You have a world. A universe. A setting. Good! Describe what happens in it normally – describe your main character(s)’s daily life. Now, what would destabilize this routine completely? If many things could, write them all down. Pick your favourite idea(s). Plots are born from change: everything was going normally… until it wasn’t.
Make a list with all the goals/motivations of your main characters.
Can the plot revolve around your characters going after these goals?
Which goals are more important? Focus on those.
Are different characters’ goals in conflict with each other? Conflict is usually what propels a story forward.
What could go wrong in your character’s pursuit of their goal? Make it go wrong.
If you don’t know your characters’ goals, go back to the drawing board; they probably need more development.
If there’s not enough conflict of different motivations, make a new character who creates conflict!
How do you want your main character to have changed by the end of the story? Do you want them to be less selfish? To have come to terms with a part of themself? To have learned something new? Write down ideas that could accomplish this change.
If you can’t think of any way your character could be changed (read: improved) by the end of the story, go back to the drawing board. They might be “too perfect”.
Notes:
The change that triggers your plot can be anything. It doesn’t have to be the start of an epic war that will bring forth the apocalypse, it can be your character meeting a new person who shakes things up in their life, or anything you want!
Motivations can be anything. It doesn’t have to be something grand – if your character’s motivation is to just live a quiet life, you can still come up with a plot that will get in the way of that goal!
Character development can be anything, as well – you don’t need a cliché moral to the story; your character doesn’t even need to change in a good way, if that’s not what you want for your story!
This is what I’ve found works for me, but if you try it and it doesn’t, or if it sounds way too sententious and strict for you – that’s okay! Take it with a grain of salt! Maybe you think your characters are just fine and don’t need more developing even in the situations in which I recommended you “go back to the drawing board”, or maybe you have better ways of coming up with a plot. That’s fine, the writing process can be very personal!
Art Teacher: Can you explain some of the reasons why my students would need to refine their writing skills? My Boss: [Long and slightly pretentious explanation about how artists need to explain and unpack the meaning of their art and their motivations and write museum blurbs] Me [a writing tutor, watching a group of 30 students shut down]: …may I say something? Art Teacher: …yes? Me: I’m friends with professional illustrators, folks who work in the comics industries, people who do 3D printing for a living, and people who do commissioned art. And the best reason to refine your writing is to be able to explain to people why it’s worth something, and be able to get other people excited about what you’re doing so that you don’t “die from exposure”. Portfolio summaries are important. So is social media. Everything from instagram captions to Patreon posts- Students: [instantly perk up and pay attention] Art Teacher: [interrupting me with a nervous laugh] Yes well we all need to make a living, but REAL artists- Students: [all tune out again]
STOP!!! FUCKING!!! DOING THIS!!! Art students deserve to know how the skills they’re learning will help them professionally, regardless of how they choose to use their art degree. Teaching that there’s only one way to “make it” as an artist is what literally STOPPED ME FROM DOING ART because I knew I was never going to be a museum artist. (All I wanted to do was doodle fairies.)
Anyway I’m gonna die mad about this.
Fuck art elitists who act like the only “real” art is museum/gallery art. Just because the person who paid for your art is a millionaire in a dick measuring contest with other millionaires doesn’t make your art inherently superior to another artist whose art was paid for by someone who wanted their D&D character illustrated and will love that art every time they get their character sheet out.
What she means: Kaz Brekker is such a good example of how to write asshole characters who are actually likeable because he wasn’t childishly arrogant nor did he undervalue the other characters – in particular the women that he worked with. An asshole as written by most other authors could never have recognized the potential of a sex worker (and a slave, no less) and, even if he did, he wouldn’t have treated her with even the slightest bit of respect, constantly putting her down until she ‘proved’ herself to him. Sure, as Kaz and Inej got to know each other he would be sarcastic and self-praising, (greed is your servant and lever? how edgy lol) but he never once put her down or questioned her ability, and he was respectful about the trauma she underwent, even when it would have been easier not to. He wasn’t some childish edgelord who assumed himself to be better than the others, he was a cunning and intelligent leader who was able to work around his own trauma without letting it control what he could and could not do. The asshole male lead is a popular trope in young adult fiction, but Kaz Brekker is one of the few that are actually interesting, realistic, and genuinely likeable as a character.
Kismet and Chaos 