#intention2020

What do we mean by plot?

Now that you’ve thought about who your characters are and how they will change in your story, it’s time to start outlining the events and scenes of your story. Depending on the genre you are writing, these events or scenes may directly drive your characters’ development, or they may involve another, larger conflict. Put simply, plot is the organized structure of events in your story that show your character development and conflict.

It is important to intentionally plot out your story before you begin writing so that you can keep your story organized and your pacing on track. It’s your outline, the thing that will keep all the cool and emotional parts of your story in order.

Plot 101

Different genres lend themselves to different plot structures--but that’s not what we’re focusing on here. We’re taking it back to even more basics than that. No matter what genre or story type, most stories will have, at their core, the following structure: 

Your exposition sets the scene, showing your audience who your characters are and what their world is like. 

Your inciting incident introduces the conflict. Something happens to the character that will send them on a journey (internal, interpersonal, external).

Rising action are all the events that build your character up to facing the conflict head-on. Depending on the length of your story, this may involve multiple smaller conflicts, and multiple emotional highs and lows.

The climax of your story is the point at which the conflict where the tension in the conflict is highest. It is likely the point in the story where the character begins to accept a change in themselves or their circumstances that will allow them to solve the conflict.

The falling action are the events of the story that show what has changed since the climax.

Resolution involves the solution to the conflict (or various conflicts).

On an even simpler level, you may look at the beginning (how your characters are at the beginning, what the world is like, what happens to them to drive the conflict), the middle (all the things your characters do towards solving the conflict), and the end (how the conflict is resolved and how your characters and world are after the conflict) of your fic. This simpler version may lend itself better to shorter fic (or to those of us who have a hard time plotting).

Different Plotting Methods

Depending on who you are as a writer and thinker, a different method for organizing your plot may feel like a better fit. You may also want to look at different methods of plotting depending on the genre or length of story you write (a 2k fic may lend itself better to a different method than a 200k fic).

Freytag’s Model

Zigzag Plot

NaNoWriMo’s Plotting Method Quiz

Some brief descriptions of additional methods!

Tips for when you get stuck plotting

Prompts

Choose a story that you’ve already published (any length) and try to organize the plot using the freytag pyramid. If that really isn’t working for you, use one of the other plotting methods. Examine the structure of your story along with the pacing of your conflict and character development. Determine your strengths and weaknesses.

Choose a WIP and write out an intentional plot for it. Be as thorough as your method allows. Share it with a beta or on the discord (or publicly!).

Additional Resources: TBA 

Previous Topics: 

pre-thinking for @authorsworkshop​ !! signups are still open

Think: What are 3-5 of your favorite fanfics written by someone else?

Bonus prompt: Leave a (additional and brand new?) review for one of the authors so effusive, specific, and encouraging, that they might be inspired to write another similar fic. Extra bonus points for also posting it publicly to your tumblr with the author tagged and the fic linked.

Okay, I’m going to do a top 5 fics here, and I’m going to work on my bonus prompt by making a moodboard for my favorite fics moodboard series that I’ve been meaning to make anyway. Also, I have no regrets about being obsessed with sunsetmog’s writing. 

Just Tell Me the Song and I'll Sing It by @myownsparknow / myownspark (Larry, Not Rated, 40k, college au, boyband karaoke, baseball, songfic, pining, angst and fluff)

Louis is an architecture student who can only think about the future. Harry is a baseball player who can only think about right now. Both are lonely for different reasons. Boybands bring them together.

Or, this may just be a long love letter to Louis’ voice, I’m not sure.

Based on the following prompt: Harry and Louis are university students who go to the same bar on the weekends. The bar has karaoke and Louis likes to sing Disney/Musical/Boyband songs sometimes. Harry thinks he’s cute so he starts singing Disney/Musical/Boyband songs and flirting with him while he’s on stage.

{This fic is my soulmate. When I read this for the first time it was anonymous, and it was the middle of the night and I just felt like I needed to run laps around my house and knock on my neighbors’ doors and spread the good word about this fic. On the surface it’s a fic about baseball and boyband songs, so clearly accidentally written for me. But oh, it’s so much more. The writing is so beautifully crafted and emotional. When the touch of a wrist and the handling of a wristwatch are more intimate than anything I’ve ever read, you know you’ve got an amazing writer sharing their gift.}

I Had Rather Hear My Dog Bark At A Crow by @magicalrocketships / sunsetmog (Tomlinshaw, Explicit, 122k, canon compliant, enemies to lovers, angst with a capital A but with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, d/s elements, kink exploration, smut, coming out)

The first time Louis Tomlinson kisses him, Nick is three sheets to the wind, wearing a pirate hat, and so fucking tired of Louis being a complete and utter knobhead that he's spent the last ten minutes snapping at him.

The kiss takes him rather by surprise, all things considered.

Or: Nick and Louis don't like each other, not even a little bit, not even at all.

{This is the fic I have read the most times. If you’ve read this classic Tomlinshaw fic, you know it’s angsty, So fucking angsty. BUT this is the fic I reread when I need comfort. I’m not sure what that says about me. bahaha. Actually, I DO know why. It’s because it’s so immersive. You’re drawn into the world so completely that there’s no room to worry about what’s going on outside this fic. So when I need to forget for a little while, this is what I turn to. Also, home to the most emotional, vulnerable, intimate smut you’ll ever read.)

Harry Styles Cooks... by @magicalrocketships / sunsetmog (Larry, 52k+, wip, famous/not famous au, famous Harry, cooking YouTuber Harry, fan Louis, neighbors, awkwardness, humor, smut, hurt/comfort)

In which Louis Tomlinson can’t cook, there’s a very special shower curtain, and Harry Styles used to be a baker.

Or: Louis owns all of Harry Styles’ cookbooks, and he never intends to cook a single thing out of any of them.

{If you’re going to read a wip, let it be this one. This fic fills me with such joy, I can’t even explain. The most awkward love story of all time with the greatest friendships ever written. It’s charming and hilarious and ultimately pretty damn emotional. When an update appears, I gather my fellow wip reader friends and we cry and laugh and scream together. It’s truly been the most wonderful wip reading experience I’ve ever had. An utter delight.}

We Used To Wait by @magicalrocketships / sunsetmog (Tomlinshaw, explicit, 56k, car accident, hospital, serious injuries, trauma, coming out, outing, ptsd, hurt/comfort, smut)

The BBC Breaking News Twitter just says, One Direction star Louis Tomlinson rushed to hospital after M25 car crash.

or: Louis has an accident, but nobody even knows he and Nick are going out.

{Hoo boy. Okay, so this one hurts, not gonna lie. The trauma written here feels very real and inspired my own writing in ways I won’t go into here. The healing process is slow and hard, but worth it. And if you want to read a flash back as how one should be written, here it is. Masterful. As is all writing by sunsetmog.}

I'll Fly Away by @juliusschmidt (Larry, explicit, 122k, friends to lovers au, small town, America, growing up, friendship, coming out, angst with a happy ending, smut)

Harry and Louis grew up together in Lake County, Harry with his mom and stepdad in a tiny cottage on Edward’s Lake and Louis in his family’s farmhouse a few minutes down the road. But after high school, Louis stuck around and Harry did not; Harry went to Chicago where he found a boyfriend and couple of college degrees. Six years later, Harry ends up back in Edwardsville for the summer and he and Louis fall into old patterns and discover new ones.

ft. One Direction, the local boyband; Horan’s Bar and Grill; families, most especially children and babies; Officer Liam Payne; many local festivals and fireworks displays; and Anne Cox, PFLAG President.

for @authorsworkshop

THIS WAS SO HARD. i decided to choose one from each of my major fandoms before 1D and then one larry and one non-larry. 

The Shoebox Project (Harry Potter) by ladyjaida and Rave -- A hilarious and poignant portrait of love and friendship. The fic includes photographs and sketched artwork and letters. It really feels like a shoebox. 

This is the only fanfiction (by someone else) that has bled through, significantly, into my real life. My friends and I would pile into my dorm room and read the updates aloud to each other. 

It’s a masterwork in voice. The characters think and talk in such distinctive, believable and charismatic ways. The opening line, Sirius writing to Remus, will forever be etched into my memory: 

“M-- Well we are having all kinds of fun here WITHOUT YOU of course. All the livelong day we do nothing but frolic in the sun and dance pastoral dances and sing merry drinking songs, you can imagine, we are sloshed ALL the time without your improving influence.” 

Drastically Redefining Protocol (Merlin BBC)  by rageprufrock  

The author takes the Modern Royalty trope and, dare I say, perfects it. Like the trope is like your basic birthday cake recipe and the fic is the winner of Cake Wars, yk?

The image of Prince Arthur stumbling upon nurse!Merlin smoking in the closet of the hospital is one that has stuck with me years and years. 

 a light handed approach to regulation by hazel (Hockey RPF)

This is my favorite abo fic ever. EVER. No question-- it directly inspired many of my own takes on abo. Its subversion of the trope was, especially for its time, so powerful. The world is complicated and the relationship between the characters is filled with all kinds of beautiful tension. I love it so much. And I’m weirdly, like, grateful for it. 

 Through Eerie Chaos by @mediawhorefics (1D Larry) 

Okay so! This fic! It is appropriate to choose this fic of all the fics for @authorsworkshop​ because, after finishing it and wiping all those danggone tears from my eyes. I though to myself-- how does one craft something with this kind of amazing character-driven plot, where everything builds to an end that is both surprising and emotionally satisfying? I’m still trying to figure it out-- hoping Marie will share some craft secrets.

 we are spirits of a different sort by StormDancer (1D Zarry)  

Drop Dead Gorgeous by Maya | M, 131K

The only thing worse than finding out he was part Veela was finding out from Slughorn. And really, did Malfoy have to find it quite so amusing?

Here’s a presentation I created to fulfill a project for @authorsworkshop​

Goal: to explore who we are as writers in the present moment, considering our passions and strengths. Who are you as a writer? What do you write? Why do you write? What makes your writing uniquely yours?  

@authorsworkshop my favorite books are (in no particular order):

1. Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye

- it’s got a bit of magic, a group of friends, an interesting mentorship relationship and no real romance (just the power of friendship vibe which I love), plus it’s a series. And even tho it’s geared towards the YA/child lit audience, I can honestly say the sequels were just as hard to put down as the first

2. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

- ya/child lit audience but still very very good, Magic, mythical creatures, family (protags r 2 siblings a boy and a girl), adventure, a plot twist here and there, surprisingly good action scenes considering the intended audience, series, again no romance just familial love :)

3. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

- ya audience, romance (with a little bit of forbidden thrown in for flavor), action, WIZARDS, warriors, a dash of politics for spice, features a QUEENdom not a kingdom which is v refreshing, also has good friendships, SERIES, 3rd person pov

4. Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

Workshop Sign-Ups

Write with Intention: Cultivating Writing Identities and Crafting Writing Goals for 2020

December 1, 2019-January 4, 2020

It’s time!! 

We're trying to get a read on interest and develop a contact list, so please fill out the form even if you're unsure about the degree to which you'll be able to participate. We'd like to be able to keep you in the loop about this and future workshops. For our sanity, sign-ups will close November 30th, 8pm EST.

Sign-up now!  

Might we interest you in some book recommendations?? As part of the pre-workshop thinking, several participants have created lists/recs of 3-5(+) of their favorite books. Check them out. (And here is the prompt post.) 

(Spoiler: Anne of Green Gables has come up most often, so far, with assorted Harry Potter mentions in second :)) 

@spiritedobsession‘s LIST

@louandhazaf‘s LIST

@juliusschmidt‘s LIST

@allwaswell16‘s LIST

@taggiecb‘s LIST

@dedkake‘s LIST

@mediawhorefics LIST