Neverafter 1.19 | The Ending of All Things (Part 1)

Neverafter 1.19 | The Ending of All Things (Part 1)

Plot Devices to Complicate Your Story

You're excited to write an upcoming story, but the plot seems pretty simple from start to finish.

How can you make it more complicated to deepen your themes, lengthen the story, or leave your readers with plot twists that make their jaws drop?

Try a few of these devices 👀

Add motivation to your instigating action

• When the princess gets kidnapped at the start of your story, your hero will rescue her, but what's the antagonist's motivation for kidnapping her? If they're in love with the hero and take their jealousy to the extreme or secretly know that the princess asked them for an escape plan to avoid marrying your hero, the plot is much more compelling.
• You could add this detail anywhere in your plot, even in the first chapter.

Layer a second motivation underneath an action

• After the princess is kidnapped, the hero starts their journey to rescue her. The reader finds out in the second chapter that the hero is being blackmailed to retrieve the princess and return her to their kingdom's biggest rival to start a war.

Amplify the original problem

• Your protagonist rescues the princess and brings her home, only to find out that she's had a twin brother all this time who has been taken hostage by the antagonist in retaliation for the princess' escape.

Introduce a second, more evil villain

• The antagonist has kidnapped the princess for their own motivation, but the reader discovers in the middle of your story that they serve a more evil villain who holds a personal grudge against the princess' father and wants his whole kingdom to suffer as revenge.

Create conflict that brings your protagonist to their rock bottom

• The protagonist rescues the princess, almost reaches their home kingdom, but she escapes. The king sends the protagonist to prison for their failure and sentences them to death in three days. The reader will feel the hopelessness along with your protagonist, which is where you can create something that injects new hope into your plot (like a dramatic jailbreak thanks to the protagonist's best friend).

Make a character betray another

• The protagonist reaches the princess with the help of their best friend, but the princess stabs the protagonist in the back by trading their best friend for herself through an unbreakable vow

Reveal an unreliable narrator

• Your protagonist agrees to rescue the princess for the sake of the kingdom, but the second or third chapter reveals that they are really on a mission to kill the princess for personal revenge against the king.

Reveal that the villain has known everything the whole time

• Your protagonist and princess escape, but the villain factored that into their plan to start a war and have their forces waiting outside of her castle when they arrive home

Introduce sudden regret that changes a character's arc

• The protagonist has to leave their best friend behind to ensure the princess' escape, but in leaving them, the protagonist realizes they've been in love with their best friend the entire time. Regret motivates them to head back for their best friend and risk their life twice as soon as the princess is home safe.

Temporarily kill a character

• The princess kills the villain with some help from your protagonist, so they think they're safe. On their way back home, the villain sets a trap for them in the woods because they actually survived the attack.

Try using Chekov's gun

• Before leaving for the princess, your protagonist gets a potion made by a family member. The directions? "Use it in your moment of greatest need." The protagonist uses it later when they're facing the villain or after hitting rock bottom, so the potion becomes a plot device that instigates your second or third act.

Accelerate the plot

• Your reader thinks the plot is all about rescuing the princess, but she returns home in the first 100 pages. The real plot begins by choices or actions made during her rescue, which unravel into a much larger story/world event.

You likely won't be able to use all of these plot devices in a single story. You may not even have the first plot for more than one.

Consider what you're writing and what dynamics your characters/plot present to decide if any of these tricks could enhance your writing.

I get this all the time, and it hurts ;-;

I have these characters, these beautiful people I’ve invented with goals and complex thoughts and they feel so real to me. I have this world, this poignant place I’d rather live in than in my own world (unless it’s a death zone ofc haha). I have vibes that I get from it, the tone, the theme, and I have motivation to write???

But…uh, no plot. 

Thanks. Real helpful. 

So basically, if you’re like me and this is something that happens to you, here are some ideas to get your brain working so you can come up with a plot for your story. Not all of these work together, they’re just different ways to do it. 

Start with character wants.

What does your main character want? Do they want to win a competition? Find a missing/kidnapped parent? Stop a zombie apocalypse by finding a cure? Whatever that goal is, it should correspond with their motivation. 

• The goal is what they need/want to do. (ex: Win a competition)
• The motivation is why. (ex: To prove themselves to their peers)
• THEN. What could stop your character from getting that want? (ex. a fellow competitor)

Start with theme.

The theme is the lesson you want to teach your readers, so what’s the first plot or second or third or fourth plot that comes to mind when you take your theme?

If the theme is about accepting yourself as you are, then…what series of events might teach an audience (and your characters) that?

Write down basically everything you want to happen. Every scene. 

Got some scenes and random things you want to include? Write ‘em down. Something might come up that sparks your interest. 

What could change your character’s current world?

What does their day-to-day life look like? What could change it, either nudge it slightly in one direction or send it completely spinning out of control? Up to you :) Write down those possibilities.