Hi all, just joined today and I am desperately seeking advice on a plot. Or more accurately plot development. Not the story line as such, but rather how to come up with it. I saw a brilliant blog recently on using a story board as a way to track your plot, however what i'm struggling with is filling the inbetween-y bits. Did you know exactly what your whole story was going to be or did you know the major events and build inbetween? Also i'd like to know how you have put your plot down - like I am going to try and use the story board - anything else a little bit different to help me with my inspiration! Thanks in advance
Everyone has his or her own best way of developing a story. Some plan everything in advance to fine details, others begin with a general idea and a rough idea of the direction the story will take and dive into it. See this stickied thread: What's Your Writing Process? In terms of developing the actual plot network that drives the story forward, see What is Plot Creation and Development?
Most of the time I brain storm - I take the initial idea and grab a sheet of paper and start jotting all the possible events that could happen in my story, or to my character. This natural flow of ideas always gives me good material. When I feel like I have enough, I start arranging them into scenes. The scenes naturally fall into chapters. Sometimes my character's have concrete goals sometimes only minor ones - and the big surprises and twists come out in the writing cause some scenes will naturally be eliminated or changed due to the developing character. I never over plot , or over storyline and I'm pretty flexible about changing things. I've tried the Snowflake method if that's the one you mean - but I couldn't get into it. Too inflexible - though some swear by it.
I do this too most of the time, and I am quite good at it Seriously, there is no set method. It actually differs from story to story speaking of my own experience. Sometimes I just have a few characters I am passionate about, I put them in situations, and develop the plot from there. Other times I have an interesting event in mind and I just invent characters who will make that event happen. I have even written an entire story just because I thought of an interesting ending.
I started with a new page on word documents and started writing. Half way through I started a notebook with individual characters, settings, etc, and went back through what I had written. I use the notebook as a reference to eye colors, or place descriptions. I also draw out the locations so I know how to describe the scenery.
My first book I had a beginning and end planned, and a few ideas of middle bits but nothing else. I slotted in bits to help. My second book only had vague ideas and I'm developing them at the moment.
I wrote my first book without any plot thoughts whatsoever. Scary and tons of work to fix. Now I write a mini synopsis so I can see the plot but I tend to change that synopsis a dozen times as I write the book. However it gives me a good overview of what I'm trying to accomplish.
Everyone thank you so much, It's always nice to see that everyone's way of writing are so different and there's no one 'right' way of going about it. I ended up using the story board theory and it really worked for me, but you have all shown me that you don't have to worry about the bits you haven't figured out yet. They'll get there in the end! Thanks again!
A great piece of advice I once saw said that to figure out what happens in between two big plot events, you should ask your character(s) what they've been doing. If you know them well enough, they'll give you the answers.
Most of my pirate story happens on the journey between London and New York, so I can actually plan out events by location. Kind of neat. I've got a big laminated world map that has the path they take and labels for where each important event happens. It changes around, and I've only been able to do this recently (hadn't had enough plot points before) but it's really neat to be able to see it laid out (at least in part). Dunno if that helps. Failing that I'd just sketch up a timeline.
