So....I've been lurking on this forum for the past week or so trying to determine if I should stay an invisible person watching from a far. Or dive in, and hope for the best. Well, I'm here and the reason is because of a delima I've writtin myself into. Heres the problem: The order of my plot is this- Chapter 1. MC dies an unexspected death. Chapter 2. Tells the story leading up to MC's death. Chapter 3. Tells the story from Chapter 1 about what is goingo on after MC's death Chapter 4. Well...Thats where the story truely begins to take off and the main plot is introduced. I have three questions, ( I pick up my coffee, take a long lasting sip before sitting down and taking a deep breath.) Is this freaking! insane? As in, is this too complex of a start up to hold any readers attension let alone keep them intrested and no too confused about the order of events? I have been struggling with this though for a while but decided to push it back otherwise it would consme me and cause me to go into a deep though which typically causes me to completely redesign the book from end to end. The second question is in the transisitoning from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2. I am currently stumpped on how to transistion the chapters without making it seem too much like a kitchen light on/off sort of deal. I want the book to flow into the next chapter smoothly but am completely unable to fanthom how to do this like I did the other chapters. And last but not least, the starting of a book is suppost to captivating and amazing however I fail to see what people mean by the starting. Is it the Proluge? or the First Chapter? If you made it to the bottom of this long text thank you very much. I'm new to this website and the forums and hope I not too much trouble. m(._.)m.
That isn't a plot, it's a storyline. A storyline is a chronology of events. A plot is an actor, a gol or objective, a motivation, and an opposition. A storyline describes what happened. A plot explains why. Plots drive the events that comprise a storyline. For more information on the distinction, and how to use plots to construct a story, see What is Plot Creation and Development?. A prologue, by definition, is outside the story. A novel does not need a prologue, and most (in my opinion) are better off without one. For now, I'd focus more on establishing the story rather than deciding the order to present scenes. You can decide the order of scenes later, and may even change the order several times before you're done.
Thanks for the reply And Sorry for the misunderstanding, I meant I need help with the Storyline and sequence of events instead of plot itsself really. The story is about 95% established if I say so myself. (Well, for book one at least.) Thanks for the link! I will try that and see if it answers any questions.
If you haven't written the whole story yet, which it sounds like you haven't, just go ahead and write the rest of it and see how it turns out. You may find, either during the writing or after you've finished that it makes more sense to have the death take place somewhere else -- in the middle or at the end, for example. If you decide it should be at the beginning after writing the rest, then figure out how to make the beginning stronger and less confusing. You can also worry about transitions later, too. You may come up with things later that will help with those.
Actually, I've finished writing the novel an now I'm working on the revision. My main problem is as the writer/author of this it's pretty easy for me to make the connection between what is going on between chapters and the like. But for the reader I'm not sure if it will translate as smoothly. I tried the whole wait six weeks before looking at it again, in fact, I let it sit for an entire month while I worked on a new novel for nanowrimo to pass the time. But when I picked up the book again, it was not too difficult for me to remember how everything went so I know I can not really trust my own judgement in this situation. I hope what I said was not too confusining.
Would I be correct in saying that you're worried about lapses in continuity and immersion? It seems like it might become a problem for someone reading your book without the same knowledge pool and I can sympathise. Unfortunately, the fact that your book seems to jump back and forth a bit means that the only way you'll get a solid response is if you actually ask someone to read those chapters for you. I can't remember the etiquette on these forums regarding that, but I vaguely remember that looking for reviewers is a no-no. I could be wrong.
Yep, thats my problem. Around Chapter 3 the reader should be able to orient themselves pretty good, and beyond that there isn't going to be any more skipping or such. But as a reader I also know attention spans are limited. If the reader is too confused they won't read any further and will simply drop the book. I am trying to work on the transitions between the first three chapters to make sure that the reader would not get lost but it's impossible for me to accurately think the reader would not get lost because I already know the story, characters, etc. Lengthly, difficult, mind-numbing Revisions are number one on my list of things I hate about writing. Right up there with Writers block!
Well don't be afraid of making the reader work at least a little: Some of the best books around make the audience work hard as hell before anything makes sense. Again, the only way to know for sure is to get a review of those first 3 or 4 chapters and see if they feel lost. Don't forget to keep in mind your target audience: Something tells me this isn't being build for the tweenage girl market.
