Plot & Structure Part 2

The outline of your story is like the skeleton structure. It’s a map that helps you see where you want to go one step at a time. The difference is your map is not permanently set you can add parts or remove parts as needed. Any online whether it is a rough idea of the main events of your story or a well thought out detailed description of every chapter and or scene will help you stay on point. The main purpose of outlining is to give shape to your vision which in turn will allow you to better construct your plot.

This is also why many novelists will write the end or a rough idea of the end first. By knowing the end you can reverse engineer your story so that everything that happens will lead to the ending you created. Knowing the ending will also help you choose which circumstances, character arcs, story arcs, actions, moods, subplots and so on will contribute to and serve your story.

An initial outline can also help if you chose to braid your main story with two to four story strands. An outline will help you track which strands goes where and breaks the overall story down into smaller more manageable sections.

Remember there is no perfect cookie cutter way to construct your plot, you need to experiment and find the way that works best for you. That being said there are a few factors to keep in mind when plotting. For example stick, to the rules and logic, you create within your story, especially at the end no one likes a deus ex machina Latin: “god from the machine”, this is basically a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficult situation that seems hopeless or unsolvable. The example you put your characters in a life and death situation and instead of coming up with a solution that works with the rules and logic of your story a random god never mentioned before appears out of nowhere to save your characters. This is a good way to earn frustration and anger from your readers.

Till next time, live your happiest life.