#plot planning

[flimsywizard]

Not me planning my plot by plastering my door in post it notes

I think I’ve officially lost the last braincell I had

[tiredevilscientist]

Villain protagonist project

OK ok hear me out.

I'm working out the story for a project and in it there's two antagonists and it's the protagonist who's broken by them. The antagonists are a hero and a villain and the protagonist is a person that gets caught in their crossfire. It will probably be a three part story. First part starts with the protag on the hero's side and the hero being portrayed as the bad guy in the protag story and in the second part it's the villain who's the one breaking the protag after they joined him. They both use/abuse the protagonist and in part three the protagonist becomes the bigger stronger person and over throws both of them.

[sakuwritestkafics]

The Struggle Is Real

saku: no politics in this fic

also saku: writes politics in the first chapter

saku: no royal power battles

also saku: Lin Jingyuan coup d'etat to fill the current plot holes I have

[writeroftheprompts]

I remember finishing the final season of GOT and feeling terribly disappointed by the ending. Since I’m working on a fantasy wip myself, I can’t help but wonder, how do you write a good, satisfying ending? And more specifically, how to decide if a happy ending or sad ending is more suitable for your story? Thanks

(I didn’t think this was going to be such a long answer but turns out I have a lot to say. Buckle in, but I’ve underlined the main points).

Okay, first of all SPOILERS ahead for Game of Thrones.

Second, I want to preface by saying that I loved Game of Thrones…up until like the last three episodes. I think everyone was at least somewhat disappointed in how it ended, but not because it was a happy or sad ending but because it betrayed some of the characters we’ve spent eight seasons coming to love. And no, I don’t mean because Jon betrayed Dany, I mean that it feels like the writers betrayed who Dany was in order to make Jon betray her and “shock” the audience. 

The thing about GoT is that it was known as the show where anything could happen pretty much since Ned Stark, who was arguably the main hero of the first season, was murdered. So there is pressure to come up with the most unbelievable twist ending that nobody would see coming. How do you do that? A shit ton of planning and very careful foreshadowing. And that’s where this ending fell apart. I’ve seen a few people saying online that it seems like the writers realized that people were guessing where the show was going so they panicked and came up with an ending that nobody would guess…but in doing so the ending makes no sense.

I’ve been thinking about this question for a while and I happened to come across this post which is a Twitter thread by Zac Gorman where he talks about the plot arc of Parks & Rec and why the ending was badly written because they made it too much of a good ending. I haven’t actually watched P&R but the idea behind the theory of endings makes sense, particularly something he said about how a couple shouldn’t win the lottery after the first act unless it’s “an inciting incident that forms the foundation of the entire story.” To generalize, don’t give a character some major new characteristic or backstory but you haven't hinted to after the first act. In this case, Dany’s apparent insanity. Like for seven seasons she’s been flawed, sure, but for fucks sake why the HELL did she burn all of King’s Landing and its people??? Like, if she wanted to kill Cersei she had the dragon…Cersei was literally standing by a window…the dragon had virtually no enemies. Why not burn down the castle but not the city??? WHY, DANY?? Characters can change, sure, but with reasons that dig into those core attributes of their character arc. 

And that’s why the ending was so disappointing. Not because Dany died or she and Jon didn’t get to live happily ever after ruling Westeros as the most honourable good hearted leaders the nation has ever had or whatever ending anyone was hoping for, but because it felt like the Dany of the end was a different character altogether and we didn’t get to see what really should have happened. It pulls us out of the story when a character does something that is completely unlike them, just like when some random stroke of good luck or Deus Ex Machina solves a plot conflict. We’re reminded that this is fiction and the writers can do whatever the hell they want even though they shouldn’t. Tyrion kind of gives an explanation to her actions when he says that everyone has been telling her she is so good and right all the time so she no longer believes she can be wrong but, you know what, no. Nothing about her actions prior to that episode would make her burn a city of innocents when her entire arc has been about destroying the evil tyrants and saving the people, even giving them the option to follow her or not. Dany failing to beat Cersei was an option. Dany failing to win over the people of Westeros was an option. Dany being betrayed was an option. Dany committing a horrible genocide for no apparent reason just leaves everyone scratching their heads and angry.

So how do you write a twist ending then? The way they wrote the ending of the war with the white walkers. I don’t think anyone expected Arya to be the one to kill the Night King and even that very short scene where she drops the knife from one hand to the other was AWESOME. I totally forgot about Arya until she appeared and that’s how it should be. A writer should make a reader forget what they know so they are surprized but not confused by a twist. And the best part is that afterward I sat there thinking…the Night King literally has control over the dead. Arya’s motto was “What do we say to the god of death? Not today.” It makes perfect sense that this character who has been trained to be this stealthy assassin would be the one to finish the job and it’s so satisfying, even if you were expecting Jon to do it and even though other beloved characters had to die. It’s not about a happy or sad ending for GoT, in fact I think it would have been a disservice to the show to have a perfect fairytale ending. 

Now that I’ve ranted a bit about the ending of GoT (I could go on but this is long enough already), let’s get a little more broad with a fantasy ending. Unlike a comedy or romance which are genres that kind of necessitate a happy ending, or a tragedy with a sad ending, a fantasy can really go either way. But keep in mind expectations. Twist endings are great but when you mess with expectations too much readers will feel cheated. For example, a lot of fantasy books have some kind of war or final show down. An ending where the war never happens or nobody dies might be all rosy and nice but realistically it feels like a cope out. On the other hand, a truly tragic ending is rare and I think they work only when readers are going in expecting tragedy. It’s usually when the point of the story is more about human experience or morals or teaching something. There is of course a range like Zac Gorman showed from the deepest pit of despair to sugar coated fairy tale ending. Kill off characters, make them have to sacrifice smaller goals in order to achieve the larger one, let them fail sometimes. I think bittersweet endings typically lend themselves best to most fantasy stories (unless it’s fairy tale style. No shade to fairy tales of course, just a distinct style). 

All this boils down to this: whatever ending you decide on, dear God please don't throw in random stuff just for the shock value when you haven't put in the work to make it fit beforehand. If you plan on having a twist ending, you better know what you want to do WAY ahead of time so you can really sprinkle in that good foreshadowing and smack your readers with it when the time comes.

[apparentlynotreallyfinnish]

Do you have any advice on how to develop a long fic plot? Most of my ideas have little plot, and I have no idea how to come up with one. My simple ideas might be okay for a 2000 word fic, but not a 75,000 word one. My ideas are like Rhett and Link go to a fancy restaurant, or Rhett has a backache and Link massages him. They aren’t these big, multifaceted ideas that make a whole story like good writers (like you!) seem to have. I wish I could figure out how to get better at ideas and plotting.

Hello, lovely anon. I’m gonna describe my process plot planning Let Me Be Your Light. Maybe that will help you. :)

This became quite long, sorry…

It started with the idea of Rhett being a lighthouse keeper. That was the starting point. (I’m pretty sure I was heavily influenced by @its-mike-kapufty‘s tmoy fic that was posting around that time and wanted to do a grumpy Rhett.) I don’t remember if Link being a helicopter pilot was the first thing I thought for him but it was one of the firsts. I wanted them to meet intermittently so there would be plenty of pining (lol). I decided on a monthly meeting and figured a year would be a good timeline. So, originally the fic was supposed to be 12 chapters long. 

I started by doing some research on lighthouses and decided that it would be located on Canada. I did some weather research and figured that near St. Johns would be best fit for the mood of my story (or the mood I had in my head at that point). I actually found two islands names North and South Bird Island and made up a third one for Rhett. ^^

I did some research on the area’s flora and fauna and what kind of unusual weather they might have etc. Some of it is used in the story, most is not. I had about 4-ish pages of notes on Newfoundland after I was done with my research. (Side note, don’t get too caught up on this part. There’s always more stuff to research. You gotta stop at some point and actually plot plan/write.)

The grumpy Rhett premise kind of naturally lead to a ‘hate to love’ story but that’s something to decide. What excites you? What kind of fics do you love to read? What would you like to read but haven’t seen?

I wrote little character bios for Rhett and Link. Not sure if anyone cares but here they are (some stuff was added later after developing the plot):

Rhett: writer, phd in some scientific field, a marine biologist. Lives off of book money and writing scientific excerpts for magazines.  Was married. Wife died (was pregnant) when he was 33. They were in the car together. He has severe ptsd and survivors’ guilt. They’d been together since high school. Been alone for 8 years. Been at the light house for 6 years. A colleague helped him to rent it. The lighthouse itself is automated. He does do little maintenance stuff like clean the solar panels and change parts etc. Is probably like a 1-2 in Kinsey scale. So mostly straight but…  Being alone is kind of a punishment but also something he needs, because people and crowds freak him out. He was like that even before the crash, but it made it worse. Also, can’t deal with people anymore. Especially happy people. Is basically afraid of happiness.

Link: a helicopter pilot, the supply runs are a monthly sidegig. Usually flies a medical helicopter. Openly gay. Dating a lot, a few longer relationships but nothing really serious.  Always felt like something didn’t add up. Generally happy person with childlike wonder. Very impulsive and emotional. Open book. Often speaks before thinks. Has a lot of buddies but not many close friends. Always felt it was hard to feel connected with a person. Might be because was in a closet for a long time and always felt like he was lying to everyone around him. Has been out for 10ish years now. After he came out, kind of went to the other extreme and constantly threw his gayness in other people’s faces. Is still a bit like that but not so much. Loves flirting and getting a reaction, but really just wants everyone to be happy.

I would probably do this for other major character but didn’t have many in this fic. Stevie and Alex kind of sneaked their way in later. :D

I’m a visual planner so at this point I took a big sheet of paper and divided it into 12 section. I wrote the beginning (they meet for the first time) and the end (the proposal) in boxes 1 and 12. Then I added some bits: this is where they fight, this is where Link can’t come, this is when they have sex for the first time, this is where Rhett needs to go to the hospital etc. Then I looked at my researched and did some shuffling around to match the weather appropriately. The beginning month was purely decided on the fact that I had to have Link stay the night during the Nor'easters (storm) that are the worst between November and March. There were other stuff too, like when was the best time to see the icebergs. I went a bit crazy here and actually looked at weather history form 2017 (or 2018, not sure anymore) to get exact weather information for the dates. So while I was writing I knew exactly what the weather was like. :D

Little by little I added bits and pieces. This took a few days. I can’t really give advice how to exactly do this. I just think of stuff up and try it out. When I had something for every month I started to write.

I can’t have a too detailed plan. Usually I have a sentence or two per chapter; the main thing that needs to happen. Otherwise I won’t feel compelled to write. But this may be different for you. Some people need the detailed plan.

The plan changed a little when I started writing. After I wrote the first chapter I added the stones. At first I searched for a new stone every time I wrote a chapter but after like 4-5 chapters I made a plan and figured all the rest, so I had a list of those. The last few changed though when the whole ending changed.

I updated my chapter plan as I wrote. I write in order. Some people write the bits they are most excited about first but I could never do that, I’d never finish the boring parts after. I need the good stuff as a motivation to get over the writing lulls. 

I got @sass-and-panache as a beta after I had written the first chapter. She helped immensely with the plot planning. We brainstormed together when I felt stumped and she regularly reigned me in when I went OOC with my characters. Sometimes I get stuck on a tiny idea and refuse to realize it does not work in the story. She was very good in telling me when I did this. There were a few things we disagreed on, though. ;) And when that happened I just did what I wanted. (Because I’m stubborn AF.)

Gosh, this became obnoxiously long… Sorry. Not sure if there is anything useful here. Maybe I’ll try to bullet point a bit:

1. Think of a premise. A couple dynamic you want to explore or an interesting setting or maybe a certain kind of ending.

2. Do some research if you can. It might spark some plot points you wouldn’t have thought otherwise.

3. Get to know your characters.

4. Make a plot plan. Visual or written. Don’t consider it written in stone. It will change.

5. Write.

6. Talk to someone about your plot. Get a beta if you can/want.

7. Re-plan if necessary.

8. Write some more.

9. Get stuck researching puffins (oh, sorry, that’s just me…whoops!).

10. If something doesn’t seem to work, don’t be afraid to scrap it. I’ve written whole chapters again when I’ve realized they didn’t fit the story. (If you do this, save the scrapped bits on another document. Sometimes you can use parts later.)

11. Write some more.

12. Cry when it’s done.

13. Write a way too detailed description how you planned the fic that no one wants to read. Think about deleting it and replying something else. Be too lazy to do so.

I hope this helped. Or if it didn’t, I hope this amused you a bit.

[kitcat992]

It feels super weird to come back to this.

The list has had some slight adjustments since I first started but it feels pretty cemented now. I’m pretty confident that this is it...and despite still having 8 chapters to write, I feel sad that it’s ending.

Haha I’m such a little bitch.

[getthrawnin]

Thou shall not fall. Thou shall not die. Thou shall not fear. Thou shall not kill...

Tenets from the Chiss Ascendancy House Nuruodo Primer

(source1; source2)

[darkest-of-night]

What would you do if you found out there was a dragonet who was not a Nightwing but had future sight similar to yours and Clearsight's?

Darkstalker was quiet for a moment, his eyes narrowed curiously. “Is that even possible..?” he wondered aloud.

He sat back on his throne with a hum. “I would be very interested to meet them, I can tell you that.”