Based on material from Glen C. Strathy and Lynda.com.
How would you like to create a plot outline for your novel in less than an hour that is emotionally compelling and dramatically sound? Apparently it can be done by incorporating eight essential elements in a story.
You can use the following either to strengthen a draft novel you've already written (possibly by rewriting or reworking the story to fit a stronger plot) or you can use it to write a plot for a new novel idea you may have, from scratch.
1. STORY GOAL
As discussed in previous chapters, goals are important in a book. It's easy to understand why. Humans need purpose. We all choose something to live for, a thing that motivates us to keep going and to face the day. Lacking that, many fall into depression or drug addiction, or even commit suicide. The age old question, "Why am I alive?" is important and one every breathing teenager considers at some point. Similarly, this is of value in a book. Readers pick up a book and look for principles to use in their own life, whether they know it or not. Readers like to try to predict what will happen, to judge the characters' choices based on the facts they're given and the goal this character is aiming for.
Your story goal is more than your protagonist's external goal (Peter wants to conquer the evil overlord), it answers the question, "What is my story about?" Let's use our soon to be featured book BLINK as an example. If you ask a pro what the book is about, they will tell you about the theme: This book is about the internal struggle to choose between good and evil. Now this is a great theme, but the story goal would be an answer like this: "It's about a boy with an ability to change time saving the world." See the difference?
Can you tell us what your protagonist's main goal will be?
"Anne wants to be the best gymnast in the world."
Remember to add internal goals.
"Anne wants to be the best gymnast in the world, and inside her heart aches to find love. She has never dated before, and at age 17, she feels it's time."
Now we can say what the story goal will be, ask 'What is this story about?"
It's about Anne, a lonely gymnast who finds true love and wins the Olympics.
Read more about the STORY GOAL here: http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/story-goal.html
2. CONSEQUENCE
Once you have decided on a Story Goal, your next step is to ask yourself, "What disaster will happen if the goal is not achieved? What is my protagonist afraid will happen if he/she doesn't achieve the goal or solve the problem?" In previous chapters, we discussed this as "conflict" and "what's at stake".
What is at stake if your character does not achieve their goal? This is vital. In the real world, people don't do things for no reason at all. Every action has a motivation, and most people are motivated by trying to achieve something, and respectively trying to avoid some negative consequence.
Anne wants to be the best gymnast in the world because her mother is dying, and Peter promised to give her mother the financial support she needs to get a transplant if she wins. There is your motivation. Your consequence. If Anne doesn't win the Olympics, her mother's life is at stake. This is a random example, but bear with me.
Now we have Anne's external conflict, let's do the internal. She is lonely. What is at stake for her if she doesn't find love? I must admit, finding the internal conflict's hinge is trickier most times than the external.
Anne maybe feels lonely and has always been the nerd, without friends and without love. Maybe she feels if she can't find someone to love before the end of the Olympics she will take her own life? Or maybe she struggles with depression and thinks love is the best cure. Like I said, random example :P but I think it gets the point across easily enough.
The character's goal and what they care for must be put in jeopardy. Let's look at BLINK as an example again. What's at stake? If John fails, the world falls into ruin. Okay, easy enough. What, internally, will John lose if he fails? His family, his little sister, his guardian angel: What he cares about most.
The combination of goal and consequence creates the main dramatic tension in your plot. It's a carrot and stick approach that makes the plot meaningful.
In some stories, the protagonist may begin by deciding to resolve a problem or pursue a goal. Later, that goal becomes more meaningful when he discovers that a terrible consequence will occur if he fails. Other times, the protagonist may start off threatened by a terrible event, which thus motivates him/her to find a way to avoid it.
Either way, both story goal and consequence must be present for a good plot.
3. REQUIREMENTS
Requirements: describe what must be accomplished in order to achieve the goal. You can think of this as a checklist of one or more events. As the Requirements are met in the course of the novel, the reader will feel the characters are getting closer to the attainment of the goal.
Requirements create a state of excited anticipation in the reader's mind, as he looks forward to the protagonist's success.
Fantasy novels, many times, have the easiest requirements to identify. There's a prophecy. The chosen person must fulfil the prophecy, but how? They must:
1. Seek out the wise elves for wisdom and guidance.
2. Go on a long journey to find the blessed sword (insert object)
3. Face down the dark evil with said implement; and
4. Save the world when the evil thing falls.
Voila. Let's try this with BLINK as an example.
John needs to save his sister (and the world)
How? First he must find out who the Collector is, then he must defeat the collector, then he must reverse the Collector's actions. I won't spoiler the book, but keeping it simple, he aims for this. As the story develops, the "HOW TO" develops, and readers learn more and more about what John must do and face to achieve his goal.
So ask yourself, what is the goal? (internal, external, story)
What's at stake? (consequence, fears)
What steps must the character take to succeed? (requirements)
4. FOREWARNINGS
Forewarnings are the counterpart to requirements. While requirements show that the story is progressing towards the achievement of the goal, forewarnings are events that show the consequence is getting closer. Forewarnings make the reader anxious that the consequence will occur before the protagonist can succeed.
While the Story Goal and Consequences create dramatic tension, Requirements and Forewarnings take the reader through an emotional roller coaster that oscillates between hope and fear. There will be places in the plot where it seems the protagonist is making progress, and others where it seems that everything is going wrong. Structure these well, and you will keep your reader turning pages non-stop.
Let's look at a random example. Sorry, but I don't want to compromise BLINK's plot.
Anne is a gymnast seeking love and an Olympic win (goal). Her mom is dying (possible consequence), she must save her mom (goal), she is lonely and wants love (goal) to save her from depression (consequence). The Olympics are a month away, and her mother's heartrate flatlines (forewarning). Doctors revive her, but they say she has only a month left to live if she can't get the organ she needs in time (forewarning). She goes on her first date and it is horrible (forewarning). She meets a stranger who seems nice at first, but it turns out he is her number one competitor at the Olympics, supported by her financial backer, Peter's, rival company.
Let's put it in simpler terms. Your character wants and needs something. There are consequences if they don't get these things. They have to do something to get the things they want and need. Stuff must go wrong for them, things must get tense when what they want and need seems out of reach or it seems like they will fail. That builds the tension. Will Anne win before it's too late and her mom dies? *thriller music* Will she get with the guy who is on the opposite team? And how will that affect Peter's willingness to pay for her mother's operation? See? Tension galore.
5. COSTS
Generally speaking, good plots are about problems that mean a lot to the characters. If a problem is trivial, then neither the protagonist nor the reader has a reason to get worked up about it. You want your readers to get worked up about your novel. So you must give your protagonist a goal that matters.
One sign that a problem or goal matters to the protagonist is that he/she is willing to make sacrifices or suffer pain in order to achieve it. Such sacrifices are called Costs.
Classic examples of Costs include the hard-boiled detective who gets beaten up at some point in his investigation, or the heroic tales in which the hero must suffer pain or injury or give up a cherished possession to reach his goal. However, Costs can come in many other ways. Protagonists can be asked to give up their pride, self-respect, money, security, an attitude, an idealized memory, the life of a friend, or anything else they hold dear. If you make the costs steep and illustrate how hard the sacrifice is for the protagonist, the reader will feel that the protagonist deserves to achieve the goal.
A great cost for our female protagonist gymnast, will she give up winning the Olympics for love? Well she sacrifice love to save her mother's life?
6. DIVIDENDS
The element that balances Costs in your plot outline is Dividends. Dividends are rewards that characters receive along the journey towards the Story Goal. Unlike Requirements, Dividends are not necessary for the goal to be achieved. They may be unrelated to the goal entirely. But they are something that would never have occurred if the characters hadn't made the effort to achieve the goal.
Maybe our gymnast faces down Peter and tells him about her romantic interest, and as a result is confident enough to answer that agent who's been calling her every week. Turns out the agent has a plan for her to make money without winning the Olympics. Maybe, with this money, she can save her mom?
7. PREREQUISITES
Prerequisites are events that must happen in order for the Requirements to happen. They are an added layer of challenges to your plot outline. Like Requirements, as Prerequisites are met, the reader feels progress is being made towards the goal. For instance, in order to free the Princess, the hero must recovery the key from its hiding place, but first (Prerequisite) he must defeat the dragon guarding it. In order to win the maiden's hand, the gallant suitor must show he would not risk losing her for anything. But before he has a chance to do that, he must show he is willing to risk everything to win her (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice).
If the Requirement for gymnast girl to win the Olympics is a strict training regime, perhaps prerequisites will be her waking up early, eating only specific things, spending a certain amount of time training everyday. What happens when she skips training for a week because her mother's heartrate flatlined? What happens when her possible lover takes her on a wine and chocolate tasting date?
8. PRECONDITIONS
The last element to balance your plot outline, Preconditions, is a junior version of Forewarnings. Preconditions are small impediments in the plot. They are stipulations laid down by certain characters that make it more difficult for the Story Goal to be achieved.
A classic example is Pride and Prejudice in which Elizabeth's quest for happiness is made more difficult by the terms of her grandfather's will, which state that the family property can only be inherited by males. This means that, upon her father's death, Elizabeth and her sisters will be penniless unless they find good husbands first.
However there are many other ways characters can impose conditions that impede the attainment of the Story Goal. They can make their help conditional on favours, insist on arduous rules, or negotiate tough terms.
For instance, perhaps Peter, Anne's financial supporter, insists she only use a particular gym and eat a particular brand of healthfood. Perhaps the hospital won't le Anne see her mother in ICU because she is adopted. Etc, etc.
ORGANIZING YOUR PLOT OUTLINE
Once you have chosen your eight elements, the next step is to arrange them into a brief plot summary. It doesn't matter what order you put them in, so long as all eight are included. In fact, most of the elements can be repeated or included in more than one way.
For example, here's how we might put together all eight elements for an executive story together into a one-paragraph plot outline...
"A female executive in her late 30s has been married to her job. But she has a wake-up call when her elderly, spinster aunt dies alone and neglected (consequence). The executive decides that she needs to have a family before she suffers the same fate (goal). So she buys a new wardrobe and signs on with a dating service (prerequisites). Her boss offers her a promotion that would involve a lot of travel, but she turns it down, so that she will have time to meet some men (cost). She goes on several dates (requirements). But each one ends in disaster (forewarnings). On top of that, because the agency arranges all her dates for Friday nights, she ends up arriving tired and late for the company's mandatory 6AM Saturday morning meetings (preconditions). Along the way, however, she starts to realize how the company's policies are very unfair to people with families or social lives outside work, and she begins to develop compassion for some of her co-workers that leads to improved relationships in the office (dividend)."
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In another blog post, Glen C Strathy discusses how to end your book, how to round out the plot. Perhaps in my own words I'd say how to make the BIG BANG moment happen, then tie some of the loose strings. Go to the external link on this chapter to explore her blog.