Characters: The Seeds for Growing a Plot

Our last article focused on plot structure—how to get your story from one point to another until it reaches a climax and then resolves the major problem. But often the seeds of a plot go back even further than the outline or the map that you make to order your story’s events. The seeds of a plot come from your characters.

Your main character, after all, is the one who will confront the story’s problem. Often the problem he faces in the story grows out of who he is: his personality, abilities, and circumstances. Conflict results when he is placed in a situation that he cannot immediately resolve because of his personal limitations.

As you develop the characters for your story, ask yourself “what if” questions and see if a plot idea surfaces. For example, let’s say that your main character, Nate, is a shy, imaginative teenager who is good at art but doesn’t have the money for further art study after high school. What if his art teacher decides to enter one of Nate’s paintings in an exhibit at the local gallery? What if the gallery offers Nate a job? Nate knows he would enjoy the work and be good at it, but it would take him four or five years of work at the gallery to earn enough money for art school. What if a wealthy businessman in the city decides to buy Nate’s painting? What if the businessman hears about Nate’s interest in art school and offers him a much higher-paying job in his firm? This job would allow Nate to go to art school immediately, but it would require long hours of work that he has no real interest in, and it would leave him little time for his art. Suddenly, Nate has choices to make. Nate has a conflict. And your story has the beginnings of a plot.

Sometimes the introduction of other characters into the mix might help you develop a good plot idea. Consider how Nate’s relationship with another character in the story could generate a completely different conflict. What if Nate has a friend in his high school art class who desperately wants a job to help her family with her mother’s medical expenses? She has applied for the job at the art gallery and told Nate about it. What does Nate do when the job is offered to him instead?

Or what if Nate’s father does not really want him to pursue art? What if he is afraid Nate won’t make it as an artist and believes he would be better off pursuing a career in business like his successful older brother? Nate wants to honor his father and respect his concerns. Yet Nate wishes that he and his father could come to a better understanding about his God-given gifts and interests. What should he do?

As your plot germinates from this seed of an idea, a thorough knowledge of your characters will help to guide you. Continue to ask yourself questions throughout the process of developing your plot. “What decision would Nate make in this situation, based on his personality? How would he respond to that turn of events? Is this action consistent with who he is?” You want your plot and your characters to ring true to human experience. You definitely don’t want your reader to say, “Preposterous! That would never happen in the real world!” The better you know your characters, the more authentic and believable your plot will be.

 

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