Thread: In need of some advice

Ok, I am going to try and keep this short, as I don't want to bore you all. I find myself in somewhat of a predicament, as far as my writing is concerned. For the longest time, ever since I was little, I loved to write. I would write about anything and everything, really. My love for writing disappeared for years, once I began high school, although I suppose it only lay dormant. It was only last year, when I got back into writing, that I did a part-time, night class in creative writing, which I passed. I live in Northern Ireland, and I was told by my lecturer, that as a level 3, I have reached the stage where academically I can go no further. So, I really don't know what happens next. I don't think I'm writing to start writing, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do...

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Here's my problem.

I am finally at a stage were I am content with my writing abilities. I don't flatter myself by thinking that I am a good writer, but I'm decent, I think. The problem I am having is with plots. I just know, if I could come up with a plot, I could sit down and write. The problem with me is that I can never come up with plots, not without them becoming a rip-off of an existing book/movie/TV show. I am starting to think that I just don't have any imagination. As a writer, I am quite light-hearted, and my writing often has comedy aspects to it. In my writing class, when we would go around the room and read our pieces, mine would always be humorous, whereas everyone else went for serious, deep, meaningful pieces. I can write serious, I just think that my strength is in humour. I often write about Sci-Fi things, too.

I was just wondering if anyone has any tips, with regards to thinking up plots for their stories, novels, etc. etc. How do you come up with your plots? I'll take any advice I can be given.

Also, as a side question: Do you really need to know how your story is going to go, from start to finish, before you begin writing? Or, is it possibly to begin, then further your plot as you go along?

I'd start by making myself the question "why am I writing?" and go on from there.

Since you don't seem to have anything specific in terms of a story you want to tell, perhaps you should begin with the purpose of your writing in question. When you start writing, as you implied, you are not putting on paper a story that's stuck inside your head, but writing for some other reason.

To put it in simpler terms, it's like painting. There are two kinds of painters: the abstract who makes things up, and the figurative who draws a scenery that represents what he wants to convey. The abstract is what pops in your head, the figurative is what you craft from a perceived notion.

I think I can empathize with what your situation; I'm the kind of guy that suddenly gets an emotion I want to convey, and an image or two that represents it. Having nothing else but that, I create plots like building blocks instead of making things up as I go. This probably the reason why you had an easier time in class: you had a given objective, and you crafted a story from that objective, thinking what things would fit and what wouldn't.

If you're anything like the above, first thing I'd do would be to grasp the emotion that made me sit on my desk to write in the first place. Forget all your preconceptions, think of what you want to convey, choose a setting that would go well with your goal, make up things that serve a purpose, and scrap the garbage that serves none. Use diagrams and drawings to understand the relationship between characters and plots, and write essays on what you want to do.

Hope this helps

Elite knows what he's talking about.

I understand exactly where you're at. Every single story idea that I come up with is a pure knock off of an existing work of fiction. Out of thouse countless ideas, three have stayed with me. Two of those three, I don't work on much because of the other one. This third one I one for six years just fleshing out everything. Add an additional two years for the first draft alone (which I still have yet to finish). After all this time, that one story is an original work that hardly bears any resemblance to initial concept, and a few of my friends follow it fanatically. To sum it all up: sometimes you get inspired by one particular book/film/game/show, or perhaps multiple, and, rather than comletely rip it off, you have to work hard to make it original and your own.

10 Things I Hate About You is a rehash of The Taming of the Shrew; that great science-fiction film The Forbidden Planet was The Tempest brought up to date. There are very few plots, it is all about how you handle them. CSI is a new slant on Sherlock Holmes and his ability to rub cigar ash between his fingers and deduce the provenence. The basic plot is relatively simple, so sketch out where you want to go and by what route you want to get there, then work out how you can make the that route and characters achieve the aim in a different manner from what has gone before. For instance, could you rewrite She Stoops to Conquor with the suitors being of the same sex? Perhaps place Silas Marner in a Kosovan slum? Jude the Obscure in the caste ridden environs of an Indian city? The plots are out there, they just need to be given your unique interpretation.

I know I've given the same piece of advice on another thread, but that's just because it really worked for me and that's Story by Robert McKee. It is aimed at screenwriters, but I really think that finding that inspiration as the writers above have mentioned and then crafting an outline with a beginning, a middle and an end is a good start. As you go, you'll see that some of the things in the beginning no longer make sense with what you've got at the end, and then you can go back and rework your outline without pulling your hair out over hours of wasted effort spent in the details. I think the forum is also a really good place to try different kinds of writing, maybe, as Elite mentioned, you are more of an abstract writer and therefore, a better poet than a novelist.

I read something on a blog recently that said that ALL fiction is technically fan fiction, because all writers are inspired by what they are fans of, what they really like. And chances are, someone else will really like it too.

I kinda of echo Bloggsworth take here. After all, there was one who quoted it here that "there are no new plots, just new ways to write them."

As for me, I don't usually think of plots that much. That'd burn me out. Instead, I let the plot come to me. I do think such plots come like such, when you're watching a documentary, or playing a game, or reading a textbook on Biochemistry, then it hits you. "What if...?"

Originally Posted by D.J.

I was just wondering if anyone has any tips, with regards to thinking up plots for their stories, novels, etc. etc. How do you come up with your plots? I'll take any advice I can be given.

Practice.

Tomorrow, don't check here for new replies, leave your computer switched off and instead sit down and come up with a plot outline. Allow yourself an hour. If you're stuck, start with a character. Give the character a problem. When you're done you can go on the computer, but plotting comes first.

The next day, same exercise, different plot.

Don't worry about how good or bad they are, how viable, or whether you'll ever develop them, just stretch your plotting muscles and give your imagination a workout. You don't have to stick to what you know. This is not real life, it's an exercise. Write a plot outline for a romance novel. For a western. A science fiction trilogy. They can be funny. They can be serious. Whatever.

If you don't know where to begin, pick up a local newspaper and find a news item that sparks your imagination. You only need to invest an hour in it, so don't sweat too much over it.

Remember, plotting exercise comes first, before the computer. That's the hard part. Make it a habit.

And to answer your other question: some people plot first, some people wing it. Both ways are fine, it's the result that counts. Find the way that works for you.

To echo all of the great advice given here, challenge yourself to look at things differently. When you go to the grocery store, notice the little things that people do or say, or even better, what they don't say. An old woman wearing a bright red scarf that looks as though it's dragged through the mud, might have a story to tell. What about the guy who gets cut in line, who doesn't say anything and just clenches his fists. What's going on in his mind? Who does he go home to at the end of the day? Seeing people as characters creates a lot of opportunities to create stories. Maybe that pissed off guy is an alien who has to keep his cool so he doesn't blow his cover. If you're into the sci-fi slant, there's no reason to think you can't derive imaginative plots from every day life.

That's my two cents anyway. Keep writing and good luck!

I completely agree with Bloggsworth and The Fuhrer. There is no such thing as an original idea. Bloggsworth mentioned the rehashing of some of Shakespeare's plays, but most of his plays were themselves rehashed from ancient Greek tragedies or from historical characters. Harry Potter is probably the greatest success story of a generation. Yet there have been literally hundreds of books written about witches and wizards in the past, and someone even attempted to sue JK Rowling for plagiarism because the story behind one of the Harry Potter books had similarities with another author's book. They failed by the way!

My first novel - that I am currently writing - is a fictional retelling of the life of a real Egyptologist. I have biographical works and the explorers own notes to use as research, but I'm doing what hasn't been done before, which is to put the story into the form of a novel and recreate characters and situations that have been forgotten or glanced over.

You say that you have a thing for humour. My advice would be to take one of the ideas that you have, even if it has similarities with another book, and give it your own humourous/satirical/parodical twist. Once you create your own characters, you'll find the story changing and forming around them. It's your own writing style that will make the story unique, not simply the plot.

I agree with a lot that's been said here so far. I only have a few things to add. If you're having difficulty thinking of plotlines, I would suggest searching the internet for writing challenges or prompts. There are quite a few 30 or 365 day writing challenges that offer you a new prompt or challenge every day. These are pretty good for practice.

It's true that everything we read/watch these days is simply a reinterpretation or an adaptation of a past work. So I would say try to expose yourself to as much art work as possible. Read books that have outrageous plots, story lines that become twisted, and surprise endings, try to expose yourself to material that would fall outside your comfort range and try to expand your horizons.

And for fun, I'll sometimes do people-watching. A friend and I will choose a person at random and make up their biography. For instance, we'll say things like, "That guy, he has 3 kids, all under the age of 5 and now he's out buying diapers and smokes. He hasn't slept in 3 days and is contemplating buying a train ticket and getting as far away as he can, but his wife is a supermodel and he's getting pretty old, so he's considering waiting it out because he doesn't know if he'll be able to snag another babe."
I dunno... sometimes it's pretty fun.