Guest Post by Alea Harper - Coming up with Unpredictable Plots

I'm honored to have a special blogger friend of mine, Alea Harper, write up a guest post on A Writer's Faith today!

--------------------


     The plot of a story is probably the most important element of any narrative piece of writing.  It is what drives the story.  It is the basis of the entire story.  For some, coming up with plots is extremely easy, and for some, it is very hard.  So let's explore some ways you can come up with original, unpredictable plots.



     First, there has to be that spark, the idea that you will develop into a plot.  For me, these ideas tend to come from Pinterest, music, and sometimes dreams.  Other times, it can be the thought of what if these two novels I read combined and was a spy novel?  Of course, while developing your plot, you would want it to vary from the two novels you read but it still sparked the idea.

    After getting the spark of inspiration, it is time to come up with a plot!  A plot figures out the problem in the story and different elements.  It can also be hard to do.  For example, a few months ago, I got an idea for a story I called The Time Division Experiment.  I knew that I wanted it to be a story about a person who lived in 4 alternate universe type things.  It was really one city divided into four walled sections.  Anyways, I really liked the idea but had no idea what the problem should be.  And when I tried to plot it out, it came out to be strikingly like "Truth" by Molly Evangeline.  Something I like to do to help me with coming up with plots is finding something that I have always wanted a story to have, but haven't found anybody do it.

--------------------

 Alea Harper is a Christian writer (and hopes to one day be an author). She loves to write (obviously), make movies, serve others, and tell people about Jesus! Almost every day, she is on some adventure; whether its joining the Fellowship and defeating Sauron in “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien, running from Emperor
Daicen in “Resistance” by Jaye L. Knight, or going on her own adventure that she writes, something exciting is always happening! You can read more about Alea and her writing at her blog: http://www.elvishpensfantasticalwritings.blogspot.com/




(Share this post!)