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YouWriteOn Message Board > Literary Forums > Professional Writing Tips and Techniques - New Help Search Recent Posts
plotless
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anaislace
 04 Jul 2012, 09:36 #152734 Reply To Post
One of my short stories has had several 4-star reviews on this site, and 3 personal rejections from publishers. Every person who has ever read and reviewed this story has said the same thing: "We love the setting, but there's no plot." I look at my story and I agree with the reviewers, but I don't know how to FIND a plot. I love the characters and I love the settings and I don't know where to begin a rewrite.

Does anyone have any tips for "finding" a plot when you don't want to change your characters or settings?
dancingsue
 04 Jul 2012, 12:26 #152738 Reply To Post
Ideally, the plot should come from your characters and their individual (or common) circumstances. Ask yourself - what kind of people are they? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Where would they come into conflict? How would the conflict be resolved? Or not? Bring the settings in as much or as little as you like, but they must be integral to the story and add, rather than detract. Hanging onto redundant elements will ultimately sabotage your attempts to make a cohesive story. You can always keep those elements for something else!
the long and the short of it

erict
 04 Jul 2012, 13:22 #152739 Reply To Post
I have a great little 2 page document. It won't cut and paste, but if you want to email me (address on my page) I can send it to you. The "Classic" structure goes all the way back to ancient greece and hasn't changed.

It is ALL about conflict. It's no good everybody getting along in a sweet location.

Person pushed out of the normal, forced to react and face "something" and resolve it or fail, the final point being, the characters are changed by the experience.

ET
pipio
 04 Jul 2012, 15:53 #152742 Reply To Post
I agree with the last posters. You may find that the settings are the plot. Something the landscape does, or how it reacts, influences the characters in some way (or vice versa). You could also introduce a 'bad' character to mess stuff up.
This post was last edited by pipio, 04 Jul 2012, 15:55
... an honest insult is so much better than an insincere flattery...
safiaadam
 04 Jul 2012, 16:01 #152743 Reply To Post
For a short story to be successful, I think the reader needs to feel that the main character has been changed by events. In other words, he/she 'travels' and ends up in a different place from the opening, eg, emotionally or psychologically.



A cynic is no more than a disillusioned romantic.
Urban Spaceman
 05 Jul 2012, 12:03 #152754 Reply To Post
Quote: anaislace, Wednesday, 4 Jul 2012 09:36
One of my short stories has had several 4-star reviews on this site, and 3 personal rejections from publishers. Every person who has ever read and reviewed this story has said the same thing: "We love the setting, but there's no plot." I look at my story and I agree with the reviewers, but I don't know how to FIND a plot. I love the characters and I love the settings and I don't know where to begin a rewrite.

Does anyone have any tips for "finding" a plot when you don't want to change your characters or settings?


Maybe it stands alone as a piece of writing that doesn't fit with convention. Which story is it? I would like to have a look and give it a free will review.
ajblack4567
 05 Jul 2012, 12:14 #152755 Reply To Post
Someone has already said it in so many words, but Heraclitus wrote "Character is destiny", and of course he's absolutely right: what happens to your characters is largely governed by what sort of person they are.

I'm not really a flash-bang-wallop writer either and very little of what I write is 'plot driven' but what I find (as a reader and as a writer) is that anything light on plot needs to be getting ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING ELSE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT - character, setting, descriptive writing - if we are to have any chance at all that the reader won't just put it down and say, "yeah, it was enjoyable enough, but nothing really happened".

Note: none of the above applies if you are Samuel Beckett.
My story, 'An Encounter' - as improved by YWOers - is available in this anthology:

Speech Bubble Magazine Best Of Issues 1, 2 & 3 ebook

bunnykin
 05 Jul 2012, 12:21 #152756 Reply To Post


Agree with all the helpful comments - just adding the following :

The cat sat on the mat is not a story.

The cat sat on the other cat's mat is a story.

In other words, the second one contains the germ of a plot.
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