![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lalala
* I am listening to Johnny Cash. This is always good. But I can't think about sports-playing anime boys while I do. Their lives are not difficult enough.
* I feel like I don't know what to talk about these days. My brain is buzzing but the thoughts won't turn into words. I am bemused but the stories won't be born. I've had so much TezuRyo insight in the last few days, but I haven't been able to do anything with it yet.
* I need to learn how to plot. I am googling plot and reading all the articles of advice. Anyone have favourite plotting tips?
* I wait, I wait for new BSG and Doctor Who.
* We have started to get phone calls about the fucking election. Bah.
* I got a Trailer Park Boys wall calendar! It is a thing of beauty. I wait for that new season to start too.
* There really need to be more InuKai kissing drabbles posted. Sometimes that's all I want to read.
* I was going to delete all this blathering nothingness, but then I didn't. I'll try to do better in the future.
* I feel like I don't know what to talk about these days. My brain is buzzing but the thoughts won't turn into words. I am bemused but the stories won't be born. I've had so much TezuRyo insight in the last few days, but I haven't been able to do anything with it yet.
* I need to learn how to plot. I am googling plot and reading all the articles of advice. Anyone have favourite plotting tips?
* I wait, I wait for new BSG and Doctor Who.
* We have started to get phone calls about the fucking election. Bah.
* I got a Trailer Park Boys wall calendar! It is a thing of beauty. I wait for that new season to start too.
* There really need to be more InuKai kissing drabbles posted. Sometimes that's all I want to read.
* I was going to delete all this blathering nothingness, but then I didn't. I'll try to do better in the future.
no subject
For the latter, it helps to have a robot army.
no subject
*snickers* *loves you*
Icarus
no subject
I think what I need is a better process for story development than the one I have now. Which mostly involves drinking a lot of coffee and/or beer and scribbling notes that I can never read afterwards, then sitting down in front of my computer and writing.
Actually, a lot of the time, I have the character movement figured out but have trouble working out the story movement to take them there.
no subject
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/plot.shtml
no subject
I just start with "what do I want to happen?" and then start building up events to that point. It's really just a matter of coming up with several ways a thing can happen and then choosing the best one. Eventually I have a chain of events, and a plot.
Also, one of my guilty pleasures - AIM RP - helps a lot when I'm stuck. I often find that if I let something rest for a while, but am still using the characters in RP with a friend, something will come along that will work.
no subject
no subject
Icarus
no subject
Too long, so it's in two parts.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
Wright meant that the design of a building came out of its purpose. So rather than making, say, an airport hangar look like a wedding cake, you take advantage of the idea that powerful airplanes are coming through here, take advantage of and capitalize on the immensity of the airport hangar's size.
So what's the function of the story, its theme? That tells you where it's headed.
You write that down and start your outline. Even if it sounds silly, "Alexander DuBois fights the denizens of evil." Usually your first thought on the theme is a little, meh, doesn't quite work. Or it's too small for something that needs an involved plot. So you go a little deeper, "Alexander DuBois discovers evil isn't what it seems."
Or it could be "Jervis Priestly sees America and learns nothing new." Both are legit.
But the structure of the Alexander plot-line will have a definite break-through moment. The Jervis plot-line will have a long series of loosely connected events.
Let's go with the Alexander plot. So you've got the theme, and usually that'll hatch an idea of how his image of "evil" is turned upside-down. So you've got two moments implied there: one where he makes the assumption about evil, and one climactic moment later where he learns that whoops, he was way wrong.
Theme: Was wrong about evil.
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
Climax: whoops, way, way wrong.
Then you look at it. Hmmm. It's a little off-balance, one assumption does not a climactic moment make -- so you make his assumption bigger, and let him run with it. So that gives you several chapters there:
Theme: Was wrong about evil.
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
2: Action based on that assumption
3: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
4: Another action based on that assumption
Climax: whoops, way, way wrong.
Then you wonder... hmm. Why doesn't Alexander see it that the entire power-structure of his world is corrupt? What is Alexander's role in that structure? Why would he cling to it?
Theme: Was wrong about evil.
1: Establish Alexander is a cop
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
2: Challenge Alexander's belief that his role is just
3: Action based on that assumption
4: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
5: Another action based on that assumption
Climax: whoops, way, way wrong.
Then you wonder... hmm... Alexander here is doing some pretty nasty things for his government. Why sould we like him?
1: Establish Alexander is a cop
2: Establish Alexander is a great guy, even if he's a bit of a rigid hard-ass
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
3: Challenge Alexander's belief that his role is just
4: Action based on that assumption
5: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
6: Another action based on that assumption
Climax: whoops, way, way wrong.
So, um, the character here doesn't sound like he'd just sit by and do nothing once he discovers his government is in the wrong. What would he do?
1: Establish Alexander is a cop
2: Establish Alexander is a great guy, even if he's a bit of a rigid hard-ass
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
3: Challenge Alexander's belief that his role is just
4: Action based on that assumption
5: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
6: Another action based on that assumption
7:
Climax:whoops, way, way wrong.New Climax: Alexander joins the underground
Whoa, wait. What underground? Hmm. I'll have to add that then.
(continued in part 2)
Annnnd... the 2nd part
2: Establish Alexander is a great guy, even if he's a bit of a rigid hard-ass
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
3: Challenge Alexander's belief that his role is just
4: Action based on that assumption, kills member of underground
5: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
6: Another action based on that assumption, tracks down people from underground
7: Alexander is captured by the underground
8:
Climax:whoops, way, way wrong.New Climax: Alexander joins the underground
Then, just for a little fun, you can expand chapter 7 to 2-3 chapters. To have an epiphany you'll have to make a real change in his outlook. And, heh, you can leave a little doubt in the reader's mind that perhaps he just has Stokholm syndrome. Hmmm. Cool idea. Let's add that:
1: Establish Alexander is a cop
2: Establish Alexander is a great guy, even if he's a bit of a rigid hard-ass
3: Establish that people captured by the underground are "changed" (is it because they're brainwashed, or because they genuinely see their world for how it is?)
Early on: assumption the leader of the free world was just.
4: Challenge Alexander's belief that his role is just; close friend is "changed."
4: Action based on that assumption, kills member of underground
5: A hint the assumption might not be correct, that Alexander misses
6: Another action based on that assumption, tracks down people from underground
7: Alexander is captured by the underground
8:
Climax:whoops, way, way wrong.New Climax: Alexander joins the underground
Now I re-read my outline. Each chapter is like a short story in its own right. So I'm not intimidated, because I don't have to write a big novel. I just have to write one short story at a time, they just happen to be connected like pearls on a string.
But reading the outline I realize, shit, I've left off any scenes with the nasty McEvil world leader. I totally forgot about her, yet what the underground is fighting is pretty important, eh?
So I go back and adjust the outline accordingly, visualizing the world. (And notice that I have a cyber-punk novel.)
Don't worry if you only end up with ten chapters in your outline. Trust me. If your theme is big enough, it will grow. And grow. And Grow.
*nods* Form follows function.
Icarus
Way windy, so here's the short version:
Icarus
no subject
Have I beaten this to death yet? :D
Icarus
no subject
And that's the same guy I linked to in one of the comments -- that was the best page I found while googling. I really liked how he had everything boiled down to a precise method. It looks like something I can try out and see how it works for me. Not that I'm plotting a novel, but I think I can adapt it.
no subject
I know it won't help you, but it's so good to not have a plot X3
no subject
no subject
I suspect that I am the last person to give plotting advice, but I can say that the stories which make the greatest impact on me are those stories that are like rooms rather than hallways: they create a whole image of something, and this is the main object in the room, but you can choose to go over here and inspect this instead (ie, a throwaway line about how Oishi always reacts some way to something, the background dynamic between Taka and Fuji, a really good description of a tennis court, etc.).
I guess that's an echo of F. Scott Fitzgerald's claim that voice is character and character is action, but in a broader holy crap this universe is wild sort of way. In a gay tennis kind of way.
no subject
no subject
Right now I find I'm having trouble structuring very character-based ideas into coherent and interesting stories. Because something has to *happen*, even in a room.
As well, I'm planning a longer, more event-based story and need to plot that out before I start. I think I mostly need to find a good process for now, a series of steps I can go through.
plot?
Where?
Re: plot?