Still stuck on Risen's Plotting... another Rant by LWWanderer

[lonewolfwanderer]

Okay, I know everyone must be tired of me ranting about me being stuck with my novel, but i've decided to rant a little differently. Being the fact my goal is to finish the first draft, and learning what works for me and what doesn't, i'm not worried about revealing this stories plot or information. I'm just focussed on getting it finished so that i can move onto the next idea with the lessons i learned from the first.

This is what i have so far...

It's an undead apocalypse; a war between the living and the dead. The cause for the undead apocalypse is the release of an ancient Lich which was discovered by a group of archaeologists. He's the antagonist.

I have a beginning: A character, named Gabriel, is cornered in a store room after trying to escape a horde of undead. He has one round in his rifle, his leg is wounded (the wound has gotten infected), hasn't eaten in a few days and hasn't had a drink in awhile either. He has a picture of his wife and daughter with them. He tries to commit suicide with the final round he has left, but fails when the round gets jammed. He passes out from exhaustion.

I also have a climax: Gabriel faces the Lich and defeats him, ending the apocalypse. With him is a girl named Lilly. The undead try to kill her, but being the hero, Gabriel gets between them and Lilly. While he tries to hold them off, Lilly freaks out and runs into the clutches of the Lich.

Around Lilly's neck is a locket that contains half of the lich's soul; the lich has the other half. With her now in his clutches, the Lich is able to retrieve the locket, uniting the two halves and giving him back his full power. It is at this point that Lilly somehow realises that the locket and the object containing the other half of the lich's soul, is the source of the Lich's existence.

In her final breaths (not sure if she actually dies or not yet), she manages to share this information with Gabriel, which is the vital bit of information needed to defeat the lich.

I also have a short list of characters:

Lilly, a timid girl, aged somewhere between 8 and 12.

Tee, Lilly's twin brother, who is full of himself and acts tougher/older than he actually is.

Red, a red headed woman with a quick temper; age unknown at this point.

Grizz, a hulk of a man who has muscles in places never thought to have existed; acts in a childish manner, boisterous. Age unknown.

Mira, a black haired woman who tends to keep to herself; an excellent sniper and a disturbing backstory. 20 years old, give or take.

Wesley, an intelligent man who knows how to play the cards he was dealt, so to speak (think Charles Xavier in X-Men). Age: middle aged, maybe older.

Dr. Jakob, an unqualified doctor. Age unknown.

Gabriel: I'm still figuring out his character.

The above is what I have so far.

The issue i find challenging is i'm yet to decide if i'm a pantser or a planner. If i plan, i tend to over plan. I write more when i just sit down and write (this is how i figured out the basic plot of the story, by just writing from the first scene). But i always get to a point where i'm not sure where to go to next. Essentially, i don't know how to get the story from the first scene to the last scene, or to get the ideas i come up with to gel together.

Am I not planning enough? Am i too rigid in trying to get to the goal? Am i too rigid in the basic outline i have? Do i not have enough information? Do i have too much? Am i overthinking all of this?

These are all questions, and more, going through my head, especially when i come up with an idea that intrigues me but don't know how to fit it all in. I just don't know how to change it all from the above to a full fledged novel, and trying to figure it all out myself is getting tiresome... and time is just passing me by...

Sorry for the rant... and thanks in advance for the patient replies.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Am I not planning enough?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1932907009/?tag=brite-21

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Boring I know. you won't know yet what type of writer you are. It might change from book to book depending on complexity and how well you know the story. It's crap but there are no answers, except to get to the end of this one. Then you'll know if it worked.

Cake?

 

[The Judge]

I don't think you need to decide if you're a pantser or a planner -- it's a spectrum, so you might not be wholly one or the other, but somewhere along the line, so don't try and force yourself into either end, but just go with the flow.

I have to say I'm surprised you have so many characters in place when you still don't have most of the story, as my characters tend to come as I write and they pop into being out of necessity. To me, every important character should be... um... important. (That made rather more sense when I thought it than when it appeared written down, I have to say.) What I mean is, if you have these 8 characters then each and every one of them ought to be important to the plot in some way, or at the very least in showing characterisation of the main characters, and at least 4 of them should be absolutely crucial, so that without those 4, things fall apart. So to me, their parts in the story ought to be the next thing to work out. Day dream about what each of them could or might do and how they would react to different situations, and see if any of those ideas could fit into the missing middle section of the novel.

Something I do if I am stuck plot-wise is to make a list of possible options and the advantages/disadvantages of each. eg heroine needs to get into the baddie's castle. She can walk straight in (advantage, easy to do; disadvantage, might be recognised by baddie's henchman); she can walk in once disguised (advantage, avoids being recognised; disadvantage, finding an appropriate disguise); she can swim the moat and scale the wall (advantage, dramatic; disadvantage, cliched, and also she's liable to be sick and die since the moat is used as an open sewer...) As you can see the advantages are both within the novel (ie easy for the character to do) or for the novel (ie a dramatic scene for the reader). Go through all the possible ideas, and see which appeals the most, which would work best in the book, and which has the most advantages/fewest disadvantages. If all else fails, pick one and just run with it!

Good luck.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Am i overthinking all of this?

Yes very probably. If you sit down and have a slice of cake it'll all look better




Anyway a specific suggestion for concrete action. It looks like you have a big plot chasm in the middle and you need to bridge it.

Why not work backwards? Take the climax, which looks well worked out, then ask questions. (Always asks questions, as a novelist always ask questions.) And when you've answered the most obvious ones, there'll be others that should help you stretch out and reach your start.

I'd suggest making a rope bridge first rather than a big stone or steel one. I mean by that to focus on the main plot and put that in some sort of semblance of order, then start to see where your other characters fit in. If some seem underused (and the plot can sustain it - i.e. it's needing perhaps a little more) think about sub-plots.

So from what you've given above:

Where does Gabriel face the Lich?
How does he know how to get there?
Why is there a 8-12 year old girl with Gabriel in the face off with the Lich?
Why does Lilly have the locket? (Or how has Lilly picked up the locket?)

Depending on your answers there will be other questions that flow you back, just for example, this locket is important - so say you answer the last question as 'Lilly picked this locket up and it she can't remove it from her person.' Ok that might help explain why she's in the final fight..., Why can't she remove the locket?

Ah, 'Because the characters have to go on a quest to find the locket and Lilly picked it up by mistake when they found it and it magically fixed itself on her'- oh look! a quest. A quest can have lots of dramatic stages and scenes as our protagonists go through the ravaged land to find the locket. What sort of tribulations and scenes excite you as they battle through the undead? Then how do they know how to go and look for the locket. Because Wesley found some of the archaeologists notes that said there was another tomb where something of great power was stored (or a mystic in a hovel told them) etc....

Continue till you've sketched out a bridge that finds your start!

It won't be perfect I'm sure, but it's just to give you points in the middle to aim for as you write.

Hope that helps!

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

@Venusian Broon: This has helped quite a lot, thank you.

I've got 9 days left to come up with whatever ideas and answers i can think of because i decided to enter into NaNoWriMo as a challenge to get this story completed, or atleast reach 50k words. Now all i need to do now is decide on a war that happened here in the Mother City (Cape Town) sometime in South Africa's past. Or make one up... It's vital to the Lich's backstory... Thanks for the help Chroniclers, i really appreciate it.