Stuck for plot

Hublocker said:

Thanks, but video games aren't really my thing. I prefer books like Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and so on.

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That wasn't too hard, was it?

Well, I consider myself a narrow minded curmudgeon, but I think some of the best writing around is happening on video games. Fully realized plots that must diverge and re-braid, depending on which track you follow in the game. I believe (though I'm not certain) that the writing is a collaborative effort. Which adds to the complexity of it all. You don't have to play one--I don't--to appreciated the writers' approaches to story and plot and conflict and crisis.

Inspiration can come from a multitude of sources. Dismissing a potential source out of hand seems like a limited and limiting way of thinking.

Anyway, the trick for plot-constipated writers is to work it out with a pen and paper.

I like to start out by asking, What if?

For example, what if a scientist devoted to saving an endangered marmot falls for [or is already married to] the head of the company mining it's habitat?

or,


What if a the efforts of a rabid investment group mining for [insert rare, valuable resource] threaten the extirpation of a rare marmot, only to discover that within this creature lies the cure for cancer [or other fatal, widespread disease].

A couple of crude examples to illustrate my creative thought process.

Oh, you

Hublocker said:

narrow minded curmudgeon!

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And now if someone will just tell me what video-game is? Is that some newfangled internet thingy?

mccardey said:

Oh, you

And now if someone will just tell me what video-game is? Is that some newfangled internet thingy?

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No...

There you go! Even Pong can be used as a source of inspiration. Protagonist and antagonist each try to achieve something, while thwarting their opponent's efforts. One of them scores a point. The other levels the game. But it ain't over just yet...

cornflake said:

No...

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Yes, well, I don't like to click on links because sometimes sex happens.

Lego Bono said:

I find it also helps to get inspiration, not just from books, but from other mediums like movies and video games for effective plot and all that breathes life into it. The largest inspiration for me regarding character development and interaction was the video game

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Whatever works for a writer is the right thing to do.
No argument.

This is not in answer to this post, but somewhat to all book recommendations. And I'm speaking here of 'story', not plot.

My own advice would be, in creating story and character, don't enter the world of the imagination through secondary sources. Don't go to novels, TV, movies, manga, RPG, video games.
Instead use primary sources and nonfiction -- biography, letters, history, documentary TV, anthropology.

Real life is rich, deep, complex, awkward, untidy, open-ended, contradictory, vivid, original, true, strange, unmoderated and undigested.

Fiction is simplified, limited, strained through another person's vision, filled with hidden agendas, preconceptions and prejudices.

Find 'story' and characters in the real world.
The behavior of people in video games (or movies or manga) is to real people behavior as the behavior of the horse in a chess set is to real horse behavior.

Start your imagination with 'real life'. With the whole cloth. Cut those limitless possibilities to what you need.
Don't start your fiction only with other men's garments, tailored and limited to suit their needs. Another person's suit, cut down, is always going to be smaller. Always going to be 'his' suit and not yours.

mccardey said:

Yes, well, I don't like to click on links because sometimes sex happens.

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that's terrible.







send me a list of all these links, please.

Hublocker said:

Let's just say that I have things like a wild coastal environment, racial tension, boat trips, a house fire, a sex scene or two and a mix of colorful and not so colorful male and female characters doing interesting outdoor work.

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Looking at that list I immediately seized on a house fire. Could the house fire be at the start of the story? A big disruption to the status quo is a good way to get a story moving. Whose house burned down? Did anyone die? Who burned it down? Who do the house residents think burned it down and are they right or wrong? Will they seek revenge? How will that escalate? Where do they go to live now? Will someone take them in? Will everyone refuse to take them in and if so, why? How does everyone involved and the wider community react to the fire? Or is the fire a climactic event? The final result of those racial tensions you mention and how will that make it different from an event at the start of the story? That's the way I tend to start brainstorming and extrapolating from an event to turn it into a story and a plot.

I think you need to pick one of the characters whose story this will actually be. Or a couple of them, but definitely think in terms of a character's story, not simply plot events. Think of the emotional journey you want that character to take. Who are they at the start and who do you want them to be at the end? Is it a coming of age story about a young person for example, so they are making the journey from the last vestiges of childhood into the start of adulthood? What does that mean for a person in this society? Does it mean something different for boys and for girls? Does it mean something different for the different races in the story?

What you then do when you have a good idea of the journey you want that person to be on, if treat the scenes and plot events as beads and the emotional journey as the string you'll thread them on. Each scene has to be placed where it best illustrates the journey that person is taking and where they are emotionally in that journey.

I recommend doing some brainstorming. Look at the characters and start brainstorming on what you could do with them. Which of them could do something especially interesting in this environment you've set up? Brainstorm on the plot events you've got and think about how the characters would be involved with them. You usually want a character who's going to be in the middle of the action to be your lead.

quicklime said:

that's terrible.







send me a list of all these links, please.

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*sigh*

Classing up threads as usual.

Putputt said:

*sigh*

Classing up threads as usual.

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back off...I know my skill set, and use it.


ok, seriously, those links, mccardley?

quicklime said:

back off...I know my skill set, and use it.


ok, seriously, those links, mccardley?

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Every time he calls me mccardley, I go weak at the knees. I think it's the l.

mccardey said:

Every time he calls me mccardley, I go weak at the knees. I think it's the l.

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Said in a drunken slur a la quicklime. "McCardllllllehhhh."

*shivers*

Sexy.

Putputt said:

Said in a drunken slur a la quicklime. "McCardllllllehhhh."

*shivers*

Sexy.

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Oh, it is - isn't it? Makes me all girly and - well. Never mind.

Yes. It's the l.

Ls make a difference. Even lowercase ones.


ETA: Probably especially lowercase ones.

As someone above mentioned, you need conflict. Or else your story will be boring and you won't get anywhere. Here are the main points of conflict:

1. person vs. person (villian, friend, etc.)
2. person vs. self (internal conflict, physical, etc.)
3. person vs. environment (could include something like a factory)

Start here and create a plotline, or a goal for your characters. What do they want? What will they get? Will they achieve it? Do not forget to make everything realistic.

fuck you BOTH....


pushes the (empty) beer bottles away as he waits for the masturbatory links

quicklime said:

fuck you BOTH....


pushes the (empty) beer bottles away as he waits for the masturbatory links

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*bunneh's ears prick up*

Did someone say the magic words?

*takes advantage of the drunken snake*

ummmmmm Belleville, Kalli; need a zip code?

quicklime said:

masturbatory links

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Oh, my. Oh my sainted aunt.

Well - you asked for it Go full screen.

ETA: ... Not At All Safe For Work. (Also - Trigger Warning - lambs.)


ETA: Quicklime - in my heart, you are Boo the Pomeranian.

mccardey said:

Oh, my. Oh my sainted aunt.

Well - you asked for it Go full screen.

ETA: ... Not At All Safe For Work. (Also - Trigger Warning - lambs.)


ETA: Quicklime - in my heart, you are Boo the Pomeranian.

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*twitches mouse near link*

*chickens out*

*waits for someone to tell me what unholy video mccardLey has linked*

You seem to have 5/6 of the famous questions of the journalist's heuristics:

Who? What? Where? When? How?

You're missing:

Why?

Which, unfortunately, leads to the single most important reader's heuristic question:

Who cares?

caw

Putputt said:

*twitches mouse near link*

*chickens out*

*waits for someone to tell me what unholy video mccardLey has linked*

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Don't do it!

-hides forever-