Just want to mention before I start how much better and better the help keeps getting that writers have been offering one another here. Such a pleasure for me to read. Kudos to you all!<\/p>\n
This is a continuation of the last post. Here\u2019s a rerun of the question: On May 18, 2016, Lady Laisa wrote, I cannot finish anything I start writing. I know lots of people have asked about this and many many authors have made blog posts and books written from both sides of the plotter\/pantser perspective, but my trouble is that I am neither. I am smack dab in the middle, and I cannot seem to get out.<\/em><\/p>\n See, in one way I\u2019m a plotter. I can\u2019t write if I don\u2019t know very well where I\u2019m going. (Kind of like my dad on a trip. If he doesn\u2019t have a very, very good idea where he\u2019s going, he won\u2019t go\u2013unlike my mum who doesn\u2019t mind wandering around a bit.) I need to know my destination and how to get there, or I cannot start out.<\/em><\/p>\n On the other hand, I find plotting tedious. I will plot out my story until I hate it so much I would rather take a weed whacker to it than a pen. I may write for a while, but the loathing intensifies until I sometimes literally hurl the manuscript at the wall. I then crumple it into an envelope and leave it to molder in my closet for years. Sometimes I\u2019ll pull it out (not often) and take a peek, and then get excited about it and write on it for a little while, but then I get drained all over again, and try instead to work on a less taxing story.<\/em><\/p>\n This has been going on for roughly six and a half years, and it just gets worse over time. I have about three hundred loose stories, all at various stages of completion, (I even have a whole first draft! But it is so hideous it turns my stomach to even look at it) floating around in the abyss of my closet.<\/em><\/p>\n Does anyone have any tips for how to write a story without knowing the plot in advance or how to outline a story without becoming desperately bored?<\/em><\/p>\n What followed was an exchange with Christie Valentine Powell, which I didn\u2019t post last time. Here it is now:<\/p>\n Christie Valentine Powell: Does it need to be a specific outline? Many \u201cplotters\u201d I\u2019ve talked to have a rough idea, maybe up to a page, of where things are going, but not a precise blow-by-blow description. I\u2019ll have the story broken down into big sections, but without a ton of detail. That way I know where I\u2019m going but I\u2019ve still got room to play (like giving yourself extra time on the vacation for exploring new places).<\/em><\/p>\n Another thought: I\u2019ve heard of the Snowflake method, a type of plotting that works for some people. You might give it a try.<\/em><\/p>\n Lady Laisa: I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve tried your way yet. I have tried a very vague outline, just two or three paragraphs to explain the basic \u201cshell\u201d of the story, if you will, but that wasn\u2019t enough detail. I didn\u2019t know what my character\u2019s short term goals were when I did that, and goals are, I\u2019ve found to my dismay, a VERY big part of a character. I just have a really, REALLY hard time figuring goals out (if anyone has anything to say about character goals I would like very much to hear it).<\/em><\/p>\n So when you say that you have your story broken down into sections what do you mean? Like \u201cPart One: The Journey;\u201d \u201cPart Two: The Betrayal;\u201d \u201cPart Three: The Final Solution\u201d sort of thing? I\u2019ve never really tried that, but I could see how it might work.<\/em><\/p>\n I do like having elbow room to give some room to spontaneity. Tolkien himself had no idea that Strider, when he wrote him into the scene at the Prancing Pony, would end up being such a pivotal character.<\/em><\/p>\n But if I have too much elbow room the plotless expanse stretches before me like an open prairie, and I feel like a rabbit trying to reach his warren and knowing full well that at any moment a hawk might swoop from the sky to devour him.<\/em><\/p>\n Christie Valentine Powell: I have somewhere between five and ten sections. The book I just finished (er\u2026 mostly) is a quest, so it included different geographical regions. The next one I\u2019ve outlined are more story-related (something like this: Exciting Opening, World Building, Character Building, Betrayal, MC character growth, Exciting Climax, Resolution). I\u2019ll have a few bullet points under each of things I think I should cover. When I\u2019m writing and getting closer, sometimes I\u2019ll stop and plot out the next section more clearly\u2013either on paper or in my head: \u201cOkay, this is the Hanan region section. I\u2019m going to start with the characters sneaking into the city, then they\u2019ll meet some humans who tell them how to find the heir. How can I do that in an interesting way?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n With goals, I think it might depend on your story type. For my quest story, it was pretty easy. For most of the book, the driving goal is trying to find the true heir (although the very beginning and very end have different ones). For my first book it was harder and changed more, and I feel like it\u2019s not quite as good because of it. I imagine a more realistic or character-driven story would be less cut-and-dry\u2013which honestly is one reason I haven\u2019t been able to write that kind of story.<\/em><\/p>\n Trying to outline is tedious for me, too. In fact, I just googled the snowflake method that Christie Valentine Powell mentioned, and I got so bored reading about it that I fled the site before finishing. However, the method may work for you, so check it out. When I outline, I always long to start writing scenes. I have a short outline for the novel I\u2019m working on now, but I rarely look at it and rarely change it based on what\u2019s happened in the writing.<\/p>\n I do often use fairy tales as the taking-off point of my plot, and they help me find my direction. Usually, it\u2019s the flaws in the tale\u00a0that shape my story. In the original \u201cCinderella,\u201d for example, the eponymous heroine is passive; evil is done to her, and good is done to her. She doesn\u2019t do much except what she\u2019s told. So, I wonder, who is she? Why is she so obedient? Why doesn\u2019t she strangle her step family, or at least ignore them? I get to work to figure out why. The answers shape my plot.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one strategy: use a known and problematic story. Yours can be a fairy tale, too. Or a myth. Or a story in the news that seems incomplete. How was that bank chosen as the robbery target? Why that museum? Or, how did the art forger get her start? (If we\u2019re going to do this, we probably want to invent our answers\u2013although research can help us frame more questions.) Moments in history that seem inexplicable can generate ideas. We\u2019re likely to find character goals when we start interrogating our story.<\/p>\n I agree with Christie Valentine Powell that the quest is a great plot shape for seeing one\u2019s way through. I love when I can frame my story as a quest. But the quest sometimes needs to be set up. Ella\u2019s quest doesn\u2019t start until after her mother dies, because she\u2019s protected until then. In The Two Princesses of Bamarre<\/em>, Addie\u2019s doesn\u2019t start until Meryl gets sick. In The Wish<\/em>, Wilma\u2019s doesn\u2019t start until she finds out her wish won’t last\u00a0forever. However, Aza\u2019s in Fairest<\/em> is with her in the beginning, but changes later on.<\/p>\n Before the quest in Two Princesses<\/em> gets going, Addie has different objectives, which vary from scene to scene. Then the objectives narrow when Addie tries to save her sister, but still, some scenes call forth another response. In Fairest<\/em>, Aza wants to be pretty or at least not ugly. That\u2019s her character\u2019s goal. If she achieves that or conclusively fails to, her character arc will be resolved, or so we think. But the story has other ideas, and the solution is different.<\/p>\n I\u2019m suspicious of the idea that we have to think up our characters\u2019 goals ahead of time, before we start a book or write a scene\u2013at least for us pantsers or partial pantsers. A few years ago, I used a car service to go to a kids\u2019 book event. It was late at night, and the driver hit a deer, which caused a pretty big jolt. If I had been plotting the scene in advance, I would have given myself, the caring person I believe myself to be, the first objective of making sure I was okay, then the driver, the car, the deer\u2013the important stuff. Actually, my first goal turned out to be making sure my laptop was intact (granted, it was obvious to me that I was still alive). The driver (uninjured) was impressed with how cool and unworried I was. Sure\u2013my laptop hadn\u2019t been damaged. Not really cool. My priorities were haywire.<\/p>\n The funny part is that I used the car service because I hate long distance driving, especially at night, and I realized that if I had driven I would have been miserable but I (probably) wouldn\u2019t have totaled a car, injured or killed a deer, endangered any human or laptop\u2013because I would have made the trip during the day, when most deer are snoozing.<\/p>\n When I planned out the trip, the real-life equivalent of outlining, I didn\u2019t expect deer accidents. I didn’t\u00a0pack human or vet first-aid supplies.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s imagine a chase scene. Our MC is pursuing the major villain through a forest,\u00a0desperate to catch him. He\u2019s armed and more familiar with this place than she is, but she\u2019s more fleet. She\u2019s focused on what\u2019s about to transpire. We, the pantser writer, are thinking along the same lines, but something pops into our head and we act on it. Birdsong penetrates our MC\u2019s concentration–not any birdsong, the distinctive call of the elusive purple nightingale, which hasn\u2019t been heard since her grandmother\u2019s time. Without thinking, her feet slow.<\/p>\n (Either the reader already knows that in peacetime our MC is an avid bird watcher, or we jump back fifty pages to\u00a0slip that info in.)<\/p>\n In that foot-dragging moment, her body has one objective and her brain another. We can go a lot of ways from here. She can goad herself even more and take after the villain again. She can stop to enjoy the bird, justifying the delay according to her character. The villain can hear it, too, and also be entranced. Or he can realize she\u2019s stopped and use her slowness to his advantage. Or any other possibility we may come up with.<\/p>\n If I were a committed, happy outliner, I probably would have built this surprise into my outline. I would made the delightful bird discovery earlier in the process and would have had fun figuring out the repercussions.<\/p>\n In my opinion, pantser or outliner, the complexity of the bird improves the story, even if it complicates the goals. And we are likely to learn something about our characters from the surprise. Maybe our MC realizes how important wildlife is to her and how it needs to be part of her plan to save the kingdom. Or maybe she discovers something about her villain that will help her\u2013or vice versa!<\/p>\n Regarding me and my laptop and the late-night accident, I was forced to see how intrinsic writing is to me. My work was backed up. If my laptop had been destroyed I would have lost no more than a few new pages and, possibly, some money, but I reacted as if much more had been at stake.<\/p>\n I hope this is good news for those of us who worry about advance planning. Whether we\u2019re pantsers or outliners, we can\u2019t expect total control of our stories or\u00a0ourselves. We can go with the flow. I don\u2019t know what my characters are going to do or want until I get into the moment. Something may crop up that I haven\u2019t seen coming, and that\u2019s what keeps the writing un-tedious.<\/p>\n My mantra these days seems to be Relax. Don\u2019t sweat. No worries.<\/em>, which, if repeated at fifteen-minute intervals all the way through a story, may be the key to finishing. Near the beginning of the writing, when we\u2019re either outlining or writing notes and lists (my method), or writing the first few scenes and getting to know our major characters, we can speculate about what might be a satisfying (not necessarily happy) resolution. The answer can be vague: come into herself as a leader; be loved; be safe; find the treasure; rescue somebody. We don\u2019t have to know how the resolution can be achieved. Then we can let our subconscious work for us. While we\u2019re writing scenes, it will keep an eye on the goal, and\u2013I really believe this\u2013create a path\u00a0to get us there.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t mean this is easy. With my Stolen Magic<\/em> I had to swim upstream and downstream and start again\u00a0three times for over four years. But I did get there, and I guess I did my flailing about\u00a0in the spirit of exploration.<\/p>\n Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n \u2219 Lady Laisa asked Christie Valentine Powell about sections in rough outlining, so let\u2019s use the first two of hers and two more of mine: \u201cPart One: The Journey;\u201d \u201cPart Two: The Betrayal;\u201d \u201cPart Three: The Accommodation;\u201d and \u201cPart Four: The Terminus.\u201d Use these suggestive headings as a bare-bones outline for your story.<\/p>\n \u2219 Write the above chase scene with the birdsong.<\/p>\n \u2219 Cinderella\u2019s fairy godmother from the original tale arrives to help Cinderella go to the ball. Just as she\u2019s about to wave her wand, have someone else come in. You decide who and write the scene.<\/p>\n Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just want to mention before I start how much better and better the help keeps getting that writers have been offering one another here. Such a pleasure for me to read. Kudos to you all! This is a continuation of the last post. 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