A strong plot is needed for a good novel.  Without it the novel is weak.  Think about the plot BEFORE you start writing the novel.  If you don't get exactly the plot that you want, then you WILL find writing is not just boring, but something that you don't even want to do.  THAT is why you need to make sure you can stand with the plot for months (or however long it takes you to write.)

Making that strong plot.  First you need to find something you really like to write about.  Then make a villain and have him corrupt something that is worth writing about.  Not anything insignificant, it needs to be really important, and usually that means life threatening to thousands of innocent people.  The to-be-antagonist ("Bad Guy") can even start out good, but as the novel progresses he can turn into the antagonist, and then the protagonist ("Good Guy") is caught by surprise because he had once trusted the antagonist.  Complex plots are very interesting to me, with each character having a role, however small it may be.  Planning ahead is sometimes good and sometimes bad.  I have read many books and in these I have found each authors style.  Some like to just start writing and not think about the plot until he/she is writing it down the moment he/she thinks of it.  Others have so many things that are woven into the plot that eventually comes out in the end that it really makes it interesting once you find it out, to make this you would need to plan out the plot well before starting to write.  Some authors go into elaborate charts of what happens when and where, the most notable of these was authors was J.R.R.Tolkien.  He set up charts so that he knew exactly how large the moon was as his characters journeyed.  That is a useful tool, if somewhat complicated, because if the characters are separated on their journey then the author could now exactly how to plan what is happening.

Another way to strengthen your plot is to have unexpected twists, although make sure to keep them believable, or else the reader might stop reading and, well we won't discus that any further.  Anyway, if good twists in a novel are achieved it can be very intriguing.  And another thing is to keep the plot going or else it will get so uninteresting that readers won't continue reading, and well, I still won't go into that subject.  So one of the most important things when writing a good plot is; find out what style writer you are.  1, do you like to just write and write with no apparent direction until something comes to you, or 2, do you like to plan everything out to the very day of the week before you start writing.  It is up to you, but do your best at it or else it won't happen.

hhhhhm, enlarging the truth sounds a bit familiar doesn't it? ohhh yeah! it's called lying. Well actually I going to say the unbelievable about lying . . .  For writing it's good to enlarge the truth!  Yes it really is, as long as it's a fiction story you are writing.  And remember it isn't good to actually lie. BUT for a fiction novel it's the heart of the making of it.  Fiction is one big lie, so without it's first ingredient well, it doesn't really exist.  So maybe you can fit something that you experienced and enlarge it, there you go!  You've got yourself a lie, and that could actually be profitable because if you make the lie not to unrealistic then it can really enhance your writing.  To be a good fiction author you have to lie, after all if your setting is in another world nobody would believe you if you said it was true

You may say that you still can't get enough material, well if you are writing a novel the problem can easily be fixed.  And if you're writing a short story, well I don't think you need a lot of material, after all it is a short story, right?  Writing a novel is hard, you need enough thoughts to make the novel a real novel, and yet when you get halfway through the novel it seems like an impossible task because there's so much to write.  If you can't get enough of the plot and what you thought would turn out to be a three hundred page book only comes to a fifty page book then you need to start from the beginning again, sorry that's the only way to do it.  But don't delete your work, that would be a waste wouldn't it?  Read it over a couple of times, and at your own pace, not rushed or you'll miss what needs done.  Think about it, how can you make it better, like I have said write about the protagonists feelings and personalities.  Still you might not end up with more than a hundred page novel, now is when it gets hard.  Think about the novel, if you are sure that there is no way you can add onto it then you might want to just leave it the way it is, BUT never give up if you feel there is something you can do to make the novel better, some authors have written and re-written single chapters over fifty times!  You need to be persistent in writing, or else you'll find it impossible to keep writing.  And also if you are writing something fiction you can easily add some part where strange little creatures capture the protagonist and take them deep into their homes in the woods, then somehow (that's for you to make up) the protagonist wins their loyalty and they help the ending come about in a better way.

So maybe you were writing a novel or short story or just a page or two, but then you find that you don't have enough material and everything is WAY too short.  Well fear no more, i bet there are thing that are left out, whether you see them now or will later.  Having the protagonist meet others in a novel is one way to expand the story, even if that person does not have a large role in the story .  But by the time you actually finish your writing it's usually longer than you would think.  Just think of how your novel or short story ends, does it satisfy you?  is there an explainable reason for everything to happened because if there isn't you might need to rework it some.  Have something or someone go off and get that explainable reason for help coming when it is most needed.  And i assure you, that if you keep working at it you will have enough material, and also adding more descriptions in, and in earlier blogs i wrote making your characters understandable and almost human.

Aside from the whole plot, you may want to spend some time in developing the protagonist and other important characters in your writings, chiefly i am speaking of novels.  You could have some understanding in your writing of the protagonist, but maybe not enough.  Set aside a few pages and develop the protagonists personality.  If he/she is a strange mysterious figure that is always surprising people, or a strong, bullheaded person who cares nothing for being sly in anything they do.
It can take a while before you find out how to do this, but once it's done you and others will understand that character better.  And don't let your antagonist be weak in character, no.  Writing about the "Bad Guy" is one of my favorite things actually.

Distractions are very annoying, from your dog barking and wanting to be fed to the sudden realization that you need to dash off to work.  Some people don't know what to write about, that is because they are distracted.  Only some people can realize the reason they can't write is actually because they are distracted.  Getting the patience to write is also partly keeping yourself from being distracted.  And once you start writing something that is really interesting to you, you won't just have the patience but you'll be at you're writing place every moment you've got.  If something doesn't interest and grab you, i can only say that you won't have patience to write the whole piece of writing you are working on.  Because trust me, i have began to write stories, but since even the beginnings were very interesting i did 

If you receive bad or unhappy news, then think of the best way you can use that, by writing your feelings down!  The famous author J.R.R Tolkien wrote "The Children of Hurin" while he was in a hospital from being wounded in The First World War.  "The Children of Hurin" is a very sad book, I've read it so trust me.  Being in the hospital, with all his friends dying (most of his friends really did die) surely gave him great pain, and he described that in his book and made it a really amazing novel, one of my favorites (even though it is sad)  Use whatever experiences you have and put them in your novel, and keep practicing at it, and you'll be on your way to a great writer. 

A writing club with other writers always is a good idea for getting encouragement, unless you are around a discouraging club.  That's about the worst a writer can do, get discouraged.  If you are in a bad writing club then you need to get out of there as soon as possible, but you should also make sure that the others in the club are being honest.  A good writing club however, is very heartening.  To have friends pat you on the back does amazing things.  It lightens you up and gets you writing again.  And maybe you don't even like to write but know for some reason that you have to good at it, maybe after a while you'll not only be a great writer, but also have learned to like to write.  Writing clubs are also very inspirational to hear what others have written.  However don't think that others writings are WAY better than yours because i'll bet that the other guy is feeling the exact same way, that his is WAY worse than yours.