If you see your stories as "character-driven," you might think that you don't have enough to outline a plot. But in this case, I've found using a character journey
as the big structural apparatus really help to make a quick outline of the plot. That is, very basically, what is
your character's journey through the story? Like:
Independence to affiliation
or
Distrust to trust
or
Innocence to corruption
or
Shame to self-acceptance
So to start plotting from character, identify where the character starts emotionally/psychologically and where she/he
ends up. Then chart the main steps involved:
Act 1: She is devoted to her independence in the first act, and I show
that (how will the reader know this). She should probably be given the choice to
accept help but refuse it.
End of act 1 (maybe around ch. 2): Something (what) happens that makes
her independence more of a problem than a solution. (What happens and how does
she react)
Act 2: Things heat up on the external plane and make her independence or
self-reliance a REAL problem, and she gradually has to change in response to 3-4
events in the external plot. Some group or person should probably be giving her
help, or trying to, or trying to get her to affiliate.
End of Act 2: In the crisis/dark moment, her need to be independent really
complicates the external conflict, and she's in huge trouble (or she's about to
lose her goal or lose something essential). In the dark moment, she has to
choose to change and ask for help or something that compromises her independence
but allows her to receive help from being affiliated with someone or some
group.
Act 3: In the climactic scene, where the external plot resolves, her
newfound willingness to accept help allows her to conquer whatever the main
conflict in the outer plot is.
End of Act 3: Because she has now chosen to affiliate, she is more happy
and safe, but also might keep her independence a bit by becoming not just a
follower but a leader.
That is, you're going to have certain things happen in the external plot.
If you have a sense of what the main character needs to learn and accomplish--
the journey's start and destination-- you can mae each of those plot events push
the character down that journey road.
I try to have a really good sense of where my character starts out, and how
she'll react to each plot event given that starting point, and usually, of
course, the basic endpoint is fairly obvious once I know how she's limited or
damaged at the start.
I have a couple articles on this in my archive. (Ignore the website stuff--
it's under construction for about the 4th year <G>.)
http://www.aliciarasley.com/artthreeacts.htm
The Three Acts
http://www.aliciarasley.com/arta.htm
Structuring the Plot.
I like to analyze other people's plots, but my own... I'll get bored if I
outline too deeply. What I'd love to be wild and yet disciplined enough to do is
to write wildly and freely in the first draft, and then use outlining and
structure to revise it in a second draft.
Alicia