Sorry if this isn’t the right section it seems this is but if it isn’t please let me know. Ok so I love writing fan fiction but haven’t wrote in months, I’ve got an idea but can’t decide the plot. I’ve been watching a tv show called “our girl”. It’s basically about a British army medic called Georgie lane. Anyway I’ve got 2 ideas for a plot I’ll detail them below. 1. The prologue starts off with Georgie who immediately gets injured, and is getting airlifted to a field hospital. When she’s there or getting transported she loses conscious. That’s when the story starts from the beginning. So basically she’s dreaming about when she first joined the army and have the story build up to where the prologue started. Before having her captain telling her she’s had to have her legs amputated (later on in the story) And then maybe having a sequel following her recovery. Option 2 is Georgie is laying in a hospital bed in the UK and her boyfriend tells her she’s lost her legs. Then have her having flash backs to when she was in the army while adapting to her new civilian life. OK so which plot sounds better option 1 where Georgie is already injured and is having flashbacks. Or option 2 where she’s left the army and is remembering everything that happened while trying to adapt to her new life
You've certainly put this question into the right section of the forum. I am not usually a big fan of dreams that drive any aspect of the plot. However, that's a general observation. Some writers make excellent use of this device, although it might not be the best way to start a story. I don't think readers take too well to being 'fooled,' which they will be, unless it's totally clear that the narrator is dreaming (check the opening line to Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier ..."Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.") It's also very unusual that a person dreams of exactly what happened in reality. So if you want to depict what your character expected her life to be like before her injury, perhaps an actual dream isn't the best way to do it. She might dream of running, or something like that, but it's not a good way (in my opinion) to depict what happened when she first joined the army, etc. Dreams tend to be surreal experiences. In a dream, she might join the army, which is in her home town, and her barracks is her old bedroom at home which she now has to share with somebody she's never met before, her little brother is a general, somebody's dog is scrubbing the latrines, she's given a cap gun as her main weapon, and she knows that's wrong, but nobody will listen to her, etc. Mental flashbacks to (or simple memories of, which don't require any kind of mental disruption) her actual army life while she's trying to adjust to her life as a disabled civilian might be a better way to go. Not only would it be obvious to the reader what is actually going on, but it would give a realistic contrast to what she was like before and what she is like now. However, here's the big question your post doesn't answer: Where is this all going? This is just the initial setup of the story, isn't it? Where you intend the story to go will also impact on your choice of plot devices. Is what happened in the past the most important part of the story? (Is the thrust of the story about her coming to terms with her injury?) Or is it 'what happens next' that's important? Just waking up to find your legs have been cut off isn't really a story. It could, however, be a cracking start to one.
A story (or a plot) requires a resolution of some kind by the end to make it satisfying. Jannert implied this but I'll elaborate a bit more. In general a problem arises in the main character's life, they go through some difficulties trying to solve it, and then it reaches some form of conclusion. It might not be the solution the main character wanted but it turns out to be satisfactory in some way. I know a television show is broken up into episodes, but each episode also follows the story structure. So even if the MC doesn't solve their biggest problem at the end of the episode––the people always remain on Gilligan's Island for instance––they do solve some problem that arose at the beginning of that particular episode. For instance maybe they want to contact civilization, and the professor makes a radio out of coconuts and bananas. They manage to contact a crazy pilot who always flies the wrong way, who lands on the island and promises to tell the air force to send help, but by the end he flies off and doesn't keep his promise. So they did solve their smaller problem––contacting someone who's not on the island and might get them rescued, but something went wrong and in the end they're still stuck on the island. But they did at least solve the smaller issue. The main problem I saw with both of your ideas is there's no problem and no solution. Unless the problem is that she loses her legs, and perhaps the solution is that by the end of the episode she learns that it isn't the end of the world and she can find ways to deal with life even in this condition. Or something like that anyway.
