How important is plot?

gettingby · Feb 10, 2012

So I am 1,000 words into my story and all I have done is set up the scene for something to happen. I still don't know what. Here's the thing I am worried nothing will happen. I seem to be creating these stories that seem more like slice of life than stories. I always have subplots going on, and those are complete mini stories. But I seem to struggle when it comes to building up tension in the main piece. I didn't use to have this problem.

Is this writer's block? Has anyone else struggled with this? And can you have a great story with a soft plot? If anyone has examples, that would be great.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think.

MJNL · Feb 10, 2012

How important is the plot...uh, this is a trick question, right?

Sounds like you might be suffering from "wrong end of the stick" writing. some people are ‘pansters’--meaning they can just start off with a great line or set up and the story tells itself from there. Other people need to plot first to be effective. If you find you're trying to be a panster but the 'story' never turns into a story, then you've got a problem.

Not that 'soft plots' never work--but everything else better be freaking brilliant. Stories are about people and events. If you've got people and no events you've got character sketches, not a story.

So, yes, plots are just as important in shorts as in novels. I suggest trying to plot your next short before you start it and see if that method improves your results at all.

Hope that helps.

RexZentah · Feb 10, 2012

You need to start at the end. Paginate the first page to 576 or something and write the last scene.

TaylorDuke · Feb 10, 2012

gettingby said:
So I am 1,000 words into my story and all I have done is set up the scene for something to happen. I still don't know what. Here's the thing I am worried nothing will happen. I seem to be creating these stories that seem more like slice of life than stories. I always have subplots going on, and those are complete mini stories. But I seem to struggle when it comes to building up tension in the main piece. I didn't use to have this problem.

Is this writer's block? Has anyone else struggled with this? And can you have a great story with a soft plot? If anyone has examples, that would be great.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think.

I think this may be a problem, especially in shorts. You need to get to the punchline much faster.

Good tip I heard for writing short fiction: "Arrive late and leave early."

In other words, start as close to the conflict as possible and end right after the conflict is resolved.

James D. Macdonald · Feb 10, 2012

Just as an exercise, write a Lester Dent story. Follow the instructions to the letter. Do it fast: no more than three days from start to finish.

thothguard51 · Feb 10, 2012

Without plot, you don't have an interesting story...

jaksen · Feb 10, 2012

Without plot, there is no story.

Start it in the first line - the first sentence.

AJ Valliant · Feb 10, 2012

James D. Macdonald said:
Just as an exercise, write a Lester Dent story. Follow the instructions to the letter. Do it fast: no more than three days from start to finish.

I am going to try this. Very neat.

AJ Valliant · Feb 10, 2012

TaylorDuke said:
I think this may be a problem, especially in shorts. You need to get to the punchline much faster.

Good tip I heard for writing short fiction: "Arrive late and leave early."

In other words, start as close to the conflict as possible and end right after the conflict is resolved.

This may join "Kill your darlings" on my mantle of helpful literary quotes.

contrariwise · Feb 11, 2012

Steven Moffat says he always one full scene at a time, in order, so that he can avoid this problem. If you're writing with the sole purpose of getting to an interesting ending, then the journey to the ending won't be fun reading. You can't really tell readers "This story is boring, but stick with it because the ending will blow your mind!"

gettingby · Feb 11, 2012

I don't think my stories are boring, but I do tend to have soft plots. Who knows maybe I write boring. Having a bad day.

Paul · Feb 11, 2012

TaylorDuke said:
I think this may be a problem, especially in shorts. You need to get to the punchline much faster.

Good tip I heard for writing short fiction: "Arrive late and leave early."

In other words, start as close to the conflict as possible and end right after the conflict is resolved.

I would have thought that saying meant 'gradually build up to your crescendo/ plot pinnacle, reveal it, then split. no? where's it from?

ETA. found this.
http://thewritersalleys.blogspot.com/2011/07/get-in-late-leave-early.html

(basically arrive to the party late, when action has started, and then leave early ie leave 'em with a hook to read the next chapter.
for ss the hook would prob be the punchline.

contrariwise · Feb 11, 2012

gettingby said:
I don't think my stories are boring, but I do tend to have soft plots. Who knows maybe I write boring. Having a bad day.

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood you. When you said that you had written 1000 words and only set up a certain scene, it sounded like you were saying yourself that the only purpose of those 1000 words was to set up that scene. So the 1000 words had no appeal of their own, yes?

jaksen · Feb 12, 2012

Write one bewildering, tantalizing sentence first - then write your 1,000 words of set-up, description, narrative, whatever. (Though I'd cut that in half, at least.)

A sentence like: Why was she under the bed?
Or, Mac went into the kitchen and there was blood everywhere.
Or, That's not where he parked the car.
Or, No matter where she looked, she couldn't find Alice.

Okay, it doesn't have to be the greatest sentence ever written, but enough to make the reader want to read - or wade through the next 500-1,000 words - to find out what's going on.

So I still say, hook the reader in the first sentence. The very first thing which you write.

gettingby · Feb 12, 2012

I don't seem to have a problem with the openings. I think I am good at setting up a scene or situation that draws the reader in, but I tend to make little happen and leave the characters stuck in whatever situation I put them in.

I will try Jaksen's advice. Thanks.

But on the topic of soft plots does anyone have example of it working?

Mad Rabbits · Feb 16, 2012

I agree that good short fiction, or the type I like to read, needs plot.

Having said that I find much literary fiction is soft on plot, and in some of the stuff out there it seems virtually nothing happens. So you CAN write soft plot stuff and get published, but as somebody else pointed out, everything else needs to be pretty dazzling.

Silver-Midnight · Feb 17, 2012

Plot is essentially the story. So, it is, obviously, very important. However, how far you lengthen or stretch that plot depends on the story itself. Some plots can just not be stretched, and some can you just have to look in the right places.

James D. Macdonald · Feb 17, 2012

Plot will get you through times with clumsy prose better than graceful prose will get you though times with no plot.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 17, 2012

I don't plot, I tell a story, and there is a difference. If you have a plot, you have to turn that plot into a story. If you tell a story, plot comes along for the ride.

For me, a story is how a character resolves a situation, or answers a question, which also means how he does or does not accomplish a goal, or how he succeeds or fails at some endeavor.

Whichever it is, that's where I start. With a serious situation, with a question, with a goal, etc.

I have no idea what's going to happen later, any more than you do. I don't want to know until I write it.

But by starting with story, with something important, in the first sentence, it's pretty tough to write a boring story.

Buffysquirrel · Feb 17, 2012

I remember getting a piece in slush way back some years ago now, that was brilliantly written. Really good, evocative, descriptive writing, from a writer who clearly knew what they were doing. Yet after a while, I got bored, and sent a rejection. Why? Because it was all description. Nothing happened. I could see there was going to be lots more of this lovely description, but no story. No stakes. No characters to engage with.

Almost a crime to write that well with nothing to say.

sxoidmal · Feb 17, 2012

If you're worried about nothing happening, give yourself free license to just keep typing away, let the characters develop themselves, flesh out your world. At worst, it becomes reference material for when the plot is ready to manifest itself. You know? Think of it as a playground or a sandbox in which you get to know the people involved, what they care about, why they're doing what they're doing.

That would be my advice for getting past writer's block, anyway (or producing something while stuck within it).

A quick-and-dirty way to create a plot is to meditate on the main character. What do they want most, what gets in their way, and what's at stake if they fail? Something to think about, anyway.

How important is plot?

gettingby

MJNL

A Little Lost

RexZentah

TaylorDuke

Writer of Short Stories

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

jaksen

Caped Codder

AJ Valliant

AJ Valliant

contrariwise

The hours passing

gettingby

Paul

contrariwise

The hours passing

jaksen

Caped Codder

gettingby

Mad Rabbits

Silver-Midnight

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Jamesaritchie

Buffysquirrel

sxoidmal

Nascent