Take Five
Five-minute reads about writing
Nov. 3 - Nov. 30, 2010
Courtesy: Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Twitter: @RandomMagicTour
#12 of 30: Walking the plot line
If you're busy wrangling with your storyline, there's some hopeful news about your unruly plot that might make you feel better:
As you get more and more of the story down on paper, you start to see more and more of the story, so that plotting becomes a little easier.
It’s like you start out on a foggy night walking across the moors and can’t make your way without a map, you have to just take one step, then another step, then another.
Finally, the fog starts to clear, and you look back and find that, not only have you traveled maybe 300 steps, but now you can also see more of the surrounding ground, and can figure out where to go from there.
Plotting doesn’t get easier if you’re not already writing the story, which is sort of a conundrum. It does get easier as you continue, though, because you start to see a wider range of ground, not just the little patch of ground you’re standing on.
But to do that, of course, you have to move. And that’s the actual writing part, where you just plant yourself in your chair and start to think about what happens, what might happen, what doesn’t happen, what happens next, and what happens because that happens -- or doesn’t. Moving all of these things around in your mind, taking one step, then another. And so on.
Plotting gets easier as you go along, and it’s okay not to have a map, as long as you have a rough idea where you’re going.
If you're still having difficulties, can try this simple, five-minute writing exercise to help spark some solutions for proceeding with your own plot: Plot Exercise
From author interview with Sasha Soren.
Interviewer: Book Junkie (@BookJunkie74)
Take five. Help is here.
More: Go to #13 of 30
More: See full list
Five-minute reads about writing
Nov. 3 - Nov. 30, 2010
Courtesy: Sasha Soren (Random Magic)
Twitter: @RandomMagicTour
#12 of 30: Walking the plot line
If you're busy wrangling with your storyline, there's some hopeful news about your unruly plot that might make you feel better:
As you get more and more of the story down on paper, you start to see more and more of the story, so that plotting becomes a little easier.
It’s like you start out on a foggy night walking across the moors and can’t make your way without a map, you have to just take one step, then another step, then another.
Finally, the fog starts to clear, and you look back and find that, not only have you traveled maybe 300 steps, but now you can also see more of the surrounding ground, and can figure out where to go from there.
Plotting doesn’t get easier if you’re not already writing the story, which is sort of a conundrum. It does get easier as you continue, though, because you start to see a wider range of ground, not just the little patch of ground you’re standing on.
But to do that, of course, you have to move. And that’s the actual writing part, where you just plant yourself in your chair and start to think about what happens, what might happen, what doesn’t happen, what happens next, and what happens because that happens -- or doesn’t. Moving all of these things around in your mind, taking one step, then another. And so on.
Plotting gets easier as you go along, and it’s okay not to have a map, as long as you have a rough idea where you’re going.
If you're still having difficulties, can try this simple, five-minute writing exercise to help spark some solutions for proceeding with your own plot: Plot Exercise
From author interview with Sasha Soren.
Interviewer: Book Junkie (@BookJunkie74)
Take five. Help is here.
More: Go to #13 of 30
More: See full list
