.