McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

How do YOU plan your stories?

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meg_evonne:
Author Tim Powers suggests you research until you have twenty too-cool-ideas to not use. If you've got a premise worth gold, research with twenty incredible things to use, characters you've developed that you know won't bore you after two years of working with them, minimum? Then I start Jim's big hairy plot arc with color stickies for subplots.

I used to fly with only mental background, but the agony of getting 1/2 way done (or worse yet complete) and realizing that your premise is so over used that not an agent would read past your opening paragraph of your query? Yeah, not going to do that anymore.  Same with the 'voices' of the characters.

Intertwining subplots key as well.

There is a short cut for me, I think, which is working from the villain's POV--so I know intimately what s/he is doing if all went according to plan. Then I add in the protagonist, where the villain is bumped off plan, where the villain bumps the protagonist off plan. I have that pretty well decided now before beginning. I don't crank out chapter by chapter until then,, but I will write out some key scenes in extremelly rough draft to learn/build the characters, the world, the what-ever means test I apply to assure myself that....

Back to beginning, that I've got a premise worth gold--silver won't do, research with twenty incredible things to use--or more, and also characters I've developed that won't bore me after two years--and umpteen drafts.
   

Anna V:
I think my best story ideas come from my nightmares. Which is just as well, 'cause nightmares are all I have. I've never had a good dream in my life. My nightmares give me some pretty twisted ideas.

Of course, I'm the sort who likes to read books that have good endings, so it wouldn't make sense for me to write a horror book with a horror ending, which is what might happen if I let the nightmare write the whole book, but which is not the sort of book I have the stomach to read. Therefore, the twisted stuff from my nightmares is best placed at the beginning of the book, leaving me to figure out how to get a good ending out of it while awake.

For the organizing my disorganized thoughts, I find the open source writing program Storybook to be of assistance. http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/

teamlash:

--- Quote from: Anna V on July 22, 2011, 06:20:46 PM ---I think my best story ideas come from my nightmares. Which is just as well, 'cause nightmares are all I have. I've never had a good dream in my life. My nightmares give me some pretty twisted ideas.

Of course, I'm the sort who likes to read books that have good endings, so it wouldn't make sense for me to write a horror book with a horror ending, which is what might happen if I let the nightmare write the whole book, but which is not the sort of book I have the stomach to read. Therefore, the twisted stuff from my nightmares is best placed at the beginning of the book, leaving me to figure out how to get a good ending out of it while awake.

For the organizing my disorganized thoughts, I find the open source writing program Storybook to be of assistance. http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/

--- End quote ---

Oh you poor thing *hugs* I hope you have good dreams one day.

And yep, I have storybook :D I love using it to keep my characters in order!

Anna V:
Experiences also make for good story ideas. Usually, it's the bad experiences that are worth more when articulated in story form. Of course, in many, if not most, cases, you'll want your character to experience worse than you have, for the sake of drama, but you can still wring your experiences for details. Some people who have seen some really, really horrible stuff do the opposite -- that is to say, they tone it down, presumably to make the story more socially acceptable than the reality. I believe Oliver Twist is one example, but usually, it's the other way around.

For example, if you've ever spent even one night outdoors (not recreational camping, but because you had to), in a car, or in a shelter or storage locker, it will be easier to write about a homeless character and add the details that bring the story to life than if the closest you've ever come to even associating with known homeless people was when they begged you for money. However, as it would be foolish to destroy one's financial position for the purpose of gaining inspiration, one might also obtain second hand experience by volunteering at a shelter, drop-in center, or soup kitchen and talking to the homeless and/or the hungry.

Lanodantheon:
I have an 40/hr a week day job and before that was a full-time student, so I plan my stories a little bit at a time. That is, I will start, "Idea sheets" which are just open office or other word documents that I just add to a little bit each day. Maybe it'll turn into the story bible or maybe it will be just a bunch of thoughts but it's something.

I also (one time at least) make character sheets for characters using FATE system-like Aspects and put them all on a spreadsheet, lined up neatly so that in a cast of characters I get very little overlap and/or characters confused with one another.

Currently I use the most recent version of Final Draft to outline the entire story on notecard view when I sit down and do it for the long haul.

For the actual order of events I use any word program that has the ability to make numbered, ordered lists. I will make lists of arcs, sequences, scenes or even just beats I want in the story. You know, sometimes I want to plan a story around a foot & Motorcycle chase sequence involving a battle tank with a very friendly sounding speaking voice through an idyllic American suburb under a massive dome and sometimes I'll plan a story just so I can have a Red-Haired Irish Catholic Anemic Vampire wrestle some wolf Faerie to the ground in his bloodied (Big Mean and Scary) form saying, "DOn't worry mate, I Got this B&@*!"

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