Generating plot ideas

What to do if a cool story detail comes to you before an actual plot

Today I’m answering a reader question from B.L. Jasper:

I’ve got a cool magic system but now I need a plot. Advice on how to generate plot ideas?

I love this question.

Sometimes books come to us plot-first. We envision a hero with a goal and we can see the things standing in their way. Other times, however, we merely stumble upon a kernel of a story. Perhaps it’s a unique setting, a fascinating character, a special piece of technology or, as you said B.L., a “cool magic system.”

I have had books come to me in both manners. Most recently, Dustborn came to me world-first. I had an amazing setting, and the more I daydreamed in that setting, the more I learned about the world. Eventually I had a notebook FULL of details, but I still didn’t have a hero or a plot.

So how did I get there? Well, characters are products of their worlds, so I spent several months thinking about how the world of Dustborn was unique, what sort of problems (conflict) might arise from that uniqueness, and expanding to character from there.

B.L, your situation is similar. In fact, magic systems (in fantasy) and technology (in sci-fi) are excellent entry points into plotting because both magic and technology create opportunities for conflict. And conflict is the key to plot.

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Identifying conflict

Amie Kaufman has a great podcast episode about world building, in which she encourages writers to focus on what makes their world unique from ours—or from other fictional worlds within the same genre. (You’ve already identified that, B.L—your magic system.) From here, Amie suggests you ask, “So what?”

This is the perfect question to start with as you consider plot.

In what ways does your unique magic system help people? Does it help everyone, or just a select few? Is the magic used for good? Bad? Can it corrupt people? Is there a cost to using the magic? Does it drain the individual of energy or health? Does it pull from the earth or other living creatures? Are you born with this magic, or is it something that can be taught? Can it be controlled, and if so, who wields that power? Is it part of everyday life or has it died out or been forbidden?

Basically, your goal is to figure out the “ripple effects”¹ of your unique magic system and identify how those ripples can create potential problems. These problems will be the foundation of your plot—the central conflict in your story.

Examples from popular fiction:

• The Fellowship of the Rings

  • magic: The One Ring can bestow great power on its wearer but…

  • problem: the magic corrupts all mortals who possess it

• The Fifth Season

  • magic: Orogenes can control energy (particularly that of the ground and temperature), but…

  • problem: they have little control over their powers if not properly trained, and are feared/hated by society

• The Golden Compass

  • magic: A mysterious particle called Dust may be the key to accessing parallel dimensions, but…

  • problem: some people are willing to experiment on children and sever them from their daemons in an effort to test their theories

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Finding a hero

After you’ve identified a central problem caused by your magic system, I suggest you spend some time brainstorming different characters and inserting them into that conflict so that you can identify your hero.² Give each trial hero a goal (want) that is somewhat tied to the magic system.

As you do this with various characters, pay attention to who has the most to gain (or lose) from navigating this world of yours. After all, stakes are what keep readers invested in a plot. From these exercises, a hero should emerge…

• The Fellowship of the Rings → Frodo: an innocent and naive hobbit who accepts the quest to destroy the One Ring

• The Fifth Season → Essun: an orogene in-hiding, traveling to find her kidnapped daughter (also a orogene) while a Fifth Season (a period of cataclysmic climate change) unfolds

• The Golden Compass → Lyra: an eleven-year old girl searching for her best friend Roger, presumed to be taken captive and destined for intercision (separation of child and daemon)

Once you’ve identified a potential hero and zeroed in on their goal, you can probably picture a before and after image. The before image is the setup of your novel (the opening pages); the after image is your closing pages (did the hero succeed or fail?)

Now it’s time to figure out all the things in the middle. (Ah, the easy part, right?)³

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Outlining a rough plot

Even if you’re not a plotter, I think this is where some light outlining can help generate ideas. You don’t have to be tied to what you come up with, you simply want to jot down possible plot points, and brainstorming key story beats is, in my opinion, the best way to go about doing this.

One of my favorite plotting methods is Save the Cat (originally written for screenplays by Blake Snyder and adapted for novels by Jessica Brody). It is based on the three act structure and utilizes 15 story beats that work across all genres to craft compelling, satisfying, and engaging stories.⁴

Of these fifteen beats, there are five scene-level beats that are a great starting point for building a plot and seeing if your magic system has the legs to turn into a bigger novel. In fact, focusing on these five beats is how Jessica Brody first approaches her own story ideas.

These five key beats are:

• Catalyst: What many of us call the “inciting incident” — a moment that disrupts your hero’s daily normal and sets the story in motion

• Break into 2: The hero makes a decision that propels them down a new path, into a new world; They’ve answered the call to adventure

• Midpoint: After adjusting to this new world, a revelation changes the story’s direction

• All is Lost: The main hero suffers a major setback or defeat; success feels impossible

• Break into 3: The hero adopts a new perspective and/or develops a new plan (which in turn kicks off the finale!)

Looking at The Golden Compass, these five beats would go something like this:

• Catalyst: Lyra's best friend Roger goes missing (she assumes he’s been kidnapped by the "Gobblers"); Mrs Coulter takes Lyra to her home in London.

• Break into 2: Lyra flees Ms. Coulter’s care and goes off to search for Roger on her own

• Midpoint: It’s revealed that Lyra is at the heart of a prophecy (though she should not know about it) and that the witches are choosing sides for an upcoming war

• All is Lost: Lyra discovers a boy who has been separated from his daemon and died as a result; she realizes the Gobblers have been experimenting on children by attempting to sever them from their daemon through a soul-breaking process called intercision

• Break into 3: Lyra evacuates the kidnapped children, setting off a chain of events that lead into the finale

There’s obviously additional things happening between these key moments, plus the entire finale that comes after the Break Into 3, but now we can see a rough blueprint for Lyra’s story.

Once you’ve put some of your own ideas down, hopefully you, too, will have a very rough plot for your novel. From there, you can jump to the full fifteen beats. (Or, if you’re less of a plotter and prefer to write by the seat of your pants, perhaps these five beats are enough to get you started. You can jump into drafting and see where the story takes you.)

If at any point you find yourself struggling, ask yourself these questions to get plot ideas flowing again:

• What are the stakes in this moment / how can the stakes be raised?

• Who is on my hero’s “team” (allies) at this moment? Who is on the opposing team?

• What is it that my hero and villain are fighting over?

• What is my hero wrong about? What flawed worldview is holding them back?

• Similarly, what does my hero need to learn/do/let go of in order to succeed?

• Where can allies challenge my hero, encouraging them to change/grow?

• Where can interactions with the villain (or others) force my hero to adapt and/or look inward?

• What drew me to this story world in the first place? Am I getting those elements on the page / in the plot?

One—or several—of these questions might un-stick you.

Lastly, always remember that character drives plot. It’s our hero’s actions and choices that propel the plot, not the other way around. If/when you get stuck, be sure to return to your hero’s goals/wants, as these should inform all their decisions. Sometimes the key to plotting a novel lies in mapping out your hero’s emotional journey (character arc) alongside their physical journey (plot). I offer an entire workshop on just this.⁵

Naturally, what works for one writer won’t work for all writers. (Your milage may vary and all that.) But I hope this has given you some food for thought, B.L. Good luck finding a hero and plot for that cool magic system.

And to any writer out there struggling to map out a plot: Be patient with yourself. Some book ideas simply need to simmer longer than others.

Until next time,

Erin Bowman is the critically acclaimed author of numerous books for children and teens, including the Taken Trilogy, Vengeance Road, Retribution Rails, the Edgar Award-nominated Contagion duology, The Girl and the Witch’s Garden, and Dustborn. A web designer turned author, Erin has always been invested in telling stories—both visually and with words. Erin lives in New Hampshire with her husband and children.

1. This is the term Amie uses in her podcast episode, and I love the visual, because it’s true. Some ripples (the first few) will be bigger and more obvious. But as they move outward, they may become more subtle.

2. B.L., you didn’t mention if you have a hero yet, so for the sake of this post, I’m assuming you do not.

3. I kid. There is nothing easy about the murky middle.

4. There are other popular plotting methods out there, such as the Hero’s Journey, the Three Act Structure, and the Snowflake method.

5. I also find John Truby’s Anatomy of Story immensely helpful when it comes to plotting with character development in mind.