Plot Building

No one can tell you how to write your story.  No one can define the content for you.  No one can establish your moral conclusions.  But if you want your work to be art, that is, to change people, you're going to need to sustain their attention.

Here are some key steps in plot Building:

1.  The story must constantly unfold in a way that disrupts and redirects the central character.

2.  The disruptions cannot be random.  They must be logical.  They need to be possible outcomes of the preceding events.  But they need to be unanticipated outcomes of the preceding events.  The unpredictability and the disruption is what maintains the tension of the story and what generates the pressure that will make the climax intense and satisfying.

3.  Do your best to design the plot backwards from the climax.  That way you can more surreptitiously ensconce the triggers that contribute to the disaster and ultimate solution of your story's climax.

4.  Working backwards also allows you to ensconce the tools that the hero will use to solve the climactic crisis of the story.

5.  Once the linear sequence of the story is laid out like dominos ready for a fall, rearrange a few key sequences to keep the story from being to predictable and stale.  The Story Shaper program, by Prodigious Software is a handy tool for laying out plot sequences and rearranging them to achieve optimum story tension.  Check out the Software links above.