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Thursday, December 20, 2012

So...Plot.

Anyone who ever has to hear me whinge about plotting knows that it's the one aspect of writing I like least. There's a good reason for that. I suck at it.

Because I'm a character-driven writer, plot is always the last thing on my mind. My characters have issues, and as such, they spend a lot of their time in their own heads as opposed to the outside world. Though that makes sense, if you're going to tell an entertaining story, you still need an external something to play off the emotions of your characters. Emotions often lead to action, and action, in the narrative sense of it, takes place outside rather than inside.

So, because I have this huge chunk of novel that I feel is unstructured, I have made myself type out a ten page document with which to structure the whole thing. This might seem logical to some writers, but it's not usually the way I ever write things. This also may explain why some people find my writing obtuse, but in most cases, I will disagree with that. I'm usually obtuse on purpose.

I'm actually excited by doing this whole structuring thing. I feel it's the final step I need to get this book onto paper. Everything is basically there, except a few key links in the chain. which, you know, is important.

Any tips for plotting that has made things easy for you in the past? Sharing is caring. In return, I offer these from other writers. Quite a few I subscribe to myself, such as the "said" thing for dialogue, as well as use of the word "suddenly".

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