Want to try your hand at fiction but not sure where to start? I love this simple approach to creating a plot, which was originally featured in a 1959 Writer’s Digest article by Donald Westlake, an award-winning American writer who penned more than a hundred novels and non-fiction books. Although he specialized in crime writing, sometimes with a comic twist, his 5C approach to developing a plot can work for any novel.
1. Start with the main character. In Westlake’s words, it can be “anybody at all, from Hemingway’s old man to Salinger’s teenager.”
2. Then introduce conflict, “something for that character to get upset about, and for the reader to get upset about through the character.”
3. Add complications to make the situation more interesting for the main character and the story more interesting for the reader.
4. Create a climax that brings together the opposing forces in the conflict, resulting in an explosion.
5. Finally, wrap up the story with a conclusion that details the aftermath of the conflict, which is now over. “The character has either won or lost, and there are no questions left unanswered,” Westlake writes. While I would argue that in some books, endings that aren’t conclusive can leave the reader with a bittersweet, visceral reaction, the main point he makes is well taken.
Creating a plot, of course, is just the start. Your novel will require massive fleshing out on all fronts. But by following the 5C approach, you’ll at least jump in with a sense of who you’re writing about, what the problem is, why that matters, and what lies in the way of a resolution. Maybe you’ll even know how it all turns out.
Could that change along the way? Absolutely. While creating a plot is a terrific opening salvo, many writers will tell you that their characters ultimately dictate what happens in their books. When that occurs, you know that you’ve developed characters who are real enough to step off the page and into your readers’ imaginations.
Here’s to that!
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