Got an idea for a book or a screenplay? Here’s how you plot it:
First, figure out your story type and genre. They’re not all Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Each story type and genre has its own plot expectations.
A good way to determine what those expectations are is to look at the most popular examples of similar stories. You want to build on what’s come before you so you don’t alienate audiences with something too different. You also want to create something fresh so you don’t bore audiences with a retread of old ground.
Write your entire plot idea, best you can, in a 2-5 page treatment. Each scene or chapter should hook the audience to make them interested in what will happen next.
Break your story into three acts, with the first act introducing the characters and the world. In the second act, show your protagonist’s immersion into a new world and the escalating complications that ensue. At the end of the second act, make sure your protagonist is at their lowest point. In the third act, show how the situation resolves.
Let a few people read this treatment and keep tweaking it, and letting new people read it, until it works.
Don’t write dialog or start drafting until this treatment works.
You’ll know it works when people read it and say, “Now that’s a good story! When can I read the book / see the movie?”
That’s how you plot.
Excellent and pragmatic. Although you forgot to mention “Do whatever Save the Cat tells you to do!!!”
I like your test first approach. John Truby's Anatomy of Genre is a great resource for gender-specific story beats.