When I write stories they're usually just short one shots

[Guest]

I can only come up with scenes but never an actual plot for a story.

Does anyone else have this problem and if so, how do you come up with actual plots?

[Brianna]

I struggled with this too until one day I looked at the short scenes I had written down as I thought of them and realized that I could tweak them in ways that they could be put together in a story. Between those short parts and what I’ve brainstormed to connect the pieces, I’m now at 50,000 words!

It takes time but look for connection in your stories and how you could add, or change, the personality your MCs have in it.

[Erik]

Great question! "How do you come up with actual plots?" It's like this: Consciousness evolves through story. When someone writes a story they are emulating the Universe's method of evolving our consciousness. It's called the Character Arc.

There are only random scenes if there is no goal to achieve. The goal is for you (the protagonist) to undergo a change of perception based on the conflict you experience as you try to get what you want....and what you want increases in quality overtime after you experience the consequences (the plot) of your desires. Our basic essence is DESIRE.

We are but a desire to receive fulfillment in various qualities and quantities. We all want different things and our power really comes down to how bad we want it.

[NoOr]

I wouldn't take that as a problem unless you wish to write stories that are long and fall short. I just published my book called "A Dash of Serotonin, A Pinch of Dopamine"... which is a collection of short stories which are not even end to end stories but rather just scenes… and I have an audience for it.

Sometimes a scene comes to my head of a coronation... a back stabbing.... running wild... a storm

And all I do is put it on half a page and that is about it.

I would say that what you are experiencing is a form of writing and not a problem. But if you do want to turn short stories into plots then consider your plot a series of short scenes.

Think only about the next scene or the scene before. Write your entire plot over time in scenes.

[Savannah]

i like to think of plotting as being like dominoes. the shift at the end of scene A leads to scene B which leads to scene C — a chain of cause and effect, actions and consequences.

I've noticed that the first scene that pops into my head is rarely the first scene of the story tho so I have to work backwards too lol. I take that scene and think "what needs to have happened to cause this scene?" and so on.

you might find it useful to look into story structure. obviously you don't have to follow any kind of premade template to write a good story but it might help you get a feel for how to structure things yourself.

best of luck

[Douglas]

A story covers a period of change from State A to State B.

For example, State A is an unsolved murder, State B is the case solved and killer caught. Or State A is an alien threat and State B is the aliens defeated. So if you conceive your stories as a character with a problem (State A) and the character after they've solved the problem (State B) then the plot is just figuring out how they solve the problem and get from A to B.

[Christina]

Most of my ideas come out of dreams. But there are some that don’t and only get turned into short stories. There’s nothing wrong with compiling them into a collection.