plot issues

[eviladam]

I've recentlly realised I'm no good at plotting. I have a great concept, I have characters that I like to think are believeable, and I know how the book starts and ends, I just can't come up with enough plot to keep it interesting all the way through.

[pathele]

Have you ever read Scenes and Structure by Jack Bickham?  It helped my plotting immensely. Basically following the scene/sequel pattern as your building blocks and you build the plot one block at a time. It's just a matter of knowing where you are going and slowly clearing the path to get there. 

Also, for me the plot may deviate from my building blocks, but that is what Jim calls the Great Swampy Middle.  (Have you read Jim's livejournal? It is a great resource too)

Good luck
-paul

[Josh]

Another variation of the scene-sequel way of building a story is the MRU. Motivation-reaction unit. Your character is motivated by something (maybe a guy shoving a gun in their face) and they react accordingly (fighting, running away, sacrificing). This builds one MRU at a time.

Are you lacking structure to your plot, or do you just not have enough story at this point to fill out an entire novel? Have you considered writing a novella and taking advantage of a tighter story format?

If it's structure you're looking for, something to give you some guidelines on how to flesh out your story, I'm always ready to recommend the Snowflake Method, which I found through Randy Ingermanson.

http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html

You start with a single sentence describing your plot idea, and then eventually end up with full character sheets, scene layouts, and an incredibly detailed plot synopsis that springboards the actual writing. I've used at least portions of this for every manuscript I've written, and it's a great way for me to give myself some initial structure as the ideas start to solidify. There's always room for flexibility, so don't feel cloistered by it either.

Hope this helps.

[BobSkull]

I've recentlly realised I'm no good at plotting. I have a great concept, I have characters that I like to think are believeable, and I know how the book starts and ends, I just can't come up with enough plot to keep it interesting all the way through.

Well, no offense, but that may cause a problem to a writing career.

But I'd suggest picking your best idea and then meticulously outlining it so that you're essentially filling in the blanks with outstanding characters and plots.

[eviladam]

None taken. It's something I'm trying to work on. I hope to one day over come this problem.

[Drew]

Read more novels.  I'm not saying to steal anything, but read authors of different styles  and get a feel.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Read more novels.  I'm not saying to steal anything, but read authors of different styles  and get a feel.

My advice is the opposite, entirely; steal everything.  There are various books out there claiming there are only so many fundamental plot elements in existence, and while I'm not fond of any given set, I think the principle as a whole holds water. If nothing else, steal from Shakespeare.  Because he really knew how to put a plot together; except in the places where he doesn't, which are easy to identify and fascinating train-wrecks from which one can learn a lot; and besides, he stole pretty much all of his plots anyway.

Pick a classic plot and take what you need from it. Your characters will let you know if anything doesn't fit.

[eviladam]

Thanks for the imput every one. I think I'm back on track. I'm still trying to work out the plot details but a few things about my characters have finally snapped into place that will hopefully make it more novel less mindless late 80's action movie.

I've found that my job (delivering pizza) is the greatest thing in the world for an aspiring author. The reason is simple: I spend 80% of my night alone in the car driving around and day dreaming about my story. At this point several months in it doesn't take a lot of my concious mind to do the job. I work on the story and I find myself at some one's door step collecting money. Then I work on the story some more and I find myself back at the store.

[Claire]

Plot-  a writer's worst friend (or best enemy).

I write in the oddest way- I know where I want to start and how I want to end.  I have a basic idea of what I want to accomplish throughout the book.  Aside from that, I know nothing.  I just write and see what comes out.  Of course, this leads to the dilemma I had 50 pages into my last book in a trilogy.  I realized that I had no plot at that point.  REWRITE!!!!

I ended up throwing in another idea that I was able to follow through to the end, and tie together with the main plot points. 

So, my advice to everyone is to pick a main plot arc that ou want to cover.  Then come up with several smaller arcs (at least 2, no more than 4) and weave them into the story.  Then, you'll always have at least on plot for you to fall back on when you get hit with a writers block on the main plot. 

[BobSkull]

None taken. It's something I'm trying to work on. I hope to one day over come this problem.

Good luck! 

[Princess of Pique]

Hi, I'm new, I'm a published author, and I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth. 

To my way of thinking, the best plots are character driven. That said, perhaps your lack of plot points is a result of not knowing your characters inside out and backwards.

For any novel, you should have a lot more information about your characters than you ever directly reveal; and when the characters are real for you, then you know how they would react in any given situation. The beginning of the plot is: somebody wants something, and somebody or something is working against that want. When you know your characters well, it's easier to have them do what comes naturally to them.

Hope that helped a bit.

[Gnome]

Plot= Characters Characters Characters!!!  Any good plot has characters that are endearing and that your readers fall in love with, or love to hate.  Princess of Pique makes an excellent point, its always best to withhold information on characters than dump it on people, look what Jim did with Araris and Aldrick, hes withholding information on their past and its got a whole forum swimming with speculation from eager fans.  And the crucial part of any plot is the main character, this may sound obvious, but if hes boring noone will read the book, gotta make him dynamic and changing throughout the book, but keep his attitude consistent.

I hope that helped and didnt seem too rambling and incoherent

The Gnome 

[blgarver]

Plot and structure have always been just out of my reach, as well.  However, I was looking through a few books to try and get a handle on how I should go about outlining, and I came across a good explaination for plot.

The author said that our problem in plotting lies in the fact that the concept of Plot is often misunderstood.  He said to think of it like this:  Story is what happened.  "John and Mary got a divorce, and then John died in a car accident."  Plot injects the causality, why the events happened.  "John and Mary got a divorce because Mary had been cheating on John.  And then John died in a car accident because he was overcome by grief and the tears blurred his vision, and he ran off the road."

It was a very simple concept, and it really helped to uderstand the relationship and the difference between Plot and Story, and I am now going to start outlining things...which I have never done.

But, at the Overland Park, MO signing a few nights ago, I asked Jim Butcher if he did a lot of outlining before he started writing a book, and he stressed that outlining is essential for well structured and efficient writing.  And of course I've heard that before, but you know, it has a certain impact when it comes from Jim Butcher's own mouth in response to one of my questions.

I picked up a book yesterday called "Story Structure Architect" by Victoria Schmidt.  So far it's really helping me get a grasp on structuring my story and outlining before I start writing. 

[CrazyGerbilLady]

You know ... being a structured sort of person I love the whole outlining concept.  The problem I'm having with it is my characters don't want to stick to my outline.  My plot keeps deviating.  I guess at that point I just decide whether where it's going is better than what I had originally planned, and re-outline if so?  Hmmm

[eviladam]

You know ... being a structured sort of person I love the whole outlining concept.  The problem I'm having with it is my characters don't want to stick to my outline.  My plot keeps deviating.  I guess at that point I just decide whether where it's going is better than what I had originally planned, and re-outline if so?  Hmmm

That happens to me a lot too. I don't all ways use an outline but I all ways have a plan for where a particular chapter is going, and then half the time it goes comepletelly the other way. Sometimes you're characters just don't do what you'd think they would. Which is odd since you created them but any way...