Okay, about 20 years ago, I used to write fanfiction. BAD fanfiction. When I tried to "pants" writing, I always ended up an anxious mess who could never get past the first chapter. About two years ago, I re-started writing different fanfiction. This time, I tried roughly "planning" it, and my fanfics worked out a lot better and I wasn't a freaked-out mess anymore. So now that I'm turning 47 and decided to write an actual story for other people to read, I'm doing the "planning" thing, but here's where I get stuck - with fanfic, it's easy to plot because in a lot of cases, you're doing an "episode" from your fandom and you're just writing a missing piece from the original plot line. I have no idea how to plot an actual story. I have a story - I know how I want it to start, and that part has been neatly mapped out. I have a pretty good idea of how I want it to end. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what to do in the middle! I'm as stuck on planning my outline as I would get when I "pantsed" my stories in the past. How much information is too much information to share here on the forum to ask for help? What is the protocol for getting help on the forum? I know I have to critique two pieces in order to post something myself, but I'm still in the "outlining" stage and I don't know the process to get an assist. Everybody here has been awesome! Thank you for all your support!
If you are looking for an outlining method, the Snowflake Method may work for you. You begin with one summary sentence and branch out from there. The Snowflake Method Of Writing In 10 Easy Steps
I love the snowflake method, but it really isn't about plotting—it's about fleshing out your ideas and developing them, which is an equally important part of the process. Plotting is more about understanding the three-act structure. Even if it isn't the one you're going to use, it's the starting point, because it's the gold standard. If you want to defy it, rebel against it, or do some kind of variation on it, you still want to understand it. Otherwise how do you know what you're avoiding or rebelling against? You also want to look into character arcs. Here's a post where I listed some good articles about both (strangely enough, on a thread about something called Quoll Writer): Quoll Writer That should give you plenty of material to get started on learning. You can also do a search and find more articles and videos to flesh out your understanding farther, or if you really want to dig in, maybe a book or two. Just depends how interested you are in learning this stuff.
I use the Snowflake method as well as plotting techniques, and sort of go back and forth between them all.
I read through that Snowflake article. It's pretty good, but one important thing that seems to be missing is that you don't need to go through it in any particular order. You move freely between the steps in any order that works for you, and in fact you'll keep bouncing around between the various stages again and again. For me personally, I haven't been able to come up with the short one-sentence summaries right off the bat, until I write up much longer ones. I don't really try to keep them to any particular length in the beginning, I just work out ideas and then as they develop I find I can start to create the one-sentence, one-paragraph, one-page and four-page summaries from that. And as you develop one summary, your ideas grow and change, so you need to go into the other ones and make the appropriate changes. It's a very holistic approach. Plus it's extremely helpful to be able to see the graphics of the snowflake growing by stages. That really nails down the fractal aspects of it. A few more good articles: Snowflake Method links (& related) @ ps102's Progress Journal The Snowflake Method: 6 Steps to a Powerful Story Outline @ Reedsy Blog I find you need to go to the original source material, either Randy Ingermanson's book or his article on it, or at least one that sources directly from those and is scrupulously faithful to them, like the Reedsy article. The farther you get, important details are eroded away. The first things that get whittled off are always the bouncing back-and-forth aspect, and the images of the growing snowflake, and then the importance of moving continually between developing story and developing characters, because they intertwine. You don't want to just do one until it's finished and then start on the other. Then in other articles that source those articles, more gets eroded away, until you end up with something that bears little resemblance to the real thing.
Some plotting methods I've read better authors than me using, which I have then personally used: Work out what the protagonist wants or needs (their goal), and why they can't immediately get it (the barriers). If there isn't a good reason why they can't immediately get to their goal then you don't have a middle, so you don't have a story, just some cool ideas for scenes. The middle is a series of attempts to overcomes those barriers, which usually either fail or succeed but in so doing exposing an even bigger and unexpected barrier. Finally it all looks like it will be too much, the protagonist fails or almost fails, but somehow recovers and from there on its comparatively plain sailing as they progress confidently towards their goal at the end. After they get to their goal you tie up all the loose ends. Like the above but cruder, less abstract, and much more fun if you are working with a backlog of half conceived ideas you're hoping will become a single plot: 1) List all your scenes you want to write; 2) Work out which of them will bring the protagonists closer and to the goal which of them will impede the protagonist; 3) Arrange them in what appears to you to be a dramatically satisfying order; 4) Try and make them segue into each other. Look at the story like a series of nested statements, or Russian dolls if you prefer. Inside one plot point you find another; to conclude the story you need to take the Russian dolls apart then put them back together again in the reverse order. Such as: Frodo and the other Hobbits are all different varieties of contented and don't want to leave the Shire (personal development, setting)... Frodo accepts he has to destroy the one ring to beat Sauron (antagonist, grand umbrella plot)... We meet Strider who has a mysterious destiny (mystery and world building I suppose)... We meet Boromir who is skeptical and proud (antagonist, personal development)... ... Boromir betrays the Fellowship then redeems himself through sacrifice. Boromir sub-plot ends. ... Aragon, nee Strider, returns to Gondor as the rightful King. Aragon sub-plot ends. ... The ring is destroyed, Sauron is destroyed, but Frodo has lost too much and was unable to do it himself. Umbrella plot ends. ... They go back to the Shire, where each of the Hobbits fulfills their personal development by becoming someone they couldn't have been before. The end. Look up at your bookshelf for a published story that most resembles yours. Try to copy its structure. Realise 2/3rd the way through that almost none of the copied structure remains and you have accidentally made it quite original after all. If I'm honest I'm mostly responding to remind me to use any plotting methodology.
That's pretty awesome, to be honest. I never heard of doing #4 but it looks interesting, so maybe I'll try that!
One interesting method I have come across is "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron. She goes through a method of using characters back story to create a story
You should see me structuring HTML. It would be spectacular, if it wasn't so very, very dull. ------ Edit: I actually use that same nifty arrow thing in paper notebooks for going back and adding plot to already started short stories. Its a Mary Robinette Kowal thing. Its probably too cumbersome for detailed plotting on a novel (so LotR may not have been the best example) as they have too many sub-loops and diversions.
That idea sings to me; I love it before I've read it. Although the song dies in the air when a Google search reveals its a full bazillion word book in of itself, at which point I have to choose reading it over an actual novel from the very long backlog of great novels I'd like to read. Why can't self-help come in pamphlets and one page fables, like it used to, rather than doorstop hardbacks with ISBN numbers? Hopefully she does a short teaser lecture or article about the method. I'll go hunting for one.
It is worth the read. The entire book builds the story similar to the way the snowflake method does in that book. Lisa Cron's other book is also well worth the read for any writer "Wired for Story", where she goes through the neuroscience of the human mind and how story effect us.
