Use the Plot template to plan your stories and campaigns, from a single scene to the full novel or campaign!
Contents
What should I use this template for?
Generally, the Plot template is used for planning purposes. You might use it as an overview for your novel, as a write-up for your next RPG adventure, or as a bullet-point outline for one chapter. However, if you're writing an RPG adventure or one-shot on World Anvil and want to share it, the Plot article would also be the perfect place for it!
Campaign manager integration
If you're a Game Master, Plot articles integrate with the campaign manager so you can have your campaign's outline at your fingertips. If you follow these steps, a plot tree will be generated in the Plots tab of the campaign manager:
- In each Plot article for the campaign, find the "Parent Plot" drop-down and select another plot. This will usually be a more general Plot that includes it (such as the campaign's master plot, an adventure overview, etc).
- In the campaign manager, under the Plots tab, select a Plot article as the master plot.
- The plot tree will be generated!
Don't create a recursive loop! If the plot you set as a parent plot is also a child plot, this will create a recursive loop that will be impossible to display in the plot tree. As a result, the Plots tab will stop working.
If this happens to you, edit your Plot articles to remove their parent plots until the Plot tab works again.
Template walkthrough
Remember that all prompts in the template are optional, and some might not be relevant to the myth you're writing about. As always, there's a free-writing section at the top (which we call vignette) and the prompts are under the "+ Prompts" button in the bottom toolbar. In the Plot template, the prompts are organized into five sections:
- Generic: Use this tab for the general information about the plot. It has some related article dropdowns (like related characters and locations) as well as free-form text fields to write about its parts, themes, and more.
- Structure: This tab is based on the Freytag's pyramid story structure, although you're free to use it for any other plot prototype! The name of each part is generic enough that it should work for most stories, so feel free to use it as you see fit.
- Components: If you're a pantser (aka discovery writer), you might find this tab more useful than Structure. Here, you can talk about everything that's involved inside that scene/arc/story without detailing the exact order it appears in.
- Relations: Here you can describe everything about the characters involved in the plot, including the main characters, secondary characters, antagonists, and everything in between.
- Backdrops: Finally, this tab is about everything around the characters! Where does the plot happen, what lead to this, and what are the threats characters have to deal with?
Feature recommendations for plots
Here are some ideas on how you can use other features in combination with plots!
- Chronicles: especially if your plot is complex or spans a large amount of time, a chronicle can be a great way to map it out (literally, you can link events to map locations!). Check the guide to Chronicles for more details.
- Whiteboards: if you're a visual planner, use whiteboards to lay out all the plot points in an infinite blank canvas. Check the guide to Whiteboards.
- Campaign manager: if you're a Game Master, the campaign manager will let you manage everything about the campaign, including plots, from World Anvil! Check the guide to the Campaign manager.
- Manuscripts: if you're a writer, you can access your Plot articles from within Manuscripts, our novel writing software! Check the guide to Manuscripts.
Step-by-step guide to writing a plot
Here are some steps you can follow to start working on a plot!
- Determine your scope
Are you plotting an entire novel or campaign, a single arc, or maybe even just one scene? This will change how you approach your plot structure, as well as how much time you spend on it. After deciding the scope, summarize the entire story in a single paragraph (or a single sentence if it's a single arc/chapter/etc). This will help you get a bird's eye view to guide you through the rest of the outlining process. - Plan the structure: Will you use a "standard" structure (like Hero's Journey or Save the Cat), or will you create your own? Some people say all stories fall into a couple of structures, but the way you lay it out for yourself can have a huge impact on the pace and mood of your writing! Once you've decided, fill in each step in the structure based on what you wrote in the previous step.
If you're a pantser/discovery writer and don't use a strict structure, you can make a list of all important or cool events you want to have in the story and order them in a way that makes sense - Add more details: Write a full paragraph for each point you outlined in the previous step. This is also a great place to make a list of the characters you'll need, as well as locations, macguffins, and other narrative components like the mood and tone of the story.
Need more help? Check out these resources!
- Plotting in high fantasy: weaving political intrigue and epic quests
- 5 interesting plot points for creating conflict
- How to plot a novel using the Hero's Journey structure
- RPG plot twist ideas for one-shots
- Story hooks: adding drama, conflict & antagonist characters
Community examples for inspiration
Need some inspiration? Here are some plot articles written by our amazing community!
