Moving from Concept to Plot

Umm... I just started writing. 18 months later I had a book.

No plot or anything in writing except a list of names and places which, now I'm writing the sequel I can't find.

This is probably not how it should be done

 

There is no "should" or "would" or "could". Just do what works best for you.

 

Give the principle character an immediate, personal goal. Example I'll use here is Baruch, from 'Disharmonious Spheres.' Baruch is a second rate shopkeeper sorcerer, not a hero - but immediately embarking on a dangerous magical quest is the only way to save his daughter, kidnapped by another mage. Doing this also added a second key element: conflict: previously, Baruch had merely dismissed this other wizard, but now he's an enemy. Baruch isn't merely undertaking a tour of mystical realms, he's pursuing the man who murdered his wife.kidnapped and will eventually kill his daughter.

Pretty much the same thing with 'Labyrinth: Journal' - left to his own devices, Titus Maximus would never have entered the Great Maze of Gawana - but a botched bit of intrigue followed by thunderous calls for his blood made lying low outside the empire a good idea - so he accepts a mission to retrieve family heirlooms lost in that place most of a century earlier. His goals are to avoid capture (and subsequent trial that will humiliate his powerful family) and recover those artefacts. Those goals, though, change.

 

Hi, well my process is slightly different for each book depending on it's complexity.
After the concept (lets say that's a plot not a character) I begin drawing up my characters and (if I don't all ready know) I start thinking which one should take the lead. I give them an external and internal goal, a motivation, and conflicts. If I feel good about the character I'll start drawing up their arc. If not I'll start adding more. Think of back-story, wants, needs, character lie, important experiences in their life (I have a worksheet I use) until I feel confident.
Then I start planning their "ordinary world" which does need some level of conflict. I use this time to get across characters personality, core values and morals, daily life and skills, weaknesses and strengths. Then I have an impact event that triggers the story. I just keep building from that. I often blend the three act structure and the Hero's journey together in my first outline, just to make sure I'm covering all the beats.
Then I go back and start fleshing out characters.
All the time I'm writing down a possible list of themes the naturally come to the story. Ill then pick a few and really explore them. I enjoy this. I try to present all sides of the theme. So say power was my theme. I'd like at a character in power and the pros and cons of that, maybe a character with no power, a character who had no power then gained power, this helps me decide who the characters around my main character will be and gives me ideas for them.
I go back and forward between plot, character and theme. Adding in conflict as often as possible and trying to blend themes if possible.
Lastly I work on the setting.

 

That reminds me. I'll have to get to volume 2 of your epic in the near future.

Might have more commentary, maybe a quasi scene or two.

 

Hmm, I find the ending, figure out a few key, dramatic scenes required to make the plot roll, and I write until I get there.

Waypoint writing chaos.

 

That's a great and more complicated question than it seems at first. A 'great concept' for a novel, could be anything: a history, a people or tribe, a character that seems interesting, a power that might be a struggle to deal with, or a plot that seems exciting to follow. The way you'd turn each of those into a coherent plot is different, and there won't be a catch-all way for every one of them.

I personally take the interesting characters route. A story is nothing without good characters, and good characters necessitate a good setting for them to exist in, so starting from there demands a) well built characters and b) a well built world for them to fulfill their story in. I write down the characters: who they are, and what they want. Then I insert them into an environment where getting what they want is as hard as it can possibly be. Then I see if they want that thing enough to be willing to struggle and overcome those obstacles. Then I log their development.

If they end up being bad enough dudes to overcome all obstacles despite struggle and sacrifice, you give them a good ending. If they run away, or cower, or betray, you give them the ending that they deserve.

 

Flesh out the journey, the character changes and relationships and get to the theme and premise. A story is more than just a concept.

 

I'm a plotter, not a pantser, and thought I knew a lot about story structure, until I took a class with John Truby. (His book, ANATOMY OF STORY, is a classic on the subject.)

Right now I'm working my book through his process, and finding it incredibly helpful, making once vague ideas pop into concrete story elements. And it all begins with the hero's Desire--the specific thing he/she wants, and wants badly, intensely, that an opponent/opponents want to prevent (badly, intensely).

It all starts with Frodo wanting to take the Ring and destroy it in the fires of Mt. Doom. A half dozen characters wanting to sit on the Iron Throne. That sort of thing. Not something vague, like "a happy life", but something specific, so that by the end of the book the reader (and hero) will know if he/she got it or not.

Me, I tend to wool-gather and spend a lot of time on Story World before I even have the plot down in my head, so working this process has been a helpful discipline.

 

Turn it into a journey, where characters change, with an underlying premise and theme.

 

This is what I am currently struggling with. I don't know if my idea is that great or original but I can't say I'm that concerned with that - I like it so...
I have lots of ideas in my head, the trouble is stringing them together. I think my character has an interesting external and internal goal but I'm not too sure since I'm new to writing novels that actually need effort and thinking through. Before I wrote fanfic (I was slightly obsessed with Narnia as a kid) and then short-stories. I have no idea where to go next or how to string everything together. It's taken me months to get this far.

Lol I'll keep you posted.

 

I make a list of cool junk I want. The stuff that excites and motivates me to work on an idea. Then, draw a line between the junk. How do I get from one cool thing to the next without adding things that aren't on the list.
For me, I get wrapped up in Setting - I often have trouble finding the people I want to follow. Interesting locations, societies, or high-concept worlds.