Other To Plot Or Not To Plot?

[Elowyn]

So I'm curious:


When you write a story (or a roleplay), do you plot out what will happen, as in outline your story?


Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants, so to speak and just freehand it?


Or if you do both, how successful have you found each strategy?


How long are your works if you plot? And how long if you freehand? Any pros and cons you have noticed?

 

[Inner Power]

So I'm curious:


When you write a story (or a roleplay), do you plot out what will happen, as in outline your story?


Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants, so to speak and just freehand it?


Or if you do both, how successful have you found each strategy?


How long are your works if you plot? And how long if you freehand? Any pros and cons you have noticed?

When I actively roleplayed, I would create original plots to be reworked if I found a partner who expressed interest. To answer the question, on one hand we both plot out the beginning of the roleplay. A scenario of what the roleplay is based around, how our characters might meet, or vague backgrounds of said characters. On the other, we never outlined the entire thread like everything that should happen. There's no fun in that. I like the element of surprise, to have my character thrust into a situation and see how they respond. 


Of course, the main story remained in place but together we compiled our ideas to create something enjoyable. I believe plotting to a degree and freestyle work, at least for me because you have somewhere to start from and then the rest you can make up along the way with plot points still present.


Do you mean how long are my thread posts for plotting and freestyle? If so, they are always somewhere in between 1000-4000. If there is something important like moving the story along or character introduction, it will be long. Same with freestyle, character thoughts or interaction.

 

[Codex]

So I'm curious:


When you write a story (or a roleplay), do you plot out what will happen, as in outline your story?


Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants, so to speak and just freehand it?


Or if you do both, how successful have you found each strategy?


How long are your works if you plot? And how long if you freehand? Any pros and cons you have noticed?

I have different answers for stories or roleplays.


For stories I always work out the skeleton of the story in advance. I work out a mixture of the whats and whos (one tends to lead to the other and back again) against my idea of the themes I want to tell and scenes I'd like to see, and eventually I have a web of narrative and plot points.


I then set out to write the story from start to finish, following my web (and overruling it as character development derails my initial plans) until I have something that very roughly approximates my initial web. From there it's just editing, polishing, thinking and rethinking until the story is ready. 


For roleplays I've rarely found it pays to build too firm a plan for the way things are going to play out. Players will find the tiniest, most unlikely part of background and decide that's the part they want to investigate - and then go ahead and do that, leaving my main plot largely untouched. After one mistake with trying to railroad the players back on to the "fun path", I've turned decisively away from that and now prefer to have a couple of antagonist plots (that is, things the antagonists are up to and will continue to be up to unless interfered with and a big double handful of sub-plot-points to scatter liberally in the players' paths depending on where they decide to go. If the players investigate further (and only at this point), I worry about filling out the bullet points and notes further, but I still wing it a lot within the expected bounds and supporting information I've pulled together.


If I know the theme of the area, often the players' actions themselves serve to (help) direct the plot.


Both work fairly well for me, though I've found that successfully involving other players often depends on allowing them more flexibility.


My own stories (if I plot) range from 1,800-23,000 words as a rule. Occasionally up in the 50-60 000 word range, especially in November, but usually shorter. 


Roleplays could be any length. I've had short ones that died stillborn, and others (well, one other) that went on for years. Six years actually. The number of posts or words tends to be linked to that.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

Absolutely plot it out. I used to teach a class on plot creation & development. Story telling is my passion, not some weekend hobby.


When I join an RP that has no structure to speak of, "Fuck it man. We're just going to do whatever and hope it works out for the best, we're here to have fun, so let's make this up as we go!" I'm immediately turned off, and that GM is noted for future reference. I can't work with lone wolves tossing obscure wrenches around.


No great story was strung together in cheap, because it's almost impossible to improvise greatness, especially when you have 4-8+ people on their own mission, using their own character. This might yield better results on average, if people we better at reading the situation, plotting course of action, and feeding off of each other at the right times, for the right reasons, in the right ways. But for the vast majority, that's just not the case.


I'm not saying storyboard the entire RP, but have some idea of what the hell is going to happen, it keep your story on pace, headed in a general direction. As a writer, you should find a delightful challenge in making your character part of the plot, deciding how they will impact and influence it.


I don't find there is any fun in improvising an entire story using a plot concept. That's a writing exercise, literally, not an RP.

 

[SimpleGuy]

I'll have a theme throughout and a handful of plot points and probably an ending. Everything else is up for grabs