How do YOU plan your stories?

[Lord Rae]

I've really only worked on one story since I got the idea. The problem is I mostly just have the main events outlined so doing an actual outline helped me flesh out some of the story. The problem after that is that things keep shifting the longer I plan. So I've done lots of different things planning for it... But not a lot of writing to be done because I change things so frequently. The main events that I thought about in the beginning haven't changed but nearly everything else has.

So I guess the answer to the question how do you plan your stories is: Badly and often.

[Lanodantheon]

I recently updated my planning style with more old fashioned story structure. Jim Butcher's LJ posts are neat but that's only one way to do things.



My background is in Film, so I use a variant on Syd Field's Screenwriting Formula along with a few other formula elements.


I further break it down into groups of beats (Action-Reaction) which make up scenes. Multiple scenes which make up sequences and multiple sequences which make up acts.


In regards to the Protagonist, I also write out a model of what's called the Desire Line and the Need Line. The Desire Line being what the Protagonist wants(His/her goal) and the Need Line being how the character needs to change to accomplish that goal(Become braver, more powerful, etc).

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

In regards to the Protagonist, I also write out a model of what's called the Desire Line and the Need Line. The Desire Line being what the Protagonist wants(His/her goal) and the Need Line being how the character needs to change to accomplish that goal(Become braver, more powerful, etc).

So you generally write about protags who get to achieve their goals ?

[Lanodantheon]

So you generally write about protags who get to achieve their goals ?

It's not always as simple as "Protag has a goal at the beginning and will resolve it at the story." though reductionist thinking can lead to that conclusion, especially if mixed with a little dose of cynicism.


Over the course of the story, the protagonist's goal or goals can change and the goal that he/she is trying to pursue at the climax of the story may be totally unrelated to the goal he/she had at the beginning of the tale. More than that, the change that occurs may allow the character to achieve one goal but have to sacrifice another goal in return.


Also remember that every Antagonist is just a Protagonist over their own story whose own goals run contrary to the Protagonist's goal. The Antagonist in this case usually loses because he/she is not willing to change but the Protagonist is. 


In this formula, a tragedy is a story where the character doesn't achieve his goal because he/she was unwilling to change enough to accomplish the goal.


But to answer the question, yes the stories I have worked on and the ones in the pipeline involve protags accomplishing goals. They just may not be the goals the characters started with. My profs said to us that you need to be able to make scrambled eggs before you can make an omelet. Or something like that. "Master the formula first, then learn how to mess with it." is what they said more like.

[Snowleopard]

In other words - learn the rules then you can break them.
Often said of and to young artists.

[ItsallSuesfault]

What is this plan you speak of?
I start with a sentence that springs to mind, usually out of nowhere, and go from there.
Ocassionally if its a bigger work than I'll do some plotting or a brief character sketch, but other than that I usually let the story write itself. It's much easier that way and my characters tend to hate me less if I let them do what they want.