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Young Writers Society


Writing Without Plotting, Plotting Without Writing



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Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:39 am
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KaiTheGreater says...



Like the title says, I've been having trouble with writing non-stop for hours and having no plot, storyline, sometimes even characters, etc., and other times I have the most wonderful, brilliant plot on the face of the earth and can't put it into words. Does anyone else have trouble with this, and can anyone tell me how to combine the two? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. : D
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Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:20 am
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Kale says...



One way to combine them is to look at some of your unplanned pieces and see if/how you can fit them into one of your plots.

Personally though, I rarely plan my writing because plotting things out always kills my motivation to write. It isn't always necessary to plot things out before you write, though planning definitely makes revising the story much, much easier. From how you mentioned that you write non-stop without a plan, you sound like a spontaneous writer (like me).

Ultimately though, so long as you're actually writing, you're doing great. Save your brilliant plots for later, and maybe one day you'll find yourself writing them, intentionally or not.
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Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:13 pm
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Rosendorn says...



I am a mix between a planner and spontaneous. I have a general idea how I want the story to go, but sometimes I'll not touch the story for months while others I'll write non stop because I got an Idea. The only reason my story looks ridiculously planned is I've been working on it for about seven years.

The way I work through brilliant plots is tie them to a character. I almost always follow a character or two in my writing, and if I can't figure out the character then I don't follow with the plot.

I define plot as "characters interacting with each other". Therefore, characters are the key to having any sort of plot. Instead of going by events, I go by interactions; protagonist to allies, villain to protagonist, allies to mooks.

Therefore, if you are stuck, my tip is to figure out what is the next most meaningful interaction in your storyline. Figure out the next time characters will interact and why they're doing so. Then go nuts.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:56 pm
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TheWorldIsMyLife says...



I like to have a very basic plot or a point in the story to aim for and then an estimation of about how long I want it (as in if it will be like a four page story or a ten chapter one or something) and then create a couple of characters and like to let the story flow from there.

Another good thing to do if you have problems with writing for long periods of time then the best way to fix this is find a point in the day when your imagination likes to bounce around and do happy dances. For me, this from about ten to eleven at night which is probably why I always get ideas when I'm trying to sleep. It's all about experiment.

Sometimes if you're having problems with inspiration then maybe go on YouTube or Google Images and type in things to give you something to describe in your story or I know there's a club on YWS called "Wheel of Prompts" I think.. That can be quite helpful.

And finally, with plots you are having problems with describing, just get it down. You've obviously got an idea of what it is in your head so just write it down as you think it. Sometimes lie in bed at night and think of it as if you're telling it to a friend or something. Once you have it written down, no matter how grammatically incorrect it is, you can start to gradually fix it into something that makes more sense. If you're still having problems, then just write down basic sentences or bullet points, save it, then come back to it in a week or so and I've noticed that I can see it in a different perspective.

Hope this helps but maybe this only works for me :)
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