Plot! Characters! Drama!

I've been plotting. I thought a good plan would be to work on a single side, bullet-pointed plot for October with maybe a few notes on background and characters. As usual I've a vague idea of what'll be going on, but no idea about the antagonist.

Cheers,

David.

At the moment by plans run along the lines of vagueness, but that was for when the idea popped into my head. I'll write a few more notes on the run up to November the 1st but I'm not a huge planner for Nano!

2008: A Turtle, And Other Things That Destroyed The World - Rewriting on hold for November
2009: The Floating City - Going a little too well!

I have my areas of vagueness neatly bullet pointed: e.g. "4. Alice is chatted up by ???" and the classic "5. Alice must realise and do something".

Cheers,

David.

I've been plotting since July! :P

If anyone wants help with their plots and are coming to the meet up on the 10th then just ask and I'm sure someone will be able to help. :) We can get quite a good atmosphere going when we're all helping out each other with the plotting.

I've been trying to come up with something these past couple of weeks I finally had a brain wave this morning. I now have something a bit more concrete. Two main characters (though they need fleshing out a bit) and a couple of 'maybe' scenes that I might use.

2005: "The Acheivers" (FAILED)
2009: "Death Lacks a Daisy Call" (We shall see...)

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Cups of tea drank: 607
Alcoholic drinks inhaled: 153^56
Hyperboles used in the above statements: 2

Hi

I've been planning mine for ten years, i know a long long long time, but this is my baby, this is the one i have been working on for so long becuase i feel as though before i couldn't give it my all, now i feel more confident in my writing i am going for it. But in around april/may the whole thing changed, because of Zorina (sp? sorry if i got it wrong bab) I realised that what I wanted to happen, just wouldn't work, and she helped me and totaly re-wrote the way it was going. Now i am soooooooo happy about it (except for the politics, i hate them and can never truly understand them).

I've finaly finished working the first trilogy out, so, since i am going for a high word count (thanks to Cieria) I will be needing all three.

If anyone else needs help, come to the write-in and I'll help as much as poss. I'm alway good as a sounding board. lols. I've always got something bouncing off me (usually lighters or ciggies, thanks to my sister, i dont smoke, lols)

Duochan

Love is Love, who are we to judge if it is right or wrong.

The Burning Quills

2007 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Starts
2008 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Continues
2009 - WSS - Kaspia War Trilogy

I just realised the title should be
Plots! Character! Drama!

I've been plotting since September on an old story which had got as far as storyboard stage but been on the back burner for years. Extracting the lame bits (& there's plenty) and playing around with PageFour & yWriter has been a big help. I have a bit of second act confusion through and am working on understanding how all the threads fit together, if they do at all. Having said all that I may just end up with a completely different plot altogether :-/

Plot...what's that? :-) As usual I think I shall be flying by the seat of my pants!

What's "PageFour" and "yWriter"?

Cheers,

David.

They're writing programs. I don't know about PageFour but I've used yWriter for the past few years and it is amazing. Google it and download it. It's free. :) And like I said. Brilliant.

Thanks.

I've downloaded yWriter (but can't install here without Administrator rights - sigh) and had a look around his website. I'll print out various bits of advice to mull over later.

It reminds me of a stage playwriting program I started developing yonks ago.

Cheers,

David.

This is a little off-topic, but I'm intending to do a running story over the course of November on the NaNo forum boards.

Basically, I just wanna see if the entire NaNo collective could help one commit the perfect murder. It will likely be a series of threads, posted every few days every time a difficulty arises in covering up the crime. Only... kept sorta ambiguous, in that it's only alluded to that it might possibly be a fictional killing, rather than people being unwitting accomplices in a crime that may or may not have happened.

We make our own fun round these parts.

Er. Have no idea about a plot.

For my first one, I had the opening scene mapped out, then did the rest of the plot 2 hours before the midnight kick off using dice and the handout that the admins gave us..

Last year I plotted it out in advance, to find that what I had for the first chapter, took about 2 thirds of the book to actually complete, since two the minor characters, decided to rebel and not die when they were meant to and escaped, going on the run for a bit, and thus making the book their own to become the main characters.

So far for book 3 I aim to finally write a scene I wanted in book 1, but cut it since I was getting close to 50000 words, then had planned to put it in book two, but (see above) the plot went pear shaped and morphed into something else.

I can't really remember much else about book 2, so plan to read it, then no plot no problem before the end of the month.

2006 Winner - "Lies, Damn Lies & Sadistics"
2007 - Skipped
2008 Winner - "The Stealer of Hearts"
2009 - Skipped
http://www.chrisrollasonphotography.com

Hi Rob,
Sorry Edinburgh didn't work out but be good to have you back.
Your public novel idea sounds good fun.
It reminds me of just how warped (and entertaining) your mind can be :p

Look forward to meeting up again...

.............................................................
Nano 2005 - Won - Crashed
Nano 2006 - Won - Drama in Skitham
Nano 2007 - Lost - No title :(
Nano 2008 - Won - The Train Journey

David -

here's the link for Page Four http://www.softwareforwriting.com and also quote a good article about software tools for writers on the Write For Your Life blog http://writeforyourlife.net/5-fantastic-computer-programs-for-writers.

Sallie

Ok,
Picture the scene.
I was driving along a secluded country lane (as part of my job as a driving instructor) woods on one side and a river on the other.
My Media Studies pupil looks around and says "Wow. What a good place to hide a dead body!"
Do I
a) Jump out of the car in a panic?
b) Call 999 (or 911 for thse who watch too much trash TV)
c) Think "Fab" and spend the rest of the lesson honing details on the plot for "Murder By Test Route"

Still weeks to go but sounds like a good Nano plan...

.............................................................
Nano 2005 - Won - Crashed
Nano 2006 - Won - Drama in Skitham
Nano 2007 - Lost - No title :(
Nano 2008 - Won - The Train Journey

Ok,
Picture the scene.
I was driving along a secluded country lane (as part of my job as a driving instructor) woods on one side and a river on the other.
My Media Studies pupil looks around and says "Wow. What a good place to hide a dead body!"
Do I
a) Jump out of the car in a panic?
b) Call 999 (or 911 for thse who watch too much trash TV)
c) Think "Fab" and spend the rest of the lesson honing details on the plot for "Murder By Test Route"

Still weeks to go but sounds like a good Nano plan...

.............................................................
Nano 2005 - Won - Crashed
Nano 2006 - Won - Drama in Skitham
Nano 2007 - Lost - No title :(
Nano 2008 - Won - The Train Journey

Unlike last year, when indecision between two plots left me without a plan on 1st November, this time I have an idea I love and a plot I'm already building.

My only choice at this very moment is to whether I include one of my favourite characters (an ex-spy turned private investigator) in the plot or not. It's hard to tell if he'll actually fit in the story or if I'm just looking for another excuse for him to steal the show (as what happened in last year's win, when he began as a peripheral character and ended up being the main character).

I've downloaded "yWriter" and "Page Four", although I haven't had a chance to look at them. What do people use and recommend?

I use "MS Word" (the curse of our generation) with the whole novel in a single, immense file. I use headers of different levels (chapters, sections, notes) to generate a contents page, so I can jump to any relevant part and it gives me a list of things-to-do. I'm very keen on styles particularly with scripts. There's always a Notes file too, full of jottings, half done character biogs and cut-and-paste research from Wikipedia: I put stuff in, but I never refer to it.

The only other program I use is "WordWeb", which I heartily recommend. It's a thesaurus and synonym finder.

Cheers,

David.

Hi

I really recomend yWriter, it breaks it all down into chapters and indervidual scenes as well. Not only that but you can make notes for your characters, locations and items that are important (like a murder weapon). The best thing for me is the fact that it isn't in one ginormus word file, it can get a little daunting like that. With it all broken down, you can make chapter notes, scene notes as well. If you find a scene doesn't fit where it is, its a lot easier to change where it belongs, same with a chapter, and you can add one just as easliy into the middle of it, (which i think i am going to be doing a lot of, since i only did the basic chapters, that reminds me, i gotta print it all out, rats.).

I've not heard of page four, so i couldn't tell you.

A lot of us use yWriter, since it is a great and easy program to use, and it works great.

Duochan

Love is Love, who are we to judge if it is right or wrong.

The Burning Quills

2007 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Starts
2008 - WIN - Death's Messenger: The Journey Continues
2009 - WSS - Kaspia War Trilogy

I also use http://docs.google.com/ which forms a useful out of house back up

"cloud computing"

Hugh W

http://snaps4.blogspot.com/ photographs and walks

http://hughw36.blogspot.com/ MAIN BLOG

My plot will probably be the one from Flash Gordon, like most years... ;)

Theaker's Quarterly 30 * Dark Horizons 55

My plot will probably be about a man living in a sort of sanatorium/monastery and failing to get a seed to germinate into the plant that would cure his brain disease. That is probably all that will happen. There may be some conversations and descriptions of landscapes just to keep up the tension.

I will vouch for YWriter too. Seriously made last years attempt less stressful. Could easily add / edit / move around sections and it does back things up for you. It is also handy for getting ideas down and working out rough chapter outlines.

Plus it will work off a drive pen, so I can write at work in my lunch time, without having to install anything on the company computer.

I used open office in 2006. Since it is less irritating than Word, plus meant I could easily go between writing on my laptop and writing on my PDA. (Word screwed the PDA file format, so I could no longer open it on the PDA).

2006 Winner - "Lies, Damn Lies & Sadistics"
2007 - Skipped
2008 Winner - "The Stealer of Hearts"
2009 - Skipped
http://www.chrisrollasonphotography.com

I'm doing something that I never believed was possible: basing my plot on a dream I had. I thought Mary Shelley was just making it up until I had a fairly convincing dream about a room where you can make wishes that will come true.

The room: a pub toilet

The wisher: a young single mum struggling to cope at her ex's mum's house.

The plot: fairly cliched horror story about wishing you'd never wished bad things to happen.

I have about 20 plot notes on flashcards and no climax or conclusion :s so I'll be seeing you guys on the tenth to freak out and make a fool out of myself: the best way to make a first impression. I have plenty of spare flashcards though if anyone else wants some plotting aids...

You can install yWriter on a datastick!? Wow! I didn't know that, must try.

Drat! I can't install it here at work as it needs Administrator rights before I get to the "where to install" bit. I'll try at home.

I just learnt that PrintScreen pops a screen into the clipboard - amazing. What else do I not know about the subject that I'm most qualified in?

Cheers,

David.

Just to warn you that although yWriter can be run from a pen drive, often computers in schools and work places block it from being used. If your work computer needs Administrator rights to install it, then it may block it from being used from your pen drive.

Try it just to make sure, because I'm not saying that it definitely won't work. What I'm saying is not to get your hopes up because chances are that it may be blocked.

Well last year I didn't plan... I had a vague idea I was running with, but I have a bad habit of never really having a middle/end to my stories (hence I am far better suited to fast paced short stories).

So halfway through last year I was chatting to a friend, and we literally threw ideas off each other about a cat... called Mouse... and the fact he damn well misses his thumbs he had as a human! So now I've got some vague plan going, I just need to figure out a few more "tasks" for him to do... and make the ending a bit more concrete. Hopefully it'll get me to 50k; if not, it'll be fun to write (who can resist a cynical talking cat?)

And on the subject of ywriter... I dunno if I want to use it, oddly enough. Word has its problems... a lot of problems... so I'm very very tempted to use google documents (if I have net connection) and just a .txt file if I don't. Segmenting a story isn't my sort of style, in that I like to see blocks of text (and occasionally reread, although I got told off for doing that last year by the scary, but wonderful, Sue and pals).

I'm an odd one.

You know you're a bit mad when you write a novel called "Mouse and his pact with Lucy, also known as Stan, for the return of his opposable thumbs" which is sure to annoy both members of a variety of religions and cat lovers... hmm...

The story I'm doing for NaNo is one I wrote in short story form a long time ago and liked the plot (although it needs major refinement) so decided that it would be good as a full novel. I know the basics of what my plot is going to be, but the ending definitely needs to be stronger as it is way too clichéd and out of sync with the rest of the story as it stands.