Expanding the idea.

Hello fellow homeslices of the motherloaf

I am an amateur writer and have written 2 books in the past and working on another at the moment.
I have a certain subject I really want to write about, but I find it difficult to find a good plot for it.
I write (fan)fiction and right now I want to write about some kind of humanoid entity (elfs, plant-people,...) and their daily lives.
To make things a bit more clear, I want to write about these "entities" in their natural habitat, something like a forest. All of these entities live in small groups, all across their planet, completely seperated from each other.

Everything they need, is in this place where they live, big bark walls is what seperates them from the rest of the world. (cemetery, houses,...) The important aspect of them is that they are very nature-centered, all they do is take care of the enviroment around them, and they believe that this is why the planet "created" them.
They are quiet anti-social beings, too.

I have a good enviroment set for the story but I am currently lacking a good, intresting plot. Do any of you have some suggestions? I don't want it to be like the daily life of one of these entities but more a goal that 1 or all of them share, to achieve a "higher existance"?

Also more suggestions about the setting are also always welcomed! After all, I need to fill a book

Hmmmmmm...
I've been sitting here for the past few minutes trying to think of an idea, but most of the ideas are super cliche and not that great for story. If you give me a while, I will try to think of something to help you out.
(Also, I love the idea you have with this story so far! When you get the right plot in order to write it out, I'm excited to see where this goes! )

I feel like the first thing to create a plot is to analyze your desired characters and what makes them stand out as protagonists/antagonists/unique. In your case, you mention that there's a general separation in state between your characters and the outside world, so that's a good place to start building a story.

- Why are they separated?
- What makes their lifestyle so different from the world outside? Did they choose to be secluded because of knowledge of the outside world, or did they choose to be secluded for a lack of knowledge of the outside world? Why is their world so much more capable of providing for them than the outside world (how is it that they have everything they need in their area, and why can that not be provided outside of your established walls?)
- Were they forced into this lifestyle? Is it dangerous to live the other way for them?
- Why are they anti-social?

When I work on writing, I personally like to define my characters and give them particular quirks, and then divulge as to why they might have the quirks that they do. It seems like a cliche process, but it is also this very process that allows you to make unexpected deviations in your characters and even more importantly, provide points where you can bring the story to levels that you might not thought of starting from the setting first.

Halogen,
All of these answered can indeed be worked out and answered in the book, but I think I might keep the plot within the walls, but yet I don't want it to be a fantasy desperate housewifes if you know what I'm saying
I was thinking about having one of them, discovering the secrets that this village holds. Something that is kept from them by not someone but something.
I would love to stick with the idea that this village does not have a leadership, so the cliché idea of a corrupted leader is out of the question, too.

Thanks for the reponses btw

Chaos,
Is what you're looking for is a different kind of plot, something involving everyday life? Then I'd recommend reading the classic alone-on-an-island survival stories (Robinson Crusoe and Island of the Blue Dolphins come to mind), or Laura Ingall's "Little House in the Big Woods" book. They're about human needs, but they're a good start for designing an otherworldly creature lifestyle.

When you say these creatures are discovering secrets of the village, are they good secrets or bad secrets? Is it an impersonal force that keeps these things secretive (like the nature of these creatures' needs and curiosities), or some kind of spiritual-cosmic thing (or both)? For positive secrets, check out mystery fantasy where the characters have to learn the ancient history of their own land (The Two Princesses of Bamarre does a good job with that).

Not sure if that helps, or if I'm totally missing what you're going for...

You can throw someone from "world outside" in their homes and let him getting know to it (with that, you have many possible plot ways going on, from cliché ones to better).
If you want to stay put between the walls, you may try with interesting character that is not within the norms of his society. Or he is trying to change something. One way or another, it has to do something with whole fantasy society thing because if you made just ordinary story you could put everywhere, it would lack the point.
I will try to think about it more

Hmm thanks for the useful replies, I think I'm going to mix and match a bit of all of those, make it all connected somehow