Monday, November 28, 2016

The Sequence of Events

There are a lot of people out there who think all a writer needs is an idea, and then they're good to go.  They believe once a writer has that idea, the hard part's done, and then they can settle in and write the story since clearly they've got the most important thing.

None of these people are writers.

A lot of this comes from what I talked about two weeks ago.  The idea is what starts you off, and you need to make sure you put the parts of the idea that made you want to write it into the story itself.  But what gets you there?  What takes you from a disparate mishmash of scenes and characters and bits of dialogue floating about in your head to an actual story?

Ask a dozen different writers this question, and you'll probably get at least forty-two different answers.  What's been working for me lately is something I figured out when I was attempting to plot STARWIND.  I call it the sequence of events.

Just like its name, the sequence of events is boring and practical.  But it's very effective.

When I was trying to plan STARWIND, I knew mostly what I wanted to happen.  (Mostly.)  I knew it was a race/scavenger hunt covering half a dozen different worlds.  I knew where the crew was going and what they were going to find there.  I knew someone would betray them along the way.  But I didn't know how it was all going to fit together.  My usual plotting method was to just start writing an outline, paragraph by paragraph, figuring it out along the way.  It wasn't working - I couldn't even figure out how the story started.

So, instead of after agonizing over it for a bit a few months, I decided to write out the order in which everything happened.  No paragraphs, no details, no description; just a sentence or two saying "They go here and this happens."  It was the most minimalist plotting I'd ever done.  But with so many places to go and so many things happening along the way, I needed to fit the the story into those very basic steps to get it to go anywhere at all.

It worked.

"Story starts here.  Crew flies here.  They try this, it fails, they try something crazier and more dangerous and it works.  Crew flies here.  Thing happens.  Crew flies here.  Crew runs from fight.  Crew flies here.  Someone gets set on fire.  Horrible betrayal ensues.  Crew flies here.  Crew attacks other crew with giant monster.  Crew goes here.  Unexpected thing happens.  Crew flies to finish line.  End."

That is, of course, a very simple version of what I did (yet it's longer than the sequence I typed up last week), but it did what it needed to do.  Once I'd figured out the order of things, I could hash out the real plot and fill in all the details that made the story what I wanted it to be.  And I never would have gotten that far if I hadn't set aside my usual process and tried something new.

I've applied the sequence of events to everything I've tried to plot since, with a reasonable amount of success.  And I have more hope for STARWIND than I have for anything I've written in a long time.  Time will tell if this change was exactly what I needed.

Next week: IWSG: People Need Your Stories.

12 comments:

  1. You found what works for you!
    My outline starts really basic. A little bit more than that, but I'm just trying to get the key elements down first. Then I can go back and add details and connect the dots.

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    1. I keep finding things that seem to work for me, but this one has stuck so far, which I'm glad for. >_< And yes, having the basics and then filling in details is what this is all about.

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  2. I do that when I'm struggling with an individual scene. Sometimes figuring out the very basic sequence of events in a scene makes it clear to me that I'm either missing something important or I'm including something that I don't really need.

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    1. That makes sense. My plotting tends to include simply "this happens" in a scene and I figure out exactly how it happens while I'm writing it. Which sometimes surprises me.

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  3. *flails*
    I wish this worked for me. But whenever I've tried it, I end up with a plot line with no twists, turns, or surprises. Even when the twists are planned, they come out too linear when I outline before I write.

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    1. Eh, what matters most is that you know how you work. ^_^ I know that I can't get anything out that's worth a damn if I don't plot it first.

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  4. You know, that worked for me on my first novel. I plotted out just a little bit ahead of where I was going, and eventually (3 months) I got to the end. Granted, I only had one kid then so writing was a TON easier.

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    1. Kids or not, I hear you about the time factor. Knowing the sequence of events sadly doesn't make it easier or faster to flesh out the story as a whole.

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  5. I don't plot very often, but I started in on my plan for book 3 (book 2 isn't even halfway done *hangs head*) and it's a lot like your description. I sometimes throw in lines that I like too: He had always thought his father by marriage might kill him. Eating him, however, had not crossed his mind. The sad thing is, my plan for book 3 isn't finished yet, and it's already up over 19K...

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    1. I hear you there. The plotting document for STARWIND is huge because it contains notes for the entire series, theoretically seven books. >_< I had to create a separate doc for book 2 just so I wouldn't have to scroll through it all every time.

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  6. That tends to be the thing that works for me too. Actually, I need to do it on the latest MS I'm working on because I thought I'd wing this one...and it's not working out so well. Happy writing!

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    1. I've heard some people work like that all the time - they'll improv their way through the start of the book, then plot once they reach a point where they need to know what happens next. Whatever works!

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