McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
plot issues
Princess of Pique:
Hi, I'm new, I'm a published author, and I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth. :D
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:
--- Quote from: CrazyGerbilLady on April 15, 2007, 05:57:32 AM ---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
--- End quote ---
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...
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