In search of a plot...

[dragonsinger]

I've been stumped for a while on my new story and it's lack of a coherent plot. My friend harlequin_09 said I was getting bogged down by the details. She's probably right. So I cruised through some writing blogs and found some excellent advice from David B. Coe

Comments

[larah33]

How do you come up with a plot when all you have is a character and a basic world?

I never start here. I always start with a character and situation, which sometimes makes creating the world difficult.

And I'm probably a 90% pantser and 10% plotter. But only in the sense that, as above, I've got a situation and need to fill in the rest. (It's worse when I've got the middle part only because I don't even know how the character got to that place! *sigh*)

[dragonsinger]

Yeah, that's happened to me before, too. It frustrates me.:)

[obislollipop]

depends on what it is...for short stories and novellas I can sit down and just let myself go and come up with something, and then go back and add incidentals or tighten it up later. However, it doesn't always work (I have a bad habit of coming up for air halfway through and losing my momentum), and for longer pieces, even if I have a really strong idea or them, it usually doesn't work for me. For my fantasy series I've spent years exploring the characters and themes and letting them kind of point the way, and just now have started working out a coherent outline - granted this is eight books worth of stuff, so I wouldn't do that just for a one-shot

[dragonsinger]

Just banged it out, huh? I may have to try that method.:)

[obislollipop]

lol. I'm editing every reply that jumps to mind ahahaha...seriously, yeah I'm forcing myself along on my children's thing, and I'm writing some weird short story thing for valentines day or something.

[delphinbella]

I just start writing. If you have a character and a basic world, you probably have at least one scene, or part of a scene, that you can start writing about. It doesn't matter if it is in the middle, beginning, end, backstory, or alternative future where zombies and aliens are fighting for control of the world. I start writing and see what happens (and actually, things like zombies and aliens can be helpful, because you can find out how your character would react to such a strange situation

[dragonsinger]

It's the massive amounts of editing I'm afraid of, but I guess that'll happen either way, huh?

[dragonsinger]

Sometimes madness is the way to go.:)