So I've never been good at plot. I'm an incredibly character-driven story-teller and story consumer: character development and the psychology behind a person's actions have always been my main interest as well as forte. However, I'm aware that literally nobody wants to read a story that has almost zero plot and is just me playing around with my characters in some sandbox. Any suggestions on how improve what I'm horribly lacking in?
seems to me the drivers of your plot should be your characters and how they respond to circumstances. Since you're into character development, embrace that to fullest and create characters with so much depth as if you know them as family. But also give them technical, non-psychological features: their jobs, the city they live in, the place they were raised in, the kind of of community they exist in (i.e. the social customs, the common personality types among the people, the common philosophy in the community, the economy…). Build the external environment for your characters.
The plot will simply be triggered by something that happened in this environment and with these characters. You ought to come up with a scenario in which those characters would have to react/respond to in certain ways. Best thing would be if they keep making bad decisions and keep the plot rolling until a resolution (or maybe no resolution? ;)). Some prompts from the top of my head:
What's the one thing that would humiliate one of your characters (Character A) the most? Another character trusted by Character A just played a practical joke on him/her, humiliating him/her in the worst way. Your plot is this whole episode.
One of your characters just woke up with a superpower. What does (s)he do with it?
Your laziest character has been found to have a terminal illness, what does (s)he do now with the knowledge?
Why is your character the way (s)she is? There are some qualities, behaviour and habits that come across as weird to others. What's the story behind how the character came to be this way? There's a plot there for you.
It's doomsday coming in a month in your universe, how would the characters react?
After a very sudden change of events, a tyrannical dictator has gained power in your universe implementing draconian laws (that you can think up). Your characters team up as a resistance, how do their plans go?
One of your characters has been invited with the opportunity to change the way they were raised. How does that go?
Your characters actually exist in your city. Look at your local news, any recent events where you live (or globally affecting) and write a plot in the perspective of one or more of your characters.
Hope it helps! Other than this, take a look at reddit.com/r/writingprompts for some inspiration and exercises to get yourself a plot.
@Sobia Bushra That's all very helpful, actually! The list of prompts you gave me especially. I guess I'm just used to people wanting to read action-packed stories which,,,, isn't something I'm interested in or able to write. That's why I'm so big on the slice-of-life genre. The external environment affecting the characters is definitely an interesting take that I might have been doing subconsciously but never spelled out for myself. Anyway thank you again, and I'll definitely check out the link! :)