1. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    I'm writing without a story...oops.

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Dakota14breyer, Sep 17, 2017.

    Hi there! I'm a very new member, and I had a question.
    How do you fix a story that has no story line or plot? I've been writing what seems to be a concoction of characters interacting with no end goal and lots of fun descriptions. I've been putting my time and effort into making a family tree of sorts for how the world works and how authority works. I should probably mention that none of my characters are human, and humans don't play a role in the story at all. I'm really having an issue putting together a goal for the story, and while writing for the fun of writing works sometimes, I just get frustrated after a while. Any ideas?
    Thanks,
    Dakota14breyer
     
  2. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    Yes. Stop what you're doing and get yourself at least an outline of a story before you start again.

    I don't think even pansters (those who are able to put one scene in front of another with no real planning, until a plot starts to develop) start writing without at least a feint outline of a story.

    No one's going to give you story ideas, there's plenty of websites out there which do precisely that.

    The best advise I can give you was the same advice I was given not long ago by someone on here, and that is to plan.

    I never did up until recently, and so sure was I that I could do it without planning, I couldn't see the problem was staring me in my face.

    You'll tell yourself you don't like planning, or even that you're unable, but as the other poster said at the time, the comfort and confidence which comes from knowing what scenes need to come next is invaluable.

    Find yourself a basic idea, sit down with a pen and paper, and plan. You'll probably have to teach yourself how to plan, as I have, but it will come eventually.
     
  3. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Short answer: have something go wrong. Horribly wrong. And then have your characters react to it.
     
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  4. Megs33

    Megs33 Active Member

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    @Homer Potvin nailed it; i always struggle with "what next". at first glance my ideas are be stale and boring ("and now they... get in the car and go home?"), but curve balls are the lifeblood of a page-turner. whenever i don't know where to go, i try to ask myself what could go wrong.

    The other side of this coin are the stakes. Why does your character care that his car broke down? is he desperately trying to get home because his wife just went in to labor? now we know that he's a man with a crappy car (maybe doesn't make much money), and he adores his family. More fodder to manipulate the story and build something bigger. my mantra to myself is to "follow the thread". your story has continuity, you just have to build the foundation and follow it to it's logical outcome.
     
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  5. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Don't know how familiar everyone is with Stephen King's The Stand, but he was stuck for months and nearly abandoned the book. Then he decided to throw all his characters into a building, set off a bomb, and kill a few of them. Bing bang boom... plot twist.
     
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  6. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    @Dakota14breyer - Hi there, and welcome to the forum!

    You said: I've been writing what seems to be a concoction of characters interacting with no end goal and lots of fun descriptions.

    I would suggest you pick two of them. Maybe your two favourites. Throw them into a scene that will challenge them A LOT. They can be working together in the scene, or working against one another. Set them a problem they can't easily solve. It can be melodramatic ...in the one parachute, two people kind of way. Or it can be subtle. One (or both) of them lose the object or loved one that matters the most to them. (Loss is permanent in the sense that somebody has died or something has been destroyed ...or this important object or loved one is simply 'lost.')

    Once you have a couple of characters and a problem, you have the beginnings of a story. I would stop thinking in terms of 'goal,' and start thinking in terms of 'major problem.' Obviously the goal will probably include solving the problem, but if you don't create a problem, your goal will be pretty insipid. (Such as "I want to be famous." Or "I want to become the fastest clamdigger in the Universe.") Don't focus on the goal. Focus on the problem.

    You've been creating worlds, interactions, governments, etc. Surely, somewhere in that conglomeration of facts there will be something that can go wrong. Make it go wrong.
     
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  7. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    [Raises hand] Nope, no feint outline here. For me it begins with the main characters, then what they do, and the why develops. When I know the why of what they do, I have a plot. But what do I know? I'm dyslexic (seriously), so making an outline that made logical sense would be a nightmare in itself. It's much easier for me to go back and re-write the first chapter or two or however far back didn't yet have a plot.

    Occasionally I'll have a vague idea or question about something I want to explore (such as, in my current WIP, "what was it like for someone who defected to the U.S. from the Soviet Union?"). But even that always presents itself after the main characters have introduced themselves to me.

    ETA: So, for the OP, ask your characters WHY?
     
  8. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    As others said, take your characters and imagine the worst possible thing that could go wrong or them. In my fantasy, Mishu Jerni (my protagonist) is making a new friend with a girl from a richer side of the city and she announces her father is currently attending the special ceremony. Things are going well, Mishu is teaching her a thing or two about how the blind read in my world when OH MY GOD A BOMB GOES OFF!! Well, it goes off at the place the girl's father is located, but now I've got the tantalizing beginning of a story. How does Akeshia react when she hears the last thing any child wants to hear over the speakers? How does Mishu react? How do the people in the bookstore react?

    What are the stakes? What are your characters fighting for?
     
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  9. Jeremy Raynolds

    Jeremy Raynolds Banned

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    Find the main idea in what worries you and maybe this will help you continue.
     
  10. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Welcome to the site!
    Springhole actually just wrote a page about this :D but the big thing I would recommend is: give it time :)

    I spent a year working on an Urban Fantasy world that I loved and characters that I loved, but that I couldn't tell any stories about, and I spent months working on a bank robbery scene that I loved and which was about characters that I loved, but that I couldn't tell any stories about.

    Realizing – a year after the fact for the one and months after the fact for the other – that my robbery took place in my fantasy world gave me a story that I got 40,000 words into (and have been in slump for months about because I got sidetracked by real life and other projects :( but which I feel like I am finally getting back into the groove for :) )
     
  11. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    Thank you all for your help! I really feel much better about how to go about this. Now to figure out an outline...
     
  12. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    P.S. To those of you who recommended to focus on characters, I have a sub-question. I wrote the villain to be a broken father whose eldest shy daughter was captured and she escaped with child, delivered, and died. He copes with his perceived weakness of himself and other weak or macho characters. I've got a sequence when he walks through a forest either late at night or early in the morning, with lots of mist, and he keeps seeing his past in the form of those who were in his life. It goes from enemies to those who use him for his new power as villain who can command power and force, to those he cares for. He has a heartbreaking conversation with his deceased daughter, and she tells him he loves him and not to take out aggression on others (which is what he's been doing for years). She fades away just as he approaches her, and he sees his living daughter waiting for him, very concerned and she catches him as he collapses. Is this a good arc for a villain, or more an antagonist?
     
  13. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Scenes like that have been done before so much that readers are getting tired of it being done in the same way.

    How do you plan to make yours different? :)
     
  14. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    That's the thing, I'm not sure whether to write him as so utterly resentful and twisted that he gets angry at her, portraying how even she is not safe from his ruthless scrutiny, or to write him as putting her on a pedestal and turn on himself to the point of almost hurting himself more than he can take.

    A tiny bit of background, he's been dealing with the effects of old age along with knowing for sure he is being betrayed by his mate and his eldest son with her. (she joined with him only because of power, and his eldest son is his most ruthless 'army' commander)
     
  15. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    This is going to sound like a copout, but I have no idea, because I don't know your characters or their motivations. Only you know them. If they're unclear to you, literally ask them. Sit comfortably, or lie down, or whatever you do when your best creative flow happens, close your eyes, and ask the character "Why?"

    Moments like this are why writers have sofas in their offices... ;-)

    It sounds like you're probably blocking your creative flow by wondering if the ideas are good or not before you're even writing them.

    If this "blocking your creative flow" stuff doesn't make sense, imagine a choreographer trying to create the next move of a dance, standing in the middle of the studio, the dancers gathered 'round, watching. Yet the choreographer is not even moving, because for every idea that pops in, he/she thinks "Is that a good idea?"

    You are the choreographer. Your characters are the dancers. You've gotta try stuff before you know whether or not it's any good.

    Good luck!
     
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  16. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    Thank you so much, this gives more confidence to me than you might know.
     
  17. RaitR_Grl

    RaitR_Grl Member

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    I actually started exactly the same way. I have five characters, a bunch of scattered scenes (both flashbacks and in the present), and no endgame in mind. Finally, like a month ago, I took another look at a scene I wrote a few years ago. I decided if I cut out the exposition (or info-dump) and add a bunch of forward movement, that could be my opening chapter. Now I have a clear plan in mind, as well as my character's ultimate endgame, general notes for my climax scene, and the story's main theme.

    Do you have any scenes you wrote a while back that you haven't read through in a while? Take another look. Maybe like me, you already have your opening scene and just don't realize it yet.

    Good luck!
     
  18. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    You're welcome. It's something that recently clicked for me while reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit.
     
  19. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    Thank you for this, I do have a pair of pretty good opening sequences, I'll have to decide which one to pick...
     
  20. RaitR_Grl

    RaitR_Grl Member

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    Have you thought about what would happen if you use each of them? Like would scene A take parts of the story in a different direction than if you used scene B?
     
  21. Dakota14breyer

    Dakota14breyer New Member

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    I have given some thought, but I am currently exploring the ideas of both... I'm trying to steer clear of obvious cliches.
     
  22. Elven Candy

    Elven Candy Pay no attention to the foot in my mouth Contributor

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    My current (almost complete) short story's first draft was a huge jumbled mess with no plot aim at all. I mean, it had a plot . . . if you count fifteen different ones trying to make it into one 5,000 word story (yeah, it was bad). Once I realized it had no real plot I sat back and asked myself, "What do I want to get out of these characters? What did I want this story to be?"

    If you feel that you had even just a vague idea of what you wanted from the story/characters when you first started writing, you might find it helpful to sit back and remember what it was and decide if that's still what you want from it/them. From there you can figure out what can be kept and what needs to be dumped or saved for a later story.

    Edit to add:
    You can use the same technique for the villain/antagonist (which I think is actually the same thing). Ask yourself, "Who did I picture him to be? What was his personality? Would he have done this? Am I really okay with this change, or would it destroy what I want from him?"
     
  23. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    Open a blank page and this time start with a story. Seriously, it's the only way to fix your problem, I think. You'll find places to use some or all or none of what you've written. It won't matter too much because all that really matters is the story. Even when it comes to character, it's the character's story or stories that make us love, hate or remember them.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2017
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