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Writing: Story Plots Anyone?

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  1.  
    Umm... What do you do when u r stuck for story plots? I have a lot of ideas for stories, but I can never come up with a decent plot. I mean I have a begining or a scene, but I don't know how to finish it or arrive at the conversation or scene. So suggestions are welcome.
    P.S. If some-one puts an idea up, I promise I won't copy it, I just want to get the ideas flowing.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009
     

    I usually just start writing and I see where I end up. Or I start reading old rants by limyaael. They make me think and start getting ideas on new plots.

    Of course, it’s probably best not to listen to me. I have yet to finish a novel of mine. And the current one/my first one, which I’ve been working on revising and writing for three years, I am thinking of trashing. The plot stinks. >.< It’s too cliche with the whole ‘save the world pseudo-medieval setting’. [So it pretty much sucks.]

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      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009
     

    I’m often inspired by something, then tweak it to make it more original.
    Other times I come up with what I think is a new plot, then find something else that uses the same/similar elements, so abandon it on grounds of unoriginality.

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      CommentAuthorCGilga
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009
     

    I use a thought book. I’d look up the article, but it’s hidden somewhere far back.

  5.  
    A thought book? Is that in forums somewhere? Can U explain it to me? Plz.
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      CommentAuthorCGilga
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009 edited
     

    It’s somewhere on the main site’s archive. It’s exactly what it says it is. A book for your thoughts. Carry it with you. Write down any and all ideas that come into your head. My book is a little different from the article’s suggestion, but I don’t just include story ideas. I’ll throw in any devices, character ideas, conversations, anything that gives me that spark ,that thing that makes me want to write immediately, but just isn’t complete enough to become a book yet. Then I steadily accumulate, find ideas that could be linked, could work together, and my worldbuilding starts from that.

  7.  
    @CGilga
    I have alot of ideas already, I just need them to organize and come together in a plot or outline, and its hard for me to fit ideas together cause their so diverse. It's kind of hard for me to just point my thoughts in one direction and let it roll like some people. Mine just tend to wander. Thanks for the advice anyway, I'll look for the thought book just in case.

    Also if anyone has any prompts for I random thing I could use that too
  8.  

    Write. Are you stuck? Just write, let it flow out of your hands. If you reach a dead end, carve a new path. Did a conversation die before you got to the meat of it? Have a character attempt to aleviate the silence by picking their nose and write the others’ reactions. It doesn’t need to make perfect sense. You’ll feel satisfied just from writing and, if you get lucky, something inside your mind will connect and suddenly your destination will be crystal clear. Then, in that moment of clarity, write for goodness sakes, before you lose that momentum!

    Really, it all comes down to getting on with the work.

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      CommentAuthorNorthmark
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009 edited
     

    I absolutely love plotmaking. Unfortunately, because I like (and succeed at) making plots more than actually writing, none of them ever end up written. I sort of come up with a general idea and string it out in my head, hard to explain but I can come up with stuff really easily. A consequence of that is my tendency to daydream about the plots and then I end up pacing around my room at 2 A.M. thinking about vampires or whatever my current obsession happens to be. D:

    A way that I can come up with stuff is through simple word association, if I have a really basic idea going. An example is when a friend of mine wrote a few paragraphs about a cop named Travis who drove to work and got shot in the head. My thought process: Travis -> Texas -> Texas and law -> Death penalty -> False conviction that led to a death penalty -> Revenge. You said your thoughts wander, using those wandering thoughts can actually be a good way to come up with new ideas.

    </failingoverlongexplanation>

  10.  

    Cool! Thanks Northmark, I’ll try it right now.

    •  
      CommentAuthorRand
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009
     

    If I get stuck and don’t have an idea for a story that I especially like, I turn a few of the random small thoughty What-Ifs in my head into short stories. Like, I feel like throwing up when I eat these really disgusting mushrooms, so then I had a ‘What if you were one of those people with hyper-sensitivity’ and now I’m writing a short story about such a person. Because, you see, you don’t need to commit to all the plot twists and turns for a short story, and it seems like such a more plausible effort.

    But I’m not sure if that’s what you are going for…?

  12.  

    @Northmark
    Oh My Gosh! It really works!
    P.S.
    I’m still open for ideas and promts from anybody else out there.

  13.  

    I think I tried one of those what if stories before and it just didn’t flow and I got stuck. I think its still stuck in my closet. Hmm… maybe I should dig that up sometime, I could have new ideas now. I’ll take it in consideration.

  14.  

    oh that was @Rand

    •  
      CommentAuthorRand
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2009
     

    Ok, yeah.

  16.  

    Hey CGilga I looked up the thoughtbook and it actually sounds better than I origanally gave it credit for, maybe I’ll try to combine all the previous ideas…
    And make a monster idea that will eventually allow me to take over the world!!! Mwahahahaha… cough cough I mean, um, make a really great story… heh heh yeah.
    (weakly amends) Whoops

  17.  

    Sorry I’m feeling really hyper and silly at the moment, but I meant the first part seriously
    Do you think I talk to much? I mean I their is a lot of comments up there… ok I’m going to stop rambling now.

  18.  

    Uh, no, there’s no real talking too much. There is an edit button though, you know.

  19.  
    Plots are overrated. They really aren't the most important part of writing. Here's how I think of it.

    The plot is not the story, the plot is merely what happens to the characters. If you start with a character, then ask, "what can I do to this character?", you might get something. I've started to think of the plot as the thing which forces the characters to become more than names-on-the-page™. It takes them out of their comfort zone, introduces new things to them, it makes you think about them as real people. If the plot eventually leads to the main character saving the day, that's fine. The important part is how it develops the character along the way.
    That's my approach, and some pretty interesting plots have come out of it.
  20.  

    Actually, the story I am writing evolved so significantly from a vague idea I had when I was like, twelve, that I have no idea how I got it. I think I wanted to write something from a Haradhrim (from LotR)‘s point of view, because of Faramir’s (or Sam’s, can’t remember) where he wonders whether the Haradhrim were really evil for serving Sauron.

    Of course, what I’m writing now has no one from LotR, no Haradhrim, or anything whatsoever. And it is much better.

    So even if the idea is stupid right now, keep tweaking it and you might come up with something interesting. Weird things might inspire you, but just go along with it.

  21.  
    @northmark - I like plot making more than actually writing, too. I plotted out almost every tiny little thing in a novel so that when it comes to actually writing it, it's a little boring to write because I know basically everything. And I like my storyline so much I don't wanna change it or do something else. But some things are subject to change because every once in a while I think of something new to add.

    @ durandalski - Sometimes things need to be heavily plotted out to work like Harry Potter. Sometimes the story needs to be mostly plot driven as long as the characters don't start making stupid decisions for the sake of the plot.

    @ snow white queen - yeah I don't get how my idea came to be but I had it ages ago, too. But it didn't start from a fanfictiony story. It probably spawned from watching certain cartoons and stuff that I subconsciously ripped-off...
  22.  

    Actually, Harry Potter is an example of a well-planned series. Example: In book one, Hagrid makes a passing reference to borrowing Sirius Black’s motorcycle. We completely forget the name, until it surfaces again in Book 3, where Black is a main character.

    Some people didn’t like this method, but I thought it was very intriguing.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    I love the way Rowling incorporates important elements in later stories. Like the magic cupboard thingy that used to stand in the Hall.

  24.  
    How could anyone not like that method? I've been striving to make my novel series idea have a lot of those kind of things where something subtle from ages ago becomes super important later. But because of what my story is about and it only being 3 books and not 7, I can't do quite as well as Rowling.
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      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    Heh, some authors make it painfully obvious, though. Either Rowling is really clever and planned such things out in intricate detail, or remembers/re-reads what she writes and uses them as plot devices later. :D

  26.  

    Chekhov’s Gun, yeah… I can’t see how one wouldn’t like it. It rewards the reader for paying attention, makes you think “Oh yeah, haha, this writer’s clever!”

    Why would anyone not like it? O_o

    • CommentAuthorCodeWizard
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    Guns are evil and hurt people.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    @Dr. A

    Why would anyone not like it? O_o

    Haha, because it might take reading the books more than once to pick up on those sorts of things?

  29.  
    Was that sarcasm...? I don't know anything about Chekhov's Gun.

    Guns aren't evil and hurt people. People with guns are evil and hurt people.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    Happycrab, take a look at the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

    That might help. :D

    • CommentAuthorCodeWizard
    • CommentTimeJun 21st 2009
     

    Chekov’s Gun is the principle that when you have a gun in the first act you make sure to fire it by the end of the second act.

    Duh.

  32.  
    And here I was thinking it was a novel or series... silly me. Well I don't think it's that bad of a principle if done well.
    • CommentAuthorRocky
    • CommentTimeJun 25th 2009
     
    I'm with Northmark. I enjoy making plots more than the actual writing. The problem is that, once I'm done planning the whole thing out, I'm bored with the concept and move on, or worse, I revamp the plot.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeJun 26th 2009
     

    I’m the same.
    As a result, I rarely write anything, so I’m not very good at it.

    •  
      CommentAuthorDiamonte
    • CommentTimeJun 26th 2009
     

    That’s why I use leechblock on my computer, then I sit down and actually hammer out some writing. It’s just a matter of slugging through it. I’m bad, though, because I am notoriously lazy.

  36.  

    Oh, same here. I’m so lazy, it’s terrible.

    As for plots, sometimes, things just pop up in my head. LIKE: What if whoever/whatever created us (assuming we were created) got tired of us and decided to kill us all off? Would we be able to convince them otherwise, or would we all die horrible deaths?

  37.  

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      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeJun 26th 2009
     

    Lol.

    • CommentAuthorCodeWizard
    • CommentTimeJun 26th 2009
     

    As for plots, sometimes, things just pop up in my head. LIKE: What if whoever/whatever created us (assuming we were created) got tired of us and decided to kill us all off? Would we be able to convince them otherwise, or would we all die horrible deaths?

  40.  

    Ok, we wouldn’t be able to convince them. They’d squish us all into pancakes. UNLESS there was a super deus ex machina which I can’t think of.

  41.  

    I would suggest loading an earlier save state.

    •  
      CommentAuthorCorsair
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009
     
    Yeah, but the going theory is that Humanity's last point is around 32 A.D. - I'm told Jesus saved.
  43.  

    Did no one activate any checkpoints on the way?

    •  
      CommentAuthorCGilga
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009 edited
     

    I didn’t know there were any checkpoints.

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009
     

    Maybe we’re on Hard mode, with no checkpoints between saves?
    Or maybe we’re just trying to get through without saving to unlock the bonus content.

    •  
      CommentAuthorCGilga
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009 edited
     

    Bonus Content = Wings and Magic?

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009
     

    I hope so, so much.
    Or new playable races/maps/etc. Maybe once we’ve finished the campaign, we can play a few custom games over Battlenet.

  48.  

    Apparently, there is supposed to be a save point coming up in 2012, or a dungeon boss, or something.

  49.  

    The worst part about it is there’s no ‘continue’ option if you get Game Over. Only a snickering dog.

    On a similar note, TV Tropes’ Real Life page is the most hilarious page on the entire site.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJabrosky
    • CommentTimeJun 27th 2009
     
    I have a problem with coming up with plots too. Also with keeping my muse for a story---too often I lose interest in what I'm writing.

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