Curious how others plot

K Corcoran

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I'm getting back into a novel I started last fall and took an extended break from. I'm feeling more confident in myself as well as the story. I personally feel that outlining is especially crucial in this genre, more so than others. I'm curious to what degree others outline. Do you write a small description (a la book jacket or query) and then plot as you write? Create extensive character profiles? Or do you write a scene by scene bulleted outline?
 

Silva

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When I wrote my first draft, I didn't outline at all, I just had an idea for the first time in years and I vomited it all out on the page over the course of a couple months before there could be any chance of slipping back into the non-creative abyss. :tongue

So, outlining was not something I did, or something I really knew how to do. As I began editing it into some kind of coherency and cohesiveness, I've tried several different things.

I've done query practicing on many occasions, to try and nail down what the character wants, what's getting in the way of that, and what the character will do to get it. I've written multiple synopses to try and clarify all the relevant plot points for myself.

I've worked through Shawn Coyne's Story Grid method, here. I've worked through K.M. Weiland's character arc series, here, as well as some of her other plotting and structuring series.

When I begin a chapter, I start with a few notes at the top of the document, sketching out what I want to accomplish in this chapter, what my character wants to accomplish, and any other details I want to keep focused on or don't want to forget to include (otherwise I tend to wander).

I've also gone to the end and worked backwards, chapter by chapter. That's something that seemed counter-intuitive at first, but I don't think I could have ever figured out how to connect the first part of my novel with the last part without trying that.

All of these things were helpful in different ways. I think outlining is something you have to learn, no matter which method you find works best for you. I'm a hands-on learner, so for this novel at least, outlining is something I have to do as I'm writing, rather than before. Next novel, hopefully I'll be able to do more of it up front.
 

Frankie007

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i don't really do my stories all the same way. some have come from a dream (a scene) that i was inspired to build around. certain places i see in my real life day to day living becomes a part of a story that i'm doing and built around that. sometimes i do outline in a general linear fashion.
and other times i frankenstein a story from bits and pieces of other stories.... or i maybe have a very basic idea and then just let the story lead me around to the ending. LOL
 

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Hi K! Pantser here—except I start plotting fiercely in Act 3. I stop at a few points and chart out everything. While in some cases, I knew what was happening offstage while writing Acts One & Two, I try to not let myself lean too heavily on one killer until the third act.

It seems to me that if I know who did it, the reader will figure it out between my words. My research, the characters' interactions and their personas help me determine who did what, when. Then as necessary, I go back to Acts 1&2 and lay out a few clues or tighten something.

Works for me, but then I have read about a million books so plot is engrained on my psyche.

Hope it helps, Lucie
 

SKStark

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Hi there. This isn't exactly my genre, but thought I'd throw in my two cents. When I first started writing, I was a total pantser, and ultimately that led to me finishing nothing. This past year, I've swung in the opposite direction and become a hardcore outliner. I might sketch out a scene here and there, but typically I don't start writing until I've created character arc sheets, character interviews, a story arc with the major plot points identified, and a scene list which can be 30+ pages. This typically includes notes about what I expect to happen, foreshadowing that needs to take place, important revelations, scene purpose, etc.

Someone already mentioned K.M. Weiland, who is a great source of information on outlining and plotting. I've combined what I've read from her with a few other things and basically put together worksheet templates that I use for all of the above (I'm happy to share them if you think this is something you want to give a shot). Ultimately though, I think it comes down to personality, and there isn't really a one-size-fits-all. I had a try several different methods before I found what combination of habits works best for me.
 

DongerNeedFood

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Pantsing and plotting have both failed me. I tend to get stuck when pantsing, but I get bored if I plot too much. My current WIP I have written the ending already, and I have written down a few events I want to happen in the middle, but otherwise I will sort of work backward from my ending.
 
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I'm getting back into a novel I started last fall and took an extended break from. I'm feeling more confident in myself as well as the story. I personally feel that outlining is especially crucial in this genre, more so than others. I'm curious to what degree others outline. Do you write a small description (a la book jacket or query) and then plot as you write? Create extensive character profiles? Or do you write a scene by scene bulleted outline?

I am weird. I take notes for years before starting. But even then my outline is like ten to twenty lines. In my writing I am like working through something that is interesting to me so it is hard to really plot detailed ahead of time.
 

cbenoi1

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Step 1 - Premise.

I start with a good one-liner premise. That's the foundation of the story. If it sounds boring, weak, or otherwise difficult to expand, then no amount of writing genius is going to salvage the book.

Ex: An FBI Special Agent teams with a shrink in order to capture a cunning hitman.


I then alternate between the following steps in order to refine the story:


Step 2 - Hero

I define the Hero in terms of weaknesses, redeeming qualities, desire (for that story), and need.

Weakness - this is what the Opposition will use to make the Hero's life difficult
Need - This is what the Hero needs to achieve in order to defeat the Opposition. Usually a character change.
Redeeming Qualities - What makes the Hero the only one to engage in that story.
Desire - What the Hero wants to do in that story.

Ex: W) Hero sees the world in black & white. Good vs evil.
N) Needs to have an open mind towards the gray part of our existences (to be defined)
Q) Hero uses unorthodox methods of investigation
D) Kill or capture the hitman before some doom happens (to be defined)


Step 3 - Opposition

The Opposition is what keep the Hero in check. It can be a character, a machine, or even Mother Nature. It is usually the exact opposite of the Hero's weakness in every way. Young vs old. Woman vs man. Generous vs selfish. To increase suspense, the Opposition is a familiar face to the Hero, or actions from the Hero (often from a long lost past) creates the Opposition, i.e. Hero and Opposition are intertwined. Hero often have the very same goal but from opposite ends.

Ex: Opposition is all in the gray, not good, but not evil either. Opposition is a soul worth salvaging. Opposition works with the Hero in some function. Hero and Opposition have mafia witnesses as objects of a deadly tug-of-war.


Step 4 - Twisting the genre

Ways to depart from the expected, not solely at the very end (aka the 'twist'), but all along the way as part of the story's spine. With the M/T/S genre, the story ends with the Hero either killing or bringing the Opposition to justice; a departure from the genre would be to do neither.

Ex: The Hero is using the name of an inactive mafia hitman to protect witnesses by faking their elimination. The hit-woman who has switched careers a decade earlier as a criminal psychologist to seek personal redemption is not too warm at the idea of reviving her old life. In the end, Hero and Opposition unite on a common goal: eliminate the mafia boss.


Step 5 - The ticking bomb

What makes the tension increase apart from the Hero getting closer to the goal? Usually a time limit. Or a condition (ex: someone will die).

Ex: The witnesses the Hero tries to protect happens to be those who have hired the hit-woman in the past. Hero wants to protect the witnesses to nail a mafia boss. Opposition wants to eliminate the remaining witnesses to preserve her existing way of life.


Step 6 - Planning the reveals

M/T/S is all about revelation. Many revelations. The uncovering of a clue. The interrogation of a witness. A discussion. A web search. Talking to an expert. Those are all pieces of the puzzle that have to be revealed one after another in a specific sequence. This needs a plan.

Ex: Hero and Opposition true undercover activities are also shielded to the audience. Hero's witness protection scheme is slowly revealed. Opposition's past and redemption process is also slowly revealed.


The end result stands on less than a page. It's enough to keep writer's block in check while giving me some flexibility in the writing.

Hope this helps.

-cb
 
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Geoffrey Fowler

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Many people warn against outlining because it may block the creative process and say just start writing. That's what I do until see that I don't where my story is going. Then I do the following: 1) Write down the theme in a few sentences. 2) Make a list of major characters and 3) Describe the settings. Then comes the hard part, the plot. At this stage. I don't know what it is, but that doesn't mean I can't think about what it could be given that I have a theme, characters and settings. So I write a few pages of my speculations on what could happen, not what will happen, but what could happen. At some point I become stymied and set the project aside. It usually happens, though, that after a few days or a few weeks the Eureka! moment comes and I see how the story could end in line with the theme. From that point on it's a matter of fleshing out the story, which really boils down to writing it, and revising it over and over. I know that outlining is not going to work for me because when I begin a story I don't have anything to outline.

Many writers do outline, though. I know of someone who writes Regency romances and she uses the same template for all her stories. So for her, most of the work can be done in the outline. If someone wants to publish something like that all they have to do is get a book in the genre they are interested in; make an outline of it and then reverse-engineer it into a story with a different plot. Doesn't sound like fun to me, though.
 
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DamienLoveshaft

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I outline my story roughly using the beat sheet as a loose guide and profile my characters before I start my first draft. I use scrivener and write in scenes which makes it easy to move scenes around as I write or add in a scene if I feel there's something missing. If you can't afford scrivener use google draw to make little cards that you can shift around. I added a photo I found exampling a simpler version of a beat sheet outline as well.
http://jamigold.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Romance-Beat-Sheet-at-85k.jpg
 

Cindyt

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On my current WIP1 I just sat down and wrote it. Bam. On the WIP2 I fooled around with Snowflake for kicks and giggles and it was neither kicky or giggly. So, I sat down and answered these questions:

1. Who is the protagonist?
2. Who is the antagonist?
3. What is the major conflict?
4. Why is there conflict?
5. What are the effects of the conflict?
6. When will each effect occur?

And I let it roll out the way it wants to go.

Works for me.
 
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MarkEsq

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I come up with a concept first. Some that have made it into books include:
-- psychopathic prosecutor wants to hide his true nature but events, and that very nature, make it impossible;
-- the cemeteries of Paris house its most famous dead... what if someone started digging them up?
-- kidnappers take a bookseller from his stall beside the Seine; were they after him or the book he just sold to my MC?

At the start of a book, I know who killed whom, and why. That's it.

Since I have a series I know all my characters very well, so once that first scene (usually the murder) is on the page I just set them loose and see what happens.
 

ecerberus

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I initially wrote an outline, and over time that outline has gone to hell as the story evolved. I had a decent idea of the premise of my book, the major plot points and how the story moves in time, and what the general end is. And then I began to write chapters to get to those major points, and I've found newer/better ideas to get to them. So the initial plotting definitely helped to orient myself on the overall arc, but over time those intermediate plots have changed.
 

AnthonyDavid11

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I use the old Dwight V. Swain method of scene and sequel. It gets the juices going fast because each scene ends with a disaster(the fun part) and each sequel ends with a decision(the agonizingly fun part). It all makes you keep pushing your characters. No one gets let off the hook which is the point. I usually do one of these and then go over it a few times and then I start writing. Every time I go to write more, I know where I'm headed without all of that wandering. Cuts down on wasted time.