It’s a funny thing, plotting. There are reams books on plots, arguments about plots. Some people say there are over twenty plots (man vs. man, man vs. God, man vs. self, man vs. society–I’m not going to list them all but you get the idea), some say only two (somebody comes to town, somebody leaves town). E.M. Forster said,
The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.
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| I only look innocent | . |
I know this for certain: plot is conflict. Big conflict or small conflict, there has to be some sort of struggle in order for there to be a plot. My favorite kinds of stories have both an inner and outer struggle to deal with–inner and outer demons, as it were.
A few years ago I started Novel #3, but it stalled out after a while. While I had a basic idea of how it would end, the points between weren’t coherent to me, and I think that’s a large part of why the story stalled. But since I’ve been thinking about it and working on it again, those points are starting to connect.
Those points are the conflicts. More conflicts that I originally had, glorious conflicts, real conflicts that are hinted at in the first two novels, conflicts that need to be resolved in order to have a story.
The fog is clearing a bit.
Keep driving.
