Has anyone got any ideas for those times when you just can't seem to come up with a story and need a good plot? I know people are going to say 'oh, I always start with character' and I would normally agree. But I have to come up with a crime story soon and my mind is a blank for plots though I have my main character in my head.

There are lots of exercises I've tried for this.

Read some newspapers and find the "smaller" stories - someone drowning on a foreign holiday in mysterious circumstances, and try and imagine some dramatic twists and turns to that story.

More mechanically, find an existing short story or single TV episode, and set the plot down on paper. Try reversing or changing some of the elements. How would that change the later events ? Pretty soon you have a whole separate story that bears little relation to the original.

Another favourite technique is the "Stone Soup" technique, based on the old story where poor beggars were making soup "out of stones", and kindly neighbours kept adding vegetables etc and eventually they threw the stones away. For example, "write a story about a scarecrow". Oh dear, you may think, how dull (apols to L. Frank Baum). But think it through and come up with something. The scarecrow belongs to a farm, or wanders the streets, or turns into something like the Wicker Man. Eventually you gather a bunch of plot elements. Now throw the scarecrow away. Often it doesn't need to be there. Write the story about all the other plot and characters that you dreamt up - that's the stuff you're actually interested in.

Anyone else ?



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BTW I can't imagine that any great works have ever started from these kinds of techniques. But do this often enough and it'll keep your imagination ticking over until you get an idea, maybe only as a tangent from working on these exercises, that does really enthuse you to start creating something substantial.

I know you know the character of your MC but what about starting to write down everything about them - work, family, interests, history and looking for areas of potential conflict. Start writing down the same about the characters that surround them and look for conflict there. Think about what motivates the MC and the characters surrounding the MC. Think about the conflict between people's public face and their private self/motivations. Then thinking about what actions/scenes and scenarios would dramatically test these conflicts or bring them to the surface. And from here there should be some settings, relationships and scenarios to help build a plot.

Hmm that doesnt' look very useful. But you can end up with a great plot and writing it very thinly because it has nothing to do with the central conflicts of character. I don't know about crime. Except that in the crime I have read like VI Warshawski or Patricia Cornwall a lot of the tension comes from the central character being a tough women in a world that demonstrates violence and hatred towards women and the heightening fear and tension through this heightened awareness and identification. So there is a relationship between the MC and their personal struggles and the nature of the crimes. Or in Agatha Christie the MC is usually quite snobbish and the motivations behind the crime is often money and social advancement...I'm just talking off the top of my head here so maybe that's crap! Could try it anyway - what is the conflict in your MC? What drives your MC and what are his/her fears? How could you take that and reflect it in the motivation of your criminal? Are they interested in money? Sex? Status? revenge? jealousy? That might lead you to a plot. Let us know how you get on and if you come up with some good methods - I'd be really interested.

Really useful stuff, Griff and Snowbell. At the moment my head's in a spin and I can't settle to anything. Today I'm having a focus on just reading all my old writing mags and cutting out useful 'how to' articles. But so far nothing has been as useful as your suggestions!

Scarecrows are certainly not dull. My scarecrow story got published, received a glowing review and took 79% of a reader's poll. Nothing is dull if you do it right!

On plot, I tend to think about endings first, and then work backwards. I draw on memories from real life, and warp them, or sometimes, I'm lucky and the idea is already there. I'm not at all sure about 'copying' off TV and such like, as that is a certain form of plagiarism, and one should always endevour to discover their own story, the one that's hidden inside of you somewhere - but I accept we are all different

JB

I think, though, if it's a crime story you are usually forced to think of stories 'outside' rather than from inside yourself because plot - with certain brilliant exceptions - is always going to take priority over character. Although I love the idea of starting with my MC and trying to work out the real crimes that might spark something off in her own psyche. I know what you mean about rehashing plots from TV, James, but I think the suggestion was just meant as a way into something. In the end your own story would take off and bear no ressembance to what you'd seen on the box at all. It's all worth trying, I think.

yes, I can see that. I suppose in crime plot has to be all important. I think that the suggestion of reading the paper or watching the news is a good one, in that case. Maybe go to the library and read about some famous crimes? That might spark of some inspiration. I know that for me, reading old myths and fairy stories can point me in the right direction, so I'm assuming it's relative.

JB

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I read in a writing magazine last night that while a story can begin with a coincidence, it must never end with one. I draw 'maps' of my novels, and try to make sure that the 'cause and effect' law holds true in the narrative, even though it is fantastical. I hate it when things 'just happen' as a plot device, and I can imagine that in the gritty world of crime, that holds true.

Identity theft is pretty hot right now, and I'm sure a novel about it could be rather interesting...

JB

I keep obituaries of interesting people, and you can either start from the character, or take an incident in their life and put a different character into it. There are loads of collections - the Telegraph specialises - which I'm sure a library would have.

Emma

Reply to one of those emails that asks for details of your bank account, then take detailed notes of what happens.

Arthur Conan Doyle based some of the Sherlock Holmes stories on crime reports he read in the papers - if it's crime you're writing, I'd have thought this would be an excellent place to start.

Gosh, some great ideas for stories here- and some of these would be fab for using when teaching writing too. I second/third/fourth etc the one about newspaper reports, and think local papers are easily the best here- some of the stories are just more bizarre, and tragic, than the big Old Bailey ones. A couple from our local; a guy who stole body parts from a hopsital and is on trial; a woman who burgled over 120 times in the space of a few months, working on her own, and in mitigation said she had a family to support since her husband had died. A man found dead on a railweay track, nothing to give a clue who he was.... all desperate but fascinating.