I've recently begun writing my first novel. Perhaps that's a little ambitious, but I feel that the story idea that I have cannot be contained on only a few pages. The basic concept, the very core, is this: A young woman is transported to a strange, alternate world that has been taken over by a terrifyingly capable thinking machine. {optional part: (to restore the balance) the young woman must defeat him, somehow and free the world from him.} And the fluff: The world is very loosely based on the game of Go (for instance the world is called the Board). The girl's parents die early in the story and because of their deaths, she is sent to the other world (magic, that's why!). Her parents had escaped the Board before she was born and took up residence on Earth. There's lots more fluff to go with it, however I'll spare you guys the suffering of my complete explanation, unless you want that in order to better understand. Due to all of the cul-de-sacs, dead-ends and detours I've taken during the course of my prep wok, it's taken me a month to get to this point. Now that I'm here, I don't know what to do with it. I have a basic idea for a plot, but its so reedy that you can hear it whistle in the wind. What I would like to ask of you is where do I go from here? I stare at all of the prep work I've done, and it seems like the more I do the faster it becomes obsolete. On the other hand, I don't feel I know enough about anything that may go on in the story. For instance, how on the Board would my heroine meet up with the villain? Please, help! Any advice would be welcome.
Everyone's different. I tend to not plan in much detail, at all. I worked out some objective, some motive, the main character.. and started the actual writing process pretty swiftly. A lot of ideas come during the process of writing. Can you identify a starting point and have a go? You can always change the beginning later, or anything, actually.
It seems to me that you've got the big picture decided on, and you know the general direction your story will go in, but you have to flesh out the details. I recommend you take a few hours with a pen and paper -- for me, planning works better that way than with a computer because I can draw arrows, diagrams, sketches etc more easily -- and figure this out. One thing to consider is subplots. Do you have any, or is it all pretty linear? Is there anything else that will tie in to the main plot? If so, how will you weave it in and connect the subplot to the main plot? Do there need to be any special circumstances under which your protag and antag meet? That sort of thing.
If any scenes or ideas come into your head, write them right away. No matter what part of the story they're from, they can be a starting point; you can work your way back from that point or to that point.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. Mallory, I think I'll try your suggestion. I have a ton of sharpies and a huge roll of paper. As for subplots, for the moment I am keeping it pretty simple however I know that they will crop up on their own. I think I want my heroine to learn about her parents over the course of the story, and in turn the origin of the evil thinking machine. And the special circumstances where they meet? I want it to be more like a horror story reveal. He's the big monster of the plot, so she won't get to meet him until close to the end. Muhuhuhu.
..... no reprimand plz but why is the machine evil why not make her think its evil (diray,parents ect) but then it turns out that the machine is the victim leaving room for a squeal??? noobie speaking
Jo epic: I caught that too, if it does not have a gender(machine) I would refer to as "it". I guess if it has a male voice, it could be refered to as him or reverse also. The most planning I do is figure out roughly where to begin, milestones along the way, and general area of an ending. I say general idea because in one story, I did not know how it would end, I just let the story lead me. It felt weird looking forward to how it ended when I was writing it. Do what you need to, to organize your work. What ever works for you is how you need to do it. But remember you have to start it sometime. Don't let the setup become a way to procrastinate. You might want to dive in, and if you feel you need to set up something do it then.
Hi Shy, Just a couple of thoughts. First it's a thinking machine? Is that a computer? And if so it transports her across between parallel worlds because she has magic? Mixing magic and technology is tricky, you need to either make magic somehow acceptable within a scientific paradigm, i.e. magic is just a science we don't yet understand, or make science the blind cousin of the true seers, i.e. scientists are limited and understand only their little patch of the universe. The other thing that caught my attention was that the world was called The Board. I can understand a game being named after aspects of the world, but not a world being named after aspects of a game. Not unless the world itself was made specifically to be part of a game. These things aside I think your idea could easily become a novel. You need to start putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard and start fleshing out the plot if that's the way you work. (I work the other way and write and let the plot develop itself slowly - but that's just me). You should find that plot elements fall out as you flesh out bits and pieces. For example the girl's parents are dead, maybe there's a reason for that that becomes part of the story. Cheers.
Hi Shy, Just a couple of thoughts. First it's a thinking machine? Is that a computer? And if so it transports her across between parallel worlds because she has magic? Mixing magic and technology is tricky, you need to either make magic somehow acceptable within a scientific paradigm, i.e. magic is just a science we don't yet understand, or make science the blind cousin of the true seers, i.e. scientists are limited and understand only their little patch of the universe. The other thing that caught my attention was that the world was called The Board. I can understand a game being named after aspects of the world, but not a world being named after aspects of a game. Not unless the world itself was made specifically to be part of a game. These things aside I think your idea could easily become a novel. You need to start putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard and start fleshing out the plot if that's the way you work. (I work the other way and write and let the plot develop itself slowly - but that's just me). You should find that plot elements fall out as you flesh out bits and pieces. For example the girl's parents are dead, maybe there's a reason for that that becomes part of the story. Cheers.
