How did you choose your plot?

It's normally a 'what if?'. I'll be watching or reading something and think: 'What if X was Y?' Or I think about a normal conversation: what if the bride said no to the groom? What if she knew he was horrible and she said yes? Reversing people's expectations is a starting point.

My latest WIP came from a strong emotion I had. The situation felt like a divorce- having to leave something behind completely and struggling with that. I felt that it would be interesting if the person didn't leave completely- so that's what I wrote.

Bongo Fury said:

It's been my experience that good plots are often buried under layers of mediocre ideas. I generally have several false starts before I get to the real story. You know it when you've latched onto that central idea that can sustain a novel.

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This was certainly the case for me. I am so glad that I have waited until now to get serious about my novel because the plot I had in mind until recently was nowhere near as good (in my opinion) as the form it's taking now.

Have you settled on an ending for your novel? For me I didn't know where it was going and I think that was the biggest issue. I kept telling myself that my characters would get me there eventually, but without a goal in sight they were floundering, and so was I. Then one moment the climax of the novel was suddenly so obvious to me I couldn't understand how I'd never seen it before, and now that the goal is in place I can drive my plot in the right direction.

misaditas said:

I didn't - they chose me.

I'm utterly incapable of sitting down and thinking up a plot, but I've had many visit in the wee hours of the morning (my muse seems to like 3am).

And it's not the plot that holds me, it's the characters. When I'm not writing they bug me until I cave and break Word open.

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This is me too. I have a vague notion of a plot, but I never know all of the details until I sit down and type.

It starts with an idea, sometimes the idea develops into something more tangible than "wouldn't this be cool!!" and sometimes it gets ripped apart and recycled for other stories. If it survives the first stage and I can work with it, then I start forming characters to fill the roles and how they'd act/react in such n' such situations and why. Then the plot (optional sub-plots) starts to take off from there.

I am 100% in the same boat as you. I have 100's of plot ideas that float through my head. Some are reocuring and some are momentary ideas. But I can never finish a story because another one interrupts when I try to write the first one.

So don't worry, you aren't alone! But I think we both need to learn to just pick one and stick with it.

Well, generally I will work on whatever I'm most enthused by at the moment, then when I get tired of it I switch to something else. This strategy works well for me. The only exception is this month, of course, when I have to work on my Nano the whole month.

rosie125 said:

Well, generally I will work on whatever I'm most enthused by at the moment, then when I get tired of it I switch to something else. This strategy works well for me. The only exception is this month, of course, when I have to work on my Nano the whole month.

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Which was the deciding factor in outlining my NaNo, which has three very, very different plot through-lines that I can follow: Horror, out-and-out SF and a thriller.

For my first drafts, I write what comes to me plot wise, even if half-way through the plot is radically different. That's how first drafts work for me, it's there that I work through the first inspiration to a good idea. Then I re-read that draft, and usually by the end of it I have a good idea of what the plot is, and it's usually nothing like what I had in the beginning. And that's a very good thing.

Aprincess4ever83 said:

How did you choose the plot that you ultimately wrote your novel on. How did you know it was good enough to stick with?

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I write historical fiction. My first novel came about because of my fascination with the medieval period. I guess you'd call it a kind of morbid curiousity. Seeing the drawings made by people going through the plague years connected me to the pain and futility they must have felt. I wondered about them - how they lived through such a horrible time, how they coped.

plots are just one damn thing after another. dont get hung up on it. choose whats best for your characters, and by best i think i mean worst.

I also have so many ideas floating through my head that I have a hard time figuring out which ones to put in my story because they can all work, but separately.

I also think about it a while until a basic main idea of the plot sticks. I work with figuring everything else out after that. I work on a little character building and world building, and then really attack character building so they can lead me through the story.

Good luck finding your plot!

I usually start with a vague idea of an overall arc, then let that germinate for a while. Eventually a few vivid scenes come to me, and I try to figure out how they fit in that arc, the different meanings they could have, what story might encompass them all, etc. The rest gets worked out as I know the characters better and they get their own input, reactions, etc.

It's always an idea that keeps me thinking for months. If I can't shake it off I start thinking about it more and more...it is sort of a cycle.
It is then that I start writing.

Aprincess4ever83 said:

Hi everyone-
I wish I could say I had a lack of inspiration but I'm afraid it's the exact opposite. I actually have to much inspiration and the minute I sit down with my current "plot" another much better plot comes into my mind. I can't seem to stick with the original one because I convince myself that the new one is better and the old one wouldn't work.

How did you choose the plot that you ultimately wrote your novel on. How did you know it was good enough to stick with?

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I always ask myself, "what is it about?" With that I mean, how do the characters change throughout the story. The plot tends to work itself out from there. Cool scenes, cool ideas and clever twists I think are secondary, and only survive if they support the story, no matter how good they are.

Aprincess4ever83 said:

Hi everyone-
the minute I sit down with my current "plot" another much better plot comes into my mind. I can't seem to stick with the original one because I convince myself that the new one is better and the old one wouldn't work.

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Sounds like you have the same problem I did. All the voices in your head screaming at once, trying to be dominant. Face it, you're nuts. Embrace the insanity. I told the voices to behave or no more cartoons. They've now organized into a type of democracy.

I don't plot. I'm a firm believer in what Ray Bradbury and Stephen King have to say on the subject. I put what I hope is an interesting character in an interesting situation, and just tell a story. When you tell a story, plot comes along for the ride.

Well, I've finished exactly one first draft, so maybe I'm not fully qualified to comment. But that's never stopped me before. ...

My wife gave me the germ of an idea. The year before we got married I moved from Chicago to a tiny town 350 miles south. The guy who'd lived in my house before me was universally hated in town. She knew my love of mysteries and suggested a story about a guy coping with relocating from a big city to a small town who also discovers that the town has a secret - someone killed the previous occupant of the MC's house and everyone knows who it is and is covering it up.

So, I started writing. My MC needed a job, and then he made friends and enemies, and the plot started veering off in interesting (I hope) directions. At times I felt I was watching things happen and just taking notes.

Anyhow, 80,000 words into it, the original plot is now a subplot. Although I'm still working to revise this one, I've thought a lot about the next one. I think it will be the same process. I know the situation I will drop my MC into and I know the kind of person I think he is. I'll create his world and see what he does in it.

I do like the suggestion of picking one plot and following it through, though. I wish I could write with an outline and index cards and all, but I don't think I am capable of it. At least not yet.

Good luck.

Eric

I don't choose my plot or characters or anything.

I sit down and write a scene that pops into my head and just keep going from there.

My plots evolve as I work on fleshing out the outline, but I know where I'm ultimately going with it when I sit down to write.

I have a ton of plot ideas simmering on the back burner. I finally committed to one. Once it is fleshed out I will trunk it or work on another. The others will try to horn in but after years of being derailed over and over again I have committed to this one till the end. I won't even take notes for the others. If they survive in my mind until this one is done, they will have a chance to be next. Otherwise they probably weren't worth pursuing.

I just start writing, and let the plot and characters do whatever they're going to do. Making outlines means I have to work out in advance what's going to happen - and I find that boring; it removes from me as writer, the fun of discovering what's going on (and thus, the reader too, I'd imagine)

Aprincess4ever83 said:

Hi everyone-
I wish I could say I had a lack of inspiration but I'm afraid it's the exact opposite. I actually have to much inspiration and the minute I sit down with my current "plot" another much better plot comes into my mind. I can't seem to stick with the original one because I convince myself that the new one is better and the old one wouldn't work.

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I'm the same way. The novel I'm submitting now went through four major plot changes, with the same characters and the same general idea but a vastly different way of getting from Point A to Point B. Now, in submission, an agent has suggested some changes, so I'm going to make them and resubmit, because hey! that's a great idea. Enter another major plot change.

How did you choose the plot that you ultimately wrote your novel on. How did you know it was good enough to stick with?

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Uh -- to be perfectly honest with you, I have come up with every single plot change idea while showering. I don't know why. I guess I do my best thinking when I'm naked. I have never hesitated on any impulse to change the plot -- I said, "Okay, brain, you got it," dried off, and went with it. Each time, I've liked the result more and more.

This newest plot change is still major, but not as major as the past ones, so I think that indicates I'm getting closer to a finished product I can live with. (I thought I already had one -- hence the submissions -- but when the agent suggested these changes, I said, "Of course! It's so OBVIOUS! The story will be way better this way.")

So I say, just go with it, so long as you don't keep getting ideas to change your novel until the end of time. Eventually, I think you'll land on one that sticks and excites you more than other options. You should allow yourself the freedom to experiment.