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Planning
Your Story: Part 2 Big Plot Moments
Last month I talked about answering questions in
order to establish the PREMISE of your new story. Without knowing WHERE you are
headed, you might not ever get there.
Today, I want to discuss how to establish your BIG PLOT MOMENTS.
Think hard about what the major events in your story
MIGHT be—remember none of this is set in stone and can and will change as you
write. This is a GUIDE to get you started. So, what is the first big thing your
protagonist will face? What will happen then? And next? And so on.
Once you have this list of BIG MOMENTS, list 2
complications for each of those moments.
Beneath each complication, describe how this will affect your character.
Here’s how I handled this task:
BIG
PLOT MOMENT
Rayna meets her twin at Summer Festival but doesn’t
know it.
And then?
1. She
is seen talking with a red-haired girl by the antag who uses this as ammo
2. Rayna
begins to question who she is because they look so much alike
Now, obviously I had more than one big moment, but
if I gave them all away here, you wouldn’t need to read my book. I think you
can get the idea from this example.
So what?
1. Rayna
becomes the object of the bully/antag
2. Rayna
questions who her parents were, why she has red hair and they don’t, why is it
taboo
As I hope you can see, by doing this exercise for
EACH of your BIG MOMENTS in the story, you will begin to see it unfold and
blossom like a summer rose.
Next month, setting
the scenes.
Thanks to K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel
Rebecca
Ryals Russell, a fourth-generation Floridian, was born in Gainesville, grew up
in Ft Lauderdale then lived in Orlando and Jacksonville with her Irish husband
and four children. Due to the sudden death of Rebecca's mother, they moved to
Wellborn, near Lake City, to care for her father, moving into his Victorian
home built in 1909. After teaching Middle Graders for fourteen years she
retired and began writing the story idea which had been brewing for thirty
years. Within six months she wrote the
first three books of each series, YA Seraphym Wars and MG Stardust Warriors.
The world she created has generated numerous other story ideas including two
current works in progress, SageBorn Chronicles based on various mythologies of
the world and aimed at the lower Middle Grade reader and Saving Innocence,
another MG series set on Dracwald and involving dragons and Majikals. She is
finishing a YA Dystopian Romance which has been a NaNoWriMo project for three
years. She loves reading YA Fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi as well as watching
movies. Read more about Rebecca and her
WIPs as well as how to buy books in her various series at http://rryalsrussell.com You may email her at
vigorios7@gmail.com
