10 Ways To Move Your Plot Forward

Move a plot forward with 10 practical tips for creating conflict, raising the stakes, and keeping your story moving towards a satisfying ending.

Are you struggling to move your story from the beginning, through the muddle in the middle, to the end?

A stalled plot is a common problem for writers. When your story isn’t moving, these 10 tips can help you create conflict, raise the stakes, and push your characters towards the ending.

10 Ways To Move Your Plot Forward

Here are 10 practical ways to get your story moving again.

1. Complete character questionnaires. Start with a detailed biography of your protagonist and antagonist. Know what they want, what motivates them, and what stands in their way. This will help you make decisions that naturally push the plot forward.
2. Make a list. List the changes you’re going to inflict on these two characters. Characters should drive the story through their choices. Give them difficult decisions, then let those decisions create new problems and consequences.
3. Start your book when something meaningful happens. This is called the inciting moment. It should be shocking, exciting, and interesting. It should disrupt your protagonist’s life and give them a reason to act.
4. Never start with backstory. Give readers only the backstory they need to understand the present situation. Reveal the rest naturally through dialogue, memories, thoughts, and action as the story unfolds.
5. Create conflict that counts from page one. Conflict keeps a plot moving. Put obstacles between your characters and what they want. Make them work, struggle, and mostly fail to get what they need.
6. Show motivation. Your protagonist and antagonist should want something badly. Great characters want to achieve their goals more than anything and will pursue them at any cost. What are your characters most afraid of losing? Make them fight for it. Desperately. Irrationally. Give them clear goals, and make those goals difficult to achieve.
7. Tell a story in scenes. Scenes hold a story together. The number of scenes depends on your chosen genre, and your novel’s length. Every scene should change something. A character should learn something, make a decision, face a problem, reveal information, or suffer a setback. If nothing changes, you may not need the scene.
8. Have one plot and one sub-plot. A good sub-plot can add pressure, deepen your characters, and complicate the main story. Make sure it connects to the main plot rather than distracting from it.
9. Force Your Character To Make Difficult Choices. Difficult choices move a plot forward because whatever the character chooses creates the next event. These choices are also great for creating cliffhangers that make the story more interesting for the characters and readers. Every new problem should make it harder for them to reach their goals.
10. Create a moment of despair. Before the final confrontation, things should look impossibly bleak for your protagonist. This Dark Night of the Soul forces them to face their biggest challenge and prepares them for the climax.

The Last Word

If your plot has stalled, don’t panic. Look at what your characters want, what is stopping them, and what will happen if they fail. Then make things harder. A strong plot keeps moving because every choice, conflict, and consequence pushes the story towards its ending.

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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