Hello everyone! Well, I kind of have this problem: I write my book in scenes as I visualize them in my head, so they are not chronologically in order. So, the problem is I don't know how to fill the story between those scenes. Let me give you an example. - The party meets with the king, and they request help to defeat the evil dwarves in the north. - They fight against a mighty Balrog inside a deep cavern that was once the lair of a White Dragon. - They meet the Shapeshifter Druids that help them in their travels. So, this is how it goes. I have those 3 situations, but I don't know how to transit between each one of them. For example, how do the party move from plot one to plot two? What happens that take them inside the White Dragons lair? And how do they meet the Druids in scene 3? I hope you guys can get an idea of my problem. Sorry for my english, its not my main language. Any advice is more than welcome! Thanks in advance
Transitions are difficult. I have a hard time with them myself. And there's no easy answer. You could look to novels in the genre you're writing and highlight whenever the author does it and examine each passage. Or you could focus on the character. This is usually what I do when I'm stuck. I noticed you mentioned The party, They fight, and They meet - but no main character. Maybe it's time to examine him or her and see what their reactions would be at the end of each major event.
I agree that you could spend a lot of time on characterization. You also probably want to spend some time on differentiating your story from all the other LOTR-inspired stuff. What's different about your story? You might want to look at this in terms of character motivation. Who are the characters in your book, and why do they agree to help fight the evil dwarves? What's in it for them? Or you might want to look at a sort of conflict-resolution-new conflict structure. Is the main conflict of your story the fight against the evil dwarves? If so, you want to stretch that one out, with other, smaller conflicts being resolved in the meantime. Like - characters, for reasons you explore, decide they need to do thing A On the way to thing A, they encounter problem B (internal dissent, a smaller monster, a misdirection or confusion about the best way to do A - whatever). They fight on and resolve B. Then problem C is encountered and must be resolved. Then problem D. Finally, they get to problem A, use the skills and strengths they developed during B-D, and win! Yay! Alternatively, you can keep the focus on thing A throughout, and have all the obstacles start building up and NOT being resolved. Like - characters, for reasons you explore, decide to do thing A. It should be fairly straightforward On their way to A, they run into B! Oh, that complicates things, but still they press on. Then C happens! Oh no, things are even harder, now! But our adventurers have good reasons for what they're doing. They press on. Thing D almost breaks them. (For bonus points, kill a character! Mwahaha!) But they struggle on, and finally reach... Thing A! Extra difficult because Thing B is still there causing trouble, and so is C, and damn it, there's D as well. Big battle, B-D are overcome, and finally, they reach A. Yay! What do all those letters stand for? I have no idea - it's your job as the writer to work that out!
Friends, those were just random examples. They are not from my book, hence why there are no mentions of characters. But thanks for the tips so far. I liked your concept BayView, it is very helpful
You described events with no plot/story*. What is the plot? That will give you a better idea how to write the story. @BayView mentioned some plot ideas. http://literarydevices.net/plot/ * Technically, story is the chronological sequence of events and plot is the causal and logical structure which connects events.
I agree with all of the above. What you wrote is just like an outline. Little distant dots that need long lines to connect. You can question things, focus on character and also the setting. "The party meets with the king, and they request help to defeat the evil dwarves in the north." Why do they need to meet the king? Why can't they defeat evil themselves. What made those dwarves evil? What kind of help do they need? What kind of help the king offers? Is it to travel with people from other races? Do they get along? Do they need any other thing to travel, how far is it, by what form of travel they'll go, how is the weather and geograhpy, what happens if they don't defeat evil. What's in it for every one of them... For the scenes that have nothing that's worth writing between them and occurs in (maybe) different times you can just use three stars. At least that's what I'd do.
Chapter headings. It's ok to have gaps. As long as you lead from one: 'we're heading to the mountain!' to the next 'we're in the mountain!' the rest of the shit doesn't matter. And then later as you develop you may come up with interesting adventures in-between.
Usually the books I read one chapter has a lead in to the next chapter. For example they requested help from the king so he asks for them to do something for him, recover his crown jewels in the White Dragon's lair. In that process they happen to free the Shapeshifter Druids who were imprisoned by the dragon's magic power, etc. You need to think of a reason for one event to lead to the next IMO. Don't just write some fluff to create a larger story, everything written should add value to the story.
Are you simply looking for transitions between scenes or chapters? In other words, getting characters from A to B? The trick is exactly as @Selbbin suggested. I'm going to the mountain. (End of Chapter.) Now I'm in the mountain. (Start of next chapter.) Unless something of importance happens on the journey between the scenes you're trying to connect, best to just jump from one straight to the next. However, you will need to work on a transition sentence at the end of one scene as well as the beginning of the next, so the readers don't get lost. Make sure you orient your readers, so they know exactly what's happening, and they won't notice that the activity between scenes isn't there. If you're looking for connections to make your plot hang together, however—that's another situation entirely. There is no short cut. You need to spend a lot of time thinking your way through what you've written, what you want to happen, and coming up with ways for it to all make sense. As a technique, I recommend long solo walks outdoors through familiar territory (so you're not worried about getting lost). I have never had that method fail to help shake knots out of my story. Take a notebook with you, walk and think. Or think about your story at night before you go to sleep or in the morning just after you wake up ...times when your brain is most creative and not muddled with the day's doings. Make sure you keep a notebook handy to scribble down insights.
