There are many ways to plan out a novel. Recently, the most I come across are the 3-act-structure and the 7-act-structure. Both are great but I find that sticking to them too much is hard for me. Outlining is great but not my forte. I'm trying it out though so that my story is more streamlined compared to my younger days of writing. How about you? Do you write with an outline as a guide, just go with the flow, or have no plan whatsoever?
Usually, there are certain paths I want my story to go like whether mc will die in the end, how will he die, would someone save him, what's the plot twist. Stuff like that. I just make sure to jot those down but never really outlined the whole story.
Im just like, okay, i have x characters i want to introduce at some point, and i want him to go to y places at some point... alright, now how and why the hell does he meet them and go there? The major enemies he’ll face are z, a, b, why are they trying to kill him or vice versa and when do they come in... then what are everyone’s backstories and how the heck do i fit this all together cohesively... is my general planning. Then i have to drop the occasional foreshadowing, which is fun.
Yeah, I get you. Jotting down the main plot points, ESPECIALLY THE ENDING, seem to be the easier way to go.
Start by making the characters and world .then I'd plans their intrigues. Imagining they resent their fate as my puppets give me indescribable satisfaction.
This actually stresses me out. There was this novel I like before (I forgot the title) and in the prologue the MC got killed. While reading, I was hoping all throughout the novel that the MC will be alive somewhere in the end or something... he wasn't. He did die
First, got an idea for a story. Next, begin thinking ideas for how the story goes. Next, basically throw that idea somewhere in my mind while i basically gave my hand what it needs to do. Then, i peek my eyes and begin to edit the sht i wrote before publishing the story.
I first consider in major events of the story, then once I have the basic outline of where I want the story to be at certain points. And I then write with the flow, during this time I would randomly think of certain events and slot them into the story in the future. Once I finish writing, I then go back and reshuffle events, fix consistency issues and the like and add new minor events in between.
The most basic of all: 1) Intro 2) Rising action 3) Climax 4) Falling action 5) Conclusion Not much of a planning. But if you're the lazy type or the 'winging it' type, this is already hard enough. If you can't even do this, then your story will have a problem. Either you won't ever finish it or there will be so much bullshit your readers won't even know where to start scolding you. As for me. I dream it all. Have the story, decide on the main conflict and go to sleep. My dreams restructure everything and gives me a full story which may not be exactly the same story, but close enough I can claim that I made it.
Some studies have shown that when you read a fiction that you knew the ending from the spoiler ( Especially the plot twist one. ), the reader would generally like the story more than when they didn't know about the plot twist. Kinda like how the journey is as important as the ending quote.
Ah for me, a series of ideas just pop into my head and I choose one. After choosing a main idea or a plot, it's like another series plays in my head full of scenes and I jot down all the ideas that I want to be featured in my story.
I do the same. But I do have an outline for my current story. What I need most right now is visualize my ending. If I don’t ill get lost..... For now I’ll jus’ write and follow where the story goes. But I really need an ending. Another thing is I dream about the next chapters and scenes. I’d guess I’d be interesting to see where this story goes!
I think about the beginning of a story when I want to write something. Then I think about what happens next. And then I think about the ending when the story feels like it should end. It sounds really simple, but I'm thinking about anything I can come up with from my memory and what would most likely happen in the present and future scenarios depending on a bunch of variables. Think about it really hard is my advice. Then think twice!
I begin by thinking about the genre and world. What type of genre, adventure? action? comedy? What type of world it'll be in like a different verison of earth? magical land, future or past? Next is style, video games, school life, tournament. then I think about what it'll be about. After that.... I....come up with an ending and bs my way there lol. I make up big points too and slowly think how i'll make my way to those points before the ending.
Even slice of life stories need a beginning, the journey, the highlight, and the end. It's exactly the same as how you'd write a full-action fiction novel. Even in real life, you were born, went to school, graduate from college, have children, grow old, then die. Your beginning was being born, your journey could be your school life, your highlight could be your wedding day, your falling action could be you growing old and your ending could be death. The only difference is the length of each part. An action-adventure fiction novel needs to have regular action, a slice of life is filled with fillers and may not truly advance the plot with each chapter. Slice of life is in fact, life, except with some drama that may not occur in real life. So if your story has no direction, that's not slice of life.
Ok.. The story I am thinking and "writing" is.. well.. I have some plot points and stuff that I want to happen, there is conflict(s) there.. but I don't really have any real ending in mind.. the only "ending" I can see right now is basically "and the story continues..." or at best "the battle is over but the war has only just begun..." A non-ending, ending... and even that is a bit of an exaggeration.. I can't truly see the future... And as for how I am writing or trying to.. I am just sort of... I guess, I am making it up as I go? I have and I am changing and expanding what is more of a "world description" than a story, that contains features rather than events.. no time or plot there... And the story.. I sketch out what is going to happen in short term (very..), getting increasingly less specific towards the future, with some events that I think I want to happen thought up, and some things that could happen based on the "world setting", but without any real notion of when they should happen and nothing is really set in stone.. and as I fill in detail to the early parts, I use what I am writing to extrapolate some additional detail to the next parts, and less and less to the later it gets.. I am constantly pushing the fuzzy future a little bit further.. but I am not really ever seeing far.. Basically... I write something and then try to figure out what I could expect to happen as a consequence and fill that in and repeat.. ad infinitum...