Need help with getting my plot together

It's cool! I understand.

I don't. I actually hate them but sometimes there will only be do much I can do to start a story out by. Buy I rather avoid. Frying pan is pretty cliche, perhaps they're more tactical in their methods and use a gas drug by spraying it in the house which causes the MC to feel weak or pass out? Shoot him with a poisonous dart that sedates him or sneak up behind him with a sedative needle or choke hold?

I might leave Timmy out of this since it might be adding too much and put a gap between the times of his first life and new life. Maybe the wife was still pregnant with Timmy?

See I can't decide if I should have the home invaders be friends/ acquaintances from his past or just have them be some thugs that were some kind of ableist punks that hated the disabled and disability activists so they went after MC and his wife.

Okay maybe I'll just stick with the first memory loss. The drugs won't affect his.memory further. If anything it could start bringing flashbacks to his memory or have no affect of his.memory other than making him feel weak or sick at times.

I was going to say they thought and assumed he was dead, which would lead to them not being professionals and just a couple of thugs who were against the disabled activists or they didn't plan to kill him and were only sending him a message.

 

I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me. I'm trying my best

The death of his family is fine, kid and wife killed or just wife killed. But what if they also stole his Range Rover and kidnapped his dog, for the hell of it? Because that's what bad guys do. Kill a man's wife then steal his Range Rover and kidnap his dog is a cruel thing to do and John Doe will come for you. Especially when they find out he's alive they hold the dog hostage or try to sell it on the black market and he has to stop them before they do or if they already did he will track down each and every one of them until he avenge's his families death and gets his dog back.

 

Well, at least that's a story. But will anyone want to read it?

 

If I make it cool and fun action packed like John Wick is then why not? I'd give it a more cyberpunk feel maybe. Like include the watsapp dog collar, which he still had a hold of that bad guys didn't know, which he uses to communicate with his dog and keep tracking them down with?

The question I have to figure out is why they don't just kill his dog so he'll never get his dog back and just to piss him off more? Because if he keeps killing their henchmen after henchmen and they know he'll come kill them next, what reason could I say they would keep the dog alive still?

 

There are two usual ways to get your plot done. You can wing it aka pantsing, or you can do it methodically from the top down aka planning.

I would suggest that you find a basic template to use as a guide and see where your ideas fit in that. Then try to fill in the holes that remain. After that feel free to tweak and massage and make all the changes you want once you have a basic complete plot in place. But do look at what is extraneous and not helpful to the story and remove it, and look for any holes and fill them in with more details. With that complete final structure similar to a blueprint for a house then ask for comments about how to finish the wiring and plumbing, then how to furnish and decorate.

 

These little details...you keep thinking they are plot. It's not plot. The plot is the man is going to seek revenge for the murder of his wife.

Now thank me for the dog collar idea (just kidding I said you could have it). It's cute. That being a way for him to track down the killers. He and the dog could be communicating and the thugs have no idea.

Where's your own creativity? There's all kinds of reasons the thugs don't kill the dog. They could just like dogs more than they like people. So when they think the MC is dead they just take the dog because they don't want it to be alone. They can kill people but they wouldn't hurt a dog for anything. Lots of people like that. The bad guys don't even have to know how much the MC wants the dog back, they just find out he's coming to get them because they killed the wife. These details are just what's going to be part of the telling of the story. I hope you have some story telling skills though to pull it off. You're almost asking us to write this story for you.

 

Which is why he needs to step back and plan and organise his plot. Start with a template and put his ideas into it. Then fill in the holes. With that structure of a plot he can tweak it to improve it and then write the book.

 

Thank you for this post, I'll try my best and work on it like a blue print that you suggested, once teamed I'll post more of it here so it's easier to analyze.

Yes exactly, the point is I need a starter for his motive and that is what keeps holding me back and I'm trying to avoid being too much like John Wick but I could do it similar. Just like how Star Wars with Luke and Vader with father son rivalry, it's been done a million times in other stories but they managed to make it their own. I want to do the same with my story with man seeks vengeance or rescue over his dog just not be the same as John Wick.

But you said it was okay at least I'm not using the "dog was in on it" and was a head mob boss the whole time idea! I don't want to take that lol. And I may not even use the hallucination idea at this point either, unless it works in the story somehow. I think just wife murdered and his truck and dog taken are enough motives to get him going and then I can get into the real plot and he uncovers more events as the plot unfolds.

But this is where I don't feel so comfortable about. I like it when the hero goes after the bad guys because they did something horrible to him like kill his dog and he goes and kills them one by one which makes it feel more satisfying when rooting for the hero and watch the villains die! I get sick of the most common action stories where the hero just kills the bad guys in the most brutal ways one by one but it's never anything as severe as murdering someones loved ones or their pet dog for no apparent reason. Some villains who get killed by the hero haven't even done anything that bad and still get brutalized to death. John Wick just made it more satisfying to see them lose. If they're so nice to his dog that might take away the demeanor of who these goons are. The difference between my story and John Wick's is Wick has a more precise way of killing and quick finish. while mine would be similar to that way, accept he would finish goons off in a much more brutal fashion, especially the ones who've done harm to his dog and killed his wife. Difference between him and John Wick is in my story he kills his wife's killers and these puppy abuser dognappers in some very brutal Punisher/Equalizer style ways.

 

Dude, they killed his wife. They aren't good guys.

I don't get all this obsessing you are doing about how the dog is treated.
I think you should not have a dog in this story so you get rid of all hints of John Wick. Be creative yourself. Write a story where it is just enough that the wife is killed. That way you can focus on what your story is really about because I'm beginning to think you don't have a story.

So that's it now. No dog!

 

I will focus on the death of his wife. And yes dog too! Killed his wife, took his truck and kidnapped his dog and they abuse it and sell it on the black market and he goes for revenge for his wife, truck and kidnapped dog, he tracks with his app dog collar, which they know nothing about until the very end and that's when his dog is held hostage! Either that or they killed Noth wife and dog and MC wants revenge for both.

 

OK. When do you expect to have the first draft completed?

 

Later on in about a few hours or so? Will you let me know what you think of it and what needs improvements?

 

Sure. I just wish some others would come and place a bet about whether or not your first draft is finished in a few hours... baby needs a new pair of shoes.

 

Have faith in me. So is the first draft supposed to be a basic outline structure of the entire story or just the intro and beginning of it?

 

A first draft of your novel, Mango.

 

But a basic outline/plotline would also be great. Ideally the motivations of the characters will get clearer and you‘ll know when things happen and why.
Good luck!