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Part 3 – Plot: The Other White Meat

Bad Fan Fiction (and bad pro-fiction) are often stories which focus so much on a single plot point that everything around it is literally just words that ‘have’ to be there in order to get to the next scene. Part of this is a pacing issue which will be discussed in a later section, here I will address the importance of having a fully thought out plot.

Now, if you’ve decided to write a fan fic then you likely already have your major plot point and a pivotal scene. Let’s take my X-Men: Among Thieves fan fiction as an example. I started out with the simple idea that I wanted a Rogue/Gambit origin story based off the canon comics but would tie directly to events of the X-Men: First Class movie. I had two major scenes in mind, one being the speech Gambit gives to Rogue about choices, the other being Rogue’s speech about peace not being an option. This is all I had.

Now all I needed to do was to put meat on the bones of those plot points.

One-Shots and PWPs

If you’re writing a story that is only one chapter or a ‘porn without plot’ then you might think you’re exempt from caring about the plot. This is somewhat true but not completely, you still need to ask yourself these basic questions:

Why are these characters here?
How did they get here?
Where are they going afterwards?

Even if these questions are not addressed in your story, either by them actually happening or being referenced to, in your mind you need to know the answers. Once you understand what the characters are doing in the bigger picture you can then formulate a tighter, cleaner, more thought out moment in time as you will have a definitive beginning and end of your story.

Also, understanding where your characters have been and where they are going will also better help you answer these two very important questions:

What are they going to do to?
Why are they going to do it?

You might think the answers are simple: “they are going on their first date” because “they love each other”. But really, is life ever as simple as that? Do people just ‘go out on a date’, especially those who may be famous in their universe or in the middle of some measure of war-time? They steal moments away from paparazzi or when they can catch a breath. As for love, it’s rarely ever simple in any way, shape, or form.

Take the time to really think about what the characters are doing. Make the situation credible. This may only be a short Fic but you have to make it believable in context of the original universe or the alt-universe you have set up.

Chapter Fics

A multi-chapter story is basically everything you just thought about in the section above only you actually write all of it out.

You have your plot point, then you have to get your character to that plot point in the most legitimate way possible, and then you have to figure out the repercussions of what all happened. So you start with the first question:

Why are these characters here?

Once you answer it, you work backwards and ask that question again.

Example:
Why are these characters here? Because I want Rogue to give a speech about peace not being an option which is a throwback to X-Men: First Class.
Why is she giving the speech? Because she sees Gambit is taking the same route she did with Carol Danvers.
Why is she giving a speech and not actually stopping him? Because that would make her a hypocrite.
Why would that make her a hypocrite?

You pretty much follow that train of thought of ‘because why’ until you find a starting place. You may not start your story at the very beginning of this train of thought but now you have a good idea of how the plot will go along the way.

Now you have the next question:

How did they get here?

Example:
How did they get here? Rogue walks into Gambit’s room in the middle of the night.
How did she get to his room? She’s staying with him.
Where? In New Orleans.
Why are they in New Orleans? They followed the trail of the man who killed Henri.
How did they get to New Orleans? Courier gave them a lift.
Where were they before New Orleans, where did they meet Courier?

You can do this chain of thought with every single question. You already have the answer to the first question in the chain, you have a place a start, you simply work on from there.

Now, often times as you start to actually write the story you realize you made a mistake, something doesn’t work right, and that’s okay. You can move stuff around, add/subtract subplots, move locations, or even just completely remove the original plot point all together.

NOTHING IS WRITTEN IN STONE!

However, if you don’t have an idea of where you’re going at the beginning then you definitely will be lost. If you get lost you’ll either get frustrated and not finish, or your readers will get frustrated and stop reading.

So, like any good trip, plan ahead, get some tour guides, book a hotel or two, but leave yourself open for when you decide to sneak into a closed Federal landmark… not that I’ve done that… ummm… moving on!

In the end, this is a Fan Fiction, there is very little that you can do wrong regarding plot points unless you really go off the reservation (but even then there is a fan base for that stuff too, it’s called Crack!Fics). But the worst thing you can do is force your plot points.

How do you know you’re forcing the plot? Ask yourself “Why is this happening”. If the answer is “because I need it to” and you’re having to ‘legitimatize’ the action as being something the character could do… then you got problems. If you find yourself having to force a character into a location or into doing something then you need to stop, stand back, and find another way.

Never forget that there is a difference between ‘contrived’ and ‘forced’. Contrived would be a character just happening to be the right place at the right time. Forced would be the character acting completely out of character and going to a place they would never be just so that they could be at the right place at the right time.

TL;DR – Give yourself a roadmap of your story by constantly asking Why and How until you literally can’t ask it anymore, but be flexible and let the characters guide you.

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