My boyfriend keeps asking what my story is about- what the point of my story is. I don't know!! What is ANY story about? Loaded question here but.. ask me anything and I can tell you, mostly. In order. Even by specific date sometimes...But how do I put it all together??? I posted something similar a week or two ago but this is my seeking technical help with actually organizing what I have so that when someone asks me again "what is it about?" I can tell them (or show them). My WIP is 2 decades' worth of start and stop writing and now I am finally getting somewhere with it or back into the swing of writing again and other than dozens upon dozens of short stories/scenes, I need to really create an outline, or something. I am working on multiple different posts here at the moment about various separate questions/topics pertaining to the story, it may help get better help here too, if it was more organized. I need help getting this thing put into an organized outline or something and don't know where to begin..
The main character needs to have some goal. Either he's trying to achieve something or his world has been devastated and he's trying to put it back together again. There's something—a person, organization, maybe fate itself, working against him. Your plot is the progression of his efforts against that opposition. Do you know about the 3 act structure? It's the basis of all plotting systems, whether they use it, react against it, or modify it in some way. At its most basic it's simply the fact that every story is made in three parts—an introduction to characters and situation, the main body of the story where most of the action takes place, and then a conclusion where it all comes to a head and then the dust settles. There are many methods of plotting. The Snowflake Method is a good one. I aslo really like K M Weiland's blog and series of books. If you check the links listed at the top left of the page she has a lot of really great entries about plotting, structure, and character arc.
What options are available through this forum in terms of resources to seek one-on-one tutelage with this? I may need help actually pinpointing exactly what the goal is in my story. I have an idea but maybe I am wrong- maybe there is a better one. It may have been you previously who provided some info on what kind of plot mine follows, it was helpful. Need to go back and find the post...
There's really nothing like that on this site. What's offered here and on similar sites is some help with plotting (by whoever takes it upon themselves to respond) or you can post a section of work in the Workshop and get some critique on it, again from whoever decides to provide some. One thing you can do is hit up Youtube and check out a bunch of channels where people talk about story structure and plotting etc. A few of my favorites: Shaelinwrites Abbie Emmons Quotidian Writer I'm not sure where you can get one-on-one help like you're looking for. If someone offers that, it's probably very expensive.
There are “development editors” on reedsy.com. I’ve hired a couple in the past but it didn’t really help for me. Probably better if you have a complete story and just need to iron out weak eases, than to fill in holes on a partially written story which is what I was trying to do.
I have a complete story! What I need help with is the actual process of taking everything I have written thus far and organizing it or taking my timeline and building it out from there. What do I do with all these random scenes? How do I connect them? I would love to start sharing some stuff here but I feel inhibited by this 1: because I have to do some crits first and have nothing helpful to offer to others 2: for the very reason of feeling self conscious or in fear of the kind of feedback I might get when I do. The worry of inadequacy, I fear, will discourage me. 3: Very little of what I have so far is read-ready ( <-- this is a perfect example of why English is so confusing to ESL students!) lol If I post the stuff I really want help with, everyone will get caught up in the typos or grammar.
Take a writing course would be my suggestion. Sounds like you're looking for bottom-up instruction. That's essentially what school is for, but fortunately writing doesn't require a full matriculation.
Forgive me if this comes off as heated but I am overtired and feeling discouraged that I am putting a lot of time (what little I have) searching the forum and posting replies to other posts and trying to get some guidance from other writers. To get some informed and constructive conversations to help me with my process is what I came here for since I don't have anyone else I can discuss my writing with. I admit I took your comment as dismissive or snarky, even if it may not have been intended that way. I apologize in advance if it wasn't. I feel the need to keep emphasizing that it is a grossly inaccurate assumption that I don't already know quite a bit. I don't know how one draws the conclusion that someone is asking for help on how to organize a timeline and plot or with some help filling plot holes and stuff (and maybe I am using the wrong terms) for a complicated story that they haven't already invested a lot of time and learning into the WIP. I may not know all the jargon and stuff but that does not mean I haven't already invested a lot of time into learning along the way. I have. This is my first and only book I will write, i I ever manage to finish it. Not being a "writer" and someone who has this story they need to tell makes it a long longer a process. We are all here for a reason, maybe for some it is just to sound important playing ping pong with ideas or to feel self important throwing around big literary concepts and words, others I am sure are here to learn how to write. If I knew already, I wouldn't need to be here asking. Again, I don't know where this is coming from but I'm not asking for someone to write my story, so I guess I am confused how this forum can be useful when I see others posting questions and getting very helpful replies, even if they post very vague "I don't have a story yet or characters, how do I create one?" Or "Here's my idea! What do you think?" questions. Am I not asking my questions clearly because I feel like I am doing the same thing and no getting the same results. A few members have been consistently helpful and interactive. All members should get the same respect and support no matter what level, novice or not. It's actually worse if someone who is at the beginner level is dismissed for not being as informed or knowledgeable, because their efforts should be embraced and supported- in my opinion, even if at ground floor and never wrote anything before.
I wasn't being snarky at all. Apologies if it came off that way. But I think you would benefit from a writing course, or a book on writing, or some of the youtubers @Xoic mentioned above. You've asked a lot of questions. And you've gotten a lot of good answers. Beyond that, the forum is designed for writers to share their work, critique their work, and get better. Up to you whether you want to participate in that aspect or not. And if you want clear answers, try asking clear questions. You've got several thousand word posts asking dozens of questions. We try our best, but the macro-structure/organization things are best gleaned through instructive courses/books that tackle everything in a logical order. Or post part of your story and you'll get plenty of feedback.
You begin by understanding what the story is about. You say you have a story, but then say you only have random scenes that are not linked. If you have a story, you can say what it is and what it is about. If you don't, then you can't. What it's about is at the very core of all plot and structure related questions, it comes first, not last. Without that you can't write with direction or purpose. It's a great question your bf asked and one you need to be able to answer. It's not the plot structure. That won't determine the 'what it's about'. 'What it's about' is the theme, the central message, the why. Like it or not. Otherwise you're just writing 'stuff'. And what's the point of that?
Well that may not be the best way to spend your limited time. Summarizing the themes of story is a common practice in English courses. Pick books you enjoy, then write essays on what you think they're about (which is all that really matters). Then read other people's essays about the same books. Decide if you agree or disagree, and why. If essays are too hard to begin with, start with reviews. Write about what parts you liked and disliked, and why. You have to look without in order to see within. And in the grander scheme of things, whether someone has instruction or help or advice or a writing group or a course or a diploma, there is ultimately a vast number of solitary hours demanded by the gods of ink, a certain amount of ponder—self study—that cannot be substituted with anything else.
I would suggest looking at "Save the cat writes a novel." They give very generalized story categories that cover most stories, and the categories can help focus the idea. They get into three act structure, and story structure as well. They also put out a freeware cork board that makes it easy to move scenes around.
Have you tried writing a logline for your story? I've found it helpful in my own writing to be able to define the plot in a single sentence. At the very least having a logline will help you answer those awkward, 'what is the story about' kind of questions. You can google examples of loglines for popular stories to get an idea of how they work. The benefit of having a good logline is it helps pin down who's the main character and what the main conflict is. That way you can stay focused on what matters in your story. Knowing what theme you are working towards can also help, though not every writer writes with a theme in mind. I do, but you need to do what works for you.
To be frank no you're not - I mentioned before that you are posting huge tracts of what basically amount to wool gatherings and seeming to expect the membership to sort through them and somehow divine what it is you are asking. Even in this thread its very unclear what you actually want.. across several posts you've told us that i)you can't explain what your story is about ii) that you need help creating the outline iii)that your story is already complete iv) that your book isn't finished and v) that you don't need help with your story Its very difficult for members to work out from that what you need..it feels like contradictory that your story can both be complete and not yet outlined or time lined, or that it can be complete and not yet finished, not to mention that you both need help and don't need help We're very keen that this is a place that is helpful to new writers, but the new writer has to also do their part and be clear about what they actually want from the community, and express that question without writing a mini essay about it
in terms of resources you can find that section here https://www.writingforums.org/resources/ there are people who offer 1-1 mentoring but do note that that is likely to be hugely expensive and may fall at the first fence if you can't explain to your maybe mentor what the story is about or what help you need
Looking at other threads it seems that what you are saying is that you have the story in your head, but have not yet written it down coherently, and what you have written is mostly bits and pieces ? Is that a fair summary? If thats the case I'd suggest that you first write a short description , three or four lines worth that summarise what happens... e.g Romeo meets Juliet, they fall in love, but their parents hate each other, they try to have a relationship on the QT, but it doesn't work out...things come to a head when Juliet's brother Tybalt kills Romeo's best friend Mercutio. Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge dooming any chance of his being accepted as a suitable suitor. Romeo fakes his own death intending that they should elope, but Juliet doesnt hear of the plan, thinking Romeo to be dead she poisons herself, romeo wakes up, finds juliet dead and kills himself... the story ends with the families ending their blood feud, brought together by the loss of their children. From that summary you can then work out a more detailed plot e.g i) Romeo and Juliet meet - how? ii) they fallin love - why? iii) Why do the families hate each other - back story and so on You also will need to accept that the beautiful story you have in your head will not be so beautiful when written down, and that you will need to make changes to it. I would also note that i tend not to outline - i just write the book, which is also a valid option if getting an outline down isn't working for you
^ That's like the beginning of the Snowflake method. It starts with summarizing your story in a single sentence, then you develop it into a paragraph, and then a full page. But what I really like about it, and what makes it work, is you always keep eveything open—at any point you can go back and revise what you've already written. It needs to be like that, because your first one-sentence summary will change as you get to know your story better. You'll need to go back and re-write it. Probably several times. And then do the same for the paragraph and the full page. It's this going back and forth that really makes it work so well. It's pretty easy to do when you have just a sentence, a paragraph, and a page. When it gets a lot harder is when you've got a hundred pages written. In fact, it might work better for you to write a full page summary first, and from that distill it down to a paragraph and a sentence. Whatever works. You might even need to write several pages and edit down to find your one page summary. Whatever works. Here's a good breakdown of the whole system on Reedsy: The Snowflake Method: 6 Steps to a Powerful Story Outline
And the moose is right. When it exists only in potentia, it's unutterably beautiful and perfect. But nothing is like that in reality.
I recently found a chart for the Heroes Arc. It helps you plot your story in 28 chapters (i think its 28. I know its under 30). Im not a planner or plotter, but recently i found myself stuck. So i have that chart and i started plugging in what i have so far into that chart (im surprised that it follows the chart pretty well, since i didnt plot it before i started it). I feel like it will help me move forward once i see where i am, plotwise. I'll share the chart once i get my laptop back from the shop. I tried to upload it from my phone but got an error message
I cannot tell you how many of these summaries and synopsis I've got already lolol And I have, literally, hundreds of files- not pages- files. A lot of it, I am sure, is garbage because it was written so long and not only the story has developed so much since I wrote the crap but the writing, itself, seems so amateurish compared to where I am now (far from great but evidence that I've improved my skill since then). If I were to share any of these summaries, synopses, outlines, timelines, etc is it possible to get feedback on how to fill it out more with what I have? Big task. One day after I am no longer a full time student and all my spare time is back to being mine to use however I want... I can devote more time to literally going through every single file that I pulled and pooled together from all my old hard drives, floppies, etc. I am sure there are duplicates and triplicates. Other stuff there are multiple versions that I edited but saved as new files and it all needs to consolidated.
Excited to read through all the comments! Thank you for the comments all. Bare with me as I read and reply to all as I am in class until 12 so I may be slow in responding to each.
Trust me, I know exactly what you're talking about! Probably all of us have been there. But here's what makes the difference—when you wrote all that material, did you understand what a story is and how plotting works? A story isn't just a sequence of events happening to characters. The events have to serve certain purposes, and lead somewhere. You have to pull the reader in and take them on an enjoyable journey. Or a compelling one (which aren't the same thing. Well in a way they are, in the same way a roller-coaster ride is enjoyable I guess). The main thing you need to accomplish now is to learn what a story is and how to outline/summarize etc. What characters are, and how they interact to create the story. I use the metaphor that a story is like an engine, a series of specialized parts that function together to provide forward momentum toward something (the climax and resolution). I'm going to labor the metaphor a bit too far, but in a sense the characters are like the cylinders in the engine—it's their pushing against each other (conflict) that moves everything forward. And for that to work, you need to understand what makes characters work. Most of us have put in a good deal of time studying story and character arcs and all the rest of it. And I'm really a discovery writer at heart, but I understand that I need to learn these concepts better in order to do that well. I approach this from the idea, which works in all arts, that you want to learn as much as you can about your craft, and then work intuitively. But until you train your intuition, it doesn't know how to write stories. You train it by studying various approaches and methods, learning about character arcs etc. I know, on some threads lots of people give long detailed breakdowns of various approaches. But that's just their little summaries of very involved approaches. There's a lot more that needs to be learned about each approach or method. You're going to get a lot more, and far better-written, from someone who put in months or years writing a book about a subject they know quite well than from whatever somebody on their lunch break had time to type up on a message board in 2o minutes. Plus you're not getting it secondhand, as well as they can remember it. It's OK to start that way, but ultimately you need to get some books, watch a bunch of videos, and read blog posts etc. Absorb like a sponge, and as Bruce Lee said, "Take what is useful and discard the rest." At certain points along your journey we'll be able to provide more help. Like when you have a good plot idea but need some help with it. But it's up to you to familiarize yourself with the material on plotting and character arc etc. The best thing we can do is lead you to some good methods.
Oh, how did I forget to mention—for plotting I use a software called Plottr. Designed specifically for plotting (understandably). It comes with many templates installed, for the various methods. I have it set up for the Snowflake method. I think there's a Save the Cat, and various other ones—the Hero's Journey, and on and on. It's extremely flexible. You can plot your main story on the timeline, and you can also plot the timelines for each character to trace their arcs (for those characters who have arcs). For me it's way better than just writing up outlines or whatever. It's dynamic, you make a change and it reflects all across your timeline and outline. Oh, even if you plan to use Plottr with a template, you should still get the book for your chosen method and learn it. I also just downloaded the free trial for Scrivener and assuming it works problem-free on my computer I'll go ahead and buy it. Scrivener allows you to plot, but it does a lot more than that. It also lets you do the writing right inside the program, and then it will compile your manuscript for various places you want to submit it to. Weirdly, though it does do much more, Scrivener costs about half what Plottr does. I bought the lifetime version of Plottr for $99. Scrivener is $59, but you can find coupons for 20% off all over the web, so it ends up just under $50.
you can sometimes get much betterdeals on scrivener if you search for vouchers..on my mac i paid $25 ( i mostly use a linux box for writing where of course the open source version is free anyway) I must admit though unless i'm writing something very complicated i tend to it in office
Yeah, that Snowflake Method book that Xoic mentioned is custom made for this. You already have a solid idea of what you want to say and have even explored scenes, but you need a novel framework to put it in. If I were you, I would get that book. It says much more than pages of forum posts can cover. The gist of it is that you'll see how to structure the story around character arcs and come up with proper turning points. You'll then pull what you've already explored into that framework. There's no chance all your ideas will be used, but I'll bet many of them will be. The nice thing about that book is that you're building up from simple to complex, so you're always generating completed work. With each pass your plan expands and you can always show someone a coherent idea of what you're working on. When the book lets you go at the end, you'll start writing chapters and know what should be included.
