How do you plot out your stories?

[OldGuy1026]

My ideas just pop into my head. It does take me a few months to work on a story because I lose and then gain passion for the story. When I do have ideas I type down everything about the story thats in my head so I can have a skeleton to work with. Then I fill in the rest.

Actually that's a two headed sword. Ideas pop in, you have to write them down. Especially when working with erotic stories you can play it to the max. On the other hand if you're writing something your grandmother might read, then that takes work.

The main thing is: If you have an idea: WRITE IT DOWN!!! Things can get lost and well be lost forever, so work on it.

 

[ILmonamour]

Story plots

I've only posted one story on LIT but have finished two manuscripts. I don't really plan a storyline, it sort of comes to me and I rip it apart into a sort of snowflake effect. It's a learning curve.

It's hard to explain but once I know the location, how many characters, that's when I really outline/brainstorm on the characters. Through the outline and character development, I spend more time creating backstories that I know exactly where the story goes and only need to expand dialogue.

For my latest submission of Reading the Defense...I stumbled drastically. I started writing the entire story over a weekend without doing heavy research and had to start from scratch once I posted the first chapter. It was a disaster, messy and the plot unclear. I think as a writer, it depends on how you feel..how comfortable you are with your writing methods. I tend to write dialogue when I'm on the trains or buses and everything else comes after I've mapped out the overall structure of how a chapter should flow.

 

[ILmonamour]

Depends...

It really depends on the story, my mood and my general excitement for the characters. I always start with a general outline describing character. Their age, features, things that bug them, and use that as a foundation. If I'm writing a full manuscript, I try to use the 'snowflake' method as best as I can. Its very detailed and keeps everything in tact. For short stories, I aim to 'snowlake' it but get caught up in the characters and just write.

 

[MichaelWest]

Pictures

I have a plot in the back of my mind for an entire story arc. Sadly I get very little time to write, so I break the story into fragments and write them like pictures in a scrapbook with the aim to weave them together where they fit like puzzle pieces.

Each of my short stories is one emotion, one activity or one moment captured. I have a lot drafted and look forward to getting it at least suitable to share.

 

[Dazzle1]

I work out a plot in my mind.

My job involved hours on the road and it allows me to plan on 2-3 hour drives.

Than I put the idea in writing.

 

[LordofBlackbirds]

What I usually do is think about something that wouldn't be socially acceptable and kind of go from there. A basic example would be sex in public isn't accepted, so we can start with say a woman who's been drinking at a bar and she's walking home and she meets a dark stranger on the way home and on a whim decides to fuck him only to realize that he works three desks down from her's in the office that she works in. That's just off the top of my head.

 

[Biker_Type]

way on back when i tried writing creatively for the first time, i was over organized about characters and plots. now i try to take the theme or topic and let it run. also have a couple of people to bounce ideas off of and change as needed. much easier with computers & e-mails. takes several tries before i'm satisfied and then to get input.

 

[nakdsub]

Plot?

What plot? I sometimes get ideas for dialog or a small section of a story, but most I just let it unfold as I go.

 

[HeyAll]

I start off thinking about a theme or a particular scene that I find to be really hot. Then I keep expanding it, figuring out how to set it up in a realsitic way.

Once there's enough of a plot to make a story, I start writing. The writing doesn't even need to be in order either, sometimes I just start writing in the middle or at the end, and jump back and forth wherever I get ideas.