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A story is made out of meaningful stuff that happens. Each unit of meaningful stuff that happens is often referred to as a plot point. Here’s how to come up with them, before you consider fitting them into a structure.

• What hard, horrible, impossible choices could be made in this story?
• Brainstorm instances in which your characters must brainstorm between goods or between evils.
• What’s the worst that could happen in the story?
• What’s the worst thing that could happen to your main characters physically?
• What’s the worst thing that your character could ever have to deal with emotionally?
• How could you create greater possible losses, more collateral damage?
• How could you steal from a main character something very important for him?
• What wonders could you show a main character that you would then take from him?
• How could you create higher stakes, bigger risks?
• What can the protagonist lose that she thought was vital?
• Everything your protagonist does can have consequences. Their actions, decisions, causes and mistakes can be leveraged for tension. Think of consequences for actions you already know the protagonist will take.
• Brainstorm events that will illustrate on what side of thematic concepts are different characters positioned.
• What’s the most difficult decision they could ever make – the one thing they repent for the rest of their lives?
• What is the worst thing they could do to someone else?
• The worst thing they could ever do to themselves?
• Is there an opportunity for a moral argument between hero and opponent, that gives the audience a clue about what values are really at stake?
• Is there an opportunity for the main oponent to give a moral justification for his actions?
• Think up escalating immoral actions your hero takes that hurts someone else. How are they outgrowths of his great moral weakness?
• What plot point could make a character question his beliefs and goals?
• Find a point in your story at which your protagonist is stuck, stymied, undecided, overwhelmed, or in some other way suffused with inner need without having a means to move ahead.
• Often the trouble that brews is in the form of surprising information. Brainstorm bits of information that might be delivered as a surprise.
• Is there opportunity for circularity, using a similar event but show the protagonist making a different choice?
• Can you set up a contrast between a character who thinks he’s being moral, supporting the beliefs of the society, and the effects of those actions and beliefs, which are decidedly immoral?