I said it once, and I’ll say it again “God was the first to inspire man to write, and His stories, themes, characters, and settings will all be recreated time and again through all of life.”

 

Let me be clear: God did not write a work of fiction.

Everything He wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through men He called is actual fact. Still, every Christian who writes will copy techniques from His Book. Since men {and women} have been following the patterns of His plots for years, it’s only natural we look there also to gain some knowledge of how to plot successfully and with fun.

 

God is the master of an adventurous journey. Take Abram as an example. We begin in Ur (ordinary world), and God calls him out of there. Along Abram’s journey, he encounters the Pharaoh of Egypt, splits up with his nephew, has a son by a maidservant, and is promised a son through Sarah. He goes to fight five kings to save his nephew’s life, meets God Himself and two angels, sees Sodom and Gomorrah get destroyed and receives his son Isaac. He sends his first son away, buries his wife, and then settles down to raise Isaac (new ordinary world). That’s only half Abram’s real journey! 

 

So, how do we imitate this complex plotting?

 

First, you must call him out on an adventure. Something must happen to draw him away from the ordinary world, like God calling Abram to leave Ur. We call this the crisis. 

 

Second, you need to give the hero a goal. Abram’s goal was to follow wherever God led him. God’s objective was to lead him to the land of fulfilled promises. The story’s goal can change throughout the story, like Abram deciding to leave the land of famine for Egypt, which was green. 

 

Third, you establish the people around the hero. When God called Abram out, he had Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his nephew. When Abram left Egypt, he came out with Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant. These are the main characters who affect Abram’s life, either for good or bad.

 

Fourth, you give the hero an enemy. The enemy must try and keep the hero from the story goal. Most times, defeating the enemy is the story goal (and, of course, the enemy would fight that!). The kings who carried off Lot automatically became Abram’s enemies. Abram’s biggest enemy, however, would be unbelief in God’s promises. The whole goal was to fulfill the promises, but if Abram didn’t believe, he could mess everything up!

 

Fifth, create some dilemmas. These are circumstances that put progress on hold for a while. Like when Abram decided to have a son with Hagar, even though the promised offspring was through Sarah. Then, Abram had to devote time, attention, and money to raising Ishmael only to send him away later. Dilemmas almost always tug at the heart of the hero.

 

Sixth, create a disaster. Usually, the villain does not bring about the dilemma, but it helps the villain out anyway. For example, Abram lied about Sarai being his wife, and the king of Egypt took her! Now, Sarai is needed for the story goal to be achieved, so {obviously!} he had to get her back. Thankfully, God had all that sorted out. {By the way, this scenario happens twice! See Genesis 20.} A disaster always takes away an element that is needed to achieve the story goal. Disasters and dilemmas go hand-in-hand.

 

Seventh, the hero needs to fight. He should not reach the goal with ease. Do not give the story goal to the hero on a silver platter. Otherwise, nobody cares that he achieved it. Abraham had to fight himself when God told him Ishmael would not inherit His blessing, but Isaac would be the promised child. Abraham had to give up his ideal for God’s ideal and send Hagar and Ishmael away. At another time, Abraham had to fight to protect his nephew because Abraham had made it his personal goal to make sure Lot was alright.

 

Eighth, give your hero a break. Between each dilemma, disaster, and fight, there should be some season of rest. Heroes cannot keep up constantly without rest. If they did, we wouldn’t like them very much because we couldn’t be like them. God gave Abraham many good seasons of rest. Between chapters 16 and 17, God gave Abraham 13 years of rest! After Isaac’s birth, Abraham got another time of rest. During their rest, we don’t record what they are doing, or the hero learns something.

 

Ninth, the story must come to a climax. Abraham’s story reaches two peaks. Isaac’s birth {promised fulfilled} and Isaac’s rebirth {when God spared Isaac from being sacrificed}. In an adventure novel, we want it to be an epic struggle followed by triumph as we reach the story goal.

 

Tenth, set up your hero in a new ordinary world. In Abraham’s case, Sarah dies, so he and Isaac begin a new normal in the land of Canaan. Abraham remarries and has more sons during this time. They get comfortable and grow in this new ordinary world, content with their season of rest. They are changed. Abraham is now the father of many, holding on to God’s promises with unwavering faith. The ending vibe should be one of satisfaction.

Unless, of course, you want to leave the story hanging and write another one. At the time of Abraham’s death, there were unfulfilled promises, but God kept going and fulfilled all of them in other accounts.

 

So, here’s the pattern in a nutshell for you:

1) Crisis; call the hero into an adventure.

2) Story goal; set the goal of your hero’s journey.

3) People; give him allies and family.

4) Villain; place someone in his path to keep him from the story goal.

5) Dilemmas; make the hero choose to do something that leads to consequences and stop progress toward the story goal.

6) Disasters; create things (other than the villain) that stop the hero along the way. 

7) Fight; make the hero fight for the story goal.

8) Seasons of Rest; give your hero a break.

9) Climax; achieve the story goal epically.

10) New Ordinary World; set your hero up to live in a new way, new land, or with a new story goal.

 

The Bible is the very first book ever written. It has never been out of print and is the most widely known and intensely studied book ever. Now, you can’t write a book that “judges the thoughts and intentions of a man’s heart,” but you can apply the principles of plotting God used in His work to create some fun stories yourself!

 

Go ahead – sit down, plot, write, and have a ton of fun with it!