How do you plot out your stories?

[a_bent_ampersand]

abent&sez

My current story is a bit of an epic. I didn't see it coming. I just invented a situation and a character who was my response to a lot of "limp" erotic fiction I read on this site.

I enjoy reading levels of control, manipulation, and unseen stakes. So I kicked my story off and posted it. I thought I was done. I'd had my say and was ready to move on... but then I thought of something else I could do with this character I created, so I did a sequel.

The sequel wasn't nearly as popular as the first part, but I felt it served something greater. Lo and behold, I was writing a third installment.

Once part three posted, I followed the muse. This character's story unfolded in front of me. I got everything about her and I got a lot more than I bargained for. I've finally earned an H rating on one of the stories... but from what I've read on the message boards, I don't think I should expect many of those... my sex isn't safe enough.

The sex I write is mean, manipulative, dramatic and the language I use can even be offensive.

I read a remark in here that the further you get from vanilla, the more trouble you have... I'll chuck my "ratings struggle" to that and keep following my muse.

I know how this story ends. What I love is that I think I knew it all along... I just didn't have the foresight.

If you choose to peak, look at my biography first... it maps the order in which the story should be read ideally.

www.*******.com/yvettebaron

abent&

 

[inSanitylane]

My 2 Cents

I've just started writing erotic stories. For me though, I usually let plot develop. I have the overall concept and can see an interesting jump in point. From there, I write on the fly. I can usually tell quickly if it is going nowhere. Otherwise, I develop mini plots to the main goal and add to later if necessary.

The only time I write down notes is if I am flooded with many future points of interest at once. I don't like to worry about chapters and structure. For me that seems to become clear itself, as the story evolves.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents.

 

[sunandshadow]

My current story idea I started with a 1-paragraph description of a vague idea, expanded it to about 5 paragraphs of actual plot outline, then re-wrote it as about 10 paragraphs of more detailed plot outline. At this point I'm happy with it except that the ending seems a bit flat and boring, so I'm currently brainstorming if I can rework it to do something interesting with the villain at the end, and ideally use that to tie it in to the start of a different story idea I have.

 

[Firebrain]

I tend to write the first few scenes - just to get a feel for the characters - before I sit down and think of the plot. The longer the story, the longer it will take me to think through something feasible. I even do this with flash.

It's still a very organic process and very character driven, but I find I hit a stumbling block fairly early on if I don't know where I'm going. I like to double-layer and write very richly, so in order to add little indications and clues, I need a detailed knowledge of what's to come.

Of course, none of that has ever stopped me from totally turning it on its head about twelve times....

 

[eternal_darkness]

The extremely old fashioned way

I suppose I'm a bit of an old-fashioned writer. If it's fairly small, say under 500 words long I'll just jump on and type out whatever comes out. Normally that doesn't need too many edits as long as I can get a half decent Intro plotted out. And have done my research. However any work greater then 500 words long, like the one I'm currently writing at the moment the plot development technique I use is significantly different.

First I start out with a number of delevopments/ideas I want to cover in a chapter. 20 is the number that works for me, but frankly that number is purely arbitrary. I then take my idea, and split it up into four containers 6 paragraphs/topics/major plot points for intro, middle and end. Plus 2 left over in case I need it. I then sit down and think about it a bit and create 3 story milestones.

After that's done I then go through and write a one sentence point about how the plot advances.

EG Story Idea : Jim Goes to the store for his mother to pick up a bottle of milk

1 Mom asks Jim to go to the store
2
3 Jim Arrives at store
4
5 Jim Gets home

6 Spares
7

Becomes

1 Mom asks Jim to go to the store
2 Jim collects his gear, money and heads out the door
3 Jim Arrives at store (gets milk and lollies with change)
4 Bully's try to beat jimmy up and take his lollies/milk
5 Jim Arrives Home

6 not needed in this example
7

Then I'd go from this outline and expand each Point into say 3 to 4 lines for a complex story expounding on how the story goes from plot point to plot point. Now with this synopsis I go and write up a draft outline, using each synopsis point to create the actual paragraphs / linking sentences.

I don't know whether or not this is an old fashioned way to write long stories. Or at what level this is taught. But it's basically an expanded form of what I got taught at high-school nearly 10 years ago. And I find using this method it enables me to plan and setup rich hook filled content.

 

[water_side]

Random chaos

I tend to start the story with a general idea of where it's going and then let myself get swept along. My last post started off life as a rather romantic Erotic Couplings tale, but I got distracted by the sub plot. It ended up drastically revised and posted on BDSM instead!

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

I have a pretty consistent process.

1) I come up with a situation or scenario that I want to explore

2) I develop the key characters, and spend a good bit of time figuring them out, what motivates them, where they are in life, what they look like, their relationships, etc. (I'll sometimes look for pictures of people that match what I'm going for, and save those to my story directory)

3) I introduce the main character into the scenario, and start writing. The character personalities write the story. Any plot that I have attempted to write usually gets left behind.

For all stories longer than a couple of chapters I keep a couple of files that make sure I keep on top of the action. I will usually put a physical description of each, so I don't go changing them in mid stream. I also summarize each chapter I've written, and put a couple of lines about where I expect the plot to go (until the characters decide otherwise).

An example of one I used for my "Blackmail Tales" series is this:

=====

Blackmail Tales:

Alex (Abby) - Maddy (7/10/?)
Abby: dishwater blonde, big chest, 33, nice ass. 5'4" 135#
- in a bit of a rut, a vacation encounter has her thinking...
- Naughtiness, just waiting to happen - very oral
- In college mostly behaved, but her roommates were wild
- works monday, wednesday, thursday friday saturday
- Tuesday is girl's night out

Krista (Rich) - Nick (9)
- Natural Blonde, blue-eyed big chested, perfect figure, tight ass
- wears revealing clothes, and naughtier underwear
- 30 year old, married 12 years, just out of high-school
- southern baptist, church-goer,never with anyone but her husband
- small nipples, freckles on her breast
- innocent, no oral/anal, soon eager to please
- very willing to learn and experiment
Rich
- very jealous, somewhat condescending
- unsuccessful in real-estate, or in most opps
- family moderately well off and helps with the bills
- occasional wanderings in his past

Donna Evans(Dave) |
- voluptuous, curvaceous 24 year old, no kids
- platinum blonde, light brown hair naturally, light trimmed bush
- trying for kids, without success, sheltered, little experience
- strong willed, but maybe looking for someone even stronger-willed
Dave
- alway on the sidelines, considerably older
- your average middle management workaholic
- not able to have kids, but neither Donna or Dave know it
- late night porn addict

Misty (Paul)
- skinny, big titted, 5'0" 98# fake tits, small ass, dark brown hair
- horny and wild, overly friendly, bit of an exhibitionist
- 31 years old, mom of 3, doesn't act it
- complete trophy wife, happy to spend Paul's cash
Paul
- great shape, good humored, hard working
- big sports fan
- partial owner of his own business
- very tolerant of Misty's wildness

Courtney (John)
- willing neighbor, slightly pear-like, smallish tits, brown hair, full ass
- in a rut, easily led down the path of naughtiness
- 38 year old, mom of 2
- no longer working, very well off

----------------
1) A Bit of Blackmail - Krista is blackmailed over some skinny dipping pictures - she does something naughty under hidden camera

2) A Bit More Blackmail - Krista is further blackmailed into full submission over the movies from the previous session

3) A Blackmail Buddy - Krista is trained into further submission, and expresses a need to share the load with Donna

4) A Blackmail Tale 4: Donna - Donna undergoes step 1 of her blackmail, in a Big way

5) A Blackmail Tale 5: Three to Tango - Alex is almost caught by wife, and makes plans with Krista to 'neutralize' this problem - while Donna is confronted by the cold HARD facts

6) A Blackmail Tale 6: Hot Tub Hijinks - Alex and Krista put the spouse plan into play - a hot-tub setup

7) A Blackmail Tale 7: Lessons - Alex works out some details with Abby, about sharing, and does some training lessons with Donna.

8) A Blackmail Tale 8: Punished - Abby does some role play, and A recalcitrant Donna is punished (Sunday/Monday)

9) A Blackmail Tale 9: A Debt Paid - Abby gives Alex Misty and Krista to pay off her cheating debt.

10) A Blackmail Tale 10: Basic Training - Abby takes on the training of Krista, in areas anal and oral. (Wed.)

11) A Blackmail Tale 11: Just business- the Plan is discussed, the three meet as Krista, and the girls earn just a little punishment. (Thurs & Friday)

12) A Blackmail Tale 12: The Good Neighbor - we learn of Abby's plan to get the friends involved. Reduce danger of outside discovery. Neighbor Courtney gets hers. Donna is suggested.

13) A Blackmail Tale 13: Misty is Back- Misty's been patient but wants her turn.

ideas:

Krista/Abby play date, Donna is suggested

The business start up - and a reason to celebrate

Planning a girl's night, with Donna to be tamed.

 

[darknedheart]

I come up with a general idea,then when I have that I focus on the Characters when they come in what is there purpose,then their looks and then if I have multiple ideas I tend to mesh them together to see if it works or not. Thats what I do but everyone different.But For me I write out everything and just put them together and sometimes I can just get a plot by a muse like a song or something.

 

[OldGuy1026]

I write Science Fiction, in the Vanillia world, and that took, ten years of research. You see I wanted a Star Empire that would be well thought out, organised, and something we could all relate to. I worked out the planets, how many orbital facilities, L5 Colonies, and all the economics. You can't build a fleet of quarter mile long ships, and not have supply ships, escourts, and fighter cover to stop some nut in a fast jetpack with a nuke in the back.

You can have humanoids from other worlds, but let's be honest we all breath the same atmosphere. But you should have a clear idea of, how it all works out. No that is just the start.

So I have these thick binders of notes, then comes the story, the fantacy we all dream about, how do we get there. Worse still how do you tell such an opening in as few words as possible and not bore the reader to hell. Beleive me I work the story over and over again in my head till it's almost right. Then start typing. Then read it over, type some more. Put it aside and read it over again.

If you read your work a week after you put it aside and still get aroused with the story you just may have something going on there. At least I feel it's a good start.

Check out Slave Immigrant Chapter 1 and let me know.

Oh and I haven't started to fully explore the different races and cultures yet.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Jon Franklin (2 Pulitzers) sez that the difference between a pro and a novice is the plot. He sez he wasted years doing all the wrong things and listening to hours of bad advice from people who supposedly knew how to write. And when he learned to plot, his career took off, and he won two Pulitzers in quick order.

The plot is the foundation of your story. It determines the structure of your story. And plot allows your mind to connect the dots for the most pleasing effects becuz it signals your mind to create characters, scenes, complications that resonate with the plot. Plot makes everything congruent.

 

[OldGuy1026]

I wish to dis-agree with that. Plot is the basic foundation of a story, however basically there are very few of them to go around.

-Boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy goes through hell to get her back again.

-See the town, bad guy runs town poorly, see good guy, good guy destroys bad guy runs town better.

-The outsider, no part of society, works like hell to be accepted.

-The "Princess is Kidnapped" hero must recue her, various twist and turns, both end up happier.

Get a boring job read lots of books, or see lots of movies, eventually you can figure out the ending long before it's over. In 1959 H Beam Piper walked out of the big Sci-5 hit of the day, "Them" he screamed he can write better stories than that, and he did.

Plot is in my view easy, story line takes work, settings colouring the work that takes work. It took me forever to figure out that Dan Galloway was an American because I'm a Canadian and saw his characters in Royal Navy Uniforms not dungarees.

Think about that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OLDFART

I did think about it, I reviewed scores of books on the subject, and I conclude youre clueless and likely write crap. Right?

 

[OldGuy1026]

I don't think so.

And I think we can go on and on arguing the point. My biggest problem is I need an editor, so have a nice day.

I intend to have one.

 

[Guest]

OLDFART

I did think about it, I reviewed scores of books on the subject, and I conclude youre clueless and likely write crap. Right?

What a spectacularly productive response. Someone disagrees with you, explains why, and doesn't make it personal, and this is your rebuttal.

 

[OldGuy1026]

Okay, you're right Shel, I'll put it this way, without the use of an Editor I submitted Slave Immigrant, Chapter One. And tried to keep within the short story rules of being under five thousand words.

You can call it crap, if you want to. The plot is easy, the outsider trying to fit in. No different that say the jewish Rabbi comes to America, the Frisco Kid. Great movie, very simple plot.

I may not have a Master's Degree in English, but I know what I see, do you?

 

[Guest]

Okay, you're right Shel, I'll put it this way, without the use of an Editor I submitted Slave Immigrant, Chapter One. And tried to keep within the short story rules of being under five thousand words.

You can call it crap, if you want to. The plot is easy, the outsider trying to fit in. No different that say the jewish Rabbi comes to America, the Frisco Kid. Great movie, very simple plot.

I may not have a Master's Degree in English, but I know what I see, do you?

You probably should note I was responding to him (hence quoting him) and not you.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

What a spectacularly productive response. Someone disagrees with you, explains why, and doesn't make it personal, and this is your rebuttal.

Youre very astute. Tell us your secret.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't think so.

And I think we can go on and on arguing the point. My biggest problem is I need an editor, so have a nice day.

I intend to have one.

You cant refute my point. What I say is how it is. There are two ways to get a good story, work out a good plot and stumble on one by dum luck. We know what you do.

 

[Guest]

Youre very astute. Tell us your secret.

I just wish people like yourself could get involved in a discussion and when someone disagrees with them, respond like an actual adult in a way that furthers the conversation.

Act like you're talking to someone face to face and respond in kind.

 

[OldGuy1026]

You're right Shel, my bad,

Oh and James, I know you will probably go on and on how right you are. I could make a crack like;............ no I'm not going there.

We're hiding behind false name and idenities because we write erotica.

I'm of the opinion plots can be catgoized and it's settings, interesting characters, and story that does it for me.

back to you Shel, think the arguement will continue?

 

[Guest]

I'm of the opinion plots can be catgoized and it's settings, interesting characters, and story that does it for me.

back to you Shel, think the arguement will continue?

Honestly, I've not yet read a single story on this website that I think is complex enough to justify anything more than a mental outline. That's not to say they don't exist, mind you. Just that I haven't read them because they aren't what I'm looking for.

That sounds really dismissive, and I don't mean it that way. Personally, I'm here for porn. That's the best way to phrase it. Porn. Now, just because that's what I'm looking for doesn't mean I don't have standards. I'm looking for a well-written, interesting take on a sexual situation that keeps my attention, feels real, and hits on the things that turn me on. I'm not interested in a fifty page journey of sexual discovery where upon a woman learns about her self by fucking the individual members of her family chapter by chapter, etc.

Everything I'm interested in reading here, or writing about here, can be accomplished with a simple mental image embellished as you go. For me, any discussion of how you plot a story beyond that doesn't apply; it's like talking about the proper way to construct a highrise when I'm only interested in building a birdhouse.

Let me again stress, that only applies to me. If one is in fact writing a fifty page journey of sexual discovery where upon a woman learns about her self by fucking the individual members of her family chapter by chapter, then I can see how a more elaborate roadmap can help. After all, in my experience the biggest challange facing a writer is the disconnect between what he/she sees in her head and thinks has been conveyed on paper, and what the reader actually takes away from the words. Anything at all that can help bridge that gap is worth persuing.

 

[OldGuy1026]

Everything I'm interested in reading here, or writing about here, can be accomplished with a simple mental image embellished as you go. For me, any discussion of how you plot a story beyond that doesn't apply; it's like talking about the proper way to construct a highrise when I'm only interested in building a birdhouse.

.

Wow, now that is a great line, you are either published or work as a teacher. Or should.

 

[Guest]

Quote:
I guess we've worn out this subject.

Well, just becuase it's not particularly useful for me doesn't mean it's not for others.

Plot I do think does take a backseat to everything else, though. Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler are amazing plotters. They can create really interesting setups and plots that, when relayed to someone in a short synopsis, make you want to hear the story. However, none are particularly good writers. Cussler in particular borders on being downright bad. They've all made a gazillion dollars publishing their works, yet they still get viewed as the literary equivalent of McDonalds.

Conversely, take someone like Cormack McCarthy. Often times his plots are pretty loose and meandering. His prose, however, is gorgeous, and because of that he's generally considered overall to be a elite writer.

IMO, it's possible to be a great writer simply on the strength of your prose and characters, even if your plot is thin. On the other hand, no matter how great your plot is, without the writing skills to back it up you're going to be regarded as simply a typist.

Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace managed to write great prose and couple it with amazing, dense plots, but remove the amazing, dense plots from the equation, and they are still great writers, as witnessed in many of Foster's disjointed essays. The opposite isn't true. You can't remove great prose and leave an amazing, dense plot and still have it hold up.

 

[EricCalder]

I'm one of those who works best if there is an ending in mind. That ending can change as I am writing it (and it will, at least the details will), but at each stage I am writing towards some goal.

I always make a list of characters. I will make other notes if necessary (on locations, technical details, etc.), but I don't personally write a plot outline.

Except... when I find myself in a conundrum I will sketch out an outline of sorts, more like a list of scenes, just to clarify how I would like to story to go. Once I do that I rarely, if ever, refer to that again.

 

[OldGuy1026]

It is very difficult to keep to a story line especially when you have free wheelilng conversations and things go all over the place. So it is difficult to work towards that ending.

As for character I like to work with characters and keep track of them. I use tools that I have used in playing Fantacy Roleplaying Games. Games like Chivalry and Sourcery are great for character backgrounds. I like Science Fiction, so skills and organizations come from the game Space Opera. And oh, I'm an expert at Space Opera, it only takes me two hours to have a fully developed character not eight.

So big story or short, major characters should be well thought out.