I have themes coming out my ears, but what is the plot?

I realize how dumb this sounds, but I can't figure out what my plot is. It is sort of a 'Catcher in the Rye' meets 'Peter Pan' meets 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' type story, set mostly at a school. You get the idea.

I have settings and fully developed characters populating them. But I can't work out what the action would be.

Obviously, I'm not asking you to give me a plot but how can I take what I have already, and figure out the plot from there?

 

Three things I suppose:
Firstly, what is the natural arc of your characters? What kinds of paths are they on or should they be on? And how do those paths meet, what do they mean to each other?
Secondly, what do the setting and themes say about the kind of story you have? For example, if one had a high-fantasy set in a war-torn mesh of conflicting kingdoms the conflict between these neighbours would affect the plot. If your story involves a good deal of personal coming-of-age type journeying as you indicate, how does the MC deal with this journey in the school? This connects with the first question when you consider how your characters interact with this type of setting. Are they the type that would co-operate at school, do well? Are they trying but struggling? Or are they a bad student?
Thirdly, what kind of action do you want to have? Do you want this story to have darker or lighter consequences, as this will affect the plot action. Are you interested in something more character-driven and personal, or deeply philosophical? Is this more to do with the MC or is there a greater emphasis placed on other characters as well?
Nobody can really tell you how to do this beyond giving you a re-jigger. Figuring these things out is largely a matter of your own creative process. If we try too hard to distill that into a written answer, then we're just attempting, and surely failing, to be you, and you know better how to do that.
I always find just waiting is the first port of call. If you have a problem, especially the problem of the lack of something you need to come up with, then waiting until you have clearer ideas is often helpful. Also useful with editing, benefit of hindsight and all that.

 

So you're looking for a plot that:
- bends the rules of reality like post-colonial fiction
- is existential and edgy
- with a hint of child-like wonderment?

 

Yes, yes, and yes.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic (because mine was such a stupid question. Maybe its obvious to you how to develop it, or maybe its something really obvious that's already been written)

I would have thought the plot would be the most obvious part of the story, but I was concentrated so much on themes and settings etc. that it kind of got forgotten.

 

If you have a world and some fully developed characters as you say, why not just throw them into some situations and see how they react? Could be anything, from the mundane to being caught in a bank robbery or something. I think how your characters react to the events unfolding around them will help determine where you take you story and flesh out further ideas.

NC

 

Check this:

Is your narrative thinking too ideological, do you want to teach with your writing or do you want to change world?

If your own motives are biased to any of those three directions, it can spoil your narrative thinking in a way that makes hard to build good plots. Reason is that those things put you in a situation where plot is supposed to raise from theme instead of theme rising from plot and characters.

If you are not sure what to answer my question, it is easy to check:

Did you build your characters to suit your theme? If you did, then you have it upside down and that makes plot building hard.

(This is personal opinion. I don't know if writing theories support or not this. Don't take this as knowledge but like something to think about.)

EDIT:

Alan Sorkin is able to do it upside down. Not many more. And I'm not sure even about Sorkin.

 

My feeling here would be to forget about themes. Themes emerge as the story develops. Sometimes you don't know what your theme is until the story is done. A theme usually results from whatever your thoughts or beliefs might be about situations and characters anyway, so I think you should maybe start there.

You say you've got characters and settings. What you need now is a situation.

Play around with the possibilities, and don't be afraid to make things VERY difficult for your characters. You can start them from a place of peace or normalcy, but you need to threaten that peace or normalcy. So what would be a threat?

I'd say not to jump on the first idea that pops into your head ...or, rather, mull it over a while. Often a first idea is a cliché. However, if you turn it on its head a bit, or introduce some element that is unique, you'll soon come up with something for your characters to do. It's what they do and how things turn out in the end that will determine your theme!

Push it a bit. What would make things difficult for your characters? What would make things EVEN MORE difficult for your characters? What is the worst thing that could happen to your characters? What are they afraid of losing? What are they most frightened of? (It can be something physically scary, or something as indefinable as losing love, losing face, losing financial security, losing skills, etc.) Play around with these ideas. In fact, it's kind of interesting to give them a problem or dilemma that they actually can't solve. The story will be about how they cope, rather than if they succeed or fail at solving the problem.

You can start with something very mundane and ordinary, but push it. Push it to the limit. Your character dislikes her teacher. Okay, lots of characters dislike their teachers. What makes this situation particularly difficult? The teacher is a friend of the family? Why is that bad? Why is it particularly bad? Your character can't escape the fact this is a family friend, and the teacher is using this connection to make the student appear REALLY bad in the eyes of parents. And etc. Keep pushing. Why is the teacher giving the student a hard time? Does the teacher have an ulterior motive? What is that motive? Is it an understandable one ...in other words, the teacher might actually be right? And if the teacher is right, is the student wrong, or just being kept in the dark, or what?

Play around with simple ideas like this, and don't jump on the easy solution. Oh, the teacher is Pure Evil, etc. Instead, try to make your characters ALL seem real, but get them pulling in opposite directions for their own reasons.

 

My way: Go to research. Do wide research which goes over your problem.

Or - if possible - do research in real life. (Talking 15 minutes with real contract killer might give you something that 20 books and 40 movies does not give. Spending few Christmases with homeless addicts teach you something you cant get from books. And so on and on and...)

Or the brutal way:

Turn your theme upside down. Make it opposite.

It is possible that you can't write after turning it opposite. But it is also possible that you find out where the main problem is.

And it is possible that your creative emergecy spillway starts to flood after turning theme upside down.

Try. It does not cost you anything.

 

All very helpful answers, thank you.

I do think my thinking has been too ideological (I'm not trying to change the world, though) but this is something that I'll have to think about.

I know academically that themes should arise from plot and not the other way around, but there are certain abstract ideas I want to write about. I'll try not to force them though.

I guess I'll just have to put my characters and settings on the back burner to utilize when the time comes, i.e. when I actually have a story to use them in.

 

1. Then: Go to the real life, reality, facts, mundane happenings... Take small scale real life responsibility about things that those ideological thoughts comment.

Reality is the best antidote agains ideology. It helps you to see what is real and what is BS.

Ideological model is a low resolution picture about things. You can't make it real. You can't even make look like real.

It is a general formula about something. It is like an avatar pictures beside our nicks. You can extrapolate it to 3000 x 4000 pixel "photograph" but it will be total crap.

If you want to make anything good, you must have all the pixels you need in the beginning. You don't start with an idea about widening an avatar to full size photo. You take your Canon 5D Mk4 with it's 6720 x 4480 pixels and you shoot RAW.

Then you take those RAW pictures to your RAW converter. You fine tune them to find every meaningful detail. You might crop it a bit, but not too much.

If you want to take them to Photoshop, you take them. And you do what you do.

But you never, never start from avatar if you want to make decent pictures. Extrapolating avatars/ideologies/formulas/structures to full photos/stories/whatever just does not work.

(Some politically motivated professor who wants to ruin your life might tell to do that but if that happens it's just pure evilness.)

2. Abstract ideas must live in real world decades or at least several years (more than 5) before it is possible to write well about them.

"Write what you know" is not possible before you know. Agenda or ideology is not knowing - no matter how much literature there is lurking behind it.

Write what you know means write what you know emotionally. The question is this:

Have you lived through it? Yes or no! And not some of it, a bit of it, near it... Through it - all the way, the whole character arch till the end.

 

I don't think people should have to write about only what they've experienced, but you should draw upon what you have. Which is where I might do more "a bit of it, near it", but certainly some knowing is necessary.
For my own part, one of the reasons I chose my MC, who is an actual historical person, is because I related to him to some degree.

 

What's the worst thing that could happen to each of your characters? Figure that out, look at which of the "worst things" is the most compelling, and build your plot around that.

Very basic example:

Character A has been raised in a world of wealth and privilege. He's proud of his liberal ideals and compassion, but has never really been in a crisis, never had to sacrifice anything or put himself to a real test. So, worst thing for him - losing his privilege (family money dissolves after mother is charged with insider trading, subsequent investigation reveals some socially unacceptable vices on her part that makes whole family outcast) and being forced to test his own ethics (maybe he's the one who discovers the evidence of the socially unacceptable vices and he has to choose between protecting his mother or helping the victims).

That's a pretty primitive example, but there's definitely enough plot there to be the basis of a novel, once you add details, build in other characters' reactions, etc.

Most of my stories start with characters. Themes arise from looking at the characters. Then a plot develops based on what the characters need to experience in order to get the growth I want them to have to demonstrate my themes. (eg. my current WIP started with one character from a previous book, who had already had the "worst thing" happen to him (lost his legs), and I asked myself what was lacking from that character (self-control, acceptance, self-confidence) and what he would have to do/who he would have to meet in order to gain those qualities. The whole book comes from there.)

 

I'd say, what is the logical next action? Even if it's a boring action, just go with it and throw in something to spice it up. When designing action, bear in mind it should preferably be driven by your MC (eg he should make some plot-relevant choice) so whenever possible, let the MC do the work rather than another character do it. Whenever there are characters, give them a role, an active role. What can they do that's directly related to the plot?

Really, for the first draft, just go with it. Whatever sounds interesting is fine. Write it. You'll likely delete much of it later and that's ok, because each time it will give you a better and better idea of what the story should be, and who your characters are.

Or if you're a planner, then go and plan the whole thing out first

 

If you think this "write what you know" as "write what you know emotionally” it is in fact extremely wide area.

If you have experienced very big and deep loss, you know it emotionally. You can write about big and deep losses. If you have experienced deep trust, faith, love, being socially and psychologically independent, solitude, long lasting passionate love... you can write about them and it might be good or bad. But if you have not experienced them, it will almost certainly be bad.

Everyone can write anything. That is true. But writing good & credible text... It's almost impossible without having emotional experiences which suit to the character arches.

And... This is my opinion, not a fact but a personal opinion.

 

But how does this tie in to the "interview a contract killer" approach?

Interviewing a contract killer won't give a writer the necessary emotional experiences. And a writer could very well have the appropriate emotional experiences (and/or hopefully the imagination to build on the experiences the writer HAS had) without ever going near an actual contract killer.

 

?

 

I think some research is absolutely a good idea, especially when writing something historical/factual. But I don't think the the research has to be first-hand (ie. talking to a contract killer) and I think over-emphasizing that kind of research can make the task of writing seem far too daunting. There are lots of wonderful novels written about historical periods and characters from well before the modern era, and the authors of these books were obviously able to use their imaginations to develop their work without in-person interviews.

I also think most research is going to be in service of setting or characterization, rather than plot, and searching for a plot is what this thread is about.

 

Bookmarked. I struggle with the same thing.

"The setting is really interesting! The mood of the story is great and themes are blooming. But there's uh... nothing happening."

 

Some reading & research might help.

 

I never research (almost never) and I never think about theme. I think about story. I think about character. Stories belong to characters and good characters come with a lot of stories. Themes aren't really doing you any favors without a story. I often take the simplest idea I can think of because that can balloon into a complex story and themes usually are along for the ride. Always give your character something he or she wants. That's often a good jumping off start. When I aim for complexity, it can be a complete mess. When I aim for simplicity and clarity, things can turn out better than expected. I would suggest dropping the whole idea of themes. Let them come naturally. It sort of seems like you're trying to do things backwards. At least it's backwards from the way I approach stories. And it might be worth trying things a new way if your approach is tripping you up. Good luck.

 

You've had lots of good advice so far but the bare bones of a plot is CONFLICT.
And conflict comes from a characters goal. So what is your characters goals, since you have them fully developed you must have goals and motivations for them all ready. So take your main character and look at his goals, his personality, his character lie and see what stories come out with them and your themes. What are the questions your exploring in your themes? Themes are important as they add layers to a story and a character. They often naturally develop but there is a difference between themes randomly being in a story, and themes being worked carefully in, I can always tell when a writer has made a real effort with there novel. Themes will always be there but have they been explored and have they presented an intriguing question?

Play about with it for a while.

 

Yeah, questions and conflicts are a big part. What will be asked and what will be resolved? What will be arise and what will be solved? Ooh, I made a rhyme.