Character Prompts and Writing Tips

There are lots of different formats people can use to outline and organize ideas, and everyone has different things that work for them. Some people are super organized and strict, others are disorganized. I am of the opinion that even if you’re naturally scatter-brained and disorganized (I certainly am), it’s good to try to be as organized as possible. The more developed a story becomes, the more moving parts, simultaneous arcs, and little details there are that can be lost if they’re not put in a place where you can find them. I’m always so mad at myself when I come up with an idea and forget to write it down, because later on I don’t remember all the details. More than anything, I think the best concept to help plan is to always have a place for everything and be able to find it.

There are different software companies have made to try to help with this. One of the most common among many Indie writers (and maybe traditionally-published writers - I just don’t interact with them so I don’t know) is Scrivener. Basically, it’s a virtual notebook. There are different subsections, such as writing, character, setting, plot, magic, ideas, and you can make individual pages under those subsections for different things. For example, when I was using it, I had a “characters” section, that was divided into different subsections of “Villains,” “Protagonist crew” and “others.” Then I made individual character pages for each character. I also made individual pages for each city, country, or place, and on those pages elaborated upon things like languages, cultures, food, etc. It helps a lot of people stay organized. Here’s where you can purchase it: 

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

I actually stopped using Scrivener because of a bad experience I had where it became incompatible with my computer and deleted everything, so take that as you will :)) 

Now, what I do is I actually have multiple google docs. I use google docs because I collaborate a lot with my sister and google docs makes collaboration super easy. For each novel, I usually have 5-6 docs: an actual writing doc, an idea scribble doc, an organized idea doc, an outlining doc, a setting doc, and sometimes more depending on my needs. In the scribble doc, I just write down ideas as I’m creating them. That way even if I haven’t figured out how the idea fits into my story, I still have it down somewhere and can find it later on. The organized plans is where I take the ideas from the scribble doc and write them down in a more organized fashion. Usually I’ll have headlines in this doc underneath which I put relevant ideas. For example, I may have relationship headers, character headers, history headers, mythology headers, etc. This helps me keep my ideas organized when I’m brainstorming. 

When I’m outlining, I tend to follow this pattern: I make a list of different, progressing plot lines that will be going on throughout the story, and then I figure out individual scenes belonging to this arc and how the arc progresses. Once I have multiple lines plotted out and detailed, I intersperse these different lines to create a strong outline with intertwining and progressing arcs.

Hello! 

That sounds like an interesting premise, and I can understand the problem. So I would say that you should figure out ways for humans (or non-supernatural creatures) to have the upperhand, and since you said it’s in a modern setting, I’d suggest some sort of technology that’s able to control these supernatural creatures.

For example, look at humans and animals. If you have a human vs an elephant with no sort of technology, the elephant is clearly going to win. It’s bigger, stronger, got huge tusks, and can easily trample a human. But if the human has weapons or other inventions to control the elephant, they’d be able to win even though physiologically, they’re way weaker.

Likewise, maybe vampires and witches are way stronger than humans. If a human and vampire go against each other with no other weaponry or technology, the vampire would win. But perhaps there are science and technology teams who have developed serums that suppress supernatural powers, or weaponry to take them down, which puts them on a more equal playing ground. 

The only thing to consider is that with animals, humans have a significantly higher intellectual capacity. With supernatural creatures, they would have the same intellectual capacity and stronger physical abilities. So you might want to come up with a reason why humans are able to exploit technology in a way that these creatures aren’t. For example, perhaps these supernatural creatures never worried about developing technology since they had their innate abilities, and now that humans have developed technology the supernatural creatures don’t understand and can’t fight against. Or maybe humans are more united and have larger civilizations that are easier to protect with their inventions, whereas supernatural creatures are more solitary and therefore even though they’re stronger, they don’t have the benefit and added strength of a large group standing together.