I believe that the biggest danger to a new story isn't bad grammar or character display, but uncertainty.

I think a thread for expedient counseling amongst the writers of this group will do wonders for productivity.

I will be back later to express my own issues.

For now, stick around and state your interests or concerns.

feel free to help others.

282852
I am intrigued, but I don't get it. Uncertainty of what, exactly?

282855 I think he means that what ruins a story is an unclear plot with no real direction. Sometimes it works fot slapstick comedy fics, but for the most part the reader needs to be able to identify where things are going.

A good thing to do, in my opinion, is when you begin an arc or even a new chapter, end the previous one with a cliffhanger and continue it. For instance, finish a plot line midchapter and begin the next arc in the same chapter. Then end said chapter in a cliffhanger.

282856
Oh! That makes sense. Yes, this is totally a big problem and I have some things to say about it.

Kurt Vonnegut suggests that one should "start as close to the end as possible" when writing a story. This implies that when you start writing a story, you should already know how it's going to end.

Now, I can only speak for myself here, but I've found that to be massively valuable advice. Too many times in the past have I started writing something on a whim, saying stuff like "I'll make it up as I go along", only to write myself into a corner and abandon the story without any resolution at all. It doesn't feel great.

Some people can write like that, but I can't. These days, whenever I get the urge to write something, I force myself to think about how it's going to end before I even type up the first sentence. Once I've written some of the first chapter and gotten a feel for where it's going, I try to hammer out general ideas of the major plotline(s). I don't publish the fic until I have some idea of that - which took three months once, but was totally worth it later on.

In fact, another thing that helps me to write with more certainty is really thinking before I sit down in front of the keyboard. I'll go out for a walk, or go to the shop, or do something else, and on the way, I'll line up the events for a certain scene or collection of scenes in my head. Then, instead of staring at a blank page for half an hour and getting gradually more frustrated at myself, I'll just be able to sit down and write the stuff I've already thought about a whole bunch.

I've also found it useful to stop writing for the day in the middle of a sentence. It's absolute torture on your mind, but it's a way to keep you thinking about the story, and to ensure that you can always write something when you sit down to write, even if it's just the second half of a sentence.

>A good thing to do, in my opinion, is when you begin an arc or even a new chapter, end the previous one with a cliffhanger and continue it. For instance, finish a plot line midchapter and begin the next arc in the same chapter. Then end said chapter in a cliffhanger.
Not a bad idea, but remember not to frustrate your readers with cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. Used to often, they stop being effective devices for suspense and become effective devices for annoying everyone.

good! I'm glad you've all hopped on!
Right now, I'm having problems with launching my Adventure fic because it's a branching narrative. I don't know if I should separate the plot points of different characters into stand-alone chapters or have them interspersed with the primary arc.

At the conclusion, they will all converge on a singular event,but reaching that point seems like it will be a challenge.

282861

That is indeed sound advice. How do you think I should solve the problem with a branching narrative, though?

282864
282866
An intriguing problem. Not an easy one to solve without seeing the story in question, but let's use this as an opportunity to discuss separate character chapters VS shifting perspective.

This problem (as I can see it - forgive me if I've misread) boils down to the merits of the 12th season Simpsons episode Trilogy of Error (and other things like it) VS the merits of typical A, B and C plot TV show writing. Should you show the entirety of one character's plot and then move onto the next, or should you show everyone's plots together, progressing each by a scene or two before cycling over to another?

Character chapters

The beauty of Trilogy of Error, for me, is how each of the plots slowly reveals another part of the big picture. Background details from the other plots get filled in, and there's a lot of fun to be had in noticing the ways that the different plots influence each other.

Another example of this sort of thing that I can think of is in book 12 of A Series of Unfortunate Events, when the three Baudelaire children go on simultaneous missions to accomplish different things for a common goal. The purpose of the device there seems to be to allow the reader to appreciate the parallels between the three stories - something easier noticed when each story is told separately.

Oh, and if you tell a number of simultaneous stories from the perspectives of different characters, your reader is technically free to read that batch of chapters in any order. =P

Perspective shifts

As I said above, most sitcoms and other such TV shows are told in this staggered manner. Group A does something, then we switch to Group B doing something, then to Group C, then to Group A again, and so on. It's basically character chapters in miniature, but a single scene lacks the self-contained nature of an entire chapter.

This seems to be the default mode of narrative, likely because it allows for the creation of far more suspense than that other option. With a character chapter, you're stuck with the same character in the same situation until the end of the chapter, but with perspective shifts, you can create mini-cliffhangers whenever you want by just switching perspective.

If you're story's really long, this mode seems like the best idea to me, because were you to tell multiple long character stories that all converged at the end, it's likely that the reader will be fuzzy on important details that happened at the end of character A's story once your finish character C's one and bring them all together. Presumably, it'll be important for the reader to have the ends of each character story in mind at the climax of the story proper, and this mode is probably the best way to ensure that. Note that having the plotline parallels discussed above can be a great aid for the reader's memory.

Conclusion

It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door, one of the fandom's greatest fics, follows Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity in most of its chapters, but has one or two chapters solely focusing on Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight. This works well because the first group is far more important to the plot than the second group, and so their one or two chapters work as breather chapters between the main action.

If your different characters are all of equal importance, if their stories are fairly lengthy, and if they're all fairly unrelated, I suggest just interspersing them. If the stories are short, heavily related and constantly impacting each other, and/or have very important parallels, I recommend telling them one by one.

(Note that I have far more experience with interspersion than separate character chapters, and that these are basically just musings and opinions)

282869

This all very useful information! However, the characteristics of the arcs in my story kind of create a gray zone around whether interspersion will appropriate.
each arc contains a body of events that are largely disparate.

They all have common details in the beginning and, beyond that, lack all connection till around the very end.
if you would like me to reveal the guts of the story, I can.

282861
282869
Awesome! This means I'm writing my story correctly!

OK, here's some advice from me.

Keep Your Ending In Mind
I know this has already been discussed, but it should be told in more succinct detail.
Think of your story as if it's a board game. The ending to your story is the Big Goal, the finishing line. (If you want to write the ending first, that's fine, and might actually be a big help in the long run.)
So let's say, our Big Goal for now is "Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts." There's our goal, and our ending: RD gets to make her dream come true.
But how do we get there?
Simple. We try to reach Small Goals. With Small Goals, we can chop up the story into smaller bits. Every chapter should end when a Small Goal gets hit.
So let's say this is our "board game map" so far:
Start: Rainbow Dash wants to join the Wonderbolts.
Goal: She is first denied because her tricks aren't good enough.
Goal: She decides to train harder; Twilight lends her some books on flight techniques.
Goal: She tries again next year, and impresses the judges with all that she's learned.
Finish:Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts.

Problem: the story is too short and too simple. Let's throw in something meatier.

Start: Rainbow Dash wants to join the Wonderbolts.
Goal: She is first denied because her tricks aren't good enough.
Goal: She decides to train harder; Twilight lends her some books on flight techniques.
Goal: But it seems the techniques are difficult for Rainbow Dash to master! After months of no improvement, she begins to give up hope.
Goal: Twilight then tells Rainbow Dash about the greatest flyer in the world. She decides to meet him and mentor beneath him.
Goal: After a long journey, Rainbow Dash meets the Greatest Flyer. She trains beneath him.
Goal: She tries again next year, and impresses the judges with all that she's learned.
Finish:Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts.

But this is too straightforward! Any board game that has only one line from Start to Finish is hardly fun at all. And if the game's not fun to play, then the story's no fun to read.
So now we should try to mix things up. We need to throw in plot twists. We need to throw challenges at our main character Rainbow Dash, and cause our straight line path to curve and twist about the board.
Now, our map looks more like:

Start: Rainbow Dash wants to join the Wonderbolts.
Goal: She is first denied because her tricks aren't good enough.
Goal: She decides to train harder; Twilight lends her some books on flight techniques.
Goal: But it seems the techniques are difficult for Rainbow Dash to master! After months of no improvement, she begins to give up hope.
Goal: Twilight then tells Rainbow Dash about the greatest flyer in the world. She decides to meet him and mentor beneath him.
Goal: After a long journey, Rainbow Dash meets the Greatest Flyer, but her abrasive attitude does not earn her his respect, and he refuses to work with her.
Goal: Rainbow Dash tries everything to earn the Greatest Flyer's respect, only to be turned away each time. She learns however, that he turned her away the first time because he felt her goal was too selfish.
Goal: She confronts him about her goal. He tells her she should be flying because it's a "spiritual experience". She tries to play along with his "zen" ideology and he agrees to train her.
Goal: Rainbow Dash gets put through the ringer. She nearly gives up, but never loses sight of her goal.
Goal: She tries again next year, and impresses the judges with all that she's learned.
Goal: When the Greatest Flyer congratulates her, he tells her he knew she was full of shit regarding whether or not she believed in the Spirituality of Flight. But he trained her anyway, expecting her to fail, only for her to succeed. He learned that physical goals were just as important as having spiritual goals, and concludes that everypony has something to teach, and something to learn. He thanks her for reminding him of this fact.
Finish: Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts.

OK, now we have ourselves an adventure. But something's missing. A final layer to add to the conflict of our story. We could really use a villain.
But what kind of villain should we go for? Someone who opposes Rainbow Dash obviously; but for why? Is it someone who is jealous of her talent?
But will adding a villain take too much focus off the main goal? Probably not--if we play our cards right.
So let's see our final map of this story:

Start: Rainbow Dash wants to join the Wonderbolts.
Goal: She is first denied because her tricks aren't good enough--which the judges learn from watching her crash.
Goal: It turns out that her crash was caused by the telekinesis of a unicorn observer. This unicorn is the sister of a rival flyer who wants to see her brother join the Wonderbolts; however, he too fails the entrance exam.
Goal: RD decides to train harder; Twilight lends her some books on flight techniques.
Goal: But it seems the techniques are difficult for Rainbow Dash to master! After months of no improvement, she begins to give up hope.
Goal: Twilight then tells Rainbow Dash about the greatest flyer in the world. She decides to meet him and mentor beneath him. The sister from before hears of this and tells her brother, who immediately sets off to find him.
Goal: RD begins her journey to the east, where the Greatest Flyer lives. However, she is impeded several times by the unicorn sister.
Goal: After a long journey, Rainbow Dash meets the Greatest Flyer, but her abrasive attitude does not earn her his respect, and he refuses to work with her. Instead, he decides to mentor the brother.
Goal: Rainbow Dash tries everything to earn the Greatest Flyer's respect, only to be turned away each time. She learns however, that he turned her away the first time because he felt her goal was too selfish. The brother's goal was to show his sister he could succeed at something, and earn her respect--a goal the Flyer found to be more noble.
Goal: She confronts the Flyer about her goal. He tells her she should be flying because it's a "spiritual experience". She tries to play along with his "zen" ideology and he agrees to train her.
Goal: Rainbow Dash gets put through the ringer. She nearly gives up, but never loses sight of her goal. She trains alongside the brother, and we learn how tough his childhood was. RD begins to kinda feel sorry for him.
Goal: She tries again next year, this time going up against her fellow flight student in a contest of sheer ability. The brother asks the sister to withhold her magic, because he wants to win fairly.
Goal: But the sister is not concerned with playing fair. She tries again all her dirty tricks, and manages to crash RD several times.
Goal: RD fails. She hangs her head in shame and is about to leave the try-outs when all of a sudden, the brother announces that he will not fly. He tells the judges of his cheating sister, and she is detained. The brother then cancels his performance so that RD can try again.
Goal: RD impresses the judges with all that she's learned.
Goal: When the brother confronts his sister, he tells her he wanted to succeed at something by himself. He wanted her to respect him instead of babying him his whole life. She apologizes for making him think her love for him was something he had to earn. They make up, and RD cries a little.
Goal: When the Greatest Flyer congratulates RD, he tells her he knew she was full of shit regarding whether or not she believed in the Spirituality of Flight. But he trained her anyway, expecting her to fail, only for her to succeed. He learned that physical goals were just as important as having spiritual goals, and concludes that everypony has something to teach, and something to learn. He thanks her for reminding him of this fact.
Finish: Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts.

And there we go! The brother and sister aren't really "villains" in the moustache-twirling sense, but are more like regular antagonists: the brother is a young boy who wants to prove that he can succeed at something that isn't failure, and the sister is well-meaning but spiteful. Together, they add additional flavor to the story.

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Whew! Long post, but I hope we learned something from all this.