WIR = Work In Revision? I like it; I'll have to remember that one.
I've had to flowchart a story myself -- I had all these competing factions working at somewhat-cross-, somewhat-the-same-purposes, and it swiftly reached the point where even I couldn't keep track of who was doing what or knew what. The flowchart was extremely useful in getting it all timed correctly, and also helped me realize that I only needed about a third of the factions I had in mind.
There is a lot of stuff that happens to my characters that comes from the outside pressures, rather than as a direct result of action that they take.
I hear you on that. My WIR has a similar situation. Between that and the main plot being internal rather than external, it gets tricky to dodge accusations of the MC being too passive. I like your idea of "what did they learn" as the focus; that gets the internal aspect front & center.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-Jul-24, Tuesday 03:12 pm (UTC)I've had to flowchart a story myself -- I had all these competing factions working at somewhat-cross-, somewhat-the-same-purposes, and it swiftly reached the point where even I couldn't keep track of who was doing what or knew what. The flowchart was extremely useful in getting it all timed correctly, and also helped me realize that I only needed about a third of the factions I had in mind.
There is a lot of stuff that happens to my characters that comes from the outside pressures, rather than as a direct result of action that they take.
I hear you on that. My WIR has a similar situation. Between that and the main plot being internal rather than external, it gets tricky to dodge accusations of the MC being too passive. I like your idea of "what did they learn" as the focus; that gets the internal aspect front & center.