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Help! How do you plot?



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Thu Feb 16, 2017 11:31 pm
Castiel says...



Hi! im having trouble with plotting my books. What do you use? i have a big old corkboard i could use but im not sure how it will overly help and what to put where. please excuse my terrible grammar, im on my cousins netbook and the keyboard is all weird and it takes forever to type because im not used to it. thanks!!! :smt003
-T.D. Taylor
  





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Thu Feb 16, 2017 11:54 pm
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Vervain says...



I plot in a number of different ways.

1: Wing It

This is what I do for some of my first drafts. I'll figure out what's going on in the beginning and jump start it from there -- the Big Conflict, or the major plot, I figure out along the way. It's what I'm doing for my current project, Melt, and my LMS, Understanding Starlight. I'll toss a character or two into a world and figure out where I'm going from there.

2a: Plan Physically by Outline

This is mostly what I do in my notebooks. I'll take a physical notebook page and every other line I'll write some notes on what I want to happen -- sometimes it's in order, sometimes it's not. Then on the lines in-between, I'll make notes or rearrange things ("this happens after item 13" and whatnot). If I don't leave space for rearranging things, I usually end up filling the page entirely to every margin because of how my brain works.

2b: Plan Physically by Thoughtweb

This is if I have a copious amount of physical space to play around with. I'll write scraps of what I want to happen, arrange and rearrange them, and write more scraps as I come up with more scenes and ways to introduce and manage the conflict.

3: Write Notes

Online, in notebooks, on the back of your hand in sharpie, on index cards pinned to a giant corkboard (I did that once! It didn't work for me, but it might work for you). But don't get too attached to them. The thing about plot is this: If you're writing a first or even a second draft, it's going to change. A lot.

I can't give you a comprehensive guide of how to write an engaging plot depending on your genre, or the most effective way to plot your thinking out, because everyone's brains work differently. But there are a few little methods you could always try -- and trial and error is the best way to find out what works for you.

(Side note, I tried the Snowflake Method once. I skipped a few steps and disregarded the time constraints, but it worked fairly well for me. Maybe check it out and incorporate it into a physical thoughtweb on the corkboard?)
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:15 am
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Megrim says...



Where does your trouble come from? Do you have difficulty coming up with the ideas, putting them into order, keeping track of things, etc? Do you already have a plan in your head of what you want to happen?

Regarding outlines, you could check out some of these podcasts:
http://www.writingexcuses.com/tag/outlining/
The list is in reverse chronological order (most recent episodes first) so I'd actually recommend starting at the back, to get the basics.

You may not be an outliner, in which case outlining is going to be a big headache xD Tell me more about your process and your story and I'll be able to advise better.
  





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Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:21 am
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PrincessInk says...



When I get a story idea, I just jot it down in my notebook. I can't immediately come up with tons and tons of plot ideas, so I just keep the idea in my head for a few weeks or so, jotting it down when new ideas for the story strike!

For my recent project, I used index cards to plot out my story after referring to the mess of ideas in my notebook. When I finished plotting, I just laid them on the floor and tweaked them until the order of the major scenes felt right. Maybe index cards didn't work for Lareine, but so far it's okay for me.
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Sun Feb 19, 2017 1:17 am
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Tenyo says...



I've recently started using something that kind of resembles the Snowflake Method. I'll start by writing a short story, almost fairy-tale like in it's narrative in that it covers a lot of ground in a short space. It mostly covers a vague sense of character and main plot. Then I'll expand it and write a short Novella during which I'll figure out the character development and the general pace and arc of the novel, without going into too much detail on the settings, dialogue, e.c.t. From that I'll break it down into scenes and write the full story. It seems to work well because it stops things from getting overly complicated and keeps it manageable, as well as allowing me to enjoy the process of writing even as I'm plotting.

As for a corkboard, that sounds great, mainly because it means you can scribble on lots of different pieces of paper and then overlay them where you want them so it's easier to keep track of where your ideas are.

I find index cards are useful. Every character and setting has their own little space, and when you're feeling tired or dispirited by the process then index cards are just really fun things to flick through and admire my own handiwork.
We were born to be amazing.
  





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Sun Feb 19, 2017 1:42 am
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Kale says...



I write really general outlines and then expand upon it as I write the story. Outlining is a simultaneous process to writing for me, and by the time I finish the first draft, I usually have a completed outline that I can then use as a guide for revising the story. It's really useful because I don't have to search through chapters to find that one scene I need to revise; it's just a matter of searching through the outline and then hopping straight to the scene.

I also keep a separate file/document to dump scenes and outline bits that I drastically change to cannibalize for future inspiration/reference as sometimes those bits make their way back into the story in a different location or altered form.

I used to use index cards for this, but nowadays, I mostly use a combination of GDocs or Evernote because they're a lot more portable, and copy-pasting is a lot faster than rewriting things on a new piece of paper. ;P

GDocs in particular is awesome because you can use headings to populate the built-in document outline and jump to specific sections from there. Word has the same feature, and even has additional functions that make it better than the GDocs version, so if you use Word, I highly recommend using headings and such to mark the start of each scene/chapter.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
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Sun Feb 19, 2017 12:47 pm
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crossroads says...



Scrivener represent :mrgreen:
No, but really, if you're the type to write down scenes as they come to you and arrange them later, or like having separate documents with notes or links or whatever, Scrivener and a few others (Storyist comes to mind for Mac users, although I'm a Mac user and Scrivener is only continuing with new versions for Mac anyway-- but I digress) make for really good writing software.

When it comes to plotting/outlining, I have this amazing method of outlining where I come up with the few most important scenes first, and then the smaller ones in-between, mostly wondering what kinds of choices and consequences would lead from one to the other (and would suit the story and the characters, obviously). I put them all on post-its, and if I can I put the post-its on the wall. Then I draw strings between them, rearrange them, add and whatnot, and once it looks like a stalker murderer's wall of targets, I write it all down and separate into chapters.

And then I usually end up taking a completely different route from the one in the outline, 'cause I'm a pantser at heart.

Twine is a pretty good digital alternative to what I described above. I don't know how often it's used to plot novels, but it's free and very simple to get used to, and allows you to draw all kinds of connections and rearrange stuff as you wish.
GingkoApp is a pretty cool online service that you might want to check out too. It basically lets you build "trees", with different notes coming from each other. I know people use it for research papers and essays, but it can definitely be used to plot a novel as well. It's also free (there's a paid option too, but I've been using the free one and it's more than enough IMO).

Other than that, I can just second what Meg said; the more specific you are, the better help we can provide, basically.
• previously ChildOfNowhere
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