There are ideas about what constitutes an effective plot. The simplest and most straight forward is Elizabeth Bowen's dictum that "Plot is destination". Decide what goals your characters have and what problems they have to solve and set them in motion.

Elizabeth Bowen also said: "Plot is character in action." As your characters strive towards their goals they will express the nature of the characters through their actions.

Geoffrey Landis has the most succinct description of what constitutes a story.

Require the character to make a choice,
show that choice by actions, and
those actions must have consequences.

You can set your story in motion by making your characters make choices, doing this inaction and being forced to deal with the consequences. The consequences should escalate, getting worse and worse until the final resolution leading to the climax.

This can be done in conjunction with the seven art plot. This has been given different formulations, but the most well known version is due to the American science-fiction writer Algis Budrys.

Algis Budrys’s seven point story structure. It has:

a character,

in a situation,

with a problem,

who tries repeatedly to solve his problem,

but repeatedly fails, (usually making the problem worse),

then, at the climax of the story, makes a final attempt (which might

either succeed or fail, depending on the kind of story it is),

after which
the result is “validated” in a way that makes it clear that what we saw was, in fact, the final result.

There are a considerable number of articles on the internet discussing the seven point story structure. Just Google it and you will be deluged with them.

The problem you have is an overabundant of worldbuilding, its lore and history. The way to escape from this trap is create a story and only use enough of the elements of your world to facilitate the story and the actions of your characters.

---

(0)

Login to post a comment!