Plotting in troubled waters

[W_L]

As the topic title suggests, sometimes concepts get realize, but there are issues with execution. I know it takes me time to come up with a way to realize a concept in a non-episodic story. I thought about the issue, then realized other writers or people with concepts for stories may have similar issues.

 

So, why not create place to develop plots after conceptualizing stories?

 

I believe everyone can write, but what they lack is sometimes just choices in direction.

 

Let's say, you have a concept for a gay fantasy story involving humans and fantasy creatures like Dragons, Orcs, elves, and ect... It's a cool concept, but you're afraid everyone has gone there and done it. Well, we can pose some questions to this particular person: How do you see your characters? Do you want evil beings/creatures to be one sided evil and good beings/creatures one sided as well? What type of world is it?

 

It crafts a direction for the story, while keeping the author's concept alive and possible for reading to everyone.

[Cynical Romantic]

If you don't mind me pimping some other links here, I'd like to post a link to a plot workshop that took place a little while ago on the meta_writer LiveJournal community. I think you would find it interesting.

 

Hyperplot: An Exercise in Plotting on the Go

 

Topics covered included:

• Are you a plotter, a character writer, a world-builder, or a stylist?
  
• Challenge: tell a story from this plot
  
• The Basic Plots
  
• Plotting Fun
  

 

(Some of these links might not work if you're not a community member - but you can join if you have an LJ account.)

 

All of the above had lively discussions and participation from amateur and published authors. If you're at all interested in plot, I highly recommend checking out the workshop.

[Libby Drew]

If you don't mind me pimping some other links here, I'd like to post a link to a plot workshop that took place a little while ago on the meta_writer LiveJournal community. I think you would find it interesting.

 

Hyperplot: An Exercise in Plotting on the Go

 

I'm totally kicking myself over this, Cyn. I kept waiting and waiting for the subsequent parts of the workshop, but never saw them. I find out just the other day (after the fanfic:profic post) that I couldn't see them because I was only a watcher, not a member. (That's since been rectified.) So sad. I was really looking forward to the second post especially.

 

Nobody's fault but my own, but still.

 

W.L., I second this suggestion. I've since been able to review the the four different topics covered in this workshop, and they're full of helpful information and hints.

[Cynical Romantic]

Hey, and while we're at it, we could also mention the very excellent current series of posts on the differences between writing fan fiction and professional / original fiction, also at the meta_writer community.

 

Libby Drew is probably too modest to say so herself, but her contribution to the series was one of the most intriguing.

 

Lots of good stuff over there for writers, aspiring or otherwise.

[W_L]

Ah, but how about writing "generic fiction" with twists?

 

Or writing original fan fiction, where it eventually turns into original fiction?

(CSU is one of those, originally Star Trek fan fiction that has since morphed into a new original fiction and its own community on Jeff's Fort)

 

I am spread across the four disciplines, because I like writing each. Character and Plotter are my core tenets in writing. World builder is my imaginative side usually done in long form stories. Then style, I am a very big fan of puns, allegories, and innuendos. I also take great pleasure in mimicking or emulating classic writer's techniques.

 

I think with this good response, people should post concepts and see what can be done?

 

Let me start with a concept for a short story that I am thinking of doing:

 

Gay themed story with an American Western concept, but classic western and not "Brokeback Mountain" type western.

 

I've been trying to create a manageable plot for this concept as a short story. I want it to have similar elements to Shane, another classic western story, but aesthetically more visceral and realistic.

 

Doing an old western with a gay protagonist is not easy, anyone think up plot directions?

[David McLeod]

...Let's say, you have a concept for a gay fantasy story involving humans and fantasy creatures like Dragons, Orcs, elves, and ect... It's a cool concept, but you're afraid everyone has gone there and done it. Well, we can pose some questions to this particular person: How do you see your characters? Do you want evil beings/creatures to be one sided evil and good beings/creatures one sided as well? What type of world is it?

 

 

Let me start with a concept for a short story that I am thinking of doing:

 

Gay themed story with an American Western concept, but classic western and not "Brokeback Mountain" type western.

 

I've been trying to create a manageable plot for this concept as a short story. I want it to have similar elements to Shane, another classic western story, but aesthetically more visceral and realistic.

 

It sounds, based strictly on these two posts, that you're thinking of a "plot driven" story. The other option is "character driven." Now, plot driven stories can be good reading, and very satisfying. But the best stories, IMHO, are character driven. (That, in large part, is why "Shane" is a classic.) With regard to "one sided" characters, another way to say that is "one dimensional" or "shallow." Certainly the protagonist and antagonist need to be multi-dimensional, as do some of the supporting characters. Heck, in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," even the ghosts were multidimensional. Except the last one, perhaps.

 

Your "western" concept sonds interesting; and, although that milieu isn't my favorite, I'd like to know when you post. It sounds as if it could be something very special. (Look at what Gene Roddenberry did with the western).

[W_L]

Writing a western gay themed story is very difficult. It is sometimes too black and white, which I don't like writing either.

 

One sided characters are not fun, so I need to update the western Genre with human dimensions. A plot direction would not hurt.

[Dolores Esteban]

There's a TV series which might give you some ideas: Kung Fu

 

Kung Fu follows the adventures of a Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, who travels through the American Old West armed only with his skill in martial arts, as he seeks his half-brother, Danny Caine.

 

 

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(TV_series)