In a separate post I said I'd be talking about how I intend to plan for my next novel, and I asked how other folks here did their planning. Responses have been great so far! Plot is next up.
This is perhaps the most difficult for me. No, not "perhaps". This is the most difficult for me. I set up interesting challenges and puzzles, but I worry my solutions and resolutions don't measure up. I also fret over how the plot develops, if it moves gracefully from scene to scene.
For A Child of Great Promise the plot is especially fuzzy. I think what I need is the ending. John Irving said he never wrote a novel without knowing the ending, even to the point of knowing the final sentence. That's not a bad goal, however unreachable for the mere mortal author.
So, I have this kid and basically what happens is she grows up. There are, shall we say, more than one way for that to happen. I began with, Falaise stops the evil drow from opening a magical gate that would let in a whole army of drow. This immediately raised some practical issues, but I could sweep most of them aside by saying that she grows into her powers. She shows her quality.
But there were other paths. For example, why not have Falaise rescue the Prince? There've been far too many princess rescues. I liked that, too, because it was something less than Epic. A more modest, human scale to it. But you see the problem. There could be many stories in which a child comes into her own.
There are two other angles to this plot business--structure and premise. The first is easier to tackle.
Some people use the three act structure, or variations on same. I took a look at the Hero's Journey. Some of it doesn't feel like it works, but one part really resonated: the hero's journey to the underworld. I chewed that one around and then I got hit by an inspiration in the form of a pun. What if the underworld wasn't under the ground but was "underworld" in the modern connotation. Falaise winds up going into the social underworld of a city. That's where she finds the key, the prize, the secret, the Macguffin.
I may still have to look at a formal structure. It may help me to ensure the story has good pacing. But for now I'm wrestling other problems.
The other angle to plot is premise. I said before Falaise's story can take many paths. I need to choose one. That's what I'm calling the premise. It's the story goal (which may not be her goal). Save the kingdom. Rescue the prince. Solve a mystery. Prevent the opening of the Gate of Doom. Or all these at once! Right now, the premise feels ... arbitrary.
And finally (whew!), closely related is genre. I could write all this as a mystery. I could write it as romance. Or a novel of self-discovery. But not all three at once, right? Readers bring certain expectations to a genre. And the premise of a romance is going to be different from the premise of an adventure, even if it involves the same characters doing more or less the same things.
So, there you go. Plot, premise, structure, genre. Egads. Have you folks wrestled with these? Do you plan them? If so, how? To reiterate a point made elsewhere, I know plenty of folks simply discover these things as they write. Or that they tease them into formality in subsequent drafts. I've been down that road. I'm looking particularly for how people approach these matters before setting pen to screen. Er, keyboard to paper. Oh, you know what I mean.
This is perhaps the most difficult for me. No, not "perhaps". This is the most difficult for me. I set up interesting challenges and puzzles, but I worry my solutions and resolutions don't measure up. I also fret over how the plot develops, if it moves gracefully from scene to scene.
For A Child of Great Promise the plot is especially fuzzy. I think what I need is the ending. John Irving said he never wrote a novel without knowing the ending, even to the point of knowing the final sentence. That's not a bad goal, however unreachable for the mere mortal author.
So, I have this kid and basically what happens is she grows up. There are, shall we say, more than one way for that to happen. I began with, Falaise stops the evil drow from opening a magical gate that would let in a whole army of drow. This immediately raised some practical issues, but I could sweep most of them aside by saying that she grows into her powers. She shows her quality.
But there were other paths. For example, why not have Falaise rescue the Prince? There've been far too many princess rescues. I liked that, too, because it was something less than Epic. A more modest, human scale to it. But you see the problem. There could be many stories in which a child comes into her own.
There are two other angles to this plot business--structure and premise. The first is easier to tackle.
Some people use the three act structure, or variations on same. I took a look at the Hero's Journey. Some of it doesn't feel like it works, but one part really resonated: the hero's journey to the underworld. I chewed that one around and then I got hit by an inspiration in the form of a pun. What if the underworld wasn't under the ground but was "underworld" in the modern connotation. Falaise winds up going into the social underworld of a city. That's where she finds the key, the prize, the secret, the Macguffin.
I may still have to look at a formal structure. It may help me to ensure the story has good pacing. But for now I'm wrestling other problems.
The other angle to plot is premise. I said before Falaise's story can take many paths. I need to choose one. That's what I'm calling the premise. It's the story goal (which may not be her goal). Save the kingdom. Rescue the prince. Solve a mystery. Prevent the opening of the Gate of Doom. Or all these at once! Right now, the premise feels ... arbitrary.
And finally (whew!), closely related is genre. I could write all this as a mystery. I could write it as romance. Or a novel of self-discovery. But not all three at once, right? Readers bring certain expectations to a genre. And the premise of a romance is going to be different from the premise of an adventure, even if it involves the same characters doing more or less the same things.
So, there you go. Plot, premise, structure, genre. Egads. Have you folks wrestled with these? Do you plan them? If so, how? To reiterate a point made elsewhere, I know plenty of folks simply discover these things as they write. Or that they tease them into formality in subsequent drafts. I've been down that road. I'm looking particularly for how people approach these matters before setting pen to screen. Er, keyboard to paper. Oh, you know what I mean.