the quest plan

Story Scholar

In the One Page Novel story structure, one of the elements of the Quest stage is the Quest plan that the character forms.

The Quest plan is a series of actions that the character(s) believes they need to undertake to attain a desired result. The plan comes from a limited perspective — it’s difficult for the character(s) at this stage to see the Resolution state with any sort of inner clarity because they haven’t yet experienced the Shift or come to fully realise their own inward Power.

As a result, they’re also working with limited resources, believing they have to reach their goal through visible means only, bolstered by effort, perseverance, and consistency.

How to Write a Quest Plan

The Quest plan is often formed with other characters, or if formed alone, then allies often join in to support the main character.
A single decisive statement by a character can announce the Quest plan;
Or if formed among several character(s), it may be decided through discussions.
The character(s) are usually aware that the proposed plan is flawed, even to the extent that it’s unlikely to succeed.
Going along with the plan is usually a sign of the group’s desperation; they believe strongly that they need to take action, however futile.
The Quest plan is formed in reaction to existing circumstances, which is why it’s limited in perspective. Once the character goes from viewing the world reactively to viewing it proactively, their approach changes, though by this time the Quest plan has already faltered and possibly failed for good.

Sundry Examples of Quest Plans

In Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, the main character posits a Quest plan in the form of a scientific experiment:

But was it possible to work out a controlled experiment? At first I told myself that it was not, since my sick brain (if it really was sick) would create the illusions I demanded of it. Even while dreaming, when we are in perfectly good health, we talk to strangers, put questions to them and hear their replies. Moreover, although our interlocutors are in fact the creations of our own psychic activity, evolved by a pseudo-independent process, until they have spoken to us we do not know what words will emerge from their lips. And yet these words have been formulated by a separate part of our own minds; we should therefore be aware of them at the very moment that we think them up in order to put them into the mouths of imaginary beings. Consequently, whatever form my proposed test were to take, and whatever method I used to put it into execution, there was always the possibility that I was behaving exactly as in a dream.

In Northern Lights, Lyra plans to go north to save Roger:

“I want to come North,” Lyra said so they could all hear it. “I want to come and help rescue the kids. That’s what I set out to do when I run away from Mrs Coulter. And before that, even, I meant to rescue my friend Roger the Kitchen boy from Jordan who was took…”

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet plans to discover Claudius’s guilt by staging a play:

… I have heard
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaim’d their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I’ll observe his looks;
I’ll tent him to the quick: if he do blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy
(As he is very potent with such spirits),
Abuses me to damn me: I’ll have good grounds
More relative than this: The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.

In War In Heaven by Charles Williams, three characters decide to form an Order to protect the Holy Graal:

When their separate devotions ceased, they looked at one another gravely. “There’s one thing,” the Duke said. “It must never be left unwatched. We must have an arranged order—people whom we can trust.”
“Intelligent people whom we can trust,” the Archdeacon said.
“In fact, an Order,” Kenneth murmured. “A new Table.”
“A new Table!” the Duke cried. “And a Mass every morning.” He stopped short and looked at the Archdeacon.
“Quite so,” the priest said, not in answer to the remark.