Writing is a creative process and how every writer chooses to create, is individual to them. Likewise, with plotting, every writer plots at a level they are comfortable with.

Some just plot bare essentials. They have a firm idea of story they want to write and have a good memory to be able to memorize everything.

Others go into more detail. These writers prefer to figure everything out before they write story.

How you plot will also depend on your level of experience. For beginner, it’s recommended to plot thoroughly.

Before writing, think of every possible situation. Plot events thoroughly, plot scenes to last detail and generally leave no questions unasked or unanswered. This way you will always know where you’re going. _____________

Are You Using The ‘What If’ Technique When Plotting?

Whichever theme you choose, all elements, which make up your story, dialogue, conflict, scenes, etc should be written with theme in mind.

Your theme should progress story.

If you find that anything in your story doesn’t progress it, it should be cut when you are in editing stage.

Before we see an example of elements written with a theme in mind, let’s think of a theme and a story….

The theme is…

‘Arrogance Leads To Humiliation’

Very briefly, this story is about a character that believes he is better than his colleagues.

His goal is to get promoted to a managerial position. What will prevent him from reaching his goal, is fact that management are aware of his arrogance and they don’t believe, with his attitude, he is right person to manage staff.

To meet his goal, character will take on more work than he can handle. He will do this to prove to management, that he is right man for job. But in end, he will make a grave error and his arrogance will lead him to humiliation.

Now let’s take a look at elements of this story…

Dialogue