McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Plot points

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Dom:
I read somewhere some time ago that there was some sort of study on policemen, firemen, and other people who responded to emergencys and how they made decisions.  It said that although you would think the seasoned commanders would think all the possibilities through, and then choose the best one, they found that instead what happened is that they went with the first plan their experience couldn't immediately shoot holes in.  IE, they made a plan, and if past experience didn't show them any gaping flaws, they used it, rather than thinking of several plans and choosing the best one.

Anyway, my point is, I realized that this is how I plot a lot of the time.  I take the first idea, and if it's not obviously a bad one (based on my past experiences), I run with it.

So I was wondering...when  you are plotting, do you ever sit down and think out how many different ways a particular twist could go?  Or do you take the one you "feel" is best, and if you can't see anything wrong with it, you run with it?

Just curious.

Danielle/Evie:
Generally I just run with whatever pops into my head at that given moment. I'm not sure if it's a flaw within itself, but I usually get a vague idea for a story, start writing, when I get stuck, keep writing, and usually it ends up being....right? If thats the right word. I think I mean that when I write, I just keep writing, and the plot works itself out somehow. I get surprised a lot....for example...I just finished writing the first draft of a short story. I was writing it without a clue for how I wanted it to end...I had a few ideas, but I couldn't figure out how to make them work....so I kept writing, and I got to the end, and I realized that everything I had written thus far, was leading up to an ending I never even considered! And I could figure out no way to change this ending and no need to...it's almost like it wrote itself.

Not sure if I'm sure if I'm just crazy though....but for the question..I run with what I "feel" is best.

Richelle Mead:
Yup.  If I've got a plot that can carry me through a book when I outline, I go with it.  However, I almost always end up deviating from it as new twists come up.  In fact, that's what's happening in my current book, and while it will hopefully yield cool results, I feel sort of adrift in straying from my outline.

terioncalling:
Plot?  What is this thing you call "plot"?


Eh, I do have plot.  But it's nothing I usually sit down and write out and go over a grand number of times before I actually start writing.  Usually it's just an idea that spawns and I start on and it moves itself on from there, twisting and twining however it wills to go.  Sometimes I'll force it into the shape I want but usually I just let it run free.

I create my characters, fix them into the plotline, and then let them run along with it to.  Their stories sometimes change as they go along and I adapt around that.

Now the only issue to get over is that I have way too many plots popping up and screaming in their tinny little voices "Work on me!  Work on me!".  :)

Opalescence:
I usually piece things together as I go. Poke my "logic" finger in it and if it doesn't fall apart, write it down. Then I ask all the whys. Why does this happen? What would happen if it didn't? What's the bad-ness? How can I make this worse?

Then I try answering all the questions before my brain explodes.

Only on those rare occasions when my first idea is just too weak for even fiction to support will I rack my brain for an alternative.

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