Hellooo everyone and welcome back to #alexjostories! The question that keeps on popping right now is: Where should I go this summer? What could our destination be for summer of 2018, guys? Hmmm coming back to reality and back to earth, the exams are coming fast. The exams are not that important as the Beyonce concert in London. Kidding! But guys, I am really excited about the concert. On the Run 2 is coming for us and I couldn’t be more ready for it.
So, today as the title is saying I want to talk to you about plot construction because it’s the most important part of a fiction story. There are some rules that my teachers at Uni kept on telling me about and I will divulge them to you. Plotting in the right way will bring your readers closer to you as an author. Plotting is the one and the only element that will make your book loved by everyone.
First of all. The one rule, that made my days terrible while I was going to my poetry classes and not only, is: Show, don’t tell! This is a rule that my teachers kept on telling us, but to be honest, I don’t really understand it because in some cases you do show the meaning behind your character’s actions. You don’t have another choice than tell. That’s what I think. Let me give you an example, a scenario. There are two people and they are fighting and one of them is screaming at the other one: I am dying from all this pain! My teachers in this instance would tell me: ‘You are wrong! You need to show, not tell!’ But my question would be: if my character wants to expose the fact that he is dying from all the pain, why is this wrong. Anyway, guys, what I want to underline here is that you have to be very careful when you construct your plot. This rule is the one of the most important, I don’t doubt that, but in some cases, it simply doesn’t work. So, do keep this in mind.
A second thing that I would advise everyone to do before starting to write a big project, a book, is to think, not in detail, but close at the things you want to underline and want to create in your book. Think about the characters closely, what is their purpose, what are their interests, how they look like, everything like that. Why do I tell you this? Because you don’t want to start with an idea and finish the book with something completely different. For example, you will start a book on the subject: Italians conquer Turkey and at a certain point in while writing something like omg let’s introduce a chef in this war-themed book. In the end, you will be looking at that manuscript and wonder what happened.
Another thing that came up in my mind regarding plot constructing is always keep something hidden from the begging till the end. In your book, there has to be something that drives your main character on. A secret, a desire, a wish, something that he can persuade and can drive him through all the action in the novel. There has to be an aspect that will set fire to the action and at the end, it either comes out in the open or it just simply disappears being resolved by the main character.
These are some things that while you construct your plot will help you define your work and also make your job easier at the same time. I hope you guys find them helpful! Either way, writing and creating beautiful stories is an awesome thing. I encourage everyone to write no matter what and no matter what rules they follow. I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend and I’ll #seeyousoon!