I am pantsing it this year, literally, making it up as I go along, line by line. By the seat of my pants (I wish that could be 'By The Power of Greyskull...)
Anyone else doing this? Anyone else floundering in a sea of endless plot possibilities, unable to pick any direction, even as the words pour from your faltering and clueless hands? (they dont always pour, most of the time they find themselves a bit constipated) Literally... LINE BY LINE!! The other day my MCs walked into their flat, quite happy and chuckling away together.. to find the living room vandalised. With poo.
Where am I going with this? I'm worried.
Anyone have any tips on how to pants it successfully, from previous experience perhaps?
(i realise I've made two references to poo in this post. That's three, now.)
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35,409 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 06 29
I have more fun pantsing it. When I tried having a plot outline beforehand, it started feeling like work -- you know, when you have to write this scene next, because that's what's in your script.
So chuck the script! But if you pants it, It helps if you have somewhere or something to aim at. Maybe there's something the MCs want or need?
And try not to let your MCs be happy... that always causes poo to happen, as you've found out! LOL. Put obstacles in their way, to stop them getting whatever it is they want. Bad guys are a good source of obstacles, even if they are just out to get whatever it is the MCs want.
You could always try the Douglas Adams method of getting inspiration: have a long, hot soak in a bath (with bubbles). But it's probably not a good idea to take a laptop in with you to make notes!
Just my 2p.
Chro.
----------"I never promised anybody a good time. I'm an artist, not a philanthropist." -- God.
42,257 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 06 46
I've been close to pantsing. Mainly recently all I've done is short fiction or an edit which is not line-by-line, but pretty much page-by-page. Because of all that structure, I felt completely lost when writing with very little actually planned other than the key events.
A couple of combined tricks I've been using from role-playing games are:
* Soft points/Hard points - You've got your key events, right? A body is found. That kind of thing. If you lay them out in order, then you can fill in the 'soft points' between, which are potentially optional, may expand the story, characterisation and such, but aren't the tentpole events. Mine are just listed on my whiteboard:
Day 4: Prelude
Day 1: Arrival, Camping
Day 2: Body, Robin
Day 3a: Searching
Day 3b: Barista, Reunion
Day 4: 16 Burials.
* Kanban.
This is a weird one, as it comes from my workplace's use of "Lean" business practice. It's some businessy balls which worked in factories with Toyota, so some people are implimenting it in offices to see if it works. Some does, some doesn't. Initially made for stock levels, the RPG writer Justin Achilli wrote a Two part article on using them in storytelling role-playing games:
http://jachilli.squarespace.com/blog/2009/6/25/gm-experiment-kanban-enco...
http://jachilli.squarespace.com/blog/2009/6/29/gm-experiment-kanban-enco...
As I said, these are about role-playing games, but really they're useful for any level of storytelling. I took those one-word 'hard points' and made them into sections for the Kanban. If the people are exploring the site, they will find the locked doors, if they've found the locked doors, then the keys can come into play. I've been ticking them off the whiteboard, so while I've not got a scene-by-scene layout, I've got some potentially overlapping story elements which all have different triggers. So if the Barista appears, that's ticked off and I go to my cast's dubious observations of him. I always know what to do next, and that's been a great help.
And that's how, despite a momentary panic on Sunday morning when I realised I still had no rigid plot, I've managed to keep going and keep my sanity.
37,667 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 08 59
i've got a few points that i think might happen, but apart from that it's all a big murky mess.
I think i'm enjoying it a bit more because of it though. when i don't know what's going to happen next it makes it more exciting
V
32,622 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 20
Once again, foreshadowing is the key.
You don't even have to plan it. Just make random references to little details of things, and try and vaguely remember some of them...then later on, they can become major plot points and it'll look like you're really clever. (So clever I almost just swore unnecessarily on a family friendly forum....oops).
Example:
My journalist's newspaper got bought out a few years ago and is going to the dogs (but maintaining high circulations because the dogs like trash). This was just a throwaway bit of depth to the piece. Also, earlier on a reference to the cheapening and modernisation of museums.
Totally unrelated right?
But what if my antagonist, who is an undead liche Russian oligarch, bought up the museum and the newspaper over the last few years (along with half the island we're living on) and it's all part of his evil scheme.
Now, I only realised I was going to have a proper antagonist when I fell in love with a song about Phylacteries (PM me if you want me to send it to you), and decided I needed a liche. Found a famous liche with a good name...but how could I get a Russian Noble into my modern day (approx) Denmark.
Business.
Et voila. From a plot that was running down a little, we've got someone who's pulling the strings.
I've entirely forgotten my point.
Oh yeah. I've had the vaguest notion of where my plot is going, and all the most fun bits have come almost completely by surprise.
And somehow an actual plot keeps on emerging.
Weird.
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This was unlike the story
it was written to be
I was riding its back
when it used to ride me
- Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear
56,393 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 10 08
I have to work this way. If I know what's going to happen before it does, it takes the fun of writing it away. I had a vague idea of what I was doing before I started but that was it, and the story is writing itself. If I get stuck, I 'see' my character in my mind's eye, watch what she's doing, she then 'tells' me what's about to happen (I know this sounds really weird, but this is honestly how I work) and then I write it down AS IT HAPPENS.
Please don't call the men in white coats. I don't really belong in the funny farm.
----------Kung fu changed my life
28,175 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 02 21
Gee thanks everyone. I feel engorged with all your new pieces of advice.
I like the suggestion of closing my eyes and letting my MCs show me what they're doing, and then writing it down. The danger is, they'll start taking over me, a la 'Being John Malkovich'. 'Being Holly Prescott' would be a far crapper film, methinks!
Cheers all xxx
"Insert here a philosophical vox-pop of your choice to give you a teensy boost in this sea of grey"