AJ | 21+ | they/them | writer, student, lover of things | main blog | contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, & everything in between | WIP: The Road That Follows | if you enjoy my work, consider buying me a ko-fi!
Recently, I began a weekend creative writing workshop with this exercise: write your sexual life story in five sentences. Short of gratuitous usage of semicolons, there was no wrong way to do this; the five-sentence story could be as abstract or as concrete as my students wanted. It could be a chronological list of the five most high-topography sexual events in their lives, or it could be a list of images more akin to a surrealist poem. After the allotted five minutes, they all set their pens down with a touch of weary accomplishment. Then I asked them to do it again. This request was met with stares, some uncomprehending, some with a touch of contempt. I pressed on. The only requirement was that they not reiterate any of the previous five sentences—they could zoom in to a single event, zoom out to a philosophical summary, make it silly, make it emotionally opposite, make it more honest, make it less or more abstract. After they’d finished, I asked them to do it for a third time. A fourth. At this point, many of their stares implied that I was unhinged, sadistic, or simply ridiculous. Eventually they stopped staring and started writing faster. Here’s the point: Their writing got better. It became truer. It became more theirs. I told them, We could do this all day. I meant: and not run out of ways to tell that story. More importantly, they would bear witness to something greater than mere improvement. Over the years, I’ve come to look forward to the point in my own writing at which continuing seems both incomprehensible and loathsome. That resistance, rather than marking the dead end of the day’s words, marks the beginning of the truly interesting part. That resistance is a kind of imaginative prophylactic, a barrier between me and a new idea. It is the end of the ideas that I already had when I came to the page—the exhaustion of narrative threads that were previously sewn into me by sources of varying nefariousness or innocuity. It is on the other side of that threshold that the truly creative awaits me, where I might make something that did not already exist. I just have to punch through that false wall.
Begin with a clear idea or concept for your story. This could be a theme, a character, a setting, or a unique scenario.
2. Outline Your Plot Structure:
- Introduction: Set the stage by introducing your main character, the setting, and the initial situation.
- Inciting Incident: Present a problem or event that disrupts the status quo and sets the story in motion.
- Rising Action: Develop the plot by introducing conflicts, challenges, and obstacles that the protagonist faces.
- Climax: Reach the story's highest point of tension and conflict where the protagonist confronts the main challenge.
- Falling Action: Address the aftermath of the climax, tying up loose ends and resolving subplots.
- Conclusion: Provide a resolution to the main conflict, wrap up the story, and show the character's growth or change.
3. Create Well-Defined Characters:
- Develop your main character (protagonist) with clear goals, motivations, and flaws.
- Introduce supporting characters with distinct personalities and roles in the story.
4. World-Building:
If your story is set in a unique or fictional world, develop the setting, rules, and details necessary for readers to understand the environment.
5. Conflict and Stakes:
Ensure that your story has compelling conflicts that drive the plot forward. Make the stakes clear to the reader.
6. Subplots:
Develop subplots that add depth and complexity to your story and intersect with the main plot at various points.
7. Foreshadowing:
Use foreshadowing to hint at future events and create suspense.
8. Pacing:
Balance action, dialogue, and introspection to control the pace of your story. Speed up or slow down as needed for dramatic effect.
9. Themes and Messages:
Consider the themes or messages you want to convey through your story and how the plot can reflect them.
10. Outline Chapter by Chapter:
Create a chapter-by-chapter outline that details what will happen in each section of your book. This doesn't need to be overly detailed, but it can serve as a roadmap.
11. Writing and Revising:
Start writing your book based on your outline. Be open to changes and revisions as your story develops.
This is a very useful series of checkpoints, but it presents the idea that you need to have a complex structure set up before you can begin writing.
And I dunno about you, but that kinda thing just doesn't work for me. So imma try to revise things into something that might be more useful.
How Do I Plot A Book (like this fool right here)?
0. You Are The Master Of Your Own Destiny
Whenever I talk about making an outline, folks always seem to shrivel up like shrinky dinkys at the idea of being 'limited'. But, here's the thing:
You wrote the outline.
You can change the outline at any time.
Keep this in mind at all times. Is a scene you planned not working? Ditch it. Came up with a new idea? Add it into the outline. The outline isn't a static cage that you HAVE to stick to, it's a roadmap to help keep you from getting lost, written by YOU.
Start with an idea
Okay agreed, 100%, but also a little redundant if you're looking up how to plot a story. I assume you came here with an idea in hand already.
2. Outline your Plot Structure
Introduction STOP. Pull up your writing medium of choice: a word processing program, the notes app on your phone, a piece of paper. Got it? Good. I want you to write down 4 things for me.
What is this story about? Examples:
A disgraced war hero adopts an orphan who resembles the demon he failed to defeat.
A should-be-dead man escapes a magical prison, but frees more than just himself; also there's kissing.
A kid meets a friendly robot who helps him escape an elaborate trap; they become family.
Where does this story start?
What is the Really Cool Thing in the middle?
Where does this story end?
These key points (Beginning, Middle, End, and Core Concept) are the backbone of the story. More importantly, they are words on the paper.
Congratulations, you have started plotting your story for real!
3. Take Notes
Start writing down information you think is important. This includes world-building facts, character trivia, and plot points that you'd like to hit. Do not worry about being thorough! I know you've sat there and daydreamed up some stuff already, so start writing it down.
For plot points, try to arrange them in roughly chronological order as you think of it now-- but be open to changing things in the future. The more ideas you come up with, the easier it is to figure out where the next one slots in.
4. Tell A Friend, Sort Of
Start writing out your story as if you're telling it to a friend. You can use an actual friend for this, but you have to use a medium that keeps records (so type it, don't speak it aloud unless you're also recording yourself).
Don't worry about structure or fancy headings or terms like 'falling action'. Ideally the format should be something like "Okay so there's a guy, and he used to be the Count of this city-state, right? But then he caused a curse so he got locked in a magic prison for like 10 years. And then this other guy, actually the Count's Doctor-- he ends up finding him in a pub after he escaped that prison". And so on and so forth.
It's okay if you don't have everything yet! You just started, you'll have time to work things out later. The important part is that you summarize the events you want to see happen, in chronological order. If your story is episodic rather than having a continuous narrative, bullet points of things you want to see happen works just as well.
Congratulations, you've started your outline!
5. Add, Revise, Rinse, Repeat
Here's where things get personal-- as in, it depends on how you, personally, write best, and my advice might become extra useless. But basically: look at what you need and then give it to yourself.
Are you most comfortable writing chronologically? Then take a look at your outline and see if you have enough information to start writing the story from the beginning. If not, head to your notes section and do some more daydreaming until you know how you want to begin, then start writing.
Do you not have a clear idea of the beginning, but you do have some scenes strongly in mind? Go ahead and write them now! At worst you'll have to scrap the scene later, but you'll have something down, and you can use that something to build other things.
Do you have dialogue for some scenes, but not the action? Well go ahead and write the dialogue! Put in a brief summary of what the action around it should be ("it's night time and he's mad about getting stabbed") and then go. Same thing with description with no clear dialogue-- summarize what should be there, but leave it for later.
Always be adding to your notes, revising your outline, adding more scenes you think would be cool. Try out different ideas, see if events can't be moved around. The further you get the more solid things will become.
6. Some Experience Needed
A lot of the stuff in the original essay, like foreshadowing, subplots, etc; aren't things you can just sit down and come up with on the fly. Sure, you can think of one or two, maybe, but inspiration tends to hit in the moment, when you realize 'oh shit I can tie these things together here, and that becomes foreshadowing over there'.
Unfortunately, the only way to get better with those kinds of things is experience. Pay attention to some of your favorite stories and see how they did things, and really analyze why it worked on you. Write down notes: what did the character do here? what happened there? how was this bit foreshadowing?
7. Pacing
Pacing gets its own category because I legitimately don't know how you're supposed to learn this any way other than experience and intuition. If you write a lot, eventually you will get a feel for 'this scene is too fast' or 'there needs to be a longer gap between these events". As far as I know there are no shortcuts, just tens of thousands of words under your belt. Don't worry about it for now, just do your best, and you will improve.
8. General Advice
Start a graveyard document. Eventually you will write a scene that just does not work for whatever reason. Instead of trying to force it to fit so you don't lose all that work, move it to a separate document. If you've ever heard the term 'kill your darlings', this is what it's referring to: cutting a section that you really like because it's not working.
Don't kill your darlings, rehome them. You'll be surprised at how much easier it is to accept. You can can always pull a scene back in if you find a new place for it, or mine it for tidbits.
You will get stuck. Accept this. You will always be able to find your way back out. Maybe you'll have to delete a previous section because you wrote yourself into a dead end, maybe you'll have to leave it for another day, maybe you just need to talk it over with someone.
It does not have to be perfect the first time. Or the second, or third. I'm most familiar with writing fanfiction, which is published pretty raw-- but normal books aren't published chapter by chapter with the ink still drying. Normally you finish your draft, then go back months later and revise the whole thing. If what you're writing is a more traditional book, you can always fix things later. If you're writing a fic, you can still fix things later.
It's okay to give up. Maybe you've changed your mind and you don't like your story anymore. That's fine! Save it somewhere and then forget about it. Don't delete it, just keep it. Maybe one day you'll come back-- and if not, you still have the experience from your attempt!
However, try to stick with it. You know your brain best; if you know you're prone to fits of self depreciation and feeling like what you make is 'bad', try to ride those out before giving up. Maybe your story is fine, actually, and your brain just hates you extra hard right now.
Writing is fucking hard. Inspiration can only get you so far, there are going to be points when you're slogging through it a word at a time. This is normal, you aren't struggling because you're 'bad'.
There is no such thing as wasted effort. All effort is experience, all experience is growth.
If you find yourself ashamed of the work that Past You did, that's understandable- you might be a different person now. But the WIP doesn't hold it against you. Maybe you have a better ending now. Maybe its worse. They're just glad to see you're still here.
I wrote myself into a corner about a year ago and then didn't have any time to write due to job things. And for awhile I sort of gave up because I started to feel resentful that I couldn't finish it.
And then about a week ago I dusted off the laptop and got back to it.
And the little people that live in the word document were happy to see me, and we picked up about where we started. And we worked out an ending that made sense and felt good, even if that part isn't written yet.
They weren't mad. And I didn't lose sight of their characterization because they are my friends and I know them. All is well. They knew I needed a break.
Can we please all agree to stop framing modern trends as objectively good writing advice? I'm not trying to say that there aren't ways to give people pointers on their stories, but just because a style of writing has fallen out of fashion doesn't mean it's bad.
I am primarily referring to people saying antagonists need to be morally gray and to people who say you "shouldn't rhyme poetry" full stop. Sure, modern trends don't align with those things, but are you telling me Sauron isn't a good villain? That Golding's translation of The Metamorphoses is bad?
It's genuinely okay to try to help people with their stories when they ask, but pretending like modern trends are the only things that could possibly work in writing just isn't it.
crying and sobbing y'all when people said that you only add scenes that advance the plot they didn't JUST mean the overarching plot. they meant the plot of the book... entirely. like a conversation between two friends can advance the plot by characterizing them and grounding them with a meaningful relationship. if your book doesn't have "filler" it's missing emotional beats. which are plot. which are important. fun and whimsy aren't mutually exclusive from what "needs" to happen in your book. the advice isn't bad it's just taken too literally stop come back.
You know what? I believe that you can finish your writing project. I believe you can update your fic. I believe you can work on your WIP. I don't care if you think it's cringy or bad. I don't care if we've never met or interacted in our whole lives. I believe in you. Keep going - you've got this.
Literally cannot emphasize enough that my #1 writing advice is to stop being afraid. Stop being afraid of sounding too cringe, or too stupid, or too horrifying, or too horny, or too weird, or too much, or too little, or too you. You need to put your entire pussy into your art. Sure, it won't be to everyone's tastes, but if you keep yourself to the blandest tamest safest roads possible you will be of no one's tastes, not even yours.
The only thing I can say about writing right now is that you don’t need to polish or even finish everything you write. Unfinished works hold value just as intrinsically as finished ones; if finishing a project holds no appeal, move on. Maybe one day you’ll return to it, find an idea to nurture and raise. Maybe you’ll never look at it again, but the words were still written. The sentences were crafted. This unfinished thing is a sketch, then, forgotten in the depths of your sketchbook; why should we hold writers to different standards than other artists? Play around and have fun. Finish projects if you want to; move on if you don’t. Don’t guilt yourself over something with no moral bearing. Just write.
Let yourself suck. Write things that are bad, and let them be bad. Get used to the thought that you won’t always produce greatness; perfection is the nemesis of done. If your writing is cluttered or clumsy, let it be. Keep going, let it be a mess. Write notes if you need to, but do not let your momentum slip until you are done. “Perfection” is an unachievable concept. Masterful is attainable, but to become a master you must become intimately acquainted with failure. Look at that clumsy sentence, which you meant to be elegant but came out hamfisted and blunt. Look at it again. It is not perfect, but it is there. It’s there, and even as something that does not meet your standards, it can be worked with. You can tweak it, edit it, mess with it until it works. Writing is not an easy task; it is an art borne of years of practice, years of failure, years of editing and staring at a sentence that would not have been possible three months ago and smiling, grinning as you realize that failure is an option, not because it gives you an out, but because it opens other doors, gives you other avenues to explore.
Writing is an art; let it be that way. Let it be messy, play with it, and you will see improvement. It will be slow, and there will be days when you’re convinced you’ll never improve. But I promise you, you will. It will be hard, and frustrating, but it will be worth it.
