Plot points

[Dom]

I read somewhere some time ago that there was some sort of study on policemen, firemen, and other people who responded to emergencys and how they made decisions.  It said that although you would think the seasoned commanders would think all the possibilities through, and then choose the best one, they found that instead what happened is that they went with the first plan their experience couldn't immediately shoot holes in.  IE, they made a plan, and if past experience didn't show them any gaping flaws, they used it, rather than thinking of several plans and choosing the best one.

Anyway, my point is, I realized that this is how I plot a lot of the time.  I take the first idea, and if it's not obviously a bad one (based on my past experiences), I run with it.

So I was wondering...when  you are plotting, do you ever sit down and think out how many different ways a particular twist could go?  Or do you take the one you "feel" is best, and if you can't see anything wrong with it, you run with it?

Just curious.

[Danielle/Evie]

Generally I just run with whatever pops into my head at that given moment. I'm not sure if it's a flaw within itself, but I usually get a vague idea for a story, start writing, when I get stuck, keep writing, and usually it ends up being....right? If thats the right word. I think I mean that when I write, I just keep writing, and the plot works itself out somehow. I get surprised a lot....for example...I just finished writing the first draft of a short story. I was writing it without a clue for how I wanted it to end...I had a few ideas, but I couldn't figure out how to make them work....so I kept writing, and I got to the end, and I realized that everything I had written thus far, was leading up to an ending I never even considered! And I could figure out no way to change this ending and no need to...it's almost like it wrote itself.

Not sure if I'm sure if I'm just crazy though....but for the question..I run with what I "feel" is best.

[Richelle Mead]

Yup.  If I've got a plot that can carry me through a book when I outline, I go with it.  However, I almost always end up deviating from it as new twists come up.  In fact, that's what's happening in my current book, and while it will hopefully yield cool results, I feel sort of adrift in straying from my outline.

[terioncalling]

Plot?  What is this thing you call "plot"?


Eh, I do have plot.  But it's nothing I usually sit down and write out and go over a grand number of times before I actually start writing.  Usually it's just an idea that spawns and I start on and it moves itself on from there, twisting and twining however it wills to go.  Sometimes I'll force it into the shape I want but usually I just let it run free.

I create my characters, fix them into the plotline, and then let them run along with it to.  Their stories sometimes change as they go along and I adapt around that.

Now the only issue to get over is that I have way too many plots popping up and screaming in their tinny little voices "Work on me!  Work on me!". 

[Opalescence]

I usually piece things together as I go. Poke my "logic" finger in it and if it doesn't fall apart, write it down. Then I ask all the whys. Why does this happen? What would happen if it didn't? What's the bad-ness? How can I make this worse?

Then I try answering all the questions before my brain explodes.

Only on those rare occasions when my first idea is just too weak for even fiction to support will I rack my brain for an alternative.

[trboturtle]

Speaking as a fanfiction writer, I don't plot as much as have a point A and a point B, with a few scenes fully formed here and there. Sometimes, the way from A to B is an expressway, other times, it's a drive along the seanic route. The result has been unusual at times.

While that works for fanfiction, for my original attempts, I find I have to plot a bit more. I have a paritial fantasy novel plotted out and I can feel the difference in the structure of the story.

Craig

[Belial]

What usually happens for me is that I get a basic idea for a character (or more), then I get a basic idea for a story (usually one that screws the character over).

I drop the poor bastards in and let em work their way out of it.

The story then goes through several drafts, becoming fleshed out a bit more each time.

However, there have been times when I've plotted things out a bit more... and I find that the results are usually better. I still like writing by the seat of my pants though, I write stories that I'd like to read, and it's always fun to find out what happens as I go along. Makes it a bit more fun for me. And since this is primarily a hobby for me, that's the way I do it. If I ever needed to meet deadlines, I would think that outlines would be the way to go.

[blgarver]

Anyone else here too impatient for outlines?

[terioncalling]

Anyone else here too impatient for outlines?

*raises hand*  Mainly 'cause I can never follow the damn things.  Only two stories of mine (the major two right now in my big fantasy world) have loose outlines and the one I've been working on for the past few months has already deviated from it if I recall correctly.  But then it jogged right back to hop back in line so its following the outline and not all at the same time.  Very confusing.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I tend to get plot as "here is key scene A that happens about the middle.  Here is key scene B that happens right next to the end. Now what can you do to get the right set of people to be in the right places and react in the right ways to make a story out of this ?" I'm not comfortable starting without knowing where I am going, but it's very rare for me to write more than a couple of thousand words without them telling me something new and useful that can feed in to that process; my outlines are tools to be continually refined and updated, they don't actually match  the book well until the book's written and usually rewritten a couple of times too.

[blgarver]

To me, as an aspiring, unpublished author who probably has no idea what he's talking about anyway, outlines are kind of a grey area.  I mean, I don't think they're necessarily good.  For term papers and such, fine, one needs those to stick with the format of the paper so they don't get flunked out of the class.

But that's just it...outlines force you to stick to a format.  It's the very reason I'm incapable of writing screenplays.  The scripting class I had in college implanted the formula, and now when I try to write a screenplay, all I do is plug in the values.  The characters come out stiff and...well, formulated.

Like I said, I don't claim to actually know anything, this is just what I feel.  To me, outlines feel to constricting and it seems like, if everyone is using the same plans to build something, then after a while it will become uninteresting and everyone's stuff will be the same.  Just like if everyone's house was built from the same floorplan, just decorated and finished differently. 

So, though I might not ever make it to print because of this, I actually try to avoid outlines.  I jot notes here and there to remind myself of a scene or character or whatever, but I try to make the characters and world real enough so that I don't have to tell them what to do and where to go.  I'd rather them forge ahead on their own.

But i don't know, maybe I'm just flapping my jaws.