How I create my plots is just remembering those great moments in my life. Some moments may be sad, some maybe happy, and some may be tragic, but when you take your emotions from those moments and put them on a piece of paper then almost every time you do so, your plot just unravels by itself. I could give you a perfect example of how this happened for me. When I was thinking of my second book, I couldn't get my plot down so I thought of the most tragic day in my life... The day I had to leave the person I loved the most. it was one of the most heart wrenching days in my life that to this day I still cry about. I took those emotions and I put them towards my second book and would have taken me days to make took me hours. So if you are having issues with your plot try using this method, you may find that it it really does work.
I personally prefer to make characters miserable instead or give them a challenge not good at depression myself.
That is great, but I am not pacifically referring to depression, I am saying that you should have a lot of emotion in a plot and/or character.
I know but I prefer to do things to my characters than myself I guess. Then it is their emotion rather than mine on the page. Everyone works different but except for when I have to kill a character I really like or enjoy writing then I do struggle I don't like doing it. I just find my characters get a greater variation in their reaction to things, or I write a quick dialogue with them telling them what I am about to do to them lol I just wind my characters up and let them go
Yeah, I don't really like writing from myself either... I go out and experience emotions so I know how they're meant to feel when you write them, but beyond the general knowing of what it's like to be in love or whatevers, I wouldn't say I put too much of my personal reactions into a story. Mostly I see emotions as both very situational and very dependant on the character. Unless they're an author insert - which I only do for silly side characters who aren't revelant to the plot, because I am a silly side character who isn't relevant to the plot, myself - I can't imagine many of my characters reacting in exactly the same way as me to any situation. Also, the situations my characters find themselves in are usually nothing to do with how I'd find myself in real life. I don't really have any experience of the stuff I write 'cause it's fantasy 99% of the time...
I usually give my characters a lot of emotional damage, personality disorders, and issues due to their lives' events. Some tragic, some not so much. Ultimately my characters define themselves whether they overcome their inner conflicts or not. Some are strong willed and battle the evil within themselves, others give into it. I don't know if that makes sense. My current novel is fantasy and what I love about it is that the conflicts and struggles are real. The problems they undergo all boil down to problems we all deal with in reality. It's just in a supernatural setting with supernatual powers etc added to it. If it makes sense...?