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Plotting Chapter by Chapter

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legacyblade:
Wow, there's a lot of good advice in this thread.

@Jason R. Peters, I think I'm gonna use that from now on whenever I get stuck. That's really useful, thanks for posting it.

@Ruthie, Aye, that was a really good lecture. I was going to post a link to that if no one else had, lol.

@Stormblessed, I can't really add much to what has been said. But I'll just tell you what I do. I plan out the ending for the main story, and I plan how I want the main character to have changed by the end of the book (this is after I have the character and the world decided on). Then I look and see what happens for them to get there.

For example, say you have a logical well balanced character who doesn't let emotions get the better of them. By the end of the book, you want them to be an over-emotional almost insane guy who your afraid could snap at any moment and kill someone.  So you have to make him go through some pretty horrible things to get there. Seeing his wife tortured and murdered in front of his eyes, being betrayed by his closest friends, seeing hundreds of people slaughtered by a demon, or other such things would be enough to get him moving down that path. Once he starts on it, he'll have to make certain decisions on how to act and think that'll ultimately lead him to the unstable man we want him to end up as. You do the same with the plot.

Once you have these steps planned on what needs to happen to get on the end, you just need to remember that everything that happens needs to be driving your main character's arc or the main plot. Now that's not to say you can't have other subplots or character arcs. But if they don't highlight or drive either the protagonist's arc or the main plot, they'll feel out of place. Plus, always knowing the next step you need to drive everything towards will really help you keep the middle of the book focused and not wandering.

Hope that helped a little bit.

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