Tag: how to

Knowing When Your Idea is “Good Enough”

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I feel like this is the question every author wants to know the answer to.

When should you take a leap of faith and dive into writing a full-fledged novel? Perhaps your idea came from a vivid dream you had one night after indulging in too many chocolates before bed. Maybe it’s the result of a conversation you overheard on your morning commute. No matter where an idea sprang from, it’s never easy to know if it could fill a couple hundred pages.

I’ve seen blogs and posts about the difference between having an idea and having a plot. Ideas are scraps of dialogue, fragments of scenes–generalities without fully fledged characters or obstacles that face them.

“Ideas are a dime a dozen.”

While I agree to an extent, I think it’s also important to remember that no matter how good/bad your idea is, it’s what you do with it that matters. You could have the most creative, never before written ideas, but they’re not worth much if they don’t lead to something. Ideas are meant to inspire–so if you’re not excited about something, scrap it or store it away for later.

If you feel good about an idea, try to shape a plot around it. Figure out your main characters. What do they want? What’s stopping them from achieving their goals? Is there some kind of outside shaping event?

There’s nothing wrong with sitting on an idea for a while and letting it marinate. Sometimes you may be struck with sudden inspiration and race to write it down lest you forget it.

And sometimes, you realize your idea is frozen and you can’t get any further.

My main point is: it’s okay to drop an idea after working on it. There’s no shame in coming to the conclusion that your idea isn’t a viable plot.

So don’t be afraid to experiment with all your ideas. After all, that’s half the fun!

The Drama of Plotting

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Love it or hate it, at some point, every author has to make the decision about how to plot their story.

Are they going to lay out every single point that happens in great detail, spending days and weeks making sure that they know exactly what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen? Are they going to jot down a few main points and call it good? (I’m looking at you, pantsers.)

Personally, I like to do a bit of a mix between the two: meticulously lay out the main things that need to happen and then rely on my story and characters to flesh it out. No one is ever completely satisfied with what they write, and I find that transfers to my plotting as well. My philosophy is that I don’t want to spend ages and ages perfecting my plot points and then have it change half-way through. The longer you spend on something, the less likely you are to want to completely change it, even if it’s necessary.

For example, for the story I’m currently writing, I used a website called coggle to create a graphical representation of they way I think my story is going to play out. It’s nothing fancy and it only took me a few hours. I simply created a note for every chapter I anticipated, and then I chained a series of events off of every chapter. The best thing about this (for me) is that I can move events around and add/delete them if I deem it necessary. And trust me, they will move.

I haven’t even written four chapters, and already I’ve made adjustments!

Of course, the best thing about plotting is that you can do it (or not do it) however you want. Everyone’s authorial mind works differently, which is why we get such diversity in prose.

Some other plotting ideas:

1) The Curve
Sketch out the general shape you imagine your novel plot will take. We’ve all seen one at some point. Map out out your crisis points–where your characters are likely under the most emotional or physical duress–and your low energy points. Then connect them with curving lines. This is great if you have some general idea of what happens, but everything else is a little fuzzy. It should give you some picture of how much rising/falling action you still need to fill in.

2) The List
Have a little better idea of what you want to do? Start at the beginning and make an indented list. At the top levels are your chapters. At the next, short annotations of what actually happens. Have any dialogue or more specific ideas that you want to make note of? Take it another level down. Of course this only works well if you have a somewhat solid picture of your characters’ path–if you find yourself getting stuck with writer’s block, this may not be the one for you.

3) The Half-Assed Story
This is my personal favorite, and the most entertaining. Imagine your story playing out on a screen in front of you and write down whatever you see. It can be as ridiculous as you need it to be, just get everything onto the page. Make authorial remarks. Yell at your characters. Call them names. Anything goes here. I find that I’m at my most humorous and creative when I know absolutely no one will see what I’ve written. This is a great way just to get yourself to put words on paper.

And remember there is no “one right way” to plot. Do you have any other ways you like to plot your stories? Let me know below!