plotwork

[KillerMuffin]

How do you do your plots? Do you make any effor to just sit down and write? What's your system? How important do you think plotting the plot is? How important is the plot itself?

 

[SexyChele]

When I first started writing, I didn't give much thought to plot. Didn't give too much thought to anything other than getting words up on a computer screen. Now I'm finding out that I like to have some sort of plot running through my stories, but it's still something I need to work on. I have to thank a lot of the folks here at Lit who have given me some excellent feedback and helpful hints along the way. I now try (and I know I'm not there yet!) to have a beginning, middle, and end with some conflict contained within the story. Not always as easy as it sounds, but when I read what other writers can do, it really inspires me to do better.

 

[Chicklet]

most of my story ideas are based on a scene i want to write, or an idea i have bubbling over in my head. plot for those stories doesn't come very well.

basically when i'm writing stories that do have plots i have to think of one thing "what's going to happen in the end?" how are my characters going to end up? are they happy, are they sad? what's changed? Now, how do I get them there?

there's the plot. in my horrid stories.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

It depends. Usually, I will write little notes on what will happen, what are the names of the characters, etc, but I don't plan very much ahead. I start writing, wrtite, write, write, and when it seems appropriate, I cut it. I'm not much for "and then they lived happily ever after".
Or, like when I wrote the stories for the Non-Consent part of Survivor contest, I wrote and I wrote and I wrote, until I had had it with the stupid story, and I just quit.
Definitely not one of my best works but then again, Non-consent isn't my favourite category.

 

[JUDO]

Well, usually the first thing that happens is: I think of a situation I would like to explore, a sexual situation, then I think of the "obvious" ways to get to that situation.

I usually write a bio for the main characters that need to have their own voice and be multi-dimensional, then any background information, like: What does the company do that they work for? Who's their best friend? Who do they confide in?

Just quick little paragraphs of stuff, so that I see my world and characters occupying it clearly.

After that, since I now know the "obvious," I write to avoid the obvious and try to find the path of getting there by finding the "lease obvious" set of scenes to take me.

For instance, at the beginning of a story, two characters loathe each other, but have never really taken any effort to get to know each other. You know, they met, hit a dark moment immediately and have gone to great lengths avoiding contact.

Ex:

The elevator doors opened at four, and Sally stood there quiet in her black suit. She took a step, then saw me, frowned and backed out as the door slid closed.

I looked up at the numbers changing above the door. God, what's her problem? I've never met anyone so beautiful that was such a fucking bitch!

* * *

Then, just like a mystery, I try to give the reader's the idea that the two will never pursue of one another until... That serendipitous moment occurs: She sees him naked by accident. They're locked in a room together. They have to work together on a project. He catches her "checking him out."

I also like to interrupt these situations with what happens in real life: the phone rings, someone walks in, a knock at the door, etc. In effect teasing the reader from ah,...completion. I think that's fun because the desire has been established and I can use that to erode the character's will.


- Judo

 

[TheEarl]

Against the Steven King credo, I plot everything. I have to know where I'm going. Things may change along the way as new ideas crop up, but I have to have an A and a Z with a few letters filled in inbetween as markers before I start. Otherwise I tend to wander off and end up with a Gamma and a Kai.

The Earl

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Against the Steven King credo, I plot everything. I have to know where I'm going. Things may change along the way as new ideas crop up, but I have to have an A and a Z with a few letters filled in inbetween as markers before I start. Otherwise I tend to wander off and end up with a Gamma and a Kai.

The Earl

...or not write one Iota...

 

[TheEarl]

What is even more worry is when I get a kyu instead of a Q. Often slips past the edit that one .

The Earl

PS. kyu is a Japanese syllable and one of the building blocks of Japanese words.

 

[NoJo]

I don't really plot my lit stories, but I usually know the whole story before I start -- when I write it down, I meander around until I get to the end, then I edit, smoothing out the lumps until I've got it streamlined. I really enjoy the pruning and editing process. Huge lumps of stuff just gets Ctrl-X ed. Each time I do it, the story gains momentum.

I have to admit, I'm often tempted to excise all the sex scenes, as they often don't add anything to the story!

I'm writing a heavily plotted story about two brothers who are each involved in completely separate scams, which become interconnected. It's the first story that's so complicated to write for me that I need to draw diagrams, timelines etc.

The best plot in my lit stories is Cindy Heller, which isn't surprising, seeing as the entire story is a rip-off of a classic.

Anyone here read "The Writer's Journey"? A friend of mine has started to write, and she showed me it, and I decided I must get a copy myself. It's an amazingly practical "Howto" on creative writing, describing universal structures and archetypal characters in fiction.

 

[cherrylips_au]

Even though I only have a few stories on here. I have spent time reading more about the structure of stories, plotting, adding suspense, etc.

My first stories I didn't consider plot just wrote the story from what I had worked out in my head.

Other stories that I have finished have benefitted from plot, they flow smoothly as I'm writing even if my plot changes course before the ending.

Other stories still take on a life of their own, yet I think for any story that is more than just a snapshot into the characters lives you need to plot. Just as we do our own lives sometimes even without knowing it.

 

[kiwiwolf]

I tend to get too far into my plots as a couple of the esteemed authors on this board already know. As a result I've ended up with a couple of novel sized manuscripts which are becoming too big for posting.

I wrote my only submission to Lit so far partly to see if I could do a self contained short story, and partly as a Christmas present to a good friend. Maybe I need that sort of motivation to keep it simple.

 

[Guest]

Like most everyone else.......

I initially come up with a basic, or general idea for a story. Usually a "line" that for one reason or another sticks in my head. From that, I'll put together a very, very basic outline. I'll try to decide how involved this or that character, or characters will be, and begin to develop what will hopefully turn into a story.

It IS rare however that I actually have an ending in mind until I'm well into the story. It's just something that works for me...though from what I've read, most everyone prefers having a beginning, middle and end before they even start. It's honestly rare that I ever have an ending in mind until it suddenly pops into my head as I'm writing, where I'd like to end up, what the possibility's are of my getting there based on what's already written etc. Sometimes I DO have to go back and include additional information for continuity, so that the start of the story at least eludes to some degree where I ending up going anyway.

But basically....that's it. It's not an every-time thing. But it does work for me, most of the time anyway.

I remain,

 

[Sabledrake]

I hardly ever do detailed plot outlines. Usually, I have a collection of scenes in mind, and try to string them all together. Kind of like building that bridge along the Florida Keys.

Often, I begin a project with no idea how it's going to end. The book I just finished had a huge cast of characters and a projected high body count, and I wasn't sure until I got to the final few chapters who was going to make it.

The characters, for me, are the most important. I have to have a pretty good grasp of who they are before I start throwing situations at them, so I'll know how they react.

Outlines and synopses are my least favorite part of the writing process (unless we're counting the anxiety of actually mailing submissions out and waiting for the rejection). Even as a schoolchild, I would fudge on those parts of the assignments. I'd write the paper first, then go back and do the outline.

It's nice to have a rough plan, but I like the freedom of being able to take the story in an entirely different direction should one crop up.

Sabledrake

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

Quite often I'll get a scene in my head that won't go away (particularly the erotic ones ) and I'll sit down a try to write it out. After a few paragraphs I feel that I don't really know my characters very well, but that's not important.

I just let that first scene progress until the characters start to talk to me, tell me what they want to be and how they want to be it. I rarely go as far as writing separate character descriptions, just hold them in me head so they can move around on their own (after all once they're in print they can't move unless I edit them).

Once I know my main characters I start rewriting what I have so far so that it fits, putting in bits of history, flashbacks, little snaps of emotion so that the characters become more real in the opening pages (or paragraphs, depending on length) of the story.

After that I keep writing scenes until a plot appears. Eventually it'll happen, often late at night after I've listened to a particularly good CD or watched a film that made me think, or maybe smoked just enough of something semi-legal to put my brain into inhibition-free overdrive... Following that is a night of laying awake progressing everything in my head until I know it's perfect.

Then I try to write down what I know is good and let the rest work on itself, changing the scenes to fit the new plot and working in new scenes to make it all right. Once the whole thing's finished I can go thru it all over again to iron out the inconsistencies. And voila, finished product!

I only wish I could type faster (70wpm is never enough when my brain is working 3 paragraphs ahead of my fingers)

ax

 

[pop_54]

Hi

I don't often plot as such, no notes, mental or on paper, I just either seem to have the whole story in my head from start to finish and just write it, or have a begining idea and just sit and make it up as I go along. If it sounds OK I go with it, if it doesn't make sense I hit Del. Simple as that.

I once thought long and hard about a story, made notes of where to go and what the plot was, and hey presto I lost the plot completely and it never got finished, so back to making it up as I went.

I just posted an experimental story yesterday, all dialogue and speech lines not one single sylable of narrative anywhere, no history, no descriptions, just chat between characters from start to finish, just to make it more interesting I decided to increase the character count as I went, I finished up with 7 characters if you include the doorman at a club all chatting together.
Oh and a couple of wild sex scenes as well, they were the most difficult to get over without narrative and I never use the multiple ooooooooooo's & Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh's crap.

The point of telling you this above, when I started the story I had a theme, but not an idea where it was going, after a couple of hours of on off writing, it all just flowed into place as a tale of sorts.
As I say though just an experiment I expect a lot of flak about the contend and or editing, but that was the idea to get constructive feedback for when I try a real dialogue only story one day.

 

[wildsweetone]

I don't plot. I just sit and write. Usually a picture, image, or object will pique my interest and then I just sit back and watch my fingers fly over the keyboard.

I worried incessantly about not making up plots or planning, then I discovered that it was okay to just write as I do, simply because I can do it.

 

[kiwiwolf]

I don't plot. I just sit and write. Usually a picture, image, or object will pique my interest and then I just sit back and watch my fingers fly over the keyboard.

I worried incessantly about not making up plots or planning, then I discovered that it was okay to just write as I do, simply because I can do it.

Your writing DEFINITELY doesn't suffer for lack of plot WSO. Me? I'm plot addicted.

 

[wildsweetone]

Thank you kiwiwolf I appreciate your comments.

I've come to the conclusion that we're all different and we all do things differently. If whatever we do works, then it's not wrong.

Maybe you've just got a lot of writing to do before your muse decides you can finish a story Man, I'm sure glad you have that muse and not me ...though now I've said that I've probably just jinxed myself

 

[KillerMuffin]

I usually don't plot my Lit stories, some I do, most I don't. Hell, I usually don't do more than a cursory once over for underlined misspellings before submitting it. Muffie is a bad self-editor.

I do plot my other stuff.

In short stories, I start with the story arc, the main plot. The beginning of the conflict, the crisis, and the climax. I write in a few main plot points, generally those are written as what I want the protagonist to feel or think at that moment with a phrase or two about the situation that might work for it. Subplots are usually just a one or two sentence synopsis of what's going on.

I'm more worried about theme, symbolism, and tone. I tend to work these out in detail.

In my long stuff, I plot rather intricately. I do the story arc for the mainplot with more action detail. I also plot arcs for the subplots. That way I can make sure I get the most out of each scene.

I construct a story about the same way I desconstruct one. I don't outline, though. If there's an outline necessary, I have to write it afterwards.

You can tell my plotted work from my unplotted work. Well, I can tell. The stuff I work at is more polished and is more powerful than what I just sit down and write.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Lit stories I usually don't plot, or are bits from larger stories and I've cut out a bit and reworked for a story format.

However, on my longer works I have a rough idea of the entire story but most esp the highlights. So I usually write those scenes frist and then plot out how they happened, along with generous helpings of characterization and motavation as needed.

So, the greater climaxs, the lessor climaxs, then the fillers along a thought of but not thought out frame from where I wanted the story to begin to where I want it to end.

Like most writers who use this mythod tho, I find myself with a great middle and end...........but how to begin?

Sometimes I can wipe out entire chapters in a couple of weeks, but when I go to start on the frist chapter.........total block, or I keep trying and trying and can get anything that pleases me.

 

[LGL]

I almost alwys have a well thought out plt with out much of an ending reason being I am not a fan of short quick stroke as fast as you can strories. I am constantly imagining new scenes for my characters. I guess I am waiting for the plot to peter out on its own valition.

 

[Guest]

CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION IS FOR VERY SANE AUDIENCES. UNSUPERVISED ATTEMPTS TO DUPLICATE THE FOLLOWING MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY OR HEALTH PROBLEMS. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PSYCHIATRIST BEFORE STARTING ANY REGIMEN OF PLOTWORK TO DEVELOP AND SUBMIT AN EROTIC STORY TO LITEROTICA.

I start with a general idea and not even worry about how I'm going to get from here to there. I have found that structured outlining and planning is nothing but a bunch of crap. With the technology available to us in the form of a word processor, I think it's easier to start with any idea—a kernel—literally, and edit the hell out of it, mangling and mushing it into a story, then finally preening it, gently, softly, smoothly. After many years too late, the painful process of editing, and editing again, and I have found the editing/re-editing process is what produces the greatest bang for the buck in a story. I believe most of the best writers to put pen to paper will likely confess that the VAST majority of their time is spent editing.

So...

Starting with little, I add to it, edit it, then subtract from it, then add new stuff, modify the new stuff, take out bad stuff, add a new idea, shuffle the story around with the new idea, re-write the story, throw crap away, toss out shit, add new shit, add good stuff, add paragraphs that start to gel into a plot, modify the paragraphs (I become obsessed with some of the paragraphs that tickle my fancy and spend too much time marveling at them), some of the obsession creates new ideas ... *breath*... add new ideas, remove more shit, consult the dictionary and thesaurus for fresh words to remove some of the repetitiveness ... walk away from the story for a day ... come back to the story and read the ABSOLUTE USELESS CRAP and tell myself, "You should fucking be embarrassed at this ... re-write 50% of it and thank me later."

I grudgingly re-write 50% of it, moving sentences around so they actually fit in what should be cohesive paragraphs. And I toss out shit. But I also add more fodder to replace the shit that had a chance at getting good but not worthy to even be fertilizer. A story thread of three or four potential plots comes to mind. I have to decide since only one will work, of course, and because (I LOL ruefully) it may involve more editing later if I don’t decide now. I experiment with the three or four plots and quickly discover, three of the four plots are useless pieces of SHIT ... only one plotline makes sense.

I'm motivated ... married to the story now. It has a purpose in life—a plot—a theme. Fresh ideas start to sprout all over my story (they look like weeds, at first) but I nourish and water and feed them anyway. I try to find "homes" for the themes and ideas (not wanting to waste them)—planting and transplanting, and cultivating, and yes, weeding. I add lots of shit—for fertilizer—I say to myself.

The story starts to develop with a recognizable framework. I read it, over and over again, and amaze myself at the PROFOUND idiocy of grammar, punctuation, and style. I spend several anal-retentive days "fixing" what should have been put down properly the first time.

But afterward, I see a glimmer of progress. And I start to feel good about the product.

I read it again, unsatisfied, of course, that the story lacks "something"—what? I haven't a FUCKING clue. So I add more shit, finding "homes" for it, hoping it starts to fill the “something” void.

*Breath* Stepping away from it for a day helps again. But it calls me back ... wanting me to fix it's wounded grammar, style, sentence sense, verbs, modifiers, etc., etc. What am I, some kind of doctor? I relent and fix and edit and fix the edits. The story begins to talk to me, coming out of its coma (and I had no idea it was in the hospital).

Portions of the story, which are now "alive", use evil mind control to send out subliminal messages that compel me to go back and ask myself, calmly, "Just WHAT the FUCK was I thinking THERE ... fix that SHIT!"

Fits of inspiration overwhelm me, begging to be part of the story, competing to be on ... “the team.” So I try to accommodate them by strategically wedging them into the appropriate space and chronology. Some of the inspirations work, some don't. I read it again and decide a major re-write and cut-and-paste on one section of the story is necessary because it doesn't fit or even belong in the sequence I originally put it. More editing and grammar and proofing and sentence reconstruction are needed. I have to kick some of the kids off “the team” during these tryouts (we started playing tag, but we are now playing army).

Sometimes (not always) I don't sleep nights, thinking about it, but I dare not sit at the computer all day (I have a R/L job I have to be concerned with). So—I PUT THE STORY ON A FLOPPY AND TAKE IT TO WORK AND EDIT DURING MY LUNCH HOUR WHILE NO ONE IS LOOKING! I am guaranteed one night of tossing and turning because the story needs an ending to make sense with the beginning and the climax. Yeah, sure, the ending I thought was going to work, doesn't, but during the course of coming up with an ending, I modified the beginning, and the climax.

And I still need to fill the “something” void.

Another re-write, only a partial this time, begins with me tossing out or modifying sentences, but I find myself largely keeping most of the paragraphs intact. I step back at arm's length, and start to look at the "product" taking shape. The “something” void turns out to be a twist in the story—I pat myself on the back for being ... “clever.” Until I realize I only feel good at the good story parts ... and bad about the bad story parts. I focus on fixing the bad parts to make them happy to be with the good parts—it’s bad to have bad parts with the good parts, something like the one rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel, or some crazy nonsense like that. I find myself talking outloud to... myself—deciding that writing erotica is crazy nonsense. While my mood wrestles me to the floor, taking advantage of me, I admit to myself that my so-called previous "cleverness" was nothing of the sort, but just proper writing. My musing over this lasts for about five minutes.

I become humbled at the stark reality that the word processor (the little fuck), is in fact, smarter than me. More editing and revision and wordsmithing and punctuation and grammar and spelling and word variety replacement and ... all the SHIT I WISHED I KNEW HAD I BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO MY ENGLISH TEACHERS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE, GOD DAMN IT!

My one-Lit-page-story has tripled in size. "Where did all these words come from?" I ask. "Do all of you guys really belong in there?" Everyone of them vigorously shakes their heads up and down.

I test the story, in its incomplete form, for comments and suggestions from a few others on Lit. Why, they come up with even more clever ideas and suggestions that force a major theme change in large portions of the story. The bitches and bastards … who the fuck do they think they are, anyway?! (Sheepishly, I decide they are, in fact, far better writers than I’ll EVER be.) So I go back to the fucking drawing board to re-write, re-edit, change, clean, and weed.

(Some of those words I asked before if they belonged in the story lied to me! I don't trust the honesty of words anymore and hire a dictionary and a thesarus to "screen" ALL word applicants for my story. You just can't be too careful these days.)

Two months later, I am finally becoming satisfied with what is turning out to be a mentally draining activity—not a story. I decide, over breakfast, that I want to get it done—I need to get it done—I have to get it done.

But it doesn't let me go—it's not ... perfect, yet (it, yes IT is anal, that way, the little shit). So I read and re-read, and edit, and re-edit. And then, one day, I decide, I discover, it’s time to polish.

A final pruning.
A final scrubbing.
A final dusting.

I'm ready to submit (I think). I do. Only to discover, to my horror, that after re-reading the story, there are STILL errors. I hurry and correct them and resubmit.

Finally, complete. Waiting for the post to complete this process, only for this round.

And what makes me want to do this, you ask?



Why, of course, I love it.


Edited to fix the fucking errors in my first post. I had to. They were calling to me...

 

[christo]

Plotting is perhaps my favorite part of writing. The old saying is that, if you want to make an interesting story, you need to get your character teetering out on the end of a tree branch and then have someone start sawing away at it. Metaphorically speaking, I mean. You understand.

I really enjoy thinking up branches to saw. Most of the time an idea comes to me in a one-sentence flash, something like, "A married man surrupticiously surfing the 'Net for porn stumbles upon a website featuring his best friend's teenage daughter, and he doesn't know if he should tell his friend." From there I daydream a bit, thinking up different avenues to explore, and often the whole story comes to me, complete, in one big glob.

I never allow myself to become a slave to my plots. If you try to mold your characters to your plot the story is going to end up like a research paper. I'm not one who goes in for the "my characters come alive and tell me what they want to do and say". When I'm writing, I'm the god, and the people on the page do what I goddam want them to do.

At the same time, if you're any sort of writer you approach your characters with some understanding of human nature and empathy for the human condition, and so the characters you've created should lead you down certain paths, sometimes paths you at first didn't consider. That's why you have to be flexible with your plots. That brilliant idea you came up with might not work if your narrator, who your first conceived as an amoral bastard, has evolved into a momma's boy who fears female authority figures. You do some more thinking. You adapt.

 

[NoJo]

CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION IS FOR VERY SANE AUDIENCES. UNSUPERVISED ATTEMPTS TO DUPLICATE THE FOLLOWING MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY OR HEALTH PROBLEMS. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PSYCHIATRIST BEFORE STARTING ANY REGIMEN OF PLOTWORK TO DEVELOP AND SUBMIT AN EROTIC STORY TO LITEROTICA.

Well, you summed the process up pretty well, PRM! I can relate to a lot of it, particularly the "taking the floppy to work" bit. Except I have one of those tiny palmtops so I can whip it out on the bus, in the john, in meetings, anywhere the inspration catches me.

 

[Pookie]

My outlines tend to be quite lengthy. I don't feel comfortable writing without a detailed outline of my plot in front of me. Much of the outline is a narrative summary of the story, with items indicated that I feel must be addressed at certain points in the story.

With this detailed outline, I can then sit and write without worrying that I'm going to leave something out. I can focus on little things in the story then. It allows me to write dialogue more easily as well, knowing ahead of time what the characters are trying to accomplish with the things they say.

It may be more of a security blanket for me, but I believe I write better stories because of it.

My plots are not made of stone though. It's not unusual for a character to go off on a tangent. But I normally reel them back in to the main storyline at some point.

I call what I do an outline. Other authors may look at it and call what I do a first draft of the story though.

Pookie