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Q&A Idea overflow in plotting?

One key thing that I learned in my classes is that when you outline a story plot of any kind, you don't want to write the whole thing out on a planning document. My advice is to write half the plot...

posted 5y ago by AlRey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:07:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48500
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar AlRey‭ · 2019-12-08T13:07:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
One key thing that I learned in my classes is that when you outline a story plot of any kind, you don't want to write the whole thing out on a planning document. My advice is to write half the plot down and have faith in your characters and setting to carry the rest of the plot forward.

> I know now every major detail/plot point of my story that has to happen in order for my characters to end up where they are supposed to end up.

This, to me, is a dangerous way of writing a story -- because it's backwards to how it should be. Characters need to push the plot forward, rather than the plot pushing the characters to a point they need to be at. This is tricky, I know, as some of the best stories give the illusion that the plot is tugging the characters forward, but good active+dynamic characters are the kinds of people that readers want to see in their stories: the ones who take their world by the wheel and drive with it. People like that in real life are interesting -- and are often the kinds of people you hear about in biographies, documentaries, and news articles.

I do think the basic plot points you have here are very interesting and could blossom into something great; I just need to stress that the focus should be on characters first, then plot. Setting, I believe, is also affected by characters -- because like I said: active people are the ones who help shape their world.

A lot of people get caught up in worldbuilding -- and that's understandable. To me, though, it's something you need to be loose with and then hammer out harder when you get into actual plotting and revisions. I am certain that if you do this, your story will be great!

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-10-10T12:11:52Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 0