Workshop: Writing Without a Plot

[devilsduplicity]

Hello everybody! devilsduplicity here, ready to teach you the masterful art of literary bullshit. Or in more technical terms,

Writing Without a Plot;
Eating the Chicken Before Hatching the Egg

Raise your hand if you've ever had a flash of inspiration and thought, Holyshit this is going to be the best thing in the entire goddamned world. Now raise your other

Comments

[twinsarein]

My favorite stories to write are ones that I have at least a vague idea of what I want to happen. If I have snippets of dialogue in my head, even better. Just a sentence is enough, and then I can build on that. Your automobile analogies fit my style pretty well.

I've run the gamut, quite honestly, though. I've outlined the hell out of a story and that has worked for me. But, I also once wrote a story with absolutely nothing in mind. It had to be written, it was part of a gift exchange, but the prompts were not helping me come up with an idea at all. So, I decided 'fuck it, I'll just start writing and see what happens.' I wound up with a 7K story that was pretty good.

I do have one dropped story, and I've come up with all kinds of reasons why, but truthfully, I just lost interest. I hate that it's sitting there, I want to finish it for the people that were enjoying it, but I keep finding ways to procrastinate.

The biggest thing that works for me when I'm stuck, is to think of the characters. What are their flaws, strengths, hangups, quirks, etc? Which one or two of those things fits into the story I'm writing? How can Dean's love of pie or loyalty to family or Sam's intelligence or lack of good decision-making get the story going again?

Thanks for the though provoking post. I really enjoyed it. I'll look forward to reading the other responses.

[devilsduplicity]

I'm more dialogue-oriented than visual-oriented when it comes to any sort of basis for a story. I don't necessarily see what's taking place, but I hear what the characters are saying and that's good enough.

Oh, I hear you on the dropped story front. Mostly, I'll end up pushing a story to the side when I get interested in another fandom, or something else entirely comes up to distract me. It's difficult to write something when you're just not interested anymore, but I think a lot of what helps that disinterest is the constant pull towards something new (at least in my case). XD

Ohh, that's a really good method for getting past a bump! I'll have to try that next time -- in fact, I'll probably be utilizing it for NaNo this year.

I'm glad you liked the post!