Have a plot outline, now what?

[dreir]

Didn't you mean, onion hurling event?

- Dreir -

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Dreir:

Yes Dreir that's correct. There is, I'm sure you are aware, currently a hot debate on the Arguments thread regarding the worthiness of salad tossing and vegetable hurling events. (sorry for the off topic reference, these things are serious and need clarification) I was merely pointing out that the onion was indeed one of the few worthies IMHO.

Oops I see my error in the original post - what an idiot please forgive.

 

[WafflesToo]

Just one more peice of evidence that Heinlen is in fact, a jackass.

Back on topic, all I do is come up with important scenes and roughly come up with how I want them to go. Of course during the course of writing things change and some of my previous planning gets dumped, but part of being a good writer is knowing when to remove something from your story.

...even if you really liked it.

...really, REALLY liked it :'(

 

[ChrisBfla]

Hi:

Good point. On both of my novels (one published and one sitting on my publisher's desk) I created the plot ideas in my head and just went to work on them and started writng. HOWEVER, when I got up to the more tricky passages, where characters nd sub-plots needed to converge, I did make an outline as well as a time line for the events and the people in my stories to interact.

Also, pull a lot from your own experiences and even find interesting facts from reseach that can be woven into your story or create a plot twist.

Chris Berman

 

[Aorrowan]

Well...good news! I have a beginning. To be honest, it might not actually be a beginning yet, but it is a start if not a beginning. I have a feeling i might have to write the scene that happens before this one, but as it was the one that was causing me so much trouble, i took your advice, skipped ahead, and voila! I have a quasi-beginning. Hurray!

Thanks everyone for your input!

TheEnd...I say, your monkeys sound suspiciously like union monkeys to me! Medicare? Bananas? Decent wages? Let me guess, do they receive severance packages and pension as well? Days off with pay?? Bah humbug to that!

 

[Lith]

Yeah, but are they unDEAD monkeys? THAT's the important question.

When I started really (I mean REALLY) writing, I laid out a couple of rules that worked pretty well- start at the beginning, don't skip around in space/time, and don't rewrite until finished with draft one. Doesn't work for every writer, but it helped me a LOT.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Arrowman:

I can certainly furnish The End.

The monkey's are all very intelligent. There are complex reasons why I with my optimistic outlook have somehow got involved with the search for the elixir of life which should be explained here :-

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/44734-book-length-is-this-a-worrying-new-trend.html#post1093185

and further down the thread.

Basically following the mass layoff of experiment animals a bunch of them approached me following my posts on that thread. Since they were up for a bit of experimenting themselves they have no qualms about using there previous comrades in their own research. Motivation and good working conditions always produce good results in my opinion. There are certainly no unions involved they are very strict about that sort of thing. Nowadays it's almost an autonomous unit. The monkeys organise the research find the test animals and naturally type everything up themselves. All I have to do is sign the cheques for the bananas.

And Lith

Although they have had some success in the undead line of research it was decided to shelve it as it was thought to be too hard a sell.

 

[Gary Compton]

I have a general outline of the plot for my book, and a good idea about all the major scenes i want to include. But now, i'm at a loss...what do i do next

Sell your soul to the Devil...life will change forever.

 

[Aorrowan]

Hmmm. Perhaps this explains the recent banana shortages at the local groceries....

 

[flynx]

Now wait just a minute. If we're going to do the job at all we need an infinite number of monkeys. That's all monkeys that ever were and will ever be and then more. So in the grand scheme of things unionised monkeys, flying monkeys, undead monkeys and yes. even the vampire monkeys will be only a smidgen of an infinite number.

(I realise that vampire monkeys are technically undead monkeys but they sulk if you just lump them in)

Now the major problem is that this infinite number of monkeys will need an infinite number of machines (typewriters, word processors and Amstrad cpc 464s)

So you have your infinite number of monkeys and logically, because they are made of matter then there just isn't any substance left to make any typewriters.

Now you need an infinite number of monkeys minus at least one to have a typewriter exist. Then they have to take turns which would take absolutely ages. But that doesn't matter because an infinite number minus one is a finite number and any number which isn't infinite leaves an infinity of numbers, so the work is just never going to get finished and you're going to end up with such classic opening lines as:

Call me simon

A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twycross.

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Curly Wurly

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single antelope...

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and sassafrass.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking illegibly

In a hole in the ground there lived a holbein

 

[Lith]

That explains why I never have enough time to read. The typewriters and monkeys are hogging it all!

However, I would think the undead monkeys cancel out at least some of the non-undead monkeys, thus solving the problem of a finite amount of matter...

 

[dreir]

Did those monkeys come up with 'It was a dark and stormy night'?

I've always hated that one..

- Dreir -

 

[Aorrowan]

It seems to me that the monkey written products are easy to identify. They're the ones with an overabundance of "peel"-ings.

 

[deathbeatsliving]

Well I usually what a more detailed outline. I once wrote an outline of a 1 or 2 line description of what happens in every scene but when you get down to writing the actual script. So many different things by the cause and effect of things said, or actions taken it causes a butterfly effect because of this I would write each scene and then write a bullet point happenings and any quotes that stand out in your mind that is said. Therefore when you get down to writing the script it flows out of you.
For example, I just wrote the first draft of my short film, it just flowed out of me. It was amazing.

 

[Cudaer]

I am typically a spur of the moment, plan nothing type of writer. I tend to just start writing, and develop the plot as it comes to me. Well, it hasn't been working for me too well until now! I've probably got 6 different beginnings to completely different stories that have run out of steam after I got the opening scenes off my chest.


I too have tended to be a spur of the moment writer and like you the stories ran out of steam. However, I persevered and finally have a plot line that I have continued to write until the end.

The only issue with writing a story without some predefined outline is that unless your careful you can end up with so many twists and turns you get lost.

A person told me once that if you want to write a book, try writing a one line description of each chapter, but start with the beginning and end, then fill in the rest. If you can't bridge the gap between the two try altering the plot or changing it completely.

I don't know whether this is helpful and I don't profess to be an experienced writer, but it's a method I have used which seems to work.

Above all enjoy yourself!!!

 

[Blackrook]

I started a story last week. I wrote an epilogue and two chapters without much pre-planning. Now I realize I have not laid down the proper foundation for my characters and I will have to scrap everything and start over.

I am going to take each character and write a semi-detailed backstrory so I know exactly who they are and why. Then I'm going to outline my story. I outline everything I write at work so it makes no sense to do otherwise in my fiction.

When I write outlines at work, I make a caption that tells, in one sentence, everything that will be said in that section. That way, the reader can figure everything out just by reading the captions. Pinnochio was written this way. You can read the titles of the chapters and know everything without reading any more.

 

[deathbeatsliving]

I think its a good idea have for tv series scene index cards when you have bullet points for each important thing that happens in it. Reading the above makes me think that you are leaving not much surprise as an audience. I don't know why. It just makes me think there is a reason why episodes in big series like Lost, Heroes have ambigious titles. Its because unless you are a really big fan you aren't going to know what its going to be about. It doesn't mean the title isn't good. It's catchy just not revealing.

 

[Blackrook]

No, I would not actually use such titles for chapter titles in a final draft, only as captions in an outline.