Writing References: Plot

Writing References: Plot

Basics: Plot Structure & Narrative Arcs

Basics: Plot & Other Elements of Creative Writing

Plot Methods: Save the Cat! ⚜ The Story Circle

Plot Development: The Transformation Test

Plot Twists ⚜ Types of Plot Twists ⚜ Subplots

Ten Story Genres ⚜ Elements of the 10 Story Genres

The Shape of Story ⚜ The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

Tips

From Margaret Atwood

From Rick Riordan

Editing

Chapter Maps

Plot Holes & Other Structural Issues

Self-Editing

For Inspiration

Character & Literary Tropes

Ways to Generate an Idea

Writing References: Character Development ⚜ World-building

So there's this person I cannot meet. I mean, they're in the same social circles as me. They're only 4-5 years younger than me. We have mutual friends. We've been invited to the same parties. But I refuse to meet them for one simple reason.

I fucked their parents when I was 21. I met them both at a sex club and hooked up with both their mom and dad, twice my age at the time. Now this means this person I've never met, I avoid. Because I figure if I meet them one of two things will happen.

1. I will tell them about fucking their parents. This seems uncouth to me. Like, why would they want to know that??

2. I DON'T tell them I fucked their parents. This seems disingenuous to me. Like, I'd be withholding information they should have before getting to know me.

So, I keep slight tabs on their online life and try to make sure never to be at the same place as them.

I've told a few people this who are completely unattached to the situation and mostly they tell me I should try and sleep with this person, but that sounds like it could be a huge big deal and I just don't want to have that much awkwardness in my life.

oh my god

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

Tiny Tip #1

While writing your project for these writing events, if you find a mistake or want to re-word something, instead of the backspace button, consider using Strikethrough to remove scenes, lines of dialogue, etc, followed up with the corrected or shortened line.

Say for instance you're writing a description of something, and your main character remembers a previous encounter they had with x object, but on getting a bit further into your document, you glance up and reread that paragraph, and decide to remove the line where the character thought in too-much-detail about what the previous x looked like.

Instead of deleting the line entirely, use Strikethrough to mark the line off, and keep on writing; once your first draft is done, when you start re-reading your novel through from start to finish, you'll be able to see what you originally wrote, what you replaced it with, and be able to make a clearer decision when you decide to edit.

Me, when I say I've been writing

Me, writing something at 1 am: Omg I'm literally a genius this words sound amazing I ate totally whith this one omfg

The writing: