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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10878
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10878
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In addition to SF's excellent advice for the nuts and bolts of writing, if you're having difficulty coming up with a skeleton to hang your story on:

1) For a tried-and-true classic, try the **Hero's Journey**. (_Star Wars_ is the perfect contemporary example.) Something happens, person goes on quest to fix it, gets help and hindrance along the way, is successful, returns home. Christopher Vogler wrote an excellent, step-by-step tutorial on creating these stories, called [The Writer's Journey.](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/193290736X)

2) If your story doesn't fall into that structure (and it certainly doesn't have to), I found Randy Ingermanson's [**Snowflake Method**](http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/) of plotting to be really useful.

You start with your plot as one sentence. Then you expand to one paragraph. Then to a page. Then you start blocking out acts (he calls this "three disasters and an ending, if I recall correctly). Basically the structure helps you to expand your story naturally, filling in the details where it's important to have them.

There are other methods, but these two are well-proven and can help you to join up your bullet lists into an actual plot.

Original score: 2