Scenes are the foundation to building a plot. Scenes are grouped together to form chapters, which are grouped together to form acts, each with a rising story arc as the protagonist seeks a goal and is eventually transformed by her journey. That is a plot.
Brainstorming the Plot
Novels are so complex, with so many critical pieces that must connect together, the task of brainstorming an entire novel can be intimidating-even to seasoned novelists.
But a good plot keeps readers interested and turning the pages because they need to find out what happens next. To design a plot, you must always ask: "What happens next?" followed by the important question: "Why?"
At every turning point in your story, there will be multiple possibilities for what might happen next. Readers primarily enjoy plot twists that surprise them and take them to unforeseen places. It's up to you to navigate where your plot goes and which hurdles you place in your protagonist's way as she fights to reach her goal.
The foundation to a compelling plot is finding that worthy goal for your protagonist to pursue, something that's worth all the complications and conflict you're going to put her through.
The Protagonist's Goal
Your protagonist must have a goal-it is vital for a good plot. As the writer, you need to find that goal for your character, and keep in mind it has to be worth fighting for.
Hallie Ephron of "The Everything Guide to Writing Your First Novel" uses the example of the protagonist's goal is to change careers. Is it worthy? By itself, not really, but if making a career change means that the protagonist can prove to herself and to her family that she isn't a loser, then it becomes worthy.
Remember, a goal is worthy if the stakes are high and the consequences of failing are disastrous, either in material or emotional terms.
For example, the main goal in my current book, "When Dreaming Becomes Dangerous," is to take down the oppressed dictatorship the non-magical people of Doria like calling a democracy, which vaguely relies on the protagonist to be reached. However, we are seeing that goal be pursued through her perspective. The stakes and consequences are definitely high-if she and the people she finds herself associating with fail, they will all perish. Now, specifically, my protagonist's goal is to know what is wrong with her. The stakes and consequences? Well, if someone else finds out about her powers before she does, her life could be in great danger.
Let's look at a less drastic goal. Your protagonist is trying to get her boyfriend back from the popular girl in school. It seems like a high stakes goal with dire consequences if your protagonist fails-she'll be the laughing stock of her school and miserably alone. Compared to others, it might not seem like the worst thing in the world as it is only high school; it might not be worthy to them. However, to your protagonist, it is.
Stakes and consequences are the things to keep in mind when brainstorming your protagonist's goal.
The Journey and Setbacks
An easy to reach journey isn't interesting. Only a difficult journey with setbacks make it interesting. So setbacks along the way are essential.
Ephron gives a great list of setback examples:
• A weakness in the character like cowardice or prejudice or impulsivity.
• An external event like a war, a plague, or a traffic accident, or a tear in the space-time continuum.
• An opposing character-like her lover's ex-girlfriend or her controlling mother or her mercenary boss-who tries to keep the protagonist from reaching her goal.
• A misunderstanding in which the character misinterprets something she hears or witnesses.
• An injury like a broken leg, a gunshot wound, or temporary blindness.
The more your character must struggle to reach her goal, the more valiant the journey seems to the reader. But be sure to control the torment, and be cautious that readers have little patience with a protagonist who complains-my favorite example, Holden Caulfield from "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. I'm sorry, but I disliked that novel very much just for the fact that all Holden ever did was whine.
When planning setbacks, complications, and conflicts, think of how you could twist them or create a reversal. A man gets fired from his job-that's a complication in the story. What twists could you attach to that scene idea? What if his getting fired opens the door for something good to happen, like the truth of some corruption coming out with consequences to his antagonist? What if his getting fired pushes his wife over the edge and she leaves him and disappears with his child?
Play with the expected reaction and see if you can turn it into the opposite. What seems a bad thing becomes a good thing. What seems something inconsequential turns out to be horrific. The person least likely to be an enemy turns out to be the hero's nemesis. Or the one who has always opposed him suddenly does something unexpected to help him.
The Transformation
Characters, like real people, are transformed by their experiences. They often are wiser having gone through the struggle of reaching their goal. They might realign their priorities, or lose their innocence, or accept responsibility.
A character may possibly realize, as the novel progresses and the character gains knowledge and self-knowledge, that she was wrong about what was truly important to her.
Also, keep in mind of your protagonist's arc-how she is going to change and grow, what she learns from the things she experiences in your story, and where she is going to end up (literally and spiritually). This is important because the scenes you brainstorm need to provide the situation for that character to grow and change.
Scenes
Novels are broken up into scenes. A scene is an action that takes place at a particular time in a particular setting. A scene is bound in time and place, though characters can enter and exit.
Writing your novel in dramatic scenes, and resisting the urge to summarize events, has the added benefit of anchoring your novel in drama (showing) instead of synopsis (telling).
In every scene, something should happen, and by the end, something should have changed.
For example, the change may be emotional: the character starts the scene happy and is grieving by the end of it.
Or a surprising fact may take place: the character is looking for her sister in a bar and by the end discovers her sister's boyfriend in a dark booth, cuddling with another woman.
Or a threat comes forth: the character comes home from work exhausted and by the end of the scene finds an intruder in her apartment.
Scenes end when the time or setting changes, or when the narrator changes.
A chapter can be composed of a single scene, or several scenes, or even part of a particularly long scene in a novel. While scene breaks always come between scenes, or between narrator shifts, chapter breaks can come anywhere.
A writer can even insert a chapter break into the middle of a scene at a logical resting point to give the reader a break, or at a cliffhanger moment, a Wattpad favorite, which deliberately accelerates the pace.
Don't Think Linearly
Don't worry about putting anything in order yet. That will come later.
C.S. Lakin, author of "Strategic Planning for Writers," says that once she has a couple dozen strong scene ideas, she starts transferring them onto index cards. She'll play with the order as she lays them out on her kitchen table. She points out, when you are mind mapping, you don't need to think linearly yet. You just want to throw ideas onto the paper to let your story start gelling.
She suggests trying to come up with ten strong scenes that will be the pivotal moments in your story. Moments in which your character will change, be forced to make a choice, be pushed into despair. When you brainstorm like this, you won't be likely to have a lot of nothing scenes where characters are just sitting around talking, or doing things that really aren't important to propelling the story forward.
Subplots
Secondary plot lines are useful in turning what might otherwise be a very slender novel into something more substantial. I will be discussing subplots in the next part.
Please give this part a vote if it's clarified things for you.