Creative Story Lines

You don't want to write the same old same old story? Let's get creative with story lines.

First, here's a basic story line. This is about as basic as it gets:

Character Wants Something

Character Gets What She Wants

The End

Okay, that was boring. We can't let the character just have whatever she wants! We need some obstacles.

Character Wants Something BUT there is an OBSTACLE

Character Makes a Plan

Character Overcomes Obstacle

And Gets What She Wants

Still too easy. But we've got options. Maybe when our character tries to overcome the obstacle, she makes things worse! Now her goal is even farther away. Or perhaps while she's making her plan, other obstacles show up that she has to tackle first. Overcoming each obstacle now becomes its own short-term objective.

Are you starting to see the possibilities?

Now let's look at what can happen as our character meets each obstacle.

She can either overcome the obstacle, fail to overcome the obstacle, or even make things worse! Overcoming one obstacle can cause other obstacles to come up.

Through the story, as she meets each obstacle, your character will have some triumphs and some setbacks, but at some point she will come to a major crisis point. Here's the biggest obstacle of them all, and if she can get past it, her heart's desire will at last be in reach.

Now you have to decide if you want your character to succeed and get everything she wanted, to fail and lose it all, or some interesting combination of the two. She might only get some of what she wants. She might get everything she wanted and realize she didn't really want it. She might totally fail but realize she actually wanted something else instead. What are some other possibilities? Think about it. That's where the creative plotting comes in.

To create even more possibilities for your plot, give your character more than one objective, and have the various obstacles work together in interesting ways. Include other characters and their objectives, and interweave them all. Have the characters help each other, or get in each others' way, or have to fight each other to get what they want, or even choose to sacrifice what they want so someone else can reach their goal. Your character can even change objectives throughout the story. It works best if the goals start small, then get bigger as the story progresses.

The combinations are endless!

As a writing exercise, we created potential story line charts. Here's how. Take a sheet of paper and write the following things in a column down the middle of the page, leaving plenty of space between each:

Your character's name and what the character wants

How the character gets what the character wants

Final Outcome

Now, start drawing branches. Under what the character wants, you can list several possible obstacles. Choose a few, and note what your character will do to overcome them. For each obstacle, make more branches. A success, a fail, and one or two alternatives, perhaps even a change in objective.

After your character finds a way past all those obstacles, there comes the final obstacle. What happens now? Make some branches and explore the possibilities. Do the same with your final outcome. Is your character happy now? Or sad? Or has nothing really changed?

Once you have several possibilities mapped out, go back and pick the best ones. The key to being creative is to spend some time thinking about what you're doing. Don't go with the first idea that pops into your head, but work with it a while. Ask yourself what might happen if things went a little differently. Give yourself options to choose from.

In conclusion, whether you use the most basic plot on the planet, or you come up with some fantastically clever and convoluted story line, it won't matter a bit if your reader doesn't care about your characters. If the reader cares, you can walk your characters through the most straightforward plot and get away with it. But if you can make your plot interesting, creative, and challenging, all the better!

Keep writing!

Editing for Teen Writers

At the Laie Young Writer's club, we mostly emphasize just writing. Write stuff. Lots of stuff. Then come and read it to us. We love it all!

But someday you're going to want to be a professional writer. And that means you're going to have to deal with...

EDITING.

Some writers are really good at editing, and even like to do it. Others hate it. Whether you love it or hate it, know this. You can not edit your own work and get it up to the quality you need for publication. Sorry. That's the facts. You're going to need someone else to help you.

On the other hand, you are able to take your own raw material and make it much better. In fact, you ought to do some of your own editing before you get a professional involved.

Let's talk about four different kinds of editors

1. Acquisitions Editors - An acquisitions editor works at a magazine or publishing company. Their job is to read stuff and decide if it is even worth editing. Not only are they looking for awesome writing, they want awesome writing they can sell.

2. Content Editors - These people make sure the setting, the characters, and the plot are the best they can be. They don't worry about the spelling errors, they just make sure the story rocks.

3. Copy Editors - The copy editor is the person who checks to see that the main character's best friend who has brown hair in scene one doesn't suddenly have blond hair in chapter seven. They may even check your historical or geographical facts and let you know if you've made a mistake. Oops!

4. Line Editors - Now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty and check every word, every sentence, every punctuation mark to make sure this manuscript is ready to print and share with the world. Line editors correct grammar and spelling, and point out those awkward passages you really ought to reword.

Right now, you may not want to think about editing your stories at all. Write them, write a lot of them, share them with your friends, then put them away someplace. But someday, you'll want to put on your editor hat, and follow these four steps. First, ask yourself if this story you wrote is worth working on. Will other people enjoy it? Can you sell it? If the answer is yes, then see if there's anything you can do to make the story better. Once you've done that, you'd better make sure everything is consistent. Last of all, check your work for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Then you'll be ready to send it out and start the whole process all over again!

One word about traditional vs. self publishing. In traditional publishing, you're going to send your work to an acquisitions editor who will decide if it is worthy or not. In self-publishing, YOU are the only acquisitions editor you get. You decide if your work is worth hiring someone to do content, copy, and line editing.

Keep writing!