When the plot goes bad

[BigTexan]

I've just finished the first draft of my next story. Trouble is, it didn't end the way I wanted it to and it has a great deal less sex in it than I wanted.

If I post it like this, I know it'll get panned in the ratings. Thats not all that important, but it's not really the story I wanted to write.

What do you guy's do when the plot goes bad?

BigTexan.

 

[Madame Manga]

If that's the story it needs to be, set it aside and do another one. If the first draft doesn't reflect your intentions, change it. I found a wonderful little ditty the other day:

The Second Draft

First write it down from fore to aft;
Fix errors in the second draft!
Made a slip that looks quite daft?
Just fix it in the second draft!
When scenes go spinning, all askew
And heroes die just halfway through
There's just one thing for you to do --
Fix it in Draft Number Two!

Death scenes where the reader laughed --
Fix them in the second draft!
Silly typos by the raft --
Fix them in the second draft!
Armies all by morons staffed --
Fix them in the second draft!
Half the art and all the craft
Are added in the second draft!

(But be sure, when that draft is done
That it reads as well as Number One!)

Copyright 1992 by Lawrence Watt Evans
All rights reserved

http://www.sff.net/people/lwe/miscellaneous/advice/2nddraft.htm

 

[kristydoll]

I've had this experience before too. Actually, I rough drafted an entire novel outline with one expectation in mind. When I got to the last chapter, what I had fully intended to do, did not happen. Funny how our own work can get away from us. Usually though, it is a character that goes astray.

Writing it the way it turned out, rather than intended, do you like the direction it took? If you are pleased with it, leave it. If not, try going back and seeing where it went off your original path. You may be able to make a correction there to get it back on track. Sometimes, though, stories need to go in their own directions - forcing them back can make the writing a fight.

good luck!

kristy

 

[BigTexan]

Actually Kristy, I dislike the way the story turned out. I'd had such high ideals about the main character "learning" a new way of looking at life and being happy with the woman he loves and all I got was him learning to deal with pain and forging a new life for himself.

Go figure.

BigTexan

 

[Quasimodem]

The Second Draft

More succinctly, but much less fun:
"Stories aren't written. They're rewritten."

You have to ask yourself, Tex. Do you actually believe in those "high ideals" you wanted your character to learn.

If you don't believe in it, it will be harder to write that way.

It CAN be done, but it is more difficult.

That's why they pay advertising copywriters.

 

[kristydoll]

Actually Kristy, I dislike the way the story turned out. I'd had such high ideals about the main character "learning" a new way of looking at life and being happy with the woman he loves and all I got was him learning to deal with pain and forging a new life for himself.

Go figure.

BigTexan

I understand how you feel. You may have had those ideals about your character, but maybe your character was not capable of them. Sometimes our characters let us down that way.

kristy

 

[wildsweetone]

i've been thinking about this...

if it didn't turn out the way you originally wanted then can that really be a bad thing?

i've experienced my characters really driving me nuts because they want to go places i never dreamed i'd be going. i've had no option but to let them have their way, it's not me doing the writing, it's them doing the living. grrr


a thought...
i've just finished a romance. at the end of the romance the woman turns up on the man's doorstep. the door was shut tight. she goes to knock on the door and the story moves on from there.

i hated how it ended, wasn't comfortable and it did not feel 'right'.

so i went back and deleted everything after her standing on the doorstep. this time when she knocked, the door was already partially open. it seemed to open a whole new set of circumstances. the difference ended up where it felt 'right' and i was much happier.

if you have the option to go back into your story, is there a point you can look at whereby if you make one action different it will open up a new set of options for your character?

i wonder if there are two different points here.
a) the plot goes bad
b) the plot doesn't go the way we expect or want it to.

when the plot goes bad, it's a lousy story (if a story at all)... it doesn't make sense, it doesn't have that ring of reality about it.

when it doesn't go the way we expect it to, sometimes it can actually feel more 'right'.

sorry i waffled again

 

[Whispersecret]

wso, I think that was an excellent suggestion. I'm putting that in my writer's toolbox, along with WH's advice about earth, wind, and fire themes in sex descriptions. Thankee!

I wish I could offer a suggestion, BT, but I've never had a story end in an unsatisfactory way. My stories go freaky in the middle. By the time I'm at the climax, there's just no other way things could go for me. My endings always seem clear.

But when they do go freaky, it's usually because I'm making the characters do something they don't want to do. Maybe you should see if your guy is rebelling.

 

[BigTexan]

Hmm, so many valid points and new ways of looking at this.

WSO, I guess you're right. By that definition, my plot didn't go bad, just astray

The ending, as it is, is the only one that felt "right.” It just isn't the ending I wanted.

I'm a sap for happy endings. I'd like all my stories to end like Dean Koontz stories. You know, the hero and heroine are together with a good dog at their feet and the sun is coming up on a bright new day.

This story ended ... differently. It is melancholy in the least, perhaps even sad. The best I could do was to tag a silver lining around the cloud.

No, the ending is the right one for this story with this character. Any other would be "wrong.” And actually, I think I knew this about halfway through the story, maybe before that. Hell, maybe I knew it when I started the story, but just didn't want to admit it to myself.

Anyways, thanks to all ya'll for your comments, suggestions, and understanding.

BigTexan

 

[Star of Penumbra]

Something mildly interesting: Both the stories I have posted here are the first drafts. And seeing as how most people seem to like them as they are, I don't feel any particular need to go back and rewrite them.

Edit: As far as my stories turning out differently than I expected them to: I don't let it bother me. When I write, I feel like I'm writing down something that's already happened, instead of making it up as I go along. If I write something that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story (from my POV, not the reader's), then obviously I need to change it.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

In one of my stories, my negotiations got away from me and my character ended up somewhere I didn't want him to be...however, I chose to go with it. Were I to go back and rewrite it, it might have gone differently.

I think sometimes what we want isn't what's best for the story...and the characters tell us so, in their own way.

 

[wildsweetone]

wso, I think that was an excellent suggestion. I'm putting that in my writer's toolbox, along with WH's advice about earth, wind, and fire themes in sex descriptions. Thankee!

You're very welcome

I have added it to my little file box too. My memory is bad and I just know it'll happen to me again.


I have a little theory I'm kindof testing...

My characters often go AWOL and it scares the hell out of me sometimes. See, it's not me that writes my stories, it's my characters. I just sit here and type or write, and I often have no idea what is going to happen next.

Personally, I think when that happens it's like being given a gift. (I'm not saying I'm gifted, but that I've been given the insight to be the tool for my characters voice).

I once asked on the threads whether it was a good idea to let your characters have their head in a story. I took advice on board and let this one guy do his own thing. I was stunned with the result. It was so full of extra emotion tugs. I feel it made a much better story than if I had 'guided' this character.

 

[jon.hayworth]

Hi BT,

I guess the first question to ask yourself is are you writing a PLOT DRIVEN STORY? or a CHARACTER DRIVEN STORY?

The writing I do for money has to fit into certain prescribed parameters - content, word length being the most important. Therefore before I start to write I have to have a very clear idea of what the story is about, what is going to happen, why it is going to happen - I am usually clearer about the ending than the begining. I then develop my character as he/she will be at the outset - so that the developmental change can take place.

If I am writing a fun story for Lit free of the above constraints I can choose to let my characters dictate the story, even so they cannot be given completely free reign or the story will degenerate into a mere fictional account that is not entertaining.

One of the easiest genre's of plot is the journey or odessy, the hero has to get from point A to point B and along the way will encounter people and factors who help and others who oppose - historically it starts of with the Greek story of Jason, and has become popularised by the inumerable Hollywood "Road Movies".

I would suggest you try writing your ideal ending for your story and then rewrite leading up to that end.

Hope this helps

jon

 

[jon.hayworth]

Since you are asking yourself - I am over here flitting around because I have 2000 words of a 5000 word story written, I know the final 750 words but need to refuel my imagination to complete the middle bit!

NO I DO NOT HAVE BLOCK - I just need a break!

jon

Watch out for my pending stories THE CAR part II and

A ROYAL SCREW the story everyone will be talking about

 

[deliciously_naughty]

I thought of this thread since I just submitted my first story that threatened to totally get away from me. I finished haunted lover (it's 5am, that's the best story title I could come up with) and realized that the end had totally gone awry and grusome from where I wanted it. So I went back, figured out where it had taken a wrong turn, deleted it and rewrote it. I am much happier with the real ending. I thought of this thread after I submitted it.

INteresting coincidence...it's also my 10th story Yay! (granted 5 of my stories are chapters to one story, but still)