As most of you already heard, I'm leaving wattpad (if you haven't heard, see the message on my profile that I sent out to my followers for the explanation). I'll be on scribophile.com, for anyone who's 18+ and still wants to read my stories (or more importantly, give and get brutally awesome critiques and exponentially improve your writing!). This How-To guide will absolutely still remain here, so don't worry about that.
Thanks for all the well wishes about the guide! I'm stunned how many messages and comments I've gotten saying that this guide has helped them improve their writing and storytelling, which was my goal when I first started posting this (I came to wattpad and was appalled by some of the writing I saw, so instead of fuming to myself, I decided to rant to all of you!) I'm glad you guys got something out of it. I know I learned a tremendous amount by writing this guide and organizing my thoughts. I learned new things as i typed up these chapters, or searched for advice on a topic some of you requested, so it was an educational experience for me as well.
For this last how-to chapter, I wanted to sum things up into a neat little post of my most important writing advice. I think I've already hit on all of these points, repeatedly..., but one more time, why not?
Question: How do you build story that weaves together plot and character, making them feel cohesive?
Answer: Figure out your character's deepest fears, then create a situation where they're forced right in front of them, where it comes to their bedroom window in the middle of the night, reaches in, and snatches the MC out of bed (okay, okay, I just saw the trailer for the new BFG movie). Figure out the MC's comfort zone and structure the plot to brutally shove them out of it. When your character starts running back to the comfort zone (ie. their goal), pull the rug out from under their feet and make them trip, stumble, fall, break.
Something should occur in the plot that makes them so desperate that they're willing to sacrifice their morals.
And by biggest fears, I don't mean a pansy phobia. I mean that deep psychological shit that'll force your character into fetal position and be a complete mindf*ck. It's your duty as a writer to figure out what will get that deep under their skin. There's your plot.
Or you can work the other way around if you come up with plot first. Figure out what fear that plot exploits, and build your character around that.
Putting it another way, you're making the character face their insecurities. You're create a plot that forces those insecurities out in the open.
Take the playground bully. They know exactly what the victim is insecure about. That's why they're so effective at being a psychological horror that terrorizes their victim, and that's why you so often see bullies as antagonists in fiction. They're the physical embodiment of the MC's fears, because they harp on the insecurities, bring them to the surface, and pound the MC's face in with them. That's what a villain or antagonist should do: attack the MC's insecurities.
As a writer, you have to be a bully. You have to to pound your MC's face in with their insecurities, their fears, and make them desperate to either run from you or punch your teeth out. When a person becomes desperate, really interesting things happen (ie. compromised morals). A character who'd never murder might be forced to in order to save their sister's life. Maybe they use illegal magic to get stronger, so no one can bully them. Push your characters over the edge and break them open. See what's really inside. See what they do next. That's when you've got a story.
Thanks, for reading this guide! Hope to see some of you on Scribophile, and if not, I wish you all the best in your writing endeavors, whether that be publishing or just getting your awe-inspiring words onto the page. Let's fill the world with stories. :)