WRITING COMPELLING

FICTION
MASTER PLOTTING PLAN
PART 1: The External Plot

Title of Your Book:

Main Character Name (do one of these for each main character):
Rough Description of Your Character: (Age, job, marital status, etc.)

SECTION I: Goals
Why You Need This: The Character has to have a Goal, plain and simple. A book is a snapshot
in time in a Character’s life, and there has to be a reason why you, as the author, are showing
that particular snapshot. The Goal should be difficult to achieve, and should force the Character
to grow and change throughout the book.

Before the Book Starts: Go back to the Character Master Plan and remind yourself where your
Character is at in his/her life. Where are they living, what are they dealing with, what is their
job, how do they feel about their life. If you haven’t already, write a paragraph on where they
are before the book starts. What worries they have, what concerns they have, and what is most
important in their life right then.

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

1
The Trouble Starts: This is the catalyst that sets the book in motion. It is the event that
makes the Character take a turn in their life. What event changes the trajectory of the
Character’s life at the beginning of the book? A murder? A life change? An alien
invasion? Whatever the Trouble is, it must be a catalyst for change.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

This becomes the basis of the EXTERNAL GOAL (we will deal with Internal Goals
later) because the trouble has changed everything for the MC. Whereever they thought
they were going/whatever they thought they were doing next, is forever changed
because of the trouble that came into their lives at the beginning of the book (like Liam
Neeson’s daughter being kidnapped at the beginning of Taken. That is the trouble that
detoured him from trying to repair his relationship with her, which was where he was at
before the trouble/movie started):

NAME THE EXTERNAL GOAL: The physical, tangible thing the MC needs to achieve
before the end of the book. Get his swamp back (Shrek), rescue the hostages (Die
Hard), buy the business and advance his empire (Pretty Woman). This goal should take
SEVERAL steps to accomplish. What is your MC’s External Goal?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

External vs. Internal: We are going to talk about Internal later, because it truly is a
whole concept until itself. We touched on it in the Characters’ video series and
Character Master Plan, but we’ll delve deeper in the video series.

Make sure you are only thinking about/planning the External Goal right now. These,
again, are physical, tangible, quantifiable. They are not emotional. Saving the world is
an external goal. Getting a new job is an external goal. Finding a missing loved one is

2
an external goal. Making amends with the past is not; it’s emotional and thus, internal,
so save that one for later �

PUT THE GOAL INTO ACTION: The External Goal should require many, many steps
to make it happen. In Taken, Liam Neeson has to fly across the world, track down the
cab driver, get info, find the hotel room, get an interpreter, find the bad guys…he has
literally dozens of steps to take before he can find his daughter. These become Scenes,
and like an interlocking puzzle, they form the connection throughout your book. By
planning this, you avoid having throwaway Scenes that don’t advance the Plot. Scenes
that don’t feed into the Goal in some way don’t need to be there, because the cardinal
rule of fiction is that:

Every single word should advance the Plot somehow. Raise the stakes, increase the
tension, and most of all, keep the reader hooked!

With all that in mind, list 10 steps your Character would need to take to accomplish
their External Goal:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

You can have more, but ten is a nice number to start with because it gives you a
direction. If you look at a Plot chart, you see the Scenes (steps to achieve the Goal)
make the action rise (meaning become more tense).

Plot Chart

3
Now, if you want to create Plot Twists, you want to think about how things could go
wrong. A smooth ride is not interesting to read. The reader wants to see the Character
struggle, suffer setbacks, and deal with Impossible Choices. So now, I want you to
list 10 possible things that could go wrong during the 10 steps above.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

4
WhooHoo! Now you have a Goal, and several possible Scenes planned for your book!
Let’s start going deeper into your plot!

SECTION II: Motivation

Why You Need to Know This: Have you ever watched a movie with the “Too
Stupid to Live” character who goes into the abandoned building in the middle of
the night for no apparent reason and gets murdered? You’re screaming at the
screen, “She had no reason to do that!” That’s because the Character didn’t have
a Motivation for taking that action. Your Character should have a Motivation for
everything they do, every move they make. It’s your job, as the author, to know
and understand that Motivation. Again, we are only dealing with External
Motivation right now, not Internal (although some Internal will probably leak in;
you’ll see).

EXTERNAL MOTIVATION
The Motivation is the WHY or BECAUSE. The Character needs to achieve a Goal (get his
swamp back) for a reason. That’s the Motivation. Why does Shrek want his swamp
back? Because he likes his privacy. He’s gotten pretty content in his mud-bath ogre life
and he doesn’t want a bunch of strangers eating his food and sleeping in his bed.
Those are External Motivations (again, External is physical and tangible, like his food
and his bed). He has really important reasons for going to Duloc to get his swamp back.
Your Character needs some, too.

Why Does Your Character Need to Achieve This Goal? I want you to list 6 reasons why.
The first 2-4 reasons will likely be External, which is great. That’s the kind of answers
you want. The last couple of answers will probably be emotional (for example: the only
place Shrek feels safe from harm and hurt is in his swamp) and that’s awesome. Save
those for when we do Internal Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5
5.

6.

If you are struggling with this, then I want you to answer two questions (which are
actually great questions to answer anyway):

Why has this trouble come into your Character’s life? Did they do anything to bring it
about?

What impact has the arrival of this trouble had on your Character? Remember, the two
most important questions you can ask in planning your book are Why and What was
the Impact (watch my videos for more on that topic).

Now, take a look at those reasons why the Characters wants to achieve that Goal. How
will these Motivations require the Character to step outside their comfort zone (for
Shrek, he has to go into town and face all the people who want to stab him with a
pitchfork):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Save this info for later! It’s a great way to add depth to your Character and to your
Scenes.

I also want you to look at things that are outside your Character’s control that are
having an impact on them. Name a few outside forces that are having an impact on
that Goal (Lord Farquarrd in Shrek, for instance):

1.

2.

3.

6
Pro Tip: Study the movies and shows that you love and make a list of the Goals and
Motivations of the Main Characters. It will help you figure these things out for your own
book.

SECTION III: Conflict

Why You Need This: One of the best tips I ever learned is that there should be Conflict on
every single page of the book (external or internal). Conflict is all of the roadblocks that get in
the Character’s way. You want lots of those because if you make it too easy, the reader isn’t
invested in the outcome.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT
The External Conflict is the BUT. It’s all the physical, tangible things that get in your Character’s
way. For Shrek, some of those Conflicts are Lord Farquarrd, the town of Duloc, Donkey, the
dragon. These things are all obstacles he must overcome in order to achieve his Goal of getting
his swamp back. In Taken, Liam Neeson has to take a trip, find people, extract info, get a
translator…all physical obstacles. He faces down bad guys, shoots people, has car chases…you
name it, and there’s an obstacle for him in his quest to achieve his Goal of rescuing his
daughter. Your Character needs lots of these to keep the book moving along at a good clip,
keep the reader’s interest, and most of all, raise the stakes. That means that things keep
getting worse and worse for your Character, because the minute things are wonderful and
awesome, the reader loses interest.

List 6 potential External Conflicts your Character will face in their quest for their External Goal:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Why will your Character force themselves to battle or overcome these obstacles?

7
You know what that answer just gave you? More Motivation for your Character!

Now, if you want to take this a step further, go back to those 10 steps you listed for achieving
the External Goal and list 2 potential obstacles (External Conflicts) for each of those. This will
give you a bunch of new directions to take your Plot, which gives you plenty of ideas for Plot
Twists!

And to make it a little deeper, let’s shoot for some Impossible Choices. Like when Darth
Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he’s his father—whoa, what a Conflict that created! Does he still
kill him, knowing this? List 3 potential Impossible Choices (seemingly insurmountable Conflicts)
for your Character:

1.

2.

3.

Now, let’s put it all together into a single sentence that you can hang over your computer
monitor to remind you what the core of your book is about. I find that having this one sentence
helps me keep everything on track and keeps me from adding unnecessary Scenes:

(Main Character)_________________________wants___________(External
Goal)__________because_______(Motivation)____________but__________(Conf
licts)_______get in the way.

Now What?
Go back and check out the other videos on Plotting and Character Development! And hold onto
your hats, because Part II will be all about Internal Plot development!

Don’t forget to Subscribe to the YouTube

channel for a hands-on instruction in how to
use this form!