Plotting How To Get Plot Discussion

[lizvogel]

Patricia Wrede has a post up about character goals, and specifically story-level goals vs. scene-level goals and how each might be helpful (or not) for the writer at various stages.

Although it's a character-oriented post, and I've ranted many times about how I get character stuff when I ask for help with plot, I think this might actually be useful in my ongoing quest for tips on How To Do Plot. Because it seems like people usually want to talk about plot as it pertains to story-level goals, and what I get stuck on is plot as it pertains to scene-level goals. I'm hoping that pointing them toward this might clarify what it is I'm looking for.

So, test drive: If I were to show you that link and then ask you how to Do Plot, what kinds of things would you be inclined to tell me?

Comments

[duskpeterson]

Okay, I've sent the annotations!

[lizvogel]

Got it! May take me a day or two to go through it properly, but I'm looking forward to it. Thanks!

[lizvogel]

Okay, I've gone through the annotations. Thank you for sending them; I love watching how other writers' brains work!

However, I fear I'm still stuck in the swamp. The annotations tell me what you did and often why, but not *how* you did it. (Also, they seem to be mostly about things I would define as character and setting/world-building, not plot.) Well, okay, you do say "how", in that it basically just popped into your head and you went with it. And sometimes that happens for me too! But when it doesn't, I stop dead. And *that's* what I need to fix.

[duskpeterson]

I've responded by email so that I don't have to drop spoilers here. :)