EXERCISE: Pick a Plot

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 24 April 2009

Writer's Digest, September 2005, page 52 offers a small exercise to go with a column about series. They simply suggest you go through the list and pick a plot hook to help get started. I think it might work better if you pick a number from 1 to 8. Have you got your number? Good, because here's the plot hook that you picked:

1. Job-related. Plot arises from your main character's job or hobby. What might inflame someone's passions enough to kill?
2. Take it on the road. A vacation or job-related trip lets you work in new characters and settings.
3. Change in romantic status. A breakup gives you the chance to bring new characters into play.
4. The locked-room mystery. Variations include the mystery set on an island, in a snowstorm or even on a train, as in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.
5. "Stop me before I kill again!" Any "ticking clock" type of plot naturally turns up the heat.
6. Second chance. The main character must confront his weaknesses or troubles from the past.
7. "But she didn't do it!" The main character must prove her own innocence, or the innocence of a close friend or relative.
8. Can't go to the authorities. They're corrupt, they won't understand, the hostage will be killed -- but still our main character must solve the crime.

There you go. Eight little seeds to help start a mystery garden. Add some water, a little fertilizer, let the little grey cells do their magic, and...

Write!