Plot Development : Any Tips?

[reychop]

Even then in my early writing days, I have had this problem which annoyed me. And I guess it's time that I lay off procrastination and start doing something about it. I want to be productive for a change.

 

The problem goes like this. A sudden wave of inspiration hits me (whether by watching the clouds, sitting on my chair, reading, eating,or simply watching a familiar scene). Feeling giddy to write, I opened up a word processor (or my notebook if I'm outside), wrote the first chapter and started updating. The story has been visualized and all it needs is a little bit of development. But as I happily watch my chapters growing and my word count increasing, there would always come a time when I come across a missing bridge. It's like I'm standing on an island where it all began and on the other end is a clearly visualized end. All that's missing is how do I get to the end and how to construct that seamless bridge that transitions the event to an already visualized and written end. Any tips in clearing this out? I have no trouble with writing the beginning and end. But it's the process that usually bar the development.

 

My guess is that this was caused by the spontaneity of my writing. But I'm not really a fan of outlines. So I'm left with nothing but a blank. Although the story writes itself after I reread my previous chapters (a lot of times), the inspiration usually takes a long time to surface (about a month or so). This isn't useful especially when I want to update weekly (or at a set time). Any tips?

 

Another problem would be, keeping track of characters and keeping the timeline consistent. Sometimes, I write in a latest chapter how this occur in this year and when I reread in a previous chapter, it contradict what was already established. I guess I'm just lazy in all of this. But is there a better way of keeping track? Sometimes, a separate odt file can get too long and that can get confusing as well. I tried using excel but it can get tiring when the story gets deeper. And that's when I was writing a fanfic where most of the characters are already established. I'm imagining that if I'm really going to go deeper in my current original stories, I would be having an extra difficult time keeping track of things.

[Sara Alva]

I'm writing my first novel-length story right now, and I went about it differently than the short stories and fanfics that I'm more used to. For those, I follow the path you seemed to take--inspiration followed by rapid typing. Since they're shorter, I don't get too caught up in the middle, but I remember when I was a kid I abandoned many a story when I hit those rough patches. So when I wanted to write something longer this year I didn't start typing right away-- instead I let it "simmer" for about a month, formulating plot points and individual scenes in my head. I only started the draft when I felt I had a solid idea in my mind of the entire story, though of course some bits of it have changed along the way. The draft is finished now, so the technique seemed to work for me

[Rilbur]

I can provide ideas, thoughts, and tools, but I'd like to emphasize that this post is probably not intended as solution in and of itself. Just discussion.

 

Personally, I always start with a defined story idea, start to finish, even though it's not 'fleshed out'. I know the start, I know the story lines, I know the end. In general, this happens because the story has been simmering in the back of my mind for a while. The big problem is that as I write, I discover there are details I overlooked, plots that wind up larger (or smaller) than expected, and the final shape of the story is nothing like what I thought it would be heading in.

 

I know you said you're too lazy / spontaneous, but outlines really do help with writing. You don't have to follow 'em (I don't!) but they can give you a way to work on the story without writing it, reducing it to it's elemental parts so you can work with them easier. You can plan out storylines and events, see how they might have to fit together. If one winds up being way way bigger than the other, then you know you need to keep the other slowed down, don't do it so fast, maybe leven it out a little with a third plot or something.

 

Take the time to think about a story before you put pen to paper. Don't just get the urge to write. Outlines can help with this, but you can also do it just by thinking about your story as your walking from class to class, driving to work, eating dinner, etc etc.

 

Even when you're suffering from writers block, keep trying to write. One piece of advice I read years ago was to set a certain portion of your daily schedule aside for writing, and spend that time writing -- even if that means staring at the blank screen! It helps teach your mind that certain times of the day are for writing, so your brain will be 'in gear' when you do write.

[AleMaho]

Alas! But that is exactly what I do!

I write the beginning (sometimes a Prologue/Preface) and then i write the ending (Usually a small paragraph on how i want the story to end. Literally, the exact words.)

Then comes, for me, the fun part.

How to take the story from 'here' to 'there'

 

It's not easy. And it seems unlikely for most people, but i guess that's my style.

 

Few tips on over coming the bridge:

 

º- Never post/submit a story that has not been completed in paper. If you do this, you'll feel the need to update to your readers, which will cause you to be 'forced to write', which in turn will end up being stressful or irritating.

º- Always have visualized and clear: The main plot, the subplots, the characters, and the timeline. The last one being of great importance.

º- Try to write a sentence a day. This one actually works. I've procrastinated a lot, so I'm no different than you. But I do have drafts on paper. So, sometimes I wake up and I write a sentence. Just one, and then i leave it as that for the rest of the day. The next day perhaps i feel like going, and write down a whole page. Whether one sentence or one page, the idea is to not let your story on hold indefinitely.

º- Write every small detail on a separate sheet. Sometimes, i get inspired and start thinking about a dialogue of my characters, or an important insight, so i write it down. I then built a bit of the story around it.

 

Those are some of the steps i take when writing!

[Rilbur]

OK, that's just it. I don't write the ending before I get there. I may know every single last detail -- in the case of Guardians, about the first 2/3ds of the prologue was written in my head well over a year before I actually reached the point of writing it! -- but I don't put 'pen to paper' (or fingers to keyboard) until the time is here. You never know what details are going to shift, change, or mutate on you.

[Dolores Esteban]

There's a very good site, helping writers to improve the first draft of their story.

 

December was International Plot Writing Month. I followed the daily instructions to improve and work on the plot of my NaNoWriMo novel. They helped me a lot.

 

There are plenty of useful instructions and tips on the site, also links to videos with more detailed explanations.

 

　

Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers

Edited January 2, 2011 by Dolores Esteban

[Tipdin]

I often have the same problem. I have a great beginning, a clear idea of the ending and an abyss between. What I started doing was making notes - very cryptic notes. A single sentence about a main point in the story. Then after I get a lot of main points I start slipping in small points and details, eventually filling out the list to form an outline. Then when I actually do write, I adjust outline and story as I go to make sure they match each other.

 

Very, VERY rarely does an outline NOT get tweaked - about a million times. But the outline helps me keep track of time and events. Then as I write, I often have sections of the story highlighted in red or bold or whatever so that it stands out when I proof. Those highlighted areas may need work for some reason or stray from the outline so it reminds me to adjust one or the other.

 

Even doing all that, middles never comes as easily as starts and ends. Sort of like real life, we all seem to have wondrous beginnings and clear ends, but it's the in between part that is the real story!

[reychop]

Woah, these are great advices. It changed on how I came to view some things. It's quite amazing how, when I asked for advice in writing and then I was able to pick up some real life lessons. Your posts will surely change my perspective regarding my views around the world. Especially because I always separate different aspects of my life. If I want to improve, I should change my attitude towards life as well. I can't expect to improve if I keep being stubborn. That's an instant realization there.

 

Some advices here might be difficult to achieve. Seeing that I never write a draft and how I procrastinate, I'm sure it will take some painful discipline. But I know it will be worth it. Thanks for those who replied! I'll surely reflect on these tips, not only because they were given by more experienced people but because I know I would have fun applying, remixing and experimenting with the different approaches mentioned here. ^^

[AleMaho]

Woah, these are great advices. It changed on how I came to view some things. It's quite amazing how, when I asked for advice in writing and then I was able to pick up some real life lessons. Your posts will surely change my perspective regarding my views around the world. Especially because I always separate different aspects of my life. If I want to improve, I should change my attitude towards life as well. I can't expect to improve if I keep being stubborn. That's an instant realization there.

 

Some advices here might be difficult to achieve. Seeing that I never write a draft and how I procrastinate, I'm sure it will take some painful discipline. But I know it will be worth it. Thanks for those who replied! I'll surely reflect on these tips, not only because they were given by more experienced people but because I know I would have fun applying, remixing and experimenting with the different approaches mentioned here. ^^

 

That's the trick!

Get advices, think about them and just mix them up to your convenience!

Those that work for me might not work for you, but you could twist them to make them work!

Good Luck!

[JamesSavik]

My theory on a complex plot:

 

I think of a plot like a rope.

 

It is composed of individual fibers or strands woven together to for a single, tight, stronger, coherent whole.

 

Each strand is a discrete story of its own right and adds to and supports the overall plot.

 

Typically there is a primary strand and supporting stands. It is possible to have no primary strand but I've never really seen it. The primary strand typically identifies the protagonist and point of view and grounds the story.

 

There were a number of strands in my novel Twilight (which has since been renamed Childhood's End).

 

• Primary- Eagle Rock, primary characters
  
• Washington- President, NIGHTWATCH airborne command post
  
• CDC- Atlanta
  
• Korea- 2nd infantry division
  
• US Space Command- Nebraska
  
• USS Seawolf- hunter/killer submarine
  
• Abe Lincoln Battle Group- attack group closing on Korea
  

 

Each strand expands the story and its scope by allowing the reader a first hand views of what is going on in each of the supporting strands.

[John Doe]

... outlines really do help with writing.

 

Very important. Golden egg here. Knowing the beginning and ending isn't a strange thing. Most starting writers are like this. They know the beginning and ending. You aren't alone. Many of us write like this, me included. It makes sense though. Because ideas sprouts, gives birth to a beginning and when we get a beginning, something in our brains triggers for an end and we get the ending. Point A to B. The middle is the hard part. When I wrote Get There I had that issue. And the story in its format now I'm not satisfied with, but I love it nonetheless. One day I'll edit it and removed about 100 pages from it (its about 420 some pages). That excess of 100 pages was the result of poor planning, though many of my readers love everything about it. I know better. If I did an outline (which I didn't) I would have gotten a much better story. Outlines are a guide, not set in stone but they pinpoint major events in your story making it easier to link together, like Mr. James was hinting. Not only does it make it easier to link events, it also helps a writer focus on the important details of the story and trust me, focusing on a few details or key events in a story is better than having multiple events. When you read, take notice of when you skim... you skim because the writer has failed in selecting the appropriate moments to show and tell. They are just giving us filler scenes with little to no relevance. So in that instance the writer failed. You never want to give your reader the opportunity to skim. When they do, it means they had lost a bit of interest in your story.

 

So I agree with the outline. Select and imagine a few key scenes/moments/events... and focus on the details on these moments... before you realize you'll have a novel draft in your hands/computerscreen. Also remember to read. Read. And read more. And just don't read. Take note of how that author is writing. Don't only take the "good" notes, take notice of the "bad" stuff too. When you take writing classes, I have this to ask everyone. When you workshop people's (your peers' work) who are you helping? People go in thinking it's for the writer. I disagree. Vastly disagree. Yeah maybe a little for that writer but for me workshops are a waste of complete time for the writer whose work is being critiqued. Why? Because people have this sense that they have to save your work. They say something is wrong with this part of your story when in fact there is nothing wrong there like how that person states. They suggest you to give more info on the missing father when the story has nothing to do with the missing father... I have sat through countless critiques and it always starts with me arguing against everyone else... regardless of whose story we are reviewing. Who are we to say that this is how the story should be? This is the detail you as the writer need to put in...well then why don't we write the story ourself. Workshops are meant for you, the person doing the editing. It's to help you to pick out things that other writers do - oh this was good I should do this in my writing.... hmm this is horrible, I shouldn't do this in my writing. Workshops are suppose to teach you to have a better eye as a writer. To analyze writing better. Not for the writer whose work is being reviewed because we don't know the writer's true intentions with the story and what they truely want the story to say. Sure we can push the writer in the right direction but most workshops are fruitless for writer. Sometimes writers takes these advice from workshop and they change their story to the suggestions and they come back with something worst than they initally started with and the reason being was that initally they had a vision, an idea, that was weak to begin with and that second piece was no longer an idea but a conglomerate mass of small details ckumped together. Details with no lead.

 

Anyway that was somewhat off topic, but yes outlines are important. They may seem like a hassle, not important, too much time consumer, but once you do it you'll realize why they're useful.

[corvus]

December was International Plot Writing Month. I followed the daily instructions to improve and work on the plot of my NaNoWriMo novel. They helped me a lot.

 

... Why is December plot writing month and November the writing month? It seems a bit like the case of Immaculate Conception being on Dec 8, and Christmas Dec 25 -- either they want us to have great hindsight, or a very long gestation.

 

I've written 3 long (100,000+ words) fanfiction novels, 2 mid-length (~50,000) novellas, and many mini-novellas (~10,000). I of course still have no idea what the secret to plotting is! But I have managed to produce a lot of words with my own method, which is not nearly so systematic as what other people here have advocated. I generally have a feeling in mind that defines the opening and the end, and the middle is full of plot events that manipulate the feeling so that it changes. Falling in love, for example; or falling out of love. I tend to have ending firm when I set out, but I only plot a bare outline. I don't write every day, but I think every day. In my opinion, it's useless to write without having a grasp of the feeling from which the writing should come out of. I, in any case, am more interested in the emotional and philosophical universe of the story. If I've outlined an event, but writing up to it, the event seems out of place, the outline must change, not the organically growing story. (I guess I trust my writing too much!)

 

On a more practical level, it helps to have a superstructure or pattern that helps the story have rhythm. The Harry Potter stories, for example, are defined by the school year, classes, tests, day-to-day events. A story with sports at its heart could be defined by practices, games, etc. Martial arts epics and tales of gallantry (Jin Yong, King Arthur) have a rhythm of fighting and duels. All these "events" are really a framework in which to manipulate the emotional world, but identifying the framework makes plotting much more practical. JK Rowling might have thrown in a few more detentions in order to have Harry get nervous about Snape; Tolkien might've tossed in some more orc encounters to give Gollum more time to be schizophrenic.

[Kavrik]

I've spent a week thinking of what absolutely INTELLIGENT things I could say to add to this thread and wrote them down. Then I thought, how best to post them...so here you are. Please hold back the amazing wave of thanks that I'm sure you all will shower upon me because of this and if any of you steal my brilliant plot idea from what I post here then shame on you!