posted
Hey all - I'm new to the boards, and thought I'd ask a question I'd really love an answer to.
I get ideas all the time. I hesitate to call them 'story' ideas, because they're not so much stories as situations. Quickly on the heels of the 'situation' idea comes the environment the situation is in, and usually the character(s) that are involved, but the actual plot eludes me.
I have no trouble knowing how the story would begin and how it would end, but the actual 'meat' in the middle gives me trouble.
What I'd like is some advice from you guys on how to think; how to work my way from the shell around the story to the story itself? Let me know if this isn't clear enough, and I'll give some examples.
posted
This question is what OSC addresses a lot in his "1000 ideas in an hour" presentations.
Basically, what you do is question everything.
Question your situation--how did things get this way? --what is likely to happen next? --what can go wrong? --how will the characters react to that? --what will happen when they try this, that, or something else?
Question your characters--what do they want? --why do they want it? --what will they do to get it? --what will they do if crossed? --how do they relate to each other?
And so on and so forth?
The two biggest questions to keep asking yourself are
why?
and
what can go wrong?
If those don't help you develop your plot, maybe you should do as Isaac Asimov used to suggest (take up something easy like brain surgery).
posted
I have felt (and still feel) your pain. The core situation and characters were there, the beginning was decently clear, and I knew where I wanted to end up at. Then there was this big gray hazy thing called a middle.
In addition to the great advice KWD posted, I’ve suggest that once you’ve used the "Why’s" to define your conflict, really push the stakes of the conflict -- beef up my character interactions with the events around them, and always push the obstacles higher and higher. You need to build a mountain, and your character only gets an ice cream tasting spoon to move it with (I exaggerate, but you wouldn’t want to start handing out nuclear mountain clearing devices in the opening act, if you see what I mean). Even knowing that the basic tool of plot is conflict, it can be pretty seductive to lapse into plot-stalling traps of needless back story, world exploration for it’s own sake, and letting the characters flow too easily through their trials (to name a few of the problems I finally realized I was having).
Nancy Kress’s Beginnings, Middles, and Ends helped me see what was making my middle mire, so I would really recommend taking a look at that, as well as OSC’s Character and Viewpoint (Which more fully discusses what Kathleen was saying). I also liked it that Ms. Kress said most people find the middle a painful place to be – it’s always nice to know you’re not alone.
GZ - I *love* both of those books, and actually own CaV. It's been a huge help.
KDW & others:
I do ask those questions, but I keep coming up with cliche or predictable answers, or worse, answers that end up duplicating another story that's already been written far better than I'll be able to.
I think part of what paralyzes me is that I'm trying desperately not to copy plots and themes that have been rehashed a million times. I don't want to be cliche or predictable, because that's what I really dislike in storytelling.
The books/movies/tv/whatever that impress me are the ones in which I *can't* see a plot twist coming a mile away, nor can I already see what the end of this story is when it's only half over. (This is the main reason I can't stand watching most sit-coms, for example.)
Originality and uniqueness are what I'm striving for, but every time I think I've come up with something good, I realize which tale must have 'inspired' it for me.
I get the feeling that since originality and uniqueness can't exactly be taught, only learned, this is yet another one of those places where only practice will make a difference. That 'getting the million bad words out before you find the good ones' thing.
I just hate to 'waste' my good, inspired bits on 'practice writing,' that I won't be able to do justice to anytime soon.
Minor epiphany just now: there's no reason to assume I'll stop getting story ideas, that these are the only ones I'll ever have to work with, so why not use the ones I have now as practice? There's nothing sacred about them. Hmmm...
Again, thanks all. :-)
[This message has been edited by taerin (edited July 14, 2003).]
posted
I have a computer full of "beginning" and "end." Occassionally, a reworked "end" fills a gap in another story that is almost done. Pretty soon, viola, I have story that makes sense. I think being hard on oneself for not having it all together is the very habit that keeps the writing journey from happening. Abandon ridiculous goals, enjoy the process.
[This message has been edited by Bene_Gesserit (edited July 14, 2003).]
posted
Taerin, I apologize. I forgot to mention one important part about asking those questios.
You said:
quote:I do ask those questions, but I keep coming up with cliche or predictable answers, or worse, answers that end up duplicating another story that's already been written far better than I'll be able to.
I think part of what paralyzes me is that I'm trying desperately not to copy plots and themes that have been rehashed a million times. I don't want to be cliche or predictable, because that's what I really dislike in storytelling.
The thing that OSC emphasizes when he talks about asking "Why?" and "What can go wrong?" is that you don't go with the first or even the second answer your subconscious hands you.
You have to keep digging for other possibilities, other ideas, other answers--things deeper than the first or second thing that comes to mind.
That's how you avoid cliche and predictability. Writers who surprise you are the ones who have learned to go with the fourth or fifth or even sixth answer.
posted
Within the last month I've started writing one of the ideas I've had for many years. It started with a concept, no characters, no people, just a concept. From that concept I started hashing out possibilities. Once I decided on a main character and his situation I figured out what I wanted my main plot to be.
Now I'm in the same situation you are, but I keep working on ideas that can happen to the main character. I still have to come up with more situation to happen in the middle. The ending is pretty flexible as far as location and timeframe which leave me with just about anything I dream up. So for me I'm taking it one situation at a time. As I write more I discover new possibilities as I go.
I've read it in a couple of the "Elements of Fiction Writing" books that the story will direct itself as you go. And for me I am finding that it is true.
So I would suggest taking one of your more thought out situations and start it. After you get it going see if it doesn't give you more ideas on where to take it.
posted
Please keep in mind that I'm just getting started as a writer myself, so I don't claim to be an expert.
I'd say if you have an idea, even a cliched and predictable one, just write it. Your story doesn't have to stay that way. You can always rewrite it.
And maybe when you've written enough cliches, you'll start thinking in ways that are more original. Your writing will "grow up." (At least that's my hope as continue writing.)
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