1. jordanmcdonald2

    jordanmcdonald2 New Member

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    Refinement needed on my plot

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by jordanmcdonald2, Jul 19, 2012.

    Hi, I have a lot of concepts for the story I have been planning for a while filling up a lot of pages of ideas and notes but my problem seems to building a plot around the core concepts of the story, for example I have made many dummy characters to fit the story I want to write but nothing seems to click. so without further ado is this plot just not really coherant or is it worth my time in building it up further.

    It is based on a fantasy world that is ravaged by phenomenon called "rifts" which are basically huge black crevices that form in the world that act as portals to a place called to the abyss which is kind of my version of hell. these rifts leak energy into the world which is used to power machines when concentrated or fashioned into pills to boost strength etc with consequences by accelerating blood cell counts. these leaks in high dosages can cause death so what was a biblical moment when they first appeared granting strength and enhancing the world is now an epidemic.

    the main character I had planned is someone who was exposed to one of the rifts resulting in him and many other people being sucked into the abyss. here while choking in the realm the main and his brother are approached by a ghostly figure that offers an exchange to stay alive, the figure uses his brother body as fuel for the ritual branding the main rendering his brother a mere spirit ball only his soul remaining and casts them out possibly time has accelerated.

    his goal now is to restore his brothers body in a place called the garden were wishes are supposed to come true but nobody ever finds the place which acts as the counter to what lies in the abyss. in addition to he also on his journey meets new people and gets caught up in the mystery of the rift threat.

    that is it in barebones I suppose. feedback would be great and ideas if you have any on his back story or any input at all such as criticism or praise, thanks.
     
  2. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    Your idea as written is a little confusing. I'm not sure if it's a plot or just an idea. I myself have been battling an idea that hasn't of as yet
    formed into a plot ( not enough conflict , confusion in the goals ) Your idea has a lot of unanswered questions.
    To start off with your main character has made a what, deal with a bad dude? Who's to say he'll honor the deal.

    Is this a quest book? Who's the antagonist? What problems will the MC be coming against? Does he have a time constraint? Is he hauling around
    his brothers empy body? Who is helping him along the way? How does he know the garden of wishes will save his brother? Is he
    only interested in saving his and his brothers own skin or defeating the threat against earth?
     
  3. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    It's YOUR story. Don't ask us to (re)write it for you, and don't ask how it is until after it is written.

    A story concept means nothing. What matters is how you write it: the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it.

    There's absolutely no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..."

    If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it.

    Please read What is Plot Creation and Development?
     
  4. Morkonan

    Morkonan New Member

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    I can't refine your plot. Only you can do that. When your plot is complete, I can point out problems or help with fine tuning. But, it's your story and you need to put it together, first, for anyone to be able to accurately gauge whether it is broken or not.

    However, I do like your setting and I like the way you have your characters interacting closely with it. I like the idea of the culture that surrounds this unique setting and the mechanics you have in place to portray that. So, your ideas here are very interesting and are worth exploring further. You should develop it into a story.

    Have you written anything, though? Coming up with cool ideas is fun, but making them into a story is more difficult. Start writing this, tackling individual scenes if you find starting from the beginning too difficult. See where these experiments in story-crafting lead you. It's likely you'll come up with many of your own answers. Don't worry about the entire plot, you may not be the type of writer that plots out everything beforehand. (Plotter) You may be a non-plotter. That's fine and there are just as many non-plotters as plotters. But, every author should have some idea of where they are going, even if they don't know exactly how they are going to get there.

    Write a couple of scenes and don't worry about the rest of the plot outside of those scenes. See where that activity takes you. Let the characters interact with the environment you have created without worrying about whether or not they are driving towards a particular plot element you think is necessary. Let it happen and then examine it for clues on how to solve the problems you perceive.
     

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