Tips & Tricks to Writing on Wattpad

5 Tricks to Coming Up with a Plot

5 TRICKS TO COMING UP WITH A PLOT



1) Combine partial ideas

If you have small ideas that aren't really going anywhere, try adding them together.  

EXAMPLE: I had the idea of a girl being very innocent/pure, or at least appearing so to everyone, but having a scary, or very unusual condition at home, and a boy finding out her secret.
I also had the idea of a girl having seven brothers who were all really, really good at street dancing.
Neither one of the ideas were really going anywhere, because they were really basic and a little cliche. I decided to combine them, then, and it made a way more developed and a little less cliche story idea.

So if you have two or more ideas that are sort of in the same area (both supernatural, both teen fic, etc), try combining them. You can either have two MCs who meet up, or just one MC who has all of the problems.

 
2) Ask questions

If you're stuck on where to go for a story, plot wise, try figuring out reasons. Like, if a character does something that might be a little strange, ask why he/she would do it.

EXAMPLE: Say you have a murder story. Let's say the MC killed someone. So that natural question would be why would he kill someone? Okay, let's say it's because of his wife. Why would he kill someone because of his wife? This can go in two directions, one, the person was threatening his wife and he had to keep her safe, or two, the wife asked him to. Let's go with option one for now. The next question would be why the person he killed was threatening his wife. You could say it was because he was an ex or something like that, but that might be a little cliche. So let's throw in a plot twist. The guy who was killed wasn't threatening his wife. His wife made it up. So why would his wife make something like that up? I'm probably the only one who would think of something as messed up as this, but: Revenge. When the wife was younger, she fell in love with the guy who was killed's dad. When the dad found out the wife's real age, he left her and she's been determined to hurt him back, thus killing his son.
[someone remind me to make a summary of this and put it up for adoption later]

A little far-fetched, but workable. And not to cliche, I think. And I made that up on the spot. And it all came from a simple 'why would he kill someone' question. It doesn't even have to be that big/obvious of a question. It came be something small, like why does she hate her parents? Why does he like her so much after being rejected so many times? Why did they break up if they work so well together? Etc, etc.


3) Develop your characters and their background

You can get plot twists/ideas from a characters background/personality. I personally, love it when a plot problem comes from the character him/herself instead of some outside thing that's out of their control.
So I don't mean someone from a character's past coming back, though I guess you could definitely do that.

EXAMPLE: So maybe your MC's rich, and she's just met the most amazing guy on vacation. And they have a bunch of fun, and find out they live very close to each other. Then he finds out she's rich and hates it. Why? That's up to you. But that could cause a bit of an unexpected twist, especially if you don't put too much emphasis on her being rich (but still mention it, of course).

If you're stuck, take a look at your characters. Is there any fear, or hatred you can add to them that could add to the plot? The plot doesn't just have to be based on that fear or hatred, but it can start something, or be a part of something. To me, a good plot has a lot of layers that kind of interlock to make something interesting.

If we were to continue on with the example idea, maybe they do resolve it, but your MC starts to wonder if the guy isn't right for her because of how much they fought over it. Or maybe he's really rude to her friends. Or maybe [plot twist] he and his friends are trying to target her family/ hurt her family and he was angry because he's falling in love with her and is supposed to hurt her. This kind of ties back to number two, though, with reasoning.


4) Keep a notebook by your bed

I really wish I had started this earlier because I got a lot of ideas. Just keep some paper and something you can write with by your bed.
If you think of something for a story before you go to sleep, you can write it down. You will not believe the amount of times I have gotten an idea, told myself that I would remember it in the morning, then went to sleep and totally forgot it. I doubt this applies to everyone, but the time before I fall asleep is when I'm most productive, in terms of ideas and stuff. I'm just lying there, trying to fall asleep, so naturally, my mind starts to wander.
You can also use the notebook in the morning to write down your dreams. It'll help you get more awake, and who knows, maybe you'll use one of the ideas someday. I think Stephenie Meyer got idea of Twilight from a dream. A lot of other authors get their ideas from dreams.


5) Give your plot layers/ add subplots

I kind of touched on this earlier, but I'll say it again, in my opinion, good plots have more that one layer. Not only does it make things more interesting, it gives the reader more things to focus on so you can surprise them more often.
When I say layers, I mean the MC should have more than one problem. So maybe they're dealing with a guy, but they can also deal with their parents hiding something from them. Their parents can be a subplot (a sort of mini story that's not completely, completely related to the actual plot), or it can all be connected. Like, maybe her parents are detectives and are actually looking for a way to put the guy she loves in jail. Personally, I love it when different parts of a story all join up to make one common solution, but that might just be me.
Anyway, plot-wise, try having more than one problem. I know you might be like, but that's so much work! Trust me, it pays off. Also, if you have more than one plot/problem, you can sort of use more cliché ideas.

For example, Summer Rain is pretty much a cliché on top of more clichés. It has the best friend's brother, the hate/love thing, the crazy best friend and somewhat naive girl, a love triangle, a somewhat psychotic ex, a gay best friend, a cheating, a fear of love, a secret relationship etc, etc. But by the end of the book, no one calls it cliché. The reason, I think, is because I end up connecting things, but not in the usual way. The psychotic ex and the love triangle are connected, but not because the ex is part of the love triangle, like you might assume. I don't want to give everything away, but I think the only thing that really kept the story from sinking into the cliché pile a hundred percent was how complicated and somewhat layered I made the love story.

So if you have some plot parts that are a little cliché, that's okay, as long as you put your own kind of spin into them and/or connect them to another plot part in a way that no one would expect. Surprises keep things interesting.
I guess this trick isn't really how to come up with a plot other than add layers, lol, sorry.



Next tip: Going on Hold

~JJ :)