Weekly Plot Help - Week of October 27th

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

Wow, by Saturday NaNo will have begun and we will be heading into the craziness. Are you ready?

... come on, that was weak. ARE YOU READY?!

*grins* Ok, that was better.

Anyway, here's your plot help post for the week. Simple as always.


Add a comment with the help you need. Don't be shy. We're all writers here, and you never know, someone might give you a new plot bunny to add to your NaNo.

Reply to others and help them. You might be the one holding that bunny.


And just be awesome :)

Comments

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

I have a character who seems to be on an ambiguous quest (she's off making wishes at a far-off lake for true love... don't ask)... and I can't figure out why she's coming home (the quest doesn't have an endpoint, really).

[happymediocrity.livejournal.com]

for some reason, I misread 'lake' as 'bake', and it gave me an idea that's hopefully good. Maybe her hometown has some sort of amazing bakery, and it sells her very favorite pastry with some sort of emotional attachment to it.

I don't know. I hope that helps.

[telscha.livejournal.com]

maybe while she's at the lake she see's a reflection of her true love in the water and realises it's the boy next door.

[rowanthunder.livejournal.com]

The main problem that I am having is that until very recently I had two plots.

One of them is the plot of the girl who is drawn into the weirdworld paganoid stuff, not knowing what it is, and finds a Family and enemies that she didn't think she had (examples can be read at http://amtobesacred.vox.com actually). I'm drawing heavily from the various Craft practise mythos as well as from paganoid areas, although I'm trying to avoid using Greco-Roman anything because I feel that the Greco-Roman gods don't lend themselves to trickery the same way.

The other plot isn't being done and therefore is unimportant.

I can't link the two, before that is even suggested. But for the first one, I'm just having the damned hardest time remembering all the animals that are also People and the characteristics thereof. So, help help help?

[twirly.livejournal.com]

i just need a buddy for accountability.. i have a rough draft in list form of my first two paragraphs, but i feel like i'm gonna get stuck after that, ugh.

[zxora.livejournal.com]

Whoo hoo! I began naming my characters last night and I bought some notebooks and pens at our college's bookstore today...:-D. I'm pumped!

~*Kelsey*~

[artofange.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time figuring out which POV and tense to use. I tend to favour the more awkward ones (first person present, for example) but it gets tiresome to read. Do any experienced people have any "If your story is like this then you should think about writing in this POV/tense" type of advice?

[i-speak-tongue.livejournal.com]

Most people who run off, come back home out of a sense of obligation. Or desperation. If it's obligation, then maybe a family member is sick or has died, or maybe needs some kind of help that only your protagonist can offer. Maybe the family business is going under. If it's desperation, then pehaps she's discovered that something very essential to her quest is back home, or she needs something from home in order to get it. Money maybe? Very specific information?

hope that helps!

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Why does she even need to come home? She could just keep wandering forever.

Alternatively, she could just get fed up with having to travel all the time, camping out in the wet and the cold, making a fire every night and cooking her own food. She doesn't see the point anymore.

[in_excelsis_dea.livejournal.com]

I find I ramble more in first person present. This can be a good thing when every word counts... But I can't really say what story type best fits a POV/tense. I write in first person present and third person present and very rarely in past tense. It's just what my style has become. But really, if you're comfortable with first person present, then use it. Why do you feel it becomes so tiresome to read?

And if it really becomes an issue, you can always switch half-way through. Pain, I know, but don't worry about the pages written in the wrong POV, just make sure you write in the new POV and after November is over, go back and rewrite.

[i-speak-tongue.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I find it more natural to write 1st person pov in the past tense and third person in the present. But it really does depend on the overall mood you want to convey. I find second person is very immediate and raw, whereas third person tends to be more objective, hence better for action-y plots. Character driven literary fic works easy with first, or with third person limited omniscience. But honestly, don't overthink it. Write your fist paragraph in whatever feels most natural to you. Try not to even think about it at all and just write. And remember, you can always switch it around. Editing is for December!

[kitsu.livejournal.com]

I had this same problem last year and it held me up.

Is your story more character driven? Would anything be spoiled if it was from the POV of a certain character? You could try writing a sample in a few different ones and see which one feels the best.

[i-speak-tongue.livejournal.com]

I need my protagonist to find a horse in the city. If you needed a horse, and you lived in a pseudo-post-apocalyptic urban area, where would you look?

....And there aren't any mounted police around, if that's what you were thinking. No? It wasn't?

[russtycat.livejournal.com]

Maybe a circus, a county fair, or a local smaller zoo that has a petting section with farm animals.

[morigale.livejournal.com]

I need more dares! Specifically, I want to find a website with an archive of dares from past years' forums. I saw it last year or the year before, and now I can't find it anywhere. I've googled various combinations of nanowrimo dares and archive, or database, or list. All I'm getting is posts by people who are talking about the dares they've taken.

[liadan-celt.livejournal.com]

Could you clarify what you're asking for? If you're just asking about a way to keep your characters/figures straight, have you tried making an index card for each character? I've got cards made up for all my characters with their name on the front and most important characteristics/aspects/details on the lined side. I punched holes in the top corner and put them on a jump ring so I don't lose anyone. I also colour-coded them by organization/class and time frame (I have a slightly split timeline), but that's because I'm a compulsive organizer and I had 24 different colours of Sharpie to work with. :P

[inkydragon.livejournal.com]

Also try a tech school.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Everything has to be driven by what the character wants - so what does your character want? Think about what she wants more than anything, and then think of a reason why she's going to have trouble getting that.

[rowanthunder.livejournal.com]

I was actually asking if people remembered just whatever common human characteristics applied to animals and which ones, because no matter how much I google and how much I ask it doesn't help and I can't remember anything but Jackal, Raven, and Coyote.

I'm good at keeping them straight though.

[irishkitten441.livejournal.com]

I need a name for an eccentric bookstore where my MC works. I'm thinking something cutesy yet random that rhymes. Any ideas?

[feigned-living.livejournal.com]

Okay, so my novel plot is all sorted out. Princess saving her kingdom from her brother's boyfriend (who is a vampire). She falls in love with her vampire fiance's fledgling. And she's working on saving herself from her own emotions, her brother from a power-hungry vampire, and her kingdom from everything. Oh and did I forget to mention that her mother is trying to kill her and her father is dead?

The problem is that I have a side-plot and I don't know how much of it to include. Right now all that's included is that her father was murdered and at the end of the novel (the big climax battle) it's revealed that her brother did it because he thought he was protecting her. Over the course of the novel she realizes her brother is a selfish bastard, but this is the big point where she realizes he's not as selfish as she thought, just stupid and easily deceived.

The reasoning behind this, which I didn't really plan on including, is that her twin was tricked into thinking their father was raping the princess since she was a child. He poisoned their father to protect her. The truth is that the big bad of the plot, a vampire who wants to control the human kingdom, was creating those illusions. The father was a really great guy and never did anything wrong. I don't know how much I should include in the story.

The novel is really about the princess' personal struggles. She's trying to save her kingdom, but she's kind of coming of age throughout the whole thing. So I don't know how important it is to keep that bit in. It doesn't lend to the main plot and it doesn't exactly slide in gracefully because the story starts after the father is dead. Any suggestions?

[situationgirl.livejournal.com]

The Dusty Jacket? (Sorry, doesn't rhyme.)

The Elfin Shelf, Florijacque's paperbacks, McGradiwall's Books and Periodicals. The Lit-Wit.

I'm not helping, am I? Random I have, but I seem to be out of cutesy and rhyming.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I kind of think you may want to include it, at least towards the end; it makes the brother more sympathetic. Just saying 'I did it for you!' but not explaining why doesn't work as well. I don't think it has to be a huge side plot; just work it into the reveal somehow.

[shinysparkly.livejournal.com]

Vampire 1 kidnaps Vampire 2, in part to get revenge on Vampire 3.

V2 is the oldest and the 'sire' and lover of V3. V3 & V1 used to be lovers but V3 thought V1 was dead & has no idea he's still 'alive' and a vamp. Ideally V3 discovers the plot, kills V1, reunites with V2.

Why wouldn't V1 just kill V2 instead of just keeping him prisoner??

Also, if V2 is older you'd think he'd be stronger and would be able to fight off V1 & not allow himself to be kidnapped so how does it happen that he does get kidnapped?

[feigned-living.livejournal.com]

Well, what happens is that the big bad (Alyias) captures the princess (Rae) & her twin (Xan). Alyias outs Xan to Rae ("Your brother killed your father. mwahaha.") Xan & Rae have a bit of a yelling match before Alyias drags her away. While Xan is fighting to get to her (she & Alyias are in a cave) he gets killed. Alyias reveals the whole "HAHA I tricked your brother into killing your dad, it's not his fault". And then that's kind of that. It all happens in the last 5000 words or so.

The issue is that I don't know whether to reference it from Xan's perspective earlier in the novel. I don't know if it would be better to have him seem like the bad guy throughout the novel and then the good guy at the end, or have everyone feel sorry for him throughout the whole novel.