Happy Monday! We are two weeks and a day away from the start of NaNoWriMo. You get a few minutes to panic and then we'll start with the topic of the day. I'll time you.
....and done. Today, we are talking about plots and I know this is a weird time to talk about them. We've done the ton of world building, the characters, and now I want to talk about plot. Here's the thing about plot... when you're doing the rest of it, you might already have the glimmer of an idea in your head. I mean, you've created an entire world, you have a cast of characters, therefore, you must have an idea of why you did such a thing. Now, that's not to say that you didn't lay out your plot first and then built up everything else. It can go either way.
Let's take a baseline plot of a hero going off to save the world from something that will end it. For example, let's say that it's a evil overlord who, if he or she takes over the world, will plunge it into darkness for the next untold generations or something of the like. From that one little idea of a plot, you can do so much with it when you decide what genre you want to write in. If you're writing fantasy, then this is your good old fashioned standard plot line. You will need to do more in order to not appear stale. This is where a good what-if would come in handy. Perhaps write it from the world view of the evil overlord. Or perhaps a minion who really is the hero but works a crappy day job under said overlord. You will need to work on it.
Now, let's say you're writing dystopian fiction. You're somewhere in the darkness, possibly right after it happened or a generation or three in. You're going to need to figure out how your main character fights back against it and what he or she does to take down the evil overlord. Or, maybe he or she does, but realizes that, by taking said evil overlord down, it's going to kill off everything. So, now you're at a crossroads of what could really be done because your hero doesn't want to destroy the world. Or he or she could as destroying everything is a way to set everyone free.
For the third and final example, let's take mystery / thriller. For this one, it doesn't really need to be an evil overlord. It can simply be someone who is making the main character's life hell and he or she decides to do something about it. Or, someone else tried to, and now they're dead and your main character has to put the pieces together in order to find the killer. With this genre, you're going to want to figure out if you're dealing with the main character as the killer or as the solver. The killer needs to figure out a way to keep one or three steps ahead of the police in order to win. The solver needs to figure out the puzzle and catch the killer. Be wary of the hybrid unless you're willing to dive deep into what you're doing with your outline. Also, have a way out. I know it's cliche, but I never say no to the idea of an evil twin.
So, yes, the genre you write in will drive your plot. It's best to pick that before you fully flesh out the idea of your plot and what your story is going to be. However, you're got two weeks and a day - so not a reason to panic yet.
Until next time, keep on writing, plotting, and not panicking.
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