Plot Helpers

[Cooper]

I do have an idea for a book series, but I can't seem to think of any plot ideas.  Besides driving around in my car talking into my little voice recorder, is there anything else that will make me think of plot ideas?

[Murphy's Stunt Double]

I like to put a spin on historical events. Take something that happened in real life, and then flesh it out to see how it could have happened if magic was involved along the way, trying to stay as true to what happened in reality as possible. Quite a challenging way to stretch my abilities. Try it.

[Josh]

If you have characters in some form, ask yourself this: "What is the worst thing that could happen to this person/these people?"

Then make it happen and force them to deal with it.

Then, just as they're climbing out from under that boiling waterfall of tar, hit them with something worse.
Interview them, figure out what they'd absolutely hate and abhor dealing with, whether physically, emotionally, etc. and then slap it in their face. Sometimes the character motivations will be a great thread to snag on and draw a plotline out of.

[WyldCard4]

Have a good king or other leader as you desire.

He is loved by his family and his people and brought his nation up from barbarians

Have him have many allies that together form the strongest power in the known world but might fall apart without him.

And have him die without a successor.

Have his children be competent but to young to lead, have the only relative who is fit to rule a violent sadist.

Have every minor noble house wondering if they can defeat him, even the good ones and his allies or considering it because they are afraid of his evil male relative.

Then you have someone claiming to be his long lost and long forgotten brother or son come into the picture, and have him be insane, he seeks to destroy the kingdom and create a republic of some kind that would not survive.

Change this to go with your setting as desired or simply use fragments of inspiration from it, or don't use it at all.

I hope that helps.

[Quantus]

I have the same problem.  I tend to build interesting worlds, and even interesting characters, but finding an engaging story arc for them to follow gets a bit harder. 

Can you tell use a little more about the idea?  Is is urban fantasy?  Space sci-fi?  old fashion sword and horse?   Do you want a Save-the-world sort of story? a Save my own ass story?  a Solve the mystery type?

In general, a few things you'll need to figure out before the details start to come (And i cant say what the best order for tackling these might be, thats kinda up to you and your style).  Figure out the world (modern reality, urban fatasy, post-apocoliptic, sword and sorcery, etc), Figure out the genre (mystery, political, save the world, etc), find a character you can really feel and get behind (that sounds a bit dirtier than it should ), figure out what the primary conflict is and then figure out what makes that character the right/only person to solve it.  Once you can decide on the basic path of the story, you'll find more and more as you start walking it.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Steal from Shakespeare.

His plots have the two advantages of
a) being proven to last the test of time
b) essentially all being stolen form other people anyway.

[Cooper]

I have the same problem.  I tend to build interesting worlds, and even interesting characters, but finding an engaging story arc for them to follow gets a bit harder. 

Can you tell use a little more about the idea?  Is is urban fantasy?  Space sci-fi?  old fashion sword and horse?   Do you want a Save-the-world sort of story? a Save my own ass story?  a Solve the mystery type?

My idea has been on the stove top since last year at a creative writing class, but this is what I got as a Urban fantasey/sci-fi world.

The year is early 2012, and everybody thought Armageddon was going to happen, but it didn’t, until scientists discovered an asteroid in space on a collision course with earth.  Now you think its going to be like Michael Bay’s movie, but nobody prepared for it.  People went religious and pretended that it was never happening.  Well it crashed, but no death occurred, and it acted is the strangest way.  Al it did was crash into the Pacific ocean, 50 miles north of Hawaii, exploded, created a dimensional rip in the atmosphere, threw monolithic crystal towers everywhere on the planet, emitted orbs of electricity, attacked, and infected every human that lives, even in remote places.  After the tragedy, people nickname it “The Wave” because of how it swooped over the planet.
There are traces of foreign substances in the brain, but later in the week, the Waves true purpose took fold.  People started to mutate “supernaturally” into a form of three characteristics: A third human, a third lizard/dinosaur, and a third elf (some Night Elf similarities).  All of them gain the power to wield magic and have a spiritual companion, called totems, to teach them their new abilities.  Another part is that the totems call them Terrans, even though they never herd of Earth’s recorded history.

The story will have these points of interests that got me thinking about it in the first place: magic returning to Earth, adjusting to change, a deeper and darker secret behind the crash, starting points of world war 3, knowing what you were born to be, and alien ties.  It will have aliens involved, but I’m not there yet.

And no, it does not have anything to do with Shadowrun or evil corporations.

Steal from Shakespeare.

I don't feel like stealing from this guy.  I like his plays, whether or not I can't understand what they are talking about.

[Quantus]

My idea has been on the stove top since last year at a creative writing class, but this is what I got as a Urban fantasey/sci-fi world.

The year is early 2012, and everybody thought Armageddon was going to happen, but it didn’t, until scientists discovered an asteroid in space on a collision course with earth.  Now you think its going to be like Michael Bay’s movie, but nobody prepared for it.  People went religious and pretended that it was never happening.  Well it crashed, but no death occurred, and it acted is the strangest way.  Al it did was crash into the Pacific ocean, 50 miles north of Hawaii, exploded, created a dimensional rip in the atmosphere, threw monolithic crystal towers everywhere on the planet, emitted orbs of electricity, attacked, and infected every human that lives, even in remote places.  After the tragedy, people nickname it “The Wave” because of how it swooped over the planet.
There are traces of foreign substances in the brain, but later in the week, the Waves true purpose took fold.  People started to mutate “supernaturally” into a form of three characteristics: A third human, a third lizard/dinosaur, and a third elf (some Night Elf similarities).  All of them gain the power to wield magic and have a spiritual companion, called totems, to teach them their new abilities.  Another part is that the totems call them Terrans, even though they never herd of Earth’s recorded history.

The story will have these points of interests that got me thinking about it in the first place: magic returning to Earth, adjusting to change, a deeper and darker secret behind the crash, starting points of world war 3, knowing what you were born to be, and alien ties.  It will have aliens involved, but I’m not there yet.

And no, it does not have anything to do with Shadowrun or evil corporations.

That sounds...Awesome!  Any Ideas for characters? 

I created a thread about my own difficulty getting started on a story (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,5795.10.html), but one of the big things people told me that helped (and I agree) Is getting a few people together and gaming it out, RPG style.    It can be anything from a full sit-down table-top to a few people online just talking it through,  but it does really seem to help.  If you need someone to play an asskicking psuedo T-rex, Im totally there 

[Cooper]

That sounds...Awesome!  Any Ideas for characters? 
 

Im trying to decide where to place it by city on the Pacific coast and Alaska and either male or female.  As a matter of fact, I did take a drawing class last semester.  Guess I should make up a sketch of the race of both sexes.

[Quantus]

My brother used to live in alaska!  In this god-awful small town about two hours north of Anchorage that every random person ive run into who has been to the state (the largest in the union by far, mind you) seems to have drifted through.  Called Talkeetna, its about 73 yards across, but its beautiful, and have even been featured in such widely credible works as Top-Cows Darkness Comics (a spin-off of Witchblade)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkeetna)

Dude Im gettin more and more excited about your idea all the time.  Ive got some contact info in my profile.  Let me know if you every get any sort of group together, or just want to bounce ideas around. 

[Murphy's Stunt Double]

Actually.....

I'll send a PM

[Craz]

This sounds like a truly sweet plot. Wish I'd thought of it. XD

[King Shisa]

I like to put a spin on historical events. Take something that happened in real life, and then flesh it out to see how it could have happened if magic was involved along the way, trying to stay as true to what happened in reality as possible. Quite a challenging way to stretch my abilities. Try it.

If you haven't already, check out Dan Simmons' "The Terror". You just described it to the proverbial "T". Good stuff.

[Murphy's Stunt Double]

Cool! Thanks, I will!

[Cooper]

If you haven't already, check out Dan Simmons' "The Terror". You just described it to the proverbial "T". Good stuff.

Like close to it or the feeling?

Anyway, I just had a thought.  Since I have the new human race all written up and set in stone for myself to reference to, I need some guidence so I can start writing this thing.  In thinking of three ways to start it:

1) Create the character(s), plan out the plot line, then write it.

2) Weite out the plot line, create the character(s), and write it.

3) Wing it by writing the whole thing for a year and edit the book for a year.

If anything helps that I didn't mention, please let me know.