Discover How YOU can Write a Story, Part 2

Did you enjoy sketching out your story?  Here is the next section on How YOU can Write a Story:

Part Four: Planning the Plot

Character and conflict are the heart of your story. The plot is just the sequence of events that happen as the character faces problems. Here are a few things to remember about plotting:

• A plot is based on cause and effect.
• The plot follows the effects of the character's actions and decisions.
• Avoid a series of events. You want a chain of events, each affecting the next.  Each link in the chain should be necessary to your story!

Elements of most plots

Plan these scenes and you should be ready to write.

• "Get the story going" event: Show character's problem & event that starts adventure. 
• Adventure scene(s): Meet friends & enemies, face obstacles, learn lessons, prepare for...
• THE BIG EVENT: Everything is on the line. Most exciting part of story. 
• Wrap-Up: Tie up the loose ends and hand out rewards and punishments.

Part Five: Plan your story: Dialogue

•Dialogue does many things for your story.

•Reveals character (especially through reactions)

•Advances plot

•Brings scenes to life

•Adjusts the story's pace

•Start a new paragraph every time a new character speaks. 

 

Setting

• Plan your setting -- know details about it. This makes your story more vivid.
• Setting helps you avoid "floating" scenes -- conversation or action that could be happening anywhere. 
• Setting adds atmosphere to scenes. Example: In a beach story, a character might compare Aunt Mary's screeching to a seagull. In a city story, Aunt Mary might remind the character of a burglar alarm

Use the worksheet below to fill in each section:

The Plot:  what happens and why

1.      Introduction - The beginning of the story where the characters and the setting is revealed.

2.      Getting the story going: This is where the events in the story become complicated and the conflict in the story is revealed.  What problem does your character have to solve?

3.      Adventure scene: This is the turning point of the story.  The reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or not?

4.      The Big Event - The events and complications begin to fix themselves.  The reader knows what has happened next and if the conflict was resolved or not

5.      The Ending:  This is the final outcome or untangling of events in the story.

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