Hi, everyone. Sorry, I haven’t been really faithful in getting my blog posted on Thursdays. The cold I could handle. The flu I could handle—but the gombooie—well, that did me in, but I’ll post today and then again on Thursday. I hope you enjoy this blog—and please free to leave comments, questions, complaints or let me know if you want me to cover a topic you have questions on.
Let’s review before we get started on plotting with an outline.
What is a #plot?
Most people will tell you that a plot is what happens in book and that would be the correct answer for the reader, but for the writer, it’s a little more complicated which is why I recommend outlining rather than pantsing (seat of the pants writing) or a combination of outlining and pantsing.
A plot for the writer needs to have four things.
1. A plot MUST have conflict. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing the ‘Great American Novel’, a murder mystery, a romance, or the next fantasy best seller. Science fiction must have conflict. EVERY NOVEL MUST HAVE CONFLICT OR YOU DON’T HAVE PLOT!!!!
2. You must have a clearly defined hero. Your reader must be able to pick out your hero from all the other characters in your novel. You generally introduce your hero in the first chapter.
3. You must have a fascinating bad guy. Don’t fall into the trap of making your bad guy all bad. If you do, your audience will think your bad guy is a fake and lose interest because everyone is a mixture of good and bad.
4. And finally, your hero must be on a quest of primal goal.
What’s a #primal goal?
Abraham Maslow said that a primal need is something that a person must have. He lists four primal needs.
1. Desire for survival is the first primal need. The desire for survival also includes the desire for survival of the hero’s family. There are four (have you noticed that four seems to be the optimum number in this blog) survival needs.
A. To survive a person must have food.
B. The person must have protection from the elements and from other predators. Once these two needs are met then
C. There is desire for sex and last of all,
D. The final desire is to be protected from death.
2. Safety is the second primal need. Once a person has met the first primal need, your hero will have the need to protect his environment, not necessarily the world, but his own piece of the world. He will want to protect his and his family’s health and he will want to protect his financial well-being. Of course, everyone realizes that we are also referring to women when we talk about hero’s.
3. The third primal need is Love. This is your hero’s need for intimacy, friendship and family.
4. And finally your hero needs a sense of self-worth. He or She needs to be respected, accepted and valued by others.
Which of these primal needs is your hero going go after? In a romance, your hero may be the least liked girl in school, church or office. She may need self-esteem and love and the plot of your novel moves her from her current state of despair to the arms of a man who will love her.
In a mystery novel, the detective’s primal need may be safety or survival or both. The hero has to find the killer to protect himself or his family. However, in a mystery novel, the result can be self-esteem. He needs to find out who done it, because he believes that truth is the most important thing.
Science fiction and fantasy can use any or all of the above needs. You space ship captain may have crash landed on Planet Zicron and must find a way to protect his crew and himself from the Zicronians who adore humans for breakfast.
And in the ‘Great American Novel’, the hero still has these needs. This kind of novel is more difficult to plot so you have to have a very detailed backstory and really know your character because this novel is totally character plotted.
As you read about these needs, try to figure out your hero’s primary need. This is the need that will drive your story.
In my novel, Sheba’s Gambit, Debbie, my hero, must decide between two needs, that of fulfilling the dream she’s had since age seven or rescuing her nephew from a psychotic killer. Of course, the primal need will need to win out over the fulfillment of a dream.
Plot is a series of cleverly arranged events that get your hero from where he is at the beginning of the story to the end where he either triumphs gloriously or fails miserably. If you are plotting a series that where each book can’t stand alone, your hero will need to succeed in some aspect of his quest, but fail in the major part of the quest so that he has something to go after in the next book.
This week, decide what your hero’s primal need and quest will be. Next post, we’ll talk more about ways to cleverly arrange events to keep your reader enthralled clear to the last page. (Of course this is where the different ways to plot come in.)