How do you plot out your stories?

[swingset66]

Never Plot

If you plot, then your writing a story with the end in mind. I'm not saying that that doesn't plot driven writers can't write a good story but it can make it harder to fit your entire imagination into the story.
I'm sure it must have been mentioned before, but I would suggest that any new writer read "On Writing" by Stephen King. King approaches a story the way a paleontologist would brush away dirt from a fossil. Let your imagination take you to the end of the story the way the brush will eventually get the fossil out of the ground. I wish this book was around when I was going to high school.

 

[PatriciaBBW]

Plotting is for wimps.

I start with a concept. Out of the concept I try to decide on the vagaries of a story. Out of that I select my primary characters and what they want to do. Then I go from there.

 

[OldGuy1026]

If you plot, then your writing a story with the end in mind. I'm not saying that that doesn't plot driven writers can't write a good story but it can make it harder to fit your entire imagination into the story.
I'm sure it must have been mentioned before, but I would suggest that any new writer read "On Writing" by Stephen King. King approaches a story the way a paleontologist would brush away dirt from a fossil. Let your imagination take you to the end of the story the way the brush will eventually get the fossil out of the ground. I wish this book was around when I was going to high school.

I agree with most of what's here, but the hardest part is just keeping the story riding along to that end. My wife keeps reminding me to stay on track and has ripped pages out of my works.

Keep in mind colour, background, what colour are the walls, mention at least once what the place smells like. Erotic writeing of smack, ouch, smack ouch, is boring. We all know what's going on, so expand. Does it hit like a baseball bat? Those small switches that build into annoying pain. Did the main character see flashing lights when he or she came? Discription very important.

 

[lance gt]

I don't think an ending should ever come into the story until it's over. By that I mean, when I write, I start with an idea for the story, develop characters, create details relevant to the plot, describe the settings and make the sex as interesting as the story permits. Once all the factors come into focus, I keep writing until I feel I have brought out everything that the story needed to be told correctly. The ending to me is a result of what the body of the story brought me to. I would find it hard to write a story based on "In the beginning.... the end." It would be harder to focus on the intent of the story line and I feel the story itself would suffer and the readers would critisize it to death for being too vague.

 

[OldGuy1026]

I don't think an ending should ever come into the story until it's over. By that I mean, when I write, I start with an idea for the story, develop characters, create details relevant to the plot, describe the settings and make the sex as interesting as the story permits. Once all the factors come into focus, I keep writing until I feel I have brought out everything that the story needed to be told correctly. The ending to me is a result of what the body of the story brought me to. I would find it hard to write a story based on "In the beginning.... the end." It would be harder to focus on the intent of the story line and I feel the story itself would suffer and the readers would critisize it to death for being too vague.

I don't know Lance, I definitely know how the story I am working on will end, but it's the jorney that is taking on some interesting turns and twist. I mean you know where the rollercoaster ride begins, you know where it ends, but the journey is the fun part.

For example a Knight, his squire and their men travel to the holy lands on the crusades. You know they will get there, but what happens along the way? If its an action story lots of fights. Fetish, maybe the knight has a hard time dealing with the heat, hemroids, sweaty underwear. Gay story, is he doing every member of his party, on night at a time? It's the journey that makes it all interesting.

So far Slave Immigrant is on chapter 13 and I'm half way there.

 

[lance gt]

Well Old Man, I agree with you that an ending is good to have when the story is in it's preliminary stages, but I have found my ending has changed by the time I got to where it was supposed to be. I have actually tried working backwards on a story and starting with an ending and building the story backwards to the beginning. That was a challenge. But overall, an ending is the finality of writing your story. My very first story, "Life At Last", originally was only two chapters long. Every time I thought I came to the ending, it led me to another chapter. I finally decided to keep writing until the story ran itself to the ground after 12, yup 12 chapters. So in my honest belief of endings and plots, it's the plot that will determine the ending.

 

[Juci_Lucy]

.....

 

[DarkBee]

I start with writing down and fleshing out the main storyline, then making the rest up as I write the story, including names, character details, surroundings, etc.
This does have the disadvantage that I sometimes have to skip back a few pages/stories to see what I've actually written, so I won't write down discontinuities.

 

[OldGuy1026]

I start with writing down and fleshing out the main storyline, then making the rest up as I write the story, including names, character details, surroundings, etc.
This does have the disadvantage that I sometimes have to skip back a few pages/stories to see what I've actually written, so I won't write down discontinuities.

All the time, sometimes you have to create a separate file with all references to that particular character. I do this too.

 

[Isis56]

I don't think an ending should ever come into the story until it's over. By that I mean, when I write, I start with an idea for the story, develop characters, create details relevant to the plot, describe the settings and make the sex as interesting as the story permits. Once all the factors come into focus, I keep writing until I feel I have brought out everything that the story needed to be told correctly. The ending to me is a result of what the body of the story brought me to. I would find it hard to write a story based on "In the beginning.... the end." It would be harder to focus on the intent of the story line and I feel the story itself would suffer and the readers would critisize it to death for being too vague.

I've read that if you don't know how your story ends, you're more likely to get lost. As someone who writes in scenes and character interactions, I agree. I used to just write whatever popped up, find one that fit the beginning of the story, and fill in the blank parts. I'm paying for it now! I have tons of "Hurry Up!" feedback on a story because I didn't really plan it out. Now I'm taking the time to figure out where I want the story to end. It's so much easier to edit my own work; I know whether or not it fits into the overarching plot. If the scene in my head has nothing to do with how the characters get where they're going in the end, I change the names and set it aside for a future story.

 

[Juci_Lucy]

.....

 

[OldGuy1026]

I often have a vague idea of an ending, but a vague way of arriving at the "destination" as it were.

I often find that some stories can change the ending either radically, or slightly through the process of writing it. When I allow myself to chnge things, I find it always (for me0 improves the writing process.

If I have to struggle in the writing to the pre-determined ending, it can be rather torturous, If this happens, I tend to file it away until I can tackle it better.

It can feel like jamming a round peg into a square hole, but after a break (which is as good as a rest,) that I can work on the tale much more satisfacorily

Oh yea, I end up dealing with the same feeling, and at times just have to work harder to get it right. You're not alone.

 

[toxic_dreams]

i mostly free write,or when I am stumped and want something more than just my ideas coming in a big blob. I will web them out I put the story title in the middle then web the characters,attributes,personalities,and where I think the story is headed. Then I mesh them all together.

 

[ejls]

I don't plot. I don't sit down at the computer and plan to write. I carry a pad with me at all times, and wait. One day, while stuck in road construction, my story "No Name" just came to me. I knew it had to be Dublin, I knew there had to be a river and a bar. I got to work early, and spent 15 minutes on line, researching bars in Dublin. I didn't even know if there was a river. The story was written in about three days. I write long hand, then type it into the computer. I never really know where the story will go. The characters are the ones who tell me what they want to do.

 

[JT750]

I don't plan so much as I do prepare. When I get a story idea in my head, I sketch out a quick outline for myself so I know where I want to start and end, as well as a few key twists that I want to include... then sit down when I have time (sometimes I just can't write when the mood hits me) and start free-forming my way through the story while trying to hit at least some of the beats I wrote down. I won't force them, though, and will happily chuck 'em if I come up with something I like better or feel they no longer fit with my vision.

 

[stefene]

I start with characters, so I write little blurbs about them first, maybe putting a couple together and writing a scene, or write one confronted with an unusual situation. After I know the characters, I may already have the seeds of an idea, coming from the stuff I wrote. Or, I might come up with a situation and throw a couple of the characters into it, then write that scene. I don't really try to write a story (except really short short stories, which may simply happen on their own at this last step) until I know where I want it to end up, then I start taking the pieces I've created and put them together into a plot.

 

[andy_charles]

I haven't written erotica for quite a while now, but when I did, I would always know that I was working towards some kind of scene in each chapter. The trick would then be to build up to it in some way - and then, go back into the previous chapters and try to allude to the various scenes to come within the character profiles (for example: if there is a g/g scene, add a line or two about expierience/curiosity, etc).

 

[LOAnnie2]

I admittedly haven't done much formal planning for the stories I've thusfar had published on lit. My problem is usually the reverse of most people's, I have the ending in sight, but it's the getting there that's the hard part.

Plus I find with my writing, I actually attempt to give things a cohesive plot, so these stories end up spending less time focusing on the sex scenes since there's more build up included. My current project has just about hit 3000 words and the protagonist has only really stripped thus far.

 

[acerdrive]

for me, when it comes down to it, I think about how I'm going to write it, have several ways it can go: either good or bad. then while I write it, i determine where it will go.

 

[OldGuy1026]

for me, when it comes down to it, I think about how I'm going to write it, have several ways it can go: either good or bad. then while I write it, i determine where it will go.

Good, but you may find yourself waisting time as depending on your mood you can go all over the place and not make a point. Make notes first and try to keep to it.

 

[NikkiBastion]

Non published here, and just stepping into the writing. The stories though would be based on real life experiences.

Two comments: after reading through these comments, I now realize I'm not "doing it wrong" at all. This has been one of my bigger obstacles, thinking there was some insider secret to how to get it out of you, a specific way that it has to be brought out initially before the editing begins, such as the standard outline. I hate outlines, in fact even at my age of 47 I don't even know how to do an outline (nor am I at all ashamed to admit it, we should have our own activist group)...but whatever the secret insider knowledge was, I didn't have it so any time something would come to me, I'd write down the general idea and just let it stagnate because I didn't know what to do with it.

I see now that there is no insider "thing" here, no specific way it needs to be put down on paper originally and that seriously unleashes this raw desire even more. I love seeing the different ways and means of "plotting" and getting it out of you. I see some that resonate, that I'd find myself most comfortable doing naturally, and others who go about it in ways that seem so painful I could never do that for fear it'd blow the steam right out of the idea.

What's cool about it is the humanness. We always tend to set authors and celebs "above us" and see the output so much we lose sight of the actual joe blow behind the scenes failing to get the script down, or in this case, the authors having such down to earth methods for getting it out. I needed that most of all I think, to see the silly struggles, or the "seat of your pants" methods. If I get nothing else out of reading these forums, this one here has been the key that finally unlocked a real door and for that, I appreciate you all!

As for me.......

I'm usually inspired by fragments and dreams. I have awesome and creative dreams that in the majority of cases come out fully formed, so all I need to do is write it down. Other times they comes as fragments or snippets of conversations with people (known and unknown)...something they say, or a flash mannerism in a particular scenario and it gets bigger and bigger, like the scene point of view expands, pulls back and the surrounding environment takes shape...then a story pieces itself together.

An off the cuff example, I met this guy once I'd been scoping out awhile (and he'd been scoping me too), for the purpose of finding out once and for all why he scoped me out for 4 years but never actually did anything. I initiated it, he was receptive, and later, sitting at a table alone with him at a local bar, he happened to smile a certain way and it was that moment this entire story unfolded in my head, almost so strongly I wanted to leave the guy who inspired it to run home and write it down The story had nothing to do with me or him sitting at a table and him smiling...the story was voyeurism, watching him and some girl in a hot tub getting it on and he's smiling just like that. That smile belonged in a different scene, the one he's in the hot tub.

The third way for me is similar to the above, but comes from my actual experiences (sexual)...and the early phases of a new mating when we're fantasizing a lot, and awesome scenarios jump up based on this or that guy, and pushing the boundaries of what I should and shouldn't do and whether they're psychologically capable of following the lead or if they'll sketch out and find it too much. I end up taking control and testing their boundaries and for the most part they're sports and jump in. But I've seriously blown some boy minds in my day and I love the stories we've actually shared, as well as spin off fantasies that enhance it all.

They should be written down.

 

[davion2308]

Style

My stories all start with one idea. I look out the window and think, "Man, I can see into those windows in that building." That goes to "I wonder if anyone's naked?" which leads to "Hey, they're naked on purpose!" and finally, "What if a woman sees an attractive man naked? Does she watch? Is he showing off? Is she going to reciprocate because he knows she knows she can see him?"

From there, I jot down a basic outline. This takes the shape of 'turns' in the story. They're like milestones. Things can happen in between, but they are required to be in order.

1. Woman glances idly out the window.
2. Sees a naked guy.
3. Likes it.
4. Realizes he's doing it on purpose.
5. Argues with self about showing back for fun.
6. Does it.

Now, I break it down. WHY would she show off? It turns out she's on vacation and she's in a hotel looking into another hotel. She'll never see the guy again. It turns out she was also enjoying people looking at her at the pool and she had been knocking back margaritas all day. Does she usually do this? No, but she's on VACATION, DAMMIT!

Then, I fill it in a little more, writing a loose first draft. This is all pencil-and-paper, mind you. It is a complete story when it goes into Word.

And I submit the bugger.

 

[Zodia195]

Well believe it or not, I come up with the ending first for the most part. And if I have any major plot changes I come up with them next followed by any minor ones. Than I come up with all the major events that will lead up to the plot changes. Each major event or goal, will be in one chapter at least. Than I connect the major events with small events. Coming up with those parts can be hard because I always want a nice flow. Sometimes I will create an outline to help me remember exactly what kind of event I want to happen in each chapter.

 

[avidreader_01]

how I get my story ideas

ideas come to me randomly-- a phrase, someone's expression, etc and I go from there. Outlines & those spider chart thingies don't work for me, my characters never follow it & they certainly don't listen to me no matter how much I beat them with a stick to try and force them in the direction I want them to go. When I sit down at the computer I have no idea what's coming or how its going to end, I write until I get a feeling that tells me its time to stop. lol, I have to be one of the most unorganized writers out there, but it works for me and readers seem to enjoy my stories for the most part

 

[Kitkat103]

My ideas just pop into my head. It does take me a few months to work on a story because I lose and then gain passion for the story. When I do have ideas I type down everything about the story thats in my head so I can have a skeleton to work with. Then I fill in the rest.