Apr 2021
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Apr 2021
Apr 2021
ivanskilling
Apr '21
alexlcuri07

Depends on what you mean by full story, I guess! :joy: I think definition-wise, the main conflicts and resolutions and the how-does-that-happen-in-general should be laid out for plotters.
I agree! I'm definitely more plot-driven than character-driven. My plots drive my idea of what kind of character I want to have.

Working on chapters in batches is great! It doesn't tire you out and when you get further down the story, it also gets harder to outline the smaller details. By the time you reach the half-way point of the outlined batch, then you can perhaps start outlining the next batch. That way, you have a better idea of what's happened to be able to plan further ahead. :wink:

Freemints30
Apr '21

Master Guide of Plotting. Expert.

It all starts with an idea and general concept. That leads me writing character sheets....to know how to shape my plot

My out lines comes in 2 phases after I write out the concept and characters.
First phase: I try to fit the plot into a 3 act structure and these three acts are sub divide into many tiny acts (Example act 3 has downfall, rise, final battle, end)

Phase 2: Is a chapter my chapter by chapter summary of what the hell happens. The longest phase. Once that's done. It becomes my bible to use for my plot.

Then I write in several drafts each one changing with my increase in skills. The one upload to tapas before I do my final edit is draft 3.

If I don't like something I usual change it immediately if I can. If not I just turn my head an move on.

marbl
Apr '21

When writing something, I need to have the whole story at least roughly planned out. The way I plan things out is really random, more of just dumping everything in my mind into text so I don't forget.

Fafnir
Apr '21

this series is amazing. its a free lesson in writing from one of the best writers in the business. and he talks about plotting A lot.

impossiblesoul
Apr '21

As a plotter, I don't think it's so much about talent as it is about having messages I want to get through to the reader, and that means working my way backwards. In a way, it's like solving an algebra problem. If I want A + B to equal 30, then I need to take a good look at A and B to figure out what numbers they need to be in advance.

The difficult part comes in when I'm trying to write the equation without it coming off as a deus ex machina, because if I give the solution at the start of the story - well, I've spoiled it, but if it's too much of a surprise - then people will think I blindsided them. That's why I have to leave hints everywhere from the beginning of the story to help the reader narrow it down but not get a full answer so that there's still a surprise here and there and in the end. What does A equal, my reader? Something between 5 and 15. What does C equal? Something between 25 and 35. Give them enough to get their imagination going. People like mysteries and plot twists in moderation, and those too need to be reverse engineered.

So for me, it's about having a conclusion in mind while aiming to keep the reader guessing by giving a few numbers (themes) which allow the reader to imagine what the answer might be.

childofbooks
Apr '21

I learned this in my film class and was told that it helps not to get stuck in any type of storytelling.

1- Write the premise line of your story.

A premise line is usually one or two sentences that explain your story as a whole. It is not a summary or a theme, it is the core of your story.
It is hard to explain so I recommend checking examples in film websites such as IMDb, a couple of sentences under the movie poster is the premise line.

1.PNG875x469 235 KB

2- Determine the CLOSAT

CLOSAT stands for Character, Location, Object, Situation, Action, and Theme.
Define your characters' names, personalities, occupations, likes and so. Define the location and its properties. The objects that are important in the story, like a special sword your main character uses, or a cup that everyone tries to win. Define the situation your characters are in and the action they take with the reasons. And decide on a theme.

We learned these in class not to lose track of the story.
I hope this helps you as well :grin:

Kaydreamer
Apr '21

I'm half-plotter, half pantser. I tend to write random snippets of dialogue, scenes and such all out of order, whenever my imagination conjures them. I know that I want certain things to happen, so that gives me some direction. With Blue Star Rebellion, I know how it ends, and I have an idea of what each arc will involve. That gives me some direction.

Beyond that, sewing all those snippets is the part which feels more like pantsing. I'm not quite sure what that's going to look like until I'm working on it, and I'll go through multiple ideas until I hit on the right one.

My best friends when writing are bullet points on my iPhone's Notes, which I later put into Scrivner on my Mac. Having character files for all those random dialogue snippets is a lifesaver.

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
ivanskilling

I wonder if characters will allow me to work in batches. The idea of scheduling breaks sounds lovely~ Very hard when you don't know what the story will look like beyond a week from now, haha.

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
Freemints30

Yes, the three act structure. I have heard of this magical item that you plotters use to cast your story spells. :nerd:

Can't say that I've personally had to utilize one. Seems like I just jump right into your third step. :joy:

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
marbl

I do something similar in terms of dumping things onto a page. The biggest sad is knowing that you had a good idea and then forgetting what it was. :sob:

cyborgmermaid
Apr '21

I kind of work backwards while plotting. I have my major plot points that I map out when in the story I want them to happen. From there I break down how do my characters get from one point to another. I then break those actions down into what I want from each chapter then start writing dialogue from there. After I'm done with the dialogue, I write the details of the scenes.

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
arxianfall

Timelines and Tables??? My non-plotter brain cannot compute :scream:

I have a few character sheets and world notes somewhere, but those came long after I had begun writing. This seems so much more detailed and organized.

I will say though, my folder files for my drafts are labeled, color coded, and neatly stored on my drive. :relieved:

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
impossiblesoul

Keep your math our of my writing! :joy: (Jk, jk)

I like the point that you brought up though. I'm not sure that with my writing style that I could effectively write a mystery or thriller. That's in part because I don't really consider the full story when I initially write one out. Hard to leave clues if you haven't decided who the murderer is yet.

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
Kaydreamer

Wow! It's like you put how my brain works into words. I'm definitely less plotter than :jeans:, but after I decided general plot points my process was exactly like this. Snippets of dialouge, random scenes. Sometimes I have a hard time writing in chronological order, which I think is why having multiple point of view characters really helps me. I stay with one character until their "story bit" is through and intersplice it with what's happening with another character.

alexlcuri07
Apr '21
cyborgmermaid

I will also write dialogue and fill in the action bits in between! But as far as the story goes, my dialogue and character interactions usually drive the plot and not the other way around like you seem to do. This makes it very hard to stick with a plot outline. :disappointed_relieved:

Rhonder
Apr '21
impossiblesoul

This basically summarizes my thoughts as well! I'm a plotter because I lack the skill and foresight, I guess, to generate convincing plot twists and revelations out of thin air. I've tried writing stories in a "pantsing" manner in the past, but it always just felt very bland because everything would just be event to event with not much in the way of surprises or interesting things happening xD

So in that way I also need to look at the equation holistically to work those things out ahead of time. Especially if it's a more complicated story with like B plots going on as well and like... yeah I just don't have it in me to do that on the fly :sweat_smile:

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Apr '21

For me, the way I plot is akin to how a cake artist would make a large specialty cake, like on Cakealikes.

I might start with bits of scenes or dialogue that I suddenly come up with, like how the baker might already have some simple sheet cake baked.

Then I build an overall outline, the support and structure to my whole story. It's like the support and metal/wood structure to a complicated cake.

Once I have the outline down with an idea of the story's beginning, middle, and ending, I then pad out this framework by writing in more scenes and dialogue, the actual story bits. This stage the bakers would be adding layers of more cake, rice cereal treat, ganache, modeling chocolate, so forth to fill in their structure and give the cake its actual form.

Then I will connect those scenes, pretty them up with edits, add more polish, and then hey! A finished story appears. Bakers will cover the cake in fondant, add in the details, touch up any areas, and then they have their finished cake!

ApplesOverIndia
Apr '21

I thought I was a pantser when I was younger, but seeing as the only two big projects I've ever finished were thoroughly plotted beforehand, that was inaccurate :joy:

I'll plot out the story in a decent amount of detail before I start writing anything, as well as character descriptions and backstories. I'd say that 85% of the scenes in the final first draft were explicitly included in my outline. A few get cut, a few get added, and on my more recent project I actually added a whole little arc that wasn't planned. That outline had 60 bullet points, which turned out to be a good level of detail for me. Enough that I never got stuck, but little enough that I had room to discover the characters' emotions and such along the way, even though the events were figured out.

The key for me is to marathon the writing part. I can spend a couple days or a couple weeks on the outline, leave it for a few days and come back, whatever. But once I start writing, it's a marathon. I don't skip days. Together, plotting and marathonning work for me for two reasons:
1. Writer's block is mainly mitigated by having the outline. Even if I'm totally uninspired by a scene, I can at least grind out something really rough and come back to it later, then get on to more exciting things. If I don't have that outline already, I just... stop. And never come back. I get stuck on that moment and don't know what the more exciting things are that I'm working towards, so I just drop it entirely.
2. By writing a ton over a short span of time, I don't lose track of things. I remember what's happening, things that need to be worked in, etc. When I take breaks, even just a day or two, I start to lose the thread of the story in my head as well as the motivation to finish.

Before figuring this out, my longest project was an unfinished 26,600 word trying-to-be-a-novel that I worked on over three years. With the system above, I first wrote a 40,000 word novella in about three weeks (which I'm now posting on Tapas - Life in Polaroids), and more recently finished a 94,000 word novel in a month and a half (which, fun fact, is a very revamped version of the 26.6k piece mentioned earlier).

Both stages are very linear for me, especially with my most recent work. I started the outline with no idea how it would end, and I didn't know until I'd worked through almost the entire thing. I write from beginning to end, following that outline and adding as needed.

Llyrel
Apr '21

Plotter here. Definitely going to agree with what a lot of other people already said.

I usually start from a random scene and/or dialogue, then ask myself "okay, fine, but how did they end up here? What happens next?" and start building stuff from there. With The Emergency Coven, I didn't have to do a whole lot of work on characters themselves, as most of them were originally made for a RPG I used to play, so I was already familiar with the great majority of them. Still, some things needed to be changed, so I made sure to make a list of events I wanted to have in the story + a separate list of things that were going to be different from the RPG.
I also wrote down a timeline of all events in my story, starting from stuff that happened in the past and that will not make it into the comic, but is still necessary for me to understand relationships between characters and whatnot, and then going all the way down to the "current" events.

Bullet points are definitely useful! In this way, if I need to rearrange/add/remove chapters for whatever reason, I can easily do that by moving a single bullet point, instead of rewriting a summary or whatever. The outline doesn't have to be extremely detailed at first: I usually end up filling it as I progress, once I start realizing that I need more chapters and/or that some chapters are unnecessary. So far I have a very detailed list of events going up until the beginning of Vol. 3 and a rough outline of the rest. I know how my story is going to end and even what's going to happen in the next season, but my bullet lists are nowhere near as detailed as the ones I have for Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (which are already scripted) :'D

I prefer having extensive lists of events (and sometimes even uber long meta essays about WHY certain things need to happen a certain way :'D) because it helps me remember things (the plot is LONG and involves a lot of characters, many of which are keeping secrets from each other, so it's key for me to remember who knows what exactly) and it also serves as an inspiration whenever I'm feeling stuck. I don't always write my chapters in a "chronological" order: sometimes I don't feel inspired to write a certain scene, so I'll take a look at my outline, be reminded about a certain episode and say "oh, yes, THIS! This episode is cool! I'm writing this right now!" :smiley: Knowing where my story is heading also gives me a sense of purpose: I tried pantsing stories in the past, but more often than not... it just wouldn't work for me. If I don't have a plan and have no idea where the story is going, it more often than not simply means that I literally have no idea how to continue it and that I'm probably going to abandon it soon D: