Story Checklist
Start
Get some Writing Software.
A Premise
You'll have to have an idea for a story.
Groundwork
Some writers like to outline their story and characters. To do this, you'll want some Mind Mapping Software.
If there's any research to be done. Do it.
You should have an interesting character or two in mind, so now you might want to start looking at the Three-Act Structure to outline your plot.
Plotting
When thinking "What could happen next?", remember that your characters should be driving the plot. The plot shouldn't be funneling your characters down an avenue they don't fit or decide upon—the less coincidental events, the better. If the reader is to respect your protagonist, they must be active, not passive, by having goals.
When coming up with scenes, remember to enter late/exit early, show, don't tell, and add conflict that blocks thescene goal.
Work suspense and subtext into your scenes if applicable.
Plant things early on that will return later.
Try to avoid coincidence. Again, see active protagonists.
The audience need time to relax every so often, so don't forget to give your character breathing space to reflect.
Establish subplots.
While Writing
Decide on the best point of view, voice and tense to tell your story with.
Start with a good first line.
Beginnings.
When writing dialogue, try to have subtext. Show, don't tell.
Be self-critical, but not self-doubting. Reading a few paragraphs from a bad book that sold well can inspire.
Rewriting
Check your work for split infinitives, comma splices, dangling participles, consistency of tense, pleonasm, paragraph focus, incorrect apostrophes, commas, colons and semicolons.
Opening
The first line of a novel is crucial. It should hook the reader.
Agents and publishers don't have time to read through every manuscript they receive, so they'll look for any excuse to dump your work and move on to the next in the pile.
Background information in the first paragraph starts your story "on pause". No forward momentum will frustrate a reader who wants the story to begin. If you must start with description, then try to keep it short.
Good examplesEdit
- The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. - William Gibson, Neuromancer.
- It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, 1984.
Bad examplesEdit
- It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford.
Plot
A plot complication is something that puts a halt in the progression of the plot. Some examples are a natural disaster, financial problems or a death.
We might want to add some complications and twists to build suspense and excitement and reveal different aspects of the characters.
Make characters’ lives more complicated.
Town more complicated.
Travel more complicated.
Making your conflict build
For most kinds of fiction, the central conflict should build to a high point, or climax, just before the end of the story.
Does your conflict build as the story goes? Of course, there will be little dips along the way -- you have to give your character, and your reader, a chance to breathe. But your story will be more dramatic if the general trend is toward:
- rising tension
- rising suspense
- rising emotional intensity
- rising stakes for the main character
- bigger and bigger obstacles
- bigger and bigger confrontations
- increasingly dramatic scenes
Complications
One way of inventing plot complications is to look around the setting.
This weekend, I watched the movie, “Hitch” for about the fourth time. In one scene, Albert, the overweight dude, is calling the love-of-his-life, Allegra. He’s nervous, so he walks around and casually grabs hold of a vase with artificial flowers. The vase tips over, spilling glass marbles all over the floor and Albert tries to keep from tripping on them. It’s both visually interesting and takes advantage of Albert’s slightly bumbling ways. On this micro-level of plot complications, it adds humor, further develops Albert’s character and moves the story along.
What is in your setting, or what could be in your setting that would add complications? These can be micro-complications within a single scene, or they could be over-arching complications that take up much of a story.
Lists, Pushing to Extreme, Dovetailing
Another way I’ve been using to develop plot complications is lists: I’ve listed the steps in the logical progression of the main plot and the major subplots. Then, I’ve tried to push each of these toward a more interesting extreme or edge that creates unusual plot complications. Finally, I try to find places where the lists can dovetail into an interlocking unit
For example, in the story I’m plotting, in one scene the main character (MC) needs to knead bread. What could I make happen that would prevent him from being able to knead bread? That’s the right question because his inability to do the kneading would complicate this plot nicely. I made a long list of things and looked at each of the steps of the plot to see if there was something to tie this into. Another plot point is that the MC’s mother wants him to do the yard work without asking.
Putting together these two plot points – kneading bread and cheerfully doing yard work – was the key. Now, my MC cheerfully does the yard work, but doesn’t realize he’s handled poison ivy vine. He comes into the house and his mom is so appreciative of his initiative that she hugs him. Of course, she’s very allergic to poison ivy – if she even walks past a patch of it, she breaks out – so she breaks out, too, and is furious. And the poison ivy breaks out on the MC’s hands, so, he can’t knead the dough.
This time, finding plot goals that dovetail resulted in an plot complication. Time will tell if this stays in the story, but at least it’s something a bit unusual.
I hope I find more ways of developing plot complications, because this story is far from plotted! What’s your favorite way of developing plot complications?
Conflict is the barrier(s) blocking a character's goals, in turn, creating drama.
Point of No Return
The point of no return is the point in the story where your Protagonist can no longer return to his former ways or former life. They are fully commited to completing their journey.
The turning point of a story is when the reader will notice that something major has changed. Stories often have multiple turning points, the first usually being at the end of Act One.