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Approach to writing fantasy fiction

M. Popov

Scribe
What I have right now is the material I mentioned already. Planning wise.

Currently the file is 171 pages and a total of 41,869 words. I do start every chapter with a location, time and date mark to help myself. I do have arts which will be added, and it'll help me not goof the lore. Knowing me, goofs have happened and even more goofs are going to happen until I've reached my limit.

Hopefully things will be ironed out.
 
Just looking at save the cat made my eyes gloss over. Too much work for me. Ill just stay two or three scenes ahead in my head.
I have studied both Save the Cat and The Plot Clock. They are very similar. I am currently use the Plot Clock to help organize my story. It's give me insight on how to pace things and how keep the story moving in the right direction.. Again it's just me. The structure helps me keep things straight in my head and gives me a direction that I need to be heading in.

When I stalled out and abandoned my story, for a year, it was a lack of structure, an incomplete understanding of how to keep my story moving forward in ways readers would be excited by. I lost my momentum.
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People with Attention Deficit tend to be very creative, I've tried so many hobbies over the years, crafty little thing that I am. Now, .looking back at them all is exhausting. Some of them I still do. Somehow writing never came up before. When it finally did, I balked. I didn't think I could do it, what with my scattered brain. I was wrong. Turns out, now that I've dived back in, I have a lot of stories in me. The structure is giving the courage to plot my stories out in an organized fashion and a way to think about how to bring the story home.

Oh geez. Sorry I'm babbling again. Everything i'm doing right now, with regards to writing, is so exciting for me. Please excuse my enthusiasm.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Just looking at save the cat made my eyes gloss over. Too much work for me. Ill just stay two or three scenes ahead in my head.

It's actually one the simplest and straightforward structures, and because it was formed out of studying movies, there are countless examples out there. But if it's not for you, it's not for you.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I haven't found those tools useful for planning, still less for actual writing. They have, however, been useful in revision. They give me objective measures of pacing, character arc, and so on. These measures I might still reject, but they at least stand outside of me and help me shift from writer mode into editor mode.

I do plan, but it's a cobbled approach. Indeed, "plan" is rather too grand a term, since with every book I do things at least somewhat differently. All I can say with confidence is that there are certain approaches that are definitely off my table.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I do plan, but it's a cobbled approach. Indeed, "plan" is rather too grand a term, since with every book I do things at least somewhat differently. All I can say with confidence is that there are certain approaches that are definitely off my table.

What I do is cobbled together too. I've taken several methodologies/structures and combined them into a workflow that works for me. And with every book written, that methodology and workflow has evolved. Sometimes the change is small. Other times it's huge. The one thing that's constant is change. There have been things I didn't find useful at first blush, but later on came back to and found very useful.
 
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