New writer: Plot

[Xpoerotica]

I'm a new writer. I'm curious how other writers keep track of the plot / story.

I had heard that JK Rowling diagrams everything before she writes.

S. King said he discovers the story by writing - so I assume he doesn't plot before hand?

Can you recommend any classics in the field of writing instruction?

Thanks!

 

[gunhilltrain]

You can try this:

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Youn...8&qid=1540398023&sr=8-4&keywords=Colum+McCann

He's mostly talking about novels (and how to get them published), but it probably applies to shorter works too.

Maybe both Rowling and King have a point; it could be done either way, or maybe even a combination of the two. Later I'll post a couple of methods that seem to work for me.

 

[rae121452]

i fantasize the story first. usually by the time i'm done mulling it over. it's fully formed. that doesn't mean that the story isn't subject to change as it is written, sometimes the story writes itself. john irving has said he works the same way, that his books are all fantasies that he's developed in his head. my sticking point is usually the opening sentences, after i formulate those i'm off and running.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm a new writer. I'm curious how other writers keep track of the plot / story.

I had heard that JK Rowling diagrams everything before she writes.

S. King said he discovers the story by writing - so I assume he doesn't plot before hand?

Can you recommend any classics in the field of writing instruction?

Thanks!

You'll get a different answer from every writer. Some writers don't plot and let their writing take them somewhere they don't expect.

I like some of Stephen King's works, but he is, to me, an excellent example of a writer whose books could use some more careful plotting. His novels have a tendency to go on too long and the endings often are the weakest part of them. To me, it often feels like he had no idea how to end the book and he just cobbled something together. Too often, he comes up with some new hocus pocus to finish off the story. A lot of his novels are like that.

I write a numbered outline of my entire story before I get into writing the meat of the story. I want the story to cohere, and I always have a pretty clear idea what the ending is going to be before I've written much. Each numbered point consists of a single sentence describing the next thing happening. Before I get far into writing the story, I almost always write the ending. While writing I often deviate liberally from my outline, especially in the middle of the story, but I nearly always circle back to the ending I wanted all along.

 

[KeithD]

Sketchy notes, mostly of personal, place, and "things" names. I do not outline fiction. The joy in writing fiction for me, who comes from a nonfiction career of very tight control of content, is going on a journey of where my mind is taking a story that I wasn't consciously aware of.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I plot it out in my head for at least an hour before I start typing. With any of the stories I have started that are any good, it's easy enough to remember where I wanted it to go.

I suck at writing characters though. I really need to work on that...

 

[SimonDoom]

Sketchy notes, mostly of personal, place, and "things" names. I do not outline fiction. The joy in writing fiction for me, who comes from a nonfiction career of very tight control of content, is going on a journey of where my mind is taking a story that I wasn't consciously aware of.

I get this. I come from a professional background that involves extensive writing in which research and organization are extremely important. But I can't seem to get away from my long-standing habit of wanting to outline things. In fiction writing, as in my other writing, I'm focused on the conclusion, and how to get there cleverly and persuasively. I admire writers who take a more free-form approach, but I just can't seem to do that.

I was the kind of kid who enjoyed diagramming sentences in middle-school English classes, so that might explain things.

 

[TxRad]

For short stories, it is mostly off the top of my head but the title always comes first and keeps things going in mostly one direction.

For novels I start with a page about halfway down the second page. I start by listing plot points. I also list possible problems and difficulties to be encountered and their possible solutions. After that, I keep a character list with features, quirks, and such that get updated as I write. My characters develop as they go along.

Having it a half page below where I'm writing makes for quick reference. I can also change my scenarios on the fly. It keeps the novel on track, ties up loose ends, and makes things work. But it is all subject to change at any time.

It has been 50 or 60 years since I've even thought about diagramming a sentence.

 

[KeithD]

I don't think it's free form with me. I've been structured in my writing for so long that the structure is there in my brain. I don't hold that it's the characters running the story. It's still me. It's just in there in my subconscious and doesn't get revealed until I'm writing.

I don't agonize over writing a story. Either it's already there in my brain waiting to get written, or it's not. Stories aren't precious gems to me to be beaten to death in redoing because I'm only going to be able to do a few of them. I write over half a million words a year (and get it published). Writing to me is a process of getting the current story in the computer and getting on to the next one. The happiness of the erotica I write is the high I'm in as I'm getting it into the computer. Writing so much of it and having a graduate degree in editing and a dedicated editor behind at the publishers means I don't sweat the minor mistakes that will be in a story. A couple of reviews and an edit followed by another review is enough for me and then it's on to the next, which is already sitting in my brain pushing to unload.

In fact, my current story, dropped as I was wakening this morning, is screaming at me to get off the Internet crawl and into the research mode and to get on with it for today's work. It also wants coffee, so I'll go do that first. Then it's off to India to check on the current names of Bombay and Madras and to see what the train is like that runs between them and what the train schedule is.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I get an idea. Sometimes I write a short synopsis, sometimes not. I think about it, seeing a motion picture in my minds eye.

Then I just write it. Sometimes it works out just the way I envisioned it, a lot of time the characters take control and make a mess of things. Then I have to back up and cut the crap out of it hoping to do a better job with it.

In the end, I have something I'm pleased with. And to me, that's all that counts.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I both plot and diagram so I know where the story is going prior to writing it. That enables you to work the more detailed elements into the story and not forget anything that matters to the story itself.

The plots and diagrams tend to be very simple for short stories, but they're the framework I work from. I've found this approach helps to make sure that a lot of the fancier writing tricks (foreshadowing, inserting a small element at the beginning that will be the key on which the plot turns, etc.) don't get lost in process.

You can lose all kinds of things in a short story - but you should be losing them deliberately, not forgetting about them.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just write your story whatever way you feel is right.

I don't believe writing can be taught-technical yes, creative no-and how to's are out there to make money off people who think they can write like the famous author putting it out there(like King) or who think they can't write on their own without help.

The only how to you need for writing-and most other things-was written by Nike years ago in three simple words.

Just do it.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Outlining Your Novel by K M Weilland
Structure Your Novel by K M Weilland
Scene and Structure by Wickham
Plot and Structure by Bell
Make a Scene by Rosenfeld

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I don't think it's free form with me. I've been structured in my writing for so long that the structure is there in my brain. I don't hold that it's the characters running the story. It's still me. It's just in there in my subconscious and doesn't get revealed until I'm writing.

I don't agonize over writing a story. Either it's already there in my brain waiting to get written, or it's not. Stories aren't precious gems to me to be beaten to death in redoing because I'm only going to be able to do a few of them. I write over half a million words a year (and get it published). Writing to me is a process of getting the current story in the computer and getting on to the next one. The happiness of the erotica I write is the high I'm in as I'm getting it into the computer. Writing so much of it and having a graduate degree in editing and a dedicated editor behind at the publishers means I don't sweat the minor mistakes that will be in a story. A couple of reviews and an edit followed by another review is enough for me and then it's on to the next, which is already sitting in my brain pushing to unload.

In fact, my current story, dropped as I was wakening this morning, is screaming at me to get off the Internet crawl and into the research mode and to get on with it for today's work. It also wants coffee, so I'll go do that first. Then it's off to India to check on the current names of Bombay and Madras and to see what the train is like that runs between them and what the train schedule is.

Wot he said.

When I start key-bashing, I have a pretty good idea of the characters and what they are going to do and say, but the whole thing is cast in Jello-O. My average finished story is nowhere near what I had originally thought it would look like.

And that's OK. It's called writing, not orienteering.

 

[Polyacrylate]

I plot in my head for a while before I even think of writing. By the time I'm ready to start I've got an overall flow for the story, snippets of dialogue, and how I want the story to resolve mostly worked out.

Next I write a short description, 2-10 sentences that cover the plot and themes I want to tackle.

Next I make an outline, working off the above with character and scene notes. It's not a traditional outline, but rather a series of sentence fragments, separated by line breaks.

Well before I finish the outline, I pick a spot to dive in, and start fleshing out the outline into actual prose. I find I usually write myself into a corner if I start at the beginning. Writing from sections in the middle outward allows me to foreshadow, work in character tics and reveals organically, and present character growth as gradual or built rather than a discreet event. Starting this before I finish the outline allows the story some ability to grow it's own direction if it develops a life of it's own.

I try to edit as I go, but sometimes it doesn't work out well.

I typically do this on my phone during my lunch break, which also slows the process considerably. For me, writing is a glacial process.

 

[KeithD]

Sounds like work with much delayed payoff. I'm retired. I don't do work anymore.

 

[SamScribble]

With short stories, I tend to start at the beginning and keep writing until I get to the end. It's only at that point that I can tell you what the plot is.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I use the KISS Plot, that is KEEP IT SIM!!!PLE SIMON!

Most writing aims at a punchline, and most writing before the punchline increases suspemse and tension. I want a logical trail more than a story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Depends on the story.

My latest one started with an idea about a group of people being manipulated into scandalous acts. Because things have been carefully planned and managed to get them to that point, I had to plan that story in some detail.

With most, though, I let the characters drive the action. I'll start with an outline, but usually I end up deviating from it when the characters pull in unexpected directions.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

Depends on the story.

My latest one started with an idea about a group of people being manipulated into scandalous acts. Because things have been carefully planned and managed to get them to that point, I had to plan that story in some detail.

With most, though, I let the characters drive the action. I'll start with an outline, but usually I end up deviating from it when the characters pull in unexpected directions.

This person is a PILOT alt.

 

[ishtat]

. Then it's off to India to check on the current names of Bombay and Madras and to see what the train is like that runs between them and what the train schedule is.

That sounds a bit like HRF Keating who wrote the Inspector Ghote novels based in Bombay. Keating managed to get a great sense of India's atmosphere without ever going near the place until after his 10th Ghote novel.

 

[Kantarii]

I rely on a strong, catchy title. It gives me a basic guideline to writing my stories. With a lifetime of material written in my personal diary, I’m off to the races; writing. My biggest challenge has always been finding the time, not defining a plot.Kant

 

[HeyAll]

My story plots are fairly simple, but then again my stories are usually 2-3 pages.

Of course, erotica is simple because you already know how it ends-- sex.

 

[KeithD]

That sounds a bit like HRF Keating who wrote the Inspector Ghote novels based in Bombay. Keating managed to get a great sense of India's atmosphere without ever going near the place until after his 10th Ghote novel.

Have to say I've been near it. Whenever anyone asks me where the end of the earth is, I immediate chime forth with Madras (which is now Chennai, but it wasn't in my time). When I got there they had just managed to open a Sheraton Hotel, but there was a cow in the lobby.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I write a couple of paragraphs to summarize my idea, and then start fleshing out scenes.

Then I think about it, a lot, and usually make a slew of changes to maximize the “zing” of the story. Drastic upheaval of the original plot idea is common. There’s a reason why I chose my MajorRewrite nickname!

All these changes are why I rarely finish anything. But for me the revisions are great fun. I love screwing around with a story and trying to make it better.