McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
How do you think/plot on a novel's scale?
Paynesgrey:
(As always, mileage may vary. I work best when I know roughly where I'm ultimately going. I've got milestones and an endgame, and I build towards that. And other people do better sitting down with a basic concept and just fly by the seat of their pants. My method isn't "better," it just works for me, and the stories end up deciding for themselves how long they'll be.)
Rechan:
--- Quote from: Paynesgrey on May 20, 2014, 12:14:08 AM ---(As always, mileage may vary. I work best when I know roughly where I'm ultimately going. I've got milestones and an endgame, and I build towards that. And other people do better sitting down with a basic concept and just fly by the seat of their pants. My method isn't "better," it just works for me, and the stories end up deciding for themselves how long they'll be.)
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Having an End point certainly helps. Although some ideas the problem is figuring out where they end. The "What happens next.
Although, if you know the ending, and you know the beginning, sometimes 'what happens in the middle' becomes your problem. ;)
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: LizW65 on May 19, 2014, 11:05:37 PM -------snip---- Then I think about it a little more and realize that there's no way I can possibly do justice to it in under 100,000 words.
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And this is a problem.... why?
My last novel was 150k+ and I wrote a 220k book that had to be split into two novels.
The Deposed King
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: Rechan on May 19, 2014, 06:18:32 PM ---Hm. That's interesting.
I think I see where I'm limiting my thinking. The characters in these stories are created for the purpose of dieing. They are unsympathetic bad people doing bad things for their own reasons and it gets them killed with a twist.
A book where these stories are the end would be unsatisfying. However, you are suggesting these are the beginning. If these characters were sympathetic and the focus was on complication, then there's more room to work.
There are other plotting problems I have, but this at least helps me jiu-jitsu a short idea into a longer one. Thanks.
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Yeah bad guy or good guy, you need the characters to be sympathetic on some level. I'm glad that a fresh perspective is starting to help.
Go get'em tiger!
The Deposed King
LizW65:
--- Quote from: The Deposed King on May 20, 2014, 05:24:22 AM ---And this is a problem.... why?
My last novel was 150k+ and I wrote a 220k book that had to be split into two novels.
Who said it was a problem? :)
The Deposed King
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