Plotting

[osprey_archer]

I have been toying with the idea of trying to write a novel, again, because apparently I am a glutton for punishment and didn’t learn any lessons at all from the last four I tried to write. And I ought to add a fifth in there: Sage also, my magnum opus of last spring, collapsed in an ashen heap.

My kingdom for a plot!

Supposedly if you just keep writing a plot will appear unto you from the ether, and presumably this does in fact happen for a lot of people, but this has not ever worked out for me.

I wrote ~70,000 words last year in the novel about Sage, and I love Sage and her friends and their small town, the problem is that the story never exactly moves forward. It just kept expanding outward, in a sense: it became a melange of subplots, Sage and Her Relationships with Lots and Lots of People, Chiefly Her Friends But Also Her Parents, Her Sister, Her Favorite Teacher Who Doesn’t Like Her, Her Least Favorite Teacher, the Boy She Has a Hopeless Crush On, the Editor of the School Newspaper, and Sundry Others.

This is not a story. There is no way to bring this sort of thing to a satisfactory conclusion. I must become mistress of my subplots.

***

Fun fact: I have yet another idea for a fantasy novel about empire and colonialism and culture clashes and possibly theocracy, although no slavery this time, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. And by yet another I mean like “ten more,” because apparently all my fantasy novels are about this. including the one about the princess imprisoned in the tower who brings to life an origami bird that eats a frickin’ forest and then, grown to monstrous size, comes back to break her out. Presumably it will eat the shingles off the roof, thus obviating the “So why is she imprisoned in a tower with a window large enough to jump through?” problem.

And then...and then what? I have the first scene written (why yes, this is a tragic plea for a reader); but I know from experience that if I don’t know where I’m going, I won’t get anywhere; and I don’t know where to go. I don’t want to plot a “And then Princess Arenyay bel Nessanen takes vengeance, VENGEANCE on her enemies” story.

Comments

[silverusagi]

I have been toying with the idea of trying to write a novel, again

ME, TOO. Well, except for the again part. I just want to get the story I have done. I've got about 40,000 words of crap that I started years (I can't remember how many) ago, and I just want to actually turn it into something. I think this will involve mostly rewriting it as I go, because I'm 90% sure there's nothing salvageable in there except the general outline.

I don't have a lot of story ideas, just one or two, and I'd like to get one of those into something that resembles and actual book. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and thinking about the themes that I like writing about in fanfic, and what I'm good at writing, and they all fit this book, even though I didn't know it at the time I started writing it.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Do it! If it uses so many of the themes you love, it definitely sounds like something worth going back to (and even rewriting from the ground up, if that's what you have to do).

(Completely OT, but have I mentioned how much I love your default icon? Just seeing the lovely light on her hair adds a little jolt of happiness to my day.)

[silverusagi]

I usually find one default I like and use it forever. And the second I saw this icon, I was like, "Oh yeah, that's my new default."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How long is the section you've written? I'm very curious, but also swamped with work, but if it isn't too too long....

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's ~1300 words right now, not long at all. I've got it on google docs if you'd like to see it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that's a very readable amount!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Sent!

[ursula]

Princess Arenyay tries to figure out how to feed her bird? If it's eating forests on a regular basis, she's going to need to either find a vast wilderness for it to munch on, or acquire enough power to make several people dedicate themselves to bringing food to the bird, or learn how to harness the power of origami to make origami trees for it to eat.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't think it normally needs to eat: it ate so much because it needed more fiber to grow large enough to carry her.

[ursula]

Could the bird shrink again if it wanted to? What does it want to do? Do its memories start with origami, or does it remember a prior existence as a spirit or something?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it has a memory; it may be more of an automaton than an actual living thing.

[laurelcrowned.livejournal.com]

oh god i have one thousand characters and their half-plots all living in my head. i need more time to write all the hundreds of novels i need.

plots are hard. i always come up with like a half plot an then just write it and realize the plot holes just get bigger.

LIFE IS HARD

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. The plot holes grow! They spawn new subplots! Fun new characters show up! It's hard to complete things.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

The origami bird sounds amazing. o_o It's different, for one thing, and I like elements of magical realism. It's a genre underutilized in modern fantasy, I think. (Instead we get elves. I am sick of elves. *grumble*)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There will be no elves! Castles, maybe; but no elves.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

Every princess needs a castle! Preferably one with its own water supply and a good selection of siege engines. ;)

(Of course, if you want to write elves, you should write elves.)

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's just a short story? Perhaps her getting free is the end of it, it's just the tale of her being trapped and then getting free thanks to the origami bird (which is a beautiful image and you could quite easily craft a whole short story out of that!) Perhaps the freedom is the important point and they just fly into the sunset and vanish softly and suddenly away.

*laughs* Looks like usually, too many plots appear for you but that can be okay - the idea of writing is you keep spilling them out and then prune like mad afterwards (I often tell myself this when I get to a bridging scene and just want to get to the next part - my bridging scenes regularly just become "FUCK IT THEN SOME TIME PASSED."

My only advice here (I feel a bit icky trying to give advice so do feel free to disregard it) is trying to work out what the journey is. The character starts somewhere, goes somewhere, either ends up somewhere else or back at the beginning. You don't need to know all the details of the journey (I never do when I start) but I always try to have an idea of "Here then there." Obviously, sometimes as you write, the "there" changes but it's always helped me anyway!

Good luck! :)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

No, I'm pretty sure it's a novel. If she just makes the bird and it goes away and grows and then comes back and they fly away, there's not much conflict there - it's a boring story.

[ladyherenya]

I struggle writing plots, too. Subplots, I can do. Often I know the effect major plot events have on those subplots, but not what the major plot events actually are. So I make up something to fill in the gaps, and then eventually discover it's terrible and have to go looking for another plot which might explain what happens in my story...


Your story about Sage sounds interesting! I hope you're able to find a plot for it (or a way for the subplots to serve instead of the plot).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Subplots are so much easier than main plots! I think partly because they're shorter: they may take place over a long period of time, but not as many events have to fall into order. It's much easier to get from A to B than A to B to C to...and make all those jumps make sense.

I'm hoping someday I will write Sage. Thinking about how to make it work...