From Idea to Plot by Nancy Kress

There is a story you would like to write. Only it isn’t a story yet – it’s an interesting character, an intriguing situation, a setting that suggests possibilities. How do you take it from those beginnings to a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end?

By going to war.

What I mean by that is that every story is a war. From the most literary short story of delicate emotional shifts to the 600-page family saga spanning three continents and four generations, all fiction is essentially a battlefield on which forces clash. These forces may be represented by different characters, a character against some aspect of his society, conflicting values or urges within a character, or all of the above. But what doesn’t vary is that stories are wars. They include fighters (protagonist, antagonist), something fought over (territory, love, identity, money, being right), and various battles (misunderstandings, fist fights, betrayals, thefts). Someone wins and someone loses (sometimes the same someone). And the war itself is seen as righteous, necessary, evil, futile, or boring, depending on the author’s attitude toward her characters.

Let me illustrate this with two disparate examples from current fiction, Suzanne Collins’ best-selling YA fantasy THE HUNGER GAMES and Philippa Gregory’s historical romance THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL. In Collins’ novel, protagonist Katniss Everdene has two antagonists: a constant struggle to keep her family fed and the despots who rule her country. What is being fought for is survival, first in her village and then, after she is chosen as a “tribute” gladiator by the rulers, in a fight to the death that is televised as “entertainment.” The battles Katniss fights are against the other gladiators, against the rulers who decree this cruelty, against her reluctance to kill, and against her own soft feelings for the two boys who are both in love with her. By the end of the book, Katniss has won some of these battles, lost others. Even though the war is not over (since this is the first of a trilogy), the author’s view is clear: violence solves nothing.

In THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, protagonist Mary Boleyn also has several antagonists: her sister Anne, who is a rival for King Henry’s affections, the king himself, and her avaricious extended family. At stake: love and survival. The battles are fought in the throne room and the bedroom. Anne becomes queen but Mary ends up the clear victor. She gets a quiet life with a man she loves, and Anne is beheaded for adultery. The war itself is a commentary on ambition and power.

How can all this help turn a story idea into an actual story? When I have something I want to write about but no clear plot, I ask myself these questions:

• What two (at least) sides can be taken about this idea? Who should be on each side? Almost any idea can lead to conflict, as long as someone wants something connected with it.

• What is that thing that is so desperately wanted? Why are the characters desperate about it? (If they’re not desperate, you will not have a strong story.) What is the war being fought over?

• What sort of battles are these two forces likely to engage in? Some possibilities: Both sides want the same thing (Mary and Anne Boleyn). Both sides want mutually exclusive things (Katniss Everdene and the rulers of the Hunger Games.) One side imposes something on the other, who resists (every story of adolescent rebellion, and many romance novels). One side wants something very badly, and the other does not want to give it up (most detective fiction, in which the detective wants the killer).

• What can go wrong? This is a key question for devising battles, since fiction is about things that get screwed up, not things that go smoothly. Your protagonist is on the way to getting what she is fighting for. Then – what can go wrong? Make it do so!

• Who will win in the end?

• Was this war worth the fighting?

I followed this thinking when I wrote my science fiction novel BEGGARS IN SPAIN, which is about people genetically engineered to never sleep. I had that as an idea, and a young girl as a protagonist. She is intelligent, clear-headed, idealistic. There are no biological downsides to this bit of DNA tinkering. So how can I turn idea into plot?

For opposing forces, I decided on a struggle between the Sleepless and the “norms,” who resent the advantages the former enjoy (eight more hours each day of tireless accomplishment!) Then I added another split, between the Sleepless who work toward integrating the two types of humanity and the Sleepless who wish to break off into their own, heavily defended enclave. This suggested all sorts of possible battles – in the courts, at the enclaves, among the bigoted of both sides. Because I believe in ambiguous endings (more like real life), I awarded some victories to each of my three factions. And my view of the entire “war” is clear: You can try to retard scientific advancement, but it’s going to happen anyway. All this helped me plot my novel.

Thinking of your fiction as wars can be very useful even if your stories all take place in nineteenth-century drawing rooms. (Maybe especially if they take place in nineteenth-century drawing rooms – consider Thackeray’s VANITY FAIR, or anything by Georgette Heyer.) So -- strap on your helmet and fight.

Bio:

Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-six books: three fantasy novels, twelve SF novels, three thrillers, four collections of short stories, one YA novel, and three books on writing fiction. She is perhaps best known for the “Sleepless” trilogy that began with BEGGARS IN SPAIN. The novel was based on a Nebula- and Hugo-winning novella of the same name. She won her second Hugo in 2009 in Montreal, for the novella “The Erdmann Nexus.” Kress has also won three additional Nebulas, a Sturgeon, and the 2003 John W. Campbell Award (for PROBABILITY SPACE). Her most recent books are a collection of short stories, NANO COMES TO CLIFFORD FALLS AND OTHER STORIES (Golden Gryphon Press, 2008); a bio-thriller, DOGS (Tachyon Press, 2008); and an SF novel, STEAL ACROSS THE SKY (Tor, 2009).

Kress's fiction has been translated into twenty languages. She often teaches writing at various venues around the country. Kress lives in Seattle with writer Jack Skillingstead and Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.

Seekerville is honored to have Nancy Kress with us today. One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Nancy's Writers Digest Book, Character's, Emotion & Viewpoint which is a foundation for every writer's library. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.