I'm writing on a dank, dark island in the middle of the Salish Sea and would love to have online discussions about writing. Getting anywhere in person is pretty much out of the question for me (anywhere besides here, I mean).
I don't seem to have a plot, but am forging ahead, letting my characters interact as seems right to them. This is getting out of hand. We already have one dead puppy, a collapsed house, and a deeply depressed goatherd. I am feeling just a bit of trepidation about tomorrow. What will happen next?
Do any of you write without a clear plot outline?
Discuss.
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129,092 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 56
I do in a sense. I have a basic idea of what I want and I allow the characters to guide where things go. To put it simply I have a world and it is doing it's thing and I have characters that are doing theirs. Whether they are apart of the events or not will determine how the story flows, but anything they miss will still happen and tie into the story. So in a way I seperate these two elements and combine them as I go. Often times when I write I know what is going to happen in the world so I make it my job to guide the characters to those events and have them play out... Is this making sense? I am confusing myself.
I'm a very whimsical person in that I don't overly plan too far ahead. If I know what is going to happen a few chapters ahead I will be happy. I have developed my characters and assessed what their skill levels should be and in time things seem to come together.
One thing is for certain though, I need to have three basic things in order to even bother writing a story: I need a conflict - something for the characters to get over. I need motivation- why the characters are doing what they are doing. Finally I need a clear antagonist (who may or may not appear right away). If I can't find either of these things by chapter five I scrap the book and start with something else.
----------- Forsaken Desire - Finished
- Ira's Nano Challenge - Write a Genre I Don't Write/ Like
Challenge Rules:
- Randomly Picked By Strawberry Suite
- Can't Use Character Pool
- Have To Finish It
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Nov 3, 2009 - 23 32
This year I am trying to write without a distinct plot, working from little more than a title, a theme, and a protagonist initially.
I believe that the theme is the trick to staying focussed. Everytime you add a new element or feel the urge to throw in a strange twist, you must ask yourself what this new element does to the themes. What side of the argument might it support? For me, plot is entirely subservient to theme
I've got corpses piling up faster than I had originally expected and a mob is now ready to lynch my hero. I do notice that it is much easier to create problems for one's characters than it is to give those problems reasonable and due resolutions. Too often we might feel the urge to create trouble just because we are starting to stall in our storytelling. That likely can't be a productive way to proceed and so I'm trying to come up with at least one neat solution to every problem that I want to inject.
My goatherders are angry, frightened, and bengeful but not depressed.
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Nov 4, 2009 - 07 43
I actually don't usually have a very concrete anything. Except characters. I start there. How the story unfolds is almost entirely up to them.
The only thing I try to come up with for them is reasonable plot twists.
This year most of the really negative stuff has already happened to both characters, so now my biggest struggle is keeping the secrets that need to be kept in order for the readers (and characters) to not clue in too early :) I have a basic idea of where I want the story to go, but it's sort of "i want it to end up here......probably." it may change :)
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Nov 4, 2009 - 11 28
Any time I've tried to plot my story line ahead of time my creativity completely fizzles! It just doesn't work for me. I have to let things happen and edit the heck out of it when I'm done.
This year I'm having trouble, though. The last novel I wrote was lost when my son spilled water on my laptop (no... I didn't save *yikes*) and getting back into the swing of things is so hard! I either revert back to things from my old novel, or just get stuck altogether. Pretty crappy, but I'm plugging along, trying to find my groove :-)
Sounds like you've got lots happening, though- I'm already intrigued! Good luck!
129,092 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 11 37
Outlines simply don't work with me as well. If I do do anything remotely like an outline it is very very barebones. It would look something like this at best:
Chapter 1
- Bob talks to Jimmy about dem taters
- Dem aforementioned taters are poisoned
- Jimmy dies Bob framed.
Literally that is it and it helps map things out, but doesn't force me to commit. maybe I want to shift Bob being framed in the next chapter and just focus on Jimmy dying. I don't like to be bound in anyway while I am writing, but if there isn't anything anchoring a writer I find that they tend to toss out too many plot twists. This occurs until the story is more like snakes and ladders, which I might add is a nightmare to edit.
----------- Forsaken Desire - Finished
- Ira's Nano Challenge - Write a Genre I Don't Write/ Like
Challenge Rules:
- Randomly Picked By Strawberry Suite
- Can't Use Character Pool
- Have To Finish It
46,915 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 22 25
Thanks. Your comments are encouraging.
It's interesting having an outside life, too, that intrudes. I've been thinking about my apple orchard and bam, the first character was an orchardist. Then, my neighbor and I finally made a deal in which I get to buy goat cheese from her and so now the orchardist has a guy that I suspect she'll hook up with who makes cheese.
And then there's Bob. Who the heck is Bob? He has a John Deere hat on, I know that.
The kids, though, will be urban through and through.