It's a reincarnation-starter fantasy action-adventure novel. Yes very original I know. I've though up a bunch of mini conflicts and subplots, but can't think of a driving force for the MC to glue the whole thing together? Any ideas? I don't really know what information I should give to improve this question... so just ask away!
Nov '20
Nov '20
Usually, a novel has 2 storylines.
One is the adventure, and the second is a story of a personal change.
With the adventure, I would look at your episodes, and look for a pattern. In izekai usually they want to go home, defeat Ancient Evil or achieve immortality.
With the personal change, that’s the life lesson the hero learns on their journey, like accepting responsibility pr learning to love.
One of the best books you can read is Save the Cat, Writes a Novel. It is really helpful for looking at genre, structure and goals of a story
Here's some stuff about character motivation from my notes from writing classes that might help for MC driving force!
Questions to ask about main character at start:
1. What is their inciting incident?
2. What do they want?
3. Why do they want it?
4. What is their object of desire?
5. Who are they in conflict with?
And for wants, there are concrete ones like food or safety, that can be tied to emotional wants the characters have:
10 common emotional wants:
1. Affection
2. Sexual fulfillment
3. Conversation
4. Recreational companionship
5. Honesty/openness/vulnerability
6. Physical attractiveness
7. Financial support
8. Domestic support
9. Family commitment
10. Admiration
Other questions to ask:
What concrete tangible thing does each major character want?
What emotional need does that thing represent?
Who or what stands in way of what they want?
Who or what makes action happen?
copy
p a s t e d into the notes app
now it's time to struggle away trying to answer these questions for this plot I pulled out of thin air lmao
but hey! story development. 
tyvm
@domisotto makes an excellent point about creating two storylines. Because of human nature, people aren't going to be 100% focused on the task at hand, all the time so subplots are important.
I recommend referencing the dramatic structure diagram.
Ideally, a good story should have five acts, simplified three. The diagram is helpful when managing essentially "how far" you are planning on going for your story. If you are planning a series, the diagram might look more like a jagged mountain. Your main plot should follow this pattern. You have more freedom with a subplot since interpersonal relations aren't always tied up in a nice little bow.
It's also really important to time your important moments with this structure. It's a part pet peeve of mine, part experience of the writer but I've seen a lot of fantasy stories tack on a whole extra storyline and/or 2+ "climaxes" before they "resolve" all the loose threads in the epilogue.
It is part of the 15 plot-beat structure to have ups and downs prior to the final resolution. But, yes, the demands for the excessive length of the fantasy stories often result in the nuisance subplots overloads.
Definitely and I think the experience of the writer is a definite factor. Epics like "Lord of the Rings" and "The Wheel of Time" series are incredibly detailed so the intricate and lengthy plotlines keep the readers engaged. I just get tired when the stories have resolved their main storyline and invent a new enemy to keep the story going, so it becomes as you said a "nuisance subplots overload"
There are a lot of good responses here, but I think it's worth noting that in the "reincarnation" genre specifically, often the primary conflict has to do with changing something.
It depends on the type of reincarnation it its, but generally there's some sort of disaster in the "original" story or the main character's original life that the main character has to try to avoid or solve before the worst happens.
That's a good way to keep your story focused in this sort of genre. You can add all sorts of subplots around that, but as long as you have a specific disaster that the story pivots around, it will give your story a solid core. It has the added benefit of creating a sort of "timer" for your story that creates a sense of urgency to drive your plot along.
I think the track that you're on is more time travel... think erased, if you've seen that. Or maybe I just haven't read enough... Anyway, I just had the sudden urge to jump on the isekai reincarnation bandwagon, so MC is in an entirely different universe
Most reinc stories I have seen was like ‘and I became a concubine to a mighty general/emperor when she went into a coma’ or, in izekai bend, they died of terminal cancer/got hit by the Bus of Plot Device to be teleported to the glorious life of fighting and fornicating. On one occasion, a kid with cancer reinc as a figure skater...
Lol, I did fight&fornicate, but apparently I overdid it, because the first review on Royal Road, the Izekai Central, read ‘it’s not a typical story here, it’s a hard-boiled noir...’
Then again, people found my reverse harem to have educational value, so...
Most of the reincarnation stories I've read, even when it's someone being reborn in a different world, it's usually a world they're familiar with (like a book they read or a game they played while they were alive in their previous life) which is why they'd know about the future "disaster" form the "original" version of the plot. It's not necessarily time-travel related.
It's not a required aspect of the genre but it is common and makes for an easy to craft plot arc, so it's something to consider, anyway.
Of course I usually read shoujo isekai reincarnation stories so it's possible the genre conventions are a bit different for shonen ones, which I'm admittedly not as familiar with.
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