Plotting?

I started with the end, then imagined the beginning. Then I asked myself, "what has to happen to get from A to B?" Each scene that "had" to happen, I wrote a sentence or two describing it.

I started writing. The writing changed some things, and each time, I went back to that list of "has to happen" scenes and recast them into the new structure. now that I'm well into the work, the recasting happens less and less frequently as the story takes more definite shape.

SusanR

I find that I can never really plot, at least at the first pass. Sure, I will imagine necessary scenes in my head and work them in somehow, but I just let the story flow.

I'm going to be plotting the second draft of my novel, so we'll see how that works out. Hopefully it'll be less messy!

This is my plotting: I start thinking: hmm, if Harry one day loses his favorite ferret, which has been borrowed by his 8-year old niece, what would happen? He looks for it and posts posters all over and then he realizes it was his niece.

It's pretty lame, but as I start writing I think of better ideas, and start developing it. I never write it down, though.

Plotting

I don't plot. I hate plotting. I think Stephen King and Ray Bradbury have it right

"Plot is the good writer's last resort and the dullard's first choice." --Stephen King.

"Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your charac-ters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic." --Ray Bradbury

I don't really plot, I just kind of write BUT...if I think of something that I feel would be great later, I type it in red at the bottom and kind of leave it there as a reminder that I may include that later or start to change the direction of the story to lead to that.

I love to plot. I need to plot. For me, it is one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process (or rather my writing process). My hat is off to those of you who can churn out a coherent manuscript without the benefit of plotting.

For my current WIP, I knew who the characters were. I knew of three or four important events, plus how it began and ended (we'll call these Points A, F, L, R, and Z). It was great fun to take those points, sit down at my computer, and fill in all the letters in between. I came up with great scene ideas, new twists, even a new character I hadn't realized was missing from the story.

I now have a stack of index cards, each with a different scene on it, in the intended order for writing them. Will every scene stay as written on the card? Probably not. Will I add or delete scenes as I go? Certainly. But I could no more not plot out a novel than I could drive with my eyes closed.

-Kelly

As James points out, plot and character are very closely linked. Plot is what your characters will do, so if you get to know your characters well enough, the plot will come naturally.

For me, this means the process of plotting a book is:

* Decide what kind of things I want to happen in it
* Come up with some characters that are likely to do that sort of thing
* See what happens

As an example, for my first novel I wanted to write about people who establish a colony on another world, outside of our solar system, and a war that starts there. So, I tell myself I need a main character who is likely to lead that kind of expedition. He's a military man, because in my world it is a military organisation that's most likely to be in charge of the expedition. Ambitious, because a lot of people would want this job and he has to get it first. I know I need internal conflict, so he has a fiancee who isn't quite as happy about leaving Earth as he is. That should help him have second thoughts.

And I need somebody to start the war. Obviously to do this, he needs to be in a position where he can attract supporters. A high ranking officer should be good enough; he can easily recruit from his subordinates. He needs a believable reason to start the war: altruism. He believes the universe will be a better place if he takes this colony and turns it into a strong military power, willing to settle disputes between other colonies that will follow it later. Why is this necessary? Earth won't do it -- some kind of tragic event in the past will make them think twice before they act.

Obviously my main character must oppose him. He doesn't like the idea of a military dictatorship. He believes strongly in democracy and individual freedom.

So, I have these two men, opposed to each other. The villain will have to act first -- what will he do?

And the story emerges from that question.

The problem i have with plotting is that, after a while, my story starts to feel false and dishonest.

I can write the first 3rd of the book without even thinking about plotting, but when i come to getting myself out of the mess of these first 30, 000+ words, i begin to plot what happens next, and to me, it feels contrived.

I tend to just carry on with only the barest idea of what will happen next in my mind. The problem here is when the mythology or the backstory is complex, i can often find myself confused by why things are actually happening.

It can be incredibly frustrating at times.

I start with whatever the highest stake is and get that established. That's the crux of the story, and the rest won't work really well without (having tried that first and ending up doing several rewrites to fix it).

I don't outline. I'm not event-oriented, so an outline tends to kill my stories. I do kind of a general summary to work things out and go from there. The story will evolve on it's own.

Look guys, there's no hard and fast rules, and frankly the genre you write in will largely decide for you whether you need to plot or not. Take thrillers/crime...these do require some forethought in outlining the sequence of events, whilst chiklit for example is more character driven and can be happily made up as you go along.

The big no-no (imho) is to apply the wrong writing technique to a the wrong genre. ie: if you're writing a character-driven book..it probably is a really bad idea to plot the story out, as the character should really be the one doing the talking, not the story.

If you're a writer that absolutely MUST plot first, or conversely a writer who detests plotting, the important consideration is to make sure you're writing in a genre that is sympathetic to that preference.

DamaNegra said:

This is my plotting: I start thinking: hmm, if Harry one day loses his favorite ferret, which has been borrowed by his 8-year old niece, what would happen? He looks for it and posts posters all over and then he realizes it was his niece.

Click to expand...

Well, dammit man! What happened to the poor little ferret? !!!





I don't plot, have no idea how to plot, and don't really care to learn how to plot.

I create characters and as I create them, create their backstories and put them in a situation in the introduction, the rest of the novel sort of presents itself. In other words, as someone else said, I have a character, I have a situation, and I have a few points along the way in my head, I just have to connect the dots. A, D, M, and X exist in my head and as I write the rest just sort of fill in on their own.

And my current WIP is a thriller of sorts, an occult mystery. My previous finished first draft is that of a psuedo-historical novel. Neither were plotted. Both came to me in the writing process itself, not before. So I disagree that certain genres need plotting more than others.

I'd simply say that certain writers need plotting, not the genre itself.