[WiP] Plotting The Adventures of Buzzik · 2:39am Jan 10th, 2015
Okay, here I am again with the second installment of my WiP blog series.
Aww, are you butthurt because your last attempt at doing it was lost due to a browser crash?
Hush, Sunbutt. You may be best pony, but I'm in no mood for it right now.
In this post, I'll be going over the first few steps in turning that mishmash of a brainstorm (see the previous post) into a workable plotline.
Celly, I'll make you do the honors this time. Because you've earned it. Arr. I wouldn't be doing it if ye weren't typin' my words!
Um, Celly, you don't have to do it like a pirate. That's just Big Mac's thing. You're not even very good at it. I'll do it however I bloody like.
Fine. Go ahead. There be spoilers ahead mateys. Spoilers and graphs. Lots of graphs. Scalawags.
I guess that will do.
More after the break.
So, after I've got my Brainstorming done, it's time to start weeding it down.
First, I remove the things I think won't work with the story and lean it down a bit. If you look at my previous blog post in this series, you'll see red X's on some of the things, which are the beginnings of this process.
Once there, it's time to move on to plots.
And that's where the big graph comes in.
(click to embiggen)
I'll give you a moment to admire its majesty.
Okay, I'm done!
Rainbow, you hardly looked at it at all.
Ten. Seconds. Fl--
<.< I know the rest.
Anyway, this thing's going to need some serious explanation, I'm sure.
The top section is all the basic plot arcs I'm planning for the story, their rise and their fall to a conclusion. (Each one is numbered so I can connect it to a more detailed chart of it later on.)
As you can see, they overlap a lot, which is good. I also try to have several of them come together in the final conclusion; it's good to have as many plots play into the final conclusion as possible.
The middle section is me (tenatively) separating the larger story into chapters which will have their own individual beginnings, middles, and ends.
The bottom section is where it gets interesting. These are my 'story questions', and it's a great (and little known) way to approach making the plot of a story. A story question is something the story makes the reader want to know, but doesn't tell the reader right away, and it's the real reason people get addicted to a book and can't wait to read the next bit: their brain wants answers to those questions, even if they're not consciously asking them. The questions usually aren't explicitly stated by the story; the story just gives incomplete information and relies on the reader to question it.
Now, the 'main question' of the story will be: "Does the protagonist accomplish what he's trying to do?" ... and if you can jump right into that question, it can be good enough to carry a reader through your whole story.
Some stories, though, (like this one!) require too much exposition and scene-setting to take place before you can get the main question to the reader. What then? You need other questions, bridging the gap. As long as you never answer the first question before 'asking' the next, you'll keep your readers on the edge of their seats. In a well-written opening, the reader will have a question by the time they've read the first line. And that question won't be answered until after another question comes up... if indeed it's answered at all before the conclusion of the story. Always overlap the questions; never let there be a single moment reading the story where the reader doesn't have any unanswered questions about it... until the very end.
The conclusion of the story should answer all the remaining questions. That's how you can ensure the conclusion of your story is satisfying and fulfilling. Just like in the plot arcs, the more questions that can be answered all at once in the climax of your story, the better.
After that, I take each one of those plot arcs, and I expand it to much greater detail, figuring out how I'll do each one and what scenes they'll need.
The height of the line over the base roughly corresponds to the amount of dramatic tension I'll be hoping to create/maintain in that scene. It's something that needs to be managed. Too long with high tension will fatigue readers, too long with low tension will bore them. If it flickers up and down too much, readers will feel overwhelmed and unsure what's going on. So, I try to make it go up and down pretty nicely.
Here are some of the examples:
(There are 19 in total, one for each of the numbered ones in the first image.)
Make it stop!
Okay, Rare. Just for you.
You're my favorite author to be written by, you know that?
^.^ That's nice of me to make you say.
Anyway, the scenes I've thought of for these many plot arcs, combined with lots of tidbits from the original brainstorming, plus any additional things I think of along the way will eventually become my unordered scene list -- which will be my next blog post.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how I do things, and maybe even learned something; thanks for reading!
Very impressive. I plan a lot too, but I've never done a diagram like that before
I tend to just write my stories organically, because even if I do plan it out in such minute detail, I often get new ideas as I am writing, or scenes just won't come out the way that I had planned them to before.
Does that happen to you? If so, do you draw a new chart for the remainder of the story?
Oh, the deliberate irony in this is simply precious.
That aside, this is some seriously useful insight into making a good story!
You can bet I'll be applying this soon (tomorrow, in fact).
Thank you! Thank you so much for this!
You're currently my best writing teacher, Ocalhoun!
THANK YOU!
AIP§
2712842
Glad I can help! ^.^
2712740
I do sometimes get new ideas while writing the story.
The only planning sheet I'll modify in that case is the outline itself, though. Keeping all these sheets up to date would be a nightmare.
2712731
That's very, very strange.
Maybe it has something to do with the image host I'm using?
I have no idea what you just said...
2713335
Heh, then I didn't explain it very well.
Any specific questions?