Discovering Plot

When you're a writer it's sometimes it's difficult to keep your story going.  You start off with a great idea but then you don't know where your story goes next.  When I was learning writing screenplays this problem would often arise in act two.  All stories are about characters having a goal and overcoming the obstacles that keep them from getting what they want.  The solution?  Ask yourself what's the worst thing that could happen.

For example a girl falls in for a guy but he's a vampire.  After she gets over this and finally ends up with him she has to deal with possibility of once of his family possibly having her as a midnight snack.  Once this obstacle is resolved, then it's an evil vampire that wants to kill her.  The list goes on and on.  Bigger and badder vampires turn up one after another, each more evil than the next until the vampires' leaders want her dead or in Bella's case in the book Twilight, an undead too.  If you've read the book even after Bella marries Edwards more obstacles appear even on their wedding night.

Never allow your character to sit pretty for too long.  Create more problems and simply ask yourself what's the worst thing that could happen. Once you set up the rules for the world your character lives in anything can happen.