I find myself 'replaying' the 'movie clip' as I write. 'This happens. What is the best way to describe it?'Do you think you it serves as more of a starting point for a scene to play out?
I find myself 'replaying' the 'movie clip' as I write. 'This happens. What is the best way to describe it?'Do you think you it serves as more of a starting point for a scene to play out?
My outlining is more of chapter summaries. I basically write out everything, but not in a formal sense. This happens, then this, and so n so does this the chapter ends like this, etc. etc.Ok! Here we go. You've watched lots of movies and read lots of books over the years, so deep down, you know the structure of story. It's quite possible that "story" is hammered into your DNA by now. Beginning—Middle—End. Study the hell out of story structure, it's good for you and your writer's soul. However, don't get locked into a structure prison, in particular with Hero's Journey, as it can begin to feel cliche.
Quick takes:
Everything is 3-Act. People dress it up in a lot of frilly clothes, but it's still 3-Act. After years of screenwriting and exploring other people's theories... yeah. But, 3-act is extremely flexible. Subplots are your friend here and everywhere unless you go crazy with too many.
Hero's Journey does not need all of the steps, nor must they all be in order to be a Hero's Journey.
Travel chapters, DO be concerned that the book begins to feel like a D&D game with random encounters to add zest. GRRM has a travel chapter that when I read it, I was thinking—"What the hell was the point of that?" the answer? Travel. And maybe the character hadn't made an appearance in a while, and we needed to know where she was. I think it was Arya. Personally, he could have dropped the chapter, but he felt he needed it. Travel is one of the major points in storytelling where Telling is vital. I have characters who spend 3 months on a ship... sheeeeit. You could spend half a book boring the crap out of the reader, teach them the day-to-days of ship life or maybe whaling, or you can slap down a couple paragraphs of description and get on with the story. This was hard for me to do at first, but it's critical unless your story has natural plot points to hit while traveling. Subplots could do the trick! But don't be afraid to summarize. 10-20k words of slogging through ditches and bogs will entertain scant few readers.
I'd be curious what you mean by outlining: if it's story beats and quick notes, cool. Inciting Event: Ogre steals princess. If it's a full-blown outline, you might ask if that's not your style. I tried outlining for years, and it kept me from finishing anything. I suck! I can't write an outline! Pantsing held struggles, too, but once in screenwriting, I first learned the underlying structure (which I knew but didn't put into words) and eventually learned to just feel for the story beats and write toward them without worrying about structure at all. In the end, it's all there.
I could babble on this stuff for hours, but dinner calls, heh heh.
Hello!
I'm trying to write an outline based on the Hero's Journey and the 3 Act structure using this model as a guide:
Right now, my plan is 30 chapters around 4000 words each give or take. I'm not dead set on those numbers, they are just my basic goal for now.
I'm having trouble pacing the chapters. Right now I'm all the way up to the 25% mark/Crossing the Threshold/Plot Point One with only 3 chapters. 25% is 6-7 chapters. And 2 of those chapters are travel time. I'm concerned about filler and being boring. I have stuff happening. There are bad guys pursuing my 2 MCs and eventually they catch up and fight. I'm trying to create some suspense for the rest of the scenes, but like I said, it's mostly travel. If I hand wave it from location to location I feel like something is being left out. But if I fill it in with pointless dialogue and random encounters that don't move the plot forward it runs the risk of being boring.
If I fast forward ALL the travel in one chapter, it feels too rushed. My Act 2 would be HUGE. I'm struggling here.
Anyone have any pacing tips? I enjoy talking things out here with the community.