Hello everyone,
There are two major stories in my mind that I've been trying to write, and recently I decided to put those stories together. My problem however is that I can't seem to wrap my mind around the idea of creating an outline(or plotting in general), I know if I don't I wind up with pages, and pages of characters rambling in an unknown universe. I'm able to create my characters, and scenes but I pull up a blank when I think about: "okay well what's the overall point ?" How do you guys stick to the overarching plot/ know what it is and go about planning it ?
Thanks!
Thank you everyone for taking the time answer !
I can't imagine writing without understanding where you story is going.
What does your character want out of the situation they find themselves in? The way they will go about it in the beginning will fail because they need to change who they are and they're approach to this new and challenging issue in front of them. They're failures will help them see the light.
I'm not a plotter, Amanda; however, I've realised that I need to keep control of what's happening to whom and when and why. I've got Scapple on my laptop (from the makers of Scrivener) which allows me to make notes that link up with arrows or in boxes of different colours - it's pretty much open to your own ideas. When I read through a chapter and a lightbulb goes on in my head, I know very well it will go off again, so I make a note.
I also keep an unlined notepad, where I scribble ideas and aide memoires.
The simple fact is, you will never remember all of it, and you won't need all of the things you think up; but if you have them to hand, you have a better chance of getting your story to go where you thought you wanted it to go in the first place - or of sending it off at the tangent that occurred to you in mid-Chapter 14.
Characters have a habit of directing themselves down routes I hadn't envisaged at the start; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I can't say I've ever thought up the entire story and then written it as I planned - where's the fun in that?