Near as I can tell, what I do when I start a novel is a scene or a character or a setting or a line of dialogue comes to me--occasionally, while I'm
And then I write the second chapter, or the first chapter, as the case might be. And as I'm doing that, ideas are starting to multiply and soon a story's rising out of the mud rather creepy-like. I begin to get to know the characters and the world and such. Then comes the next chapter, where I'm chasing whatever threads of plot the story's spun for itself, and I begin to understand more and more about this story I tugged cruelly into reality.
Said story soon takes over my daily activities, making functioning as a normal member of society a difficult task. And then, a great big chunk into the writing of it, I'll sit down with me, my novel, and I, and I'll see what we've got in the story so far. I examine all the plot lines and sources of potential both confirmed and suspected. And I write down the rawest of raw outlines.
It might look like:
Character A gets over Character B
Character K dies somehow
Character BL overhears Character A saying something important, maybe.
As in Pirates of the Caribbean, that outline is more of a guideline, and in the margins I have little numbers that I'm constantly changing that tell me what order these events are supposed to happen in. Once I have this incredibly vague list, though, I can start pushing and prodding the novel in the way of these events and moments.
The reason I like this method is that I can add anything into the mix at any time without screwing anything up. Also, should I get bored with the novel, I employ the principle of blowing things up. Which basically means, throw in a wrench that makes reaching whatever is next significantly more challenging.
Suddenly Character K is under the protection of this mastermind wizard. Now how am I going to end his life in a way that will cause the reader significant amounts of grief?!
The world may never know. But at least my plot won't be predictable and blah.
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