Plot Development: Strengthen Your Plot through Character Creation

How to write a plot that entices readers has never been easier with our free download full of tips. Many stories are born from a simple concept that gets outlined into a series of beats, or plot ideas. But to create a truly engaging story, writers need to focus on character development and how it relates to plot development. In our free download, Structure Grid of Character and Plot Development, we share a nine-page grid to help you structure your script in a way that will help you create a well-rounded and compelling screenplay every time.

Plotting a story is easier with a plot development chart that outlines both character development and action description. A character bio will give you the basics, but to help you plotting and writing suspense fiction, you need to know the character wounds that lay deep inside their psyche. Write a plot that keeps your readers on the edge of their seat.

All characters fall into a character archetypes list. For example, someone with a caregiver archetype will be likely to nurture and reject selfish behavior. It’s important to understand who your characters are in order to be able to write believable actions for them to take. Write out a full character description and even a description of how each character relates to the protagonist both in the world and in character motivation. Creating character sketches is the first step to finding new plot points and potential conflicts to drive your story forward. Know your characters, know your story.With our free Structure Grid of Character and Plot Development chart, you’ll get a grid that lays out all the important turning points of marketable screenplays and how they relate to character development. You can use this grid over and over again for all of your scripts.

To learn how to develop a character, you first need to understand what their wound is that is keeping them from achieving their outer goal in the story. Fictional plot development isn’t that different than how we develop as real-life people. Sit your character on a virtual therapy couch and explore what is holding them back from achieving their goals. Once you crawl into their heads, you’ll use that skill when you consider how to develop characters in all of our screenplays.

Finding plot points through character evolution will change your writing style forever. Think about who your characters are and then brainstorm all the possible things that character would do during the different turning points of your screenplay plot. Use your plot outline to help you craft a tale so moving every actor will want to take a role. With our Structure Grid of Character and Plot Development chart, you’ll have a blueprint to follow for all of your screenplays and even novels.

Get a free download with tips for structuring your script!