Planning Out Your Stories

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AsTheWorldFallsDown

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I do an outline before anything else. My outline is basically a synopsis of every single thing that happens in my story. The best way to write a synopsis is to imagine you're explaining to someone who doesn't like to read what your book is about. You can try it with another story, such as Harry Potter "It starts off with this wizard named Dumbledore..." Just pretend your explaining the entire first book to someone who doesn't know what Harry Potter is, then do it with your own work and then write it down.

However if it's a project that I'm planning to write way into the future (I'm currently planning a trilogy that I'm going to start writing sometime next year) then I got nuts on the planning. Outlines, character profiles, mood boards, face claims, concept art, information sheets, maps, floor plans etc. I do this so when I actually get around to writing it I have everything I need ready to go in a folder. Also it's fun and fills the need to write that story whilst I'm working on my current project.
 

DanielSTJ

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Woah!

So many replies!

Nice. I'm excited to start doing this.

Thanks for the support everyone! :cool:
 

jjdebenedictis

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There is the Eight Sequences method. Start with it as a scaffold and build your story upon its bones.

There is the Scene and Sequel method. Have characters enact a plan to get what they want, and then give them time to lick their wounds and come up with a new plan when the first one doesn't work. Repeat as necessary until they reach their goal.

There is the MACE method. You assemble your story by identifying what type of individual story elements you have, and then nesting them one inside another in a well-formed way (very much like nesting tags in HTML coding).

There is the Seven-Point Story Structure, built around "pinch points" that force your protagonist into action, either by making them choose to act rather than react, or to dig deeper and finally give their all to reach their goal.

Try out everything, and see what works for you. You're inevitably going to come up with a bastardized hybrid of everything that made sense to you, and the act of trying them all out will help your story-assembling skills grow, so it's not wasted time even when something doesn't work for you.

My own bastardized hybrid of a method is still evolving, but here are a few of the concepts that have helped me out:

- A "turning point" is a moment of irreversible change, something that happens that you can't go back from, like a revelation, a firm decision, or an irrevocable action. Turning points are what drive a story forward, because they are the events that won't allow the protagonist to go backward.

Every scene should be built around a turning point. Everything the characters are doing in that scene moves them toward that moment when everything changes permanently, and then the scene ends fairly soon after they get there, because now they have to adjust their goals and plans for the new reality.

- You can assemble a story out of try/fail iterations, i.e. the protagonist tries to enact a plan to reach their goal, but it fails in a way that causes the stakes to rise. Then they have to come up with a new plan, try it next, and again have it fail in such a way as to make the stakes rise. Repeat until the plan finally succeeds and they reach their goal.

That last iteration, however, necessitates them finding some final key to making the final plan work. That key might be a "plot coupon", or a secret discovered, or the protagonist making some inner change for the better that allows them to overcome what they have up-to-now failed to overcome.

- Stories are about change, on every level, from the wide-focus plot level to the narrow-focus scene level.

The story starts when the protagonist's world changes in some way that demands action. The story ends when the protagonist's world has reached a new steady-state where no more change is needed or likely.

Every scene is built around a moment of irrevocable change -- a turning point.

Furthermore, to reach their final goal, the protagonist must change somehow. This internal change is driven by what they experience externally as they struggle to reach their goal. In other words, the external changes provoke the internal change, and the internal change solves the problem that was initiated by the original external change.
 

Dave.C.Robinson

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I write a very rough skeleton and then go from there, the story grows around the points I want to cover like vines on a trellis. Even though I have a general idea of what I want to do in the story it always changes in the telling. It generally takes me one draft and a couple of minor revision passes and then I'm done. I don't write particularly fast, but I do get things out eventually.

As for process, I view it as described in Kipling's "In the Neolithc Age":

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!
"

The only advice I can give anyone is to keep writing and if something doesn't work, try something else. Don't feel bad about slow progress, it's often a punctuated equilibrium and the more you write and read the more you have available to pull things together when you do see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is no such thing as wasted work or wasted time.

Some people talk about 10,000 hours; some writers talk about a million words. It doesn't matter how you approach it so long as you keep trying. No one else can give you your process, it's unique to you.
 

DanielSTJ

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Thanks again everyone! I'm going to start planning the short stories and then work my way up to a novel.

I think, with all the advice given, that I'll come up with a much better product.

You are all so nice. :)
 

jeffschanz

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This looks like an ancient post, but it stills interests me. This was the thing I had the most trouble with when I started. I tended to just plow forward without a specific plan, but a loose idea. Things I wrote gave me ideas to proceed. Some things I wrote I had to go back and remove or change because they were going the wrong direction. It was a really sloppy approach, but a very creative one. I finally understood what I was trying to do. I was writing to find out what happens.
Then I heard an interview with one of my favorite autors, Bernard Cornwell. Considering he's a histroic ficiton author and needs to stick to a defined timeline, I was surprised to find out he had the same philosophy: write to find out what happens.

I needed to adjust my approach to have a more outlined idea where I was going, even if that outline changed along the way. But I definitely left my plans liquid so my characters and the situations could dictate the pace and ultimate story. With me, I almost always have my beginning in my head, and my ending in my head very solid. Everything else.... go with the flow. Even though I'm the writer, I want to find out what happens too. :)
 
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