[...] How to create a believable character Day Two: How to create a setting for your story. Day Three: How to create plot Day Four: How to get serious and make money from fiction [...]

(And, apparently, an eyepatch…)

I think that doesn’t go nearly far enough, because then you still have the problem of confusing plot and action. For example: Johnny went to the airport because he needed to get a flight to Ohio because his mother was dying.

That’s all causality, but it still doesn’t give us a conflict. Does Johnny want to go see his mother because she’s dying? Does he not want to? Is this his big goal or is this a stop along a bigger journey?

Conflict is far more important than causality, in my opinion. Causality is simply logic. How can anything happen without a reason? It can’t. But plot is the WHY of things happening, and it’s actually entirely possible to do a novel’s worth of causality without answering that question.
Tei – Men with Pens´s last blog ..Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Plot

Something I’ve heard said is that the difference between having a plot and having a story is that in plot, you have causality. A story is “this happened, then this happened, then this happened.” Plot is “this happened because this happened because this happened.”

Is this a nitpicky distinction, d’ya think?

Great post and perfect timing, for me at least. I’m at the NaNovel point where I need to be asking myself these exact questions, and I didn’t even KNOW it until I read this. Thanks, Tei!
Nicole Brunet´s last blog ..NaNo: Day #1

@ Mary – What?! Bump me off the stage? NEVER! *grabs spotlight* Mine! All mine!

@ Mary again – I actually have an answer to the question: I think many writers avoid putting their characters in conflict situations because they’re afraid of hurting their characters. Bad, bad. Hurt your characters, people! Lots!

@ Lizzy – It was a pretty good example to use in the “support the conclusion with your premises.” I had a few lightbulb moments myself

@ Suzannah – In critical thinking, a premise is a supporting point to the conclusion. In novel writing, it’s exactly the same. Doesn’t support the conclusion? Out it goes!

Is it exciting enough to hold the readers’ attention? Does it have the requisite enough twists and turns?

By paring it down to the basic premise as outlined here, it becomes much easier to stay on track.

When the post comes to my email inbox, the author of the blog is not listed. My mistake.

Great post.

I agree with Suzannah. All Nanowrimoites repeat after me, conflict, conflict conflict–plot, plot, plot.

In the romance genre, the only thing to add is the happily-ever-after.

I wonder if the reason writers (me included) have trouble writing conflicts into our stories is our own psychological aversion to conflict. We don’t want conflict in OUR lives, so we don’t want to put it into our characters lives. Humm, Dr. Freud, what would you say?