Developing Plot Ideas for Short Story, Novel, Screenplay

Whether you are writing a book or a movie script, you will need a quality plot. The first step to a good plot is in understanding the basic components and how it differs from telling a story.

Unlike a plot, a story is simply a sequence of events that happen without purpose. If you are telling a story all you need is a curious listener. But a plot is very different. A plot engages the audience much more than a story. With a plot, your audience must remember what happens in the beginning of the story, understand the relationship between people and circumstances, and then draw a conclusion or predict the outcome based on the relationships and what has already occurred. A good plot has a reader asking "Why."

In order to develop a good plot, the writer must ask, "Why?" as they develop pertinent relationships, create foreshadowing, and bring their story to a logical conclusion. All aspects of the plot should have a purpose. The purpose should be to understand the character, to provide a glimpse of the possible outcomes, to lead the audience in the direction of the conclusion in a logical but not so predictable manner.

The beginning of your story should create the setting and introduce your characters and how they relate to each other. It should also create intent. To begin, ask yourself "what do my characters want and how are they going to get it." This will help you to develop your story with more focus.

Once you have established the intentions of your character, you can develop their intent by explaining how they will pursue their goals. How will they get what they want? This section of your story should have lots of action. Typically, the character will run into barriers to accomplishing their goals. They will experience giving up, overcoming obstacles, taking steps toward reaching their goals.

Then in the end, you have your outcome. Somehow, they will either reach their goals, or be defeated in such a way that makes perfect sense to the audience. Or maybe they will decide to change their goals, realizing it wasn't what they wanted after all.

If your ending is too predictable or too far-fetched it will leave your audience disappointed. The best conclusions are those that leave the audience somewhat surprised. But it has to be believable. In the end, everything should make sense.

If you need ideas on what type of plot to write, the book 20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them) by Ronald B. Tobias offers the following 20 plots with ideas about how to build them:Quest

1. Adventure
2. Pursuit
3. Rescue
4. Escape
5. Revenge
6. The Riddle
7. Rivalry
8. Underdog
9. Temptation
10. Metamorphosis
11. Transformation
12. Maturation
13. Love
14. Forbidden Love
15. Sacrifice
16. Discovery
17. Wretched Excess
18. Ascension
19. Descension