I have several of my characters fleshed out and I have a setting but I can't for the life of me find a motivation or plot for them. The main character is a young woman in her mid-20s who is poised to marry a man from her hometown. She knows she isn't in love with him but can't find the compulsion to break off the relationship until she discovers that he never divorced his first wife. This man is a highly regarded athlete and a media darling. Somehow, they both need to end up back in their hometown for different reasons. I've decided that he returns to become an assistant coach at a university after he suffers a career-ending injury. As for my main character, I've kicked around the idea of a serious family illness, a death in the family or the humiliation of discovering that her fiancee wasn't completely honest with her. I'll take any and all suggestions!
I think the plot is something the author needs to come up with themselves, but I'll give you some advice in order to get on the right track of finding it out. Start asking yourself questions. What is important to them? Try to think about characters goals, and what could stand it the way from reaching it. What do they want? What do they desire? Why do they want/need this? Then put obstacles in their way we don't even know what kind of story you want to write but I guess this applies to al kinds of stories. Think conflict. The plot needs to come from you in the end. You need to figure out what would be interesting to write about, what fascinates you. what kind of story you want to write. is this going to be a novel or a short story? If it's going to be a novel, it's quite a long process, and if you don't believe strongly in it it will be hard to finish it. that is why you need to come up with it yourself. Good luck!
Both of them "ending up" back home seems contrived. However, if they're slated to get married, it wouldn't be unusual for her to move back home with him if he's going to be coaching. Or do you mean that you want both of them moving back to the hometown after they call off the marriage? As for the plot itself, what part of the story are you trying to tell? Is the woman's struggle over I-have-marry-him-but-I-don't-want-to the bulk of the story, climaxing with her finding out he's still married and using this as her get of out jail free card? Or is that merely the first act, and the story is actually about them rekindling their relationship after he finalizes the divorce to his first wife? Your plot should materialize from the story you want to tell. What story are you trying to tell me? What does the protagonist want? What's the obstacle keeping him/her from this goal? How will the protagonist grow/change because of these events? Find your story and you'll find your plot.
DotTheI, thanks for the feedback. I actually figured out what has to happen shortly after I posted my question and left the house to pick up my step-daughters from school. The answer was right in front of me; I just couldn't see it until I posed the question to someone else. Your feedback does help, though, thanks!
