The dreadful time of finals has ended at last, and I am going home tomorrow! Today I finally summoned the courage to open my story files, which have gone completely untouched in the last month (and a nightmarish month it was. It went like this: Thanksgiving break=research/reading time for classes, last week of classes/doing non-final papers & presentations, reading week/finals, and exam week/finals), and peeked. Eep. It's going to take some effort to get back onto whatever train of thought I had been taking.

The thing with plots is that if they're well done, they look so easy. The best plots are the ones that aren't forced. They're natural and build out of the other elements present in the story. But when you're plotting, oftentimes the other elements come later, in hindsight. Or sometimes they don't come at all. Then you have Plot-FAIL. Which is where my train is headed if I don't turn it around.

Days 30-33 Progress Report

Days 30-31 (August 27-28) - I work really well for a few hours if I wake up at 5 am, I've found. I don't remember what I did on these days, but I do know I got at least a little writing done. Oh wait, I do remember. I came down to Chiayi on Day 30, and I used the entire three-hour bus ride to run through my plot outline and do "image training" for the story. It was very productive. I got a lot of notes made and revised the plot further on. Three hours seems like a long time to do nothing but think, but I was able to keep focused with the plot outline printout in hand and make progress. With the new backstory and plot structure in mind, I looked over Chapter 1 again and started revising Chapter 2 on Day 31.

Day 32 (August 29) - Continued Chapter 2 revisions. Didn't quite make it to the end, but I reworked the Asagawa scene and streamlined it so that it wasn't the mismash of lines I'd left it as after the previous half-baked revision earlier this month. Worked through the chapter until about page 16 or 17 and went to sleep.

Day 33 (August 30) - Woke up at 5 am like yesterday and worked straight until 10 am. It feels so good. Yesterday morning I had to stop after only three hours because I was getting a headache, but this morning I was good. I continued with expanding the previously minimal travel scene, added a surprise family scene to help set up Ayaka for later (surprise because I wasn't planning to write anything of the sort), and then completely rewrote the part near the end that screamed PlotDevice! where the guide leaves to get himself killed. Most of the last few pages, from when they start traveling until the second-to-last second, is completely new or rewritten. And then I added a nasty little surprise for Hinako in the last scene. It's so much fun torturing my characters. I don't enjoy torturing characters in fanfics because I feel badly for them, but when they're my own characters...well, it's fun. And I don't feel bad at all. *grin*

Plotted!

Huh. I didn't know I could get involved enough in the outlining/plotting process to get teary-eyed over a scene. I guess that's a good sign that I'm actually seeing it in my head.

Anyways. The plot is sketched out! More or less. I hope. And the story makes some sense. But it's still a mess. And I actually have to write the thing now. Let's see if the plot as I have it holds up under the stresses of writing and selfish characters running about as they please.

Plotting was HARD. Storyboarding, I guess is the term. Anyway, it took two whole days. Or more. Just visualizing, jotting down random scene bits or lines and some scene/chapter direction, and coming up with events and the whole storyline, which isn't even that complicated. On the one hand, storyboarding was hard because I had to visualize a lot, without knowing if it could be written plausibly. But on the other hand, it was good because I didn't actually have to storyboard, exactly, if I didn't want to. I could write a simple story direction for detailed, komakai parts and put it off until the actual writing. In any case, I'm glad I strugged through it. I think it's going to be very helpful and give me a track to keep on if I get lost. Now let's see if the rest of the story will get written.

Oh Plot, where art thou?

Why is it so hard to come up with a plot? You'd think it'd be easy. The plot is what drives the heart of every novel. But here I have great characters, a great setting, and no plot. Plot plot plot plot plot, come to me.

Every day I try to come up with a plot for my novel. I ponder it as I make my 45 minute commute to work, and again as I return home (though my mind wanders often and I ponder many other things as well, and sometimes nothing at all). Sometimes I come up with more details for my characters, and I'm glad because I understand them that much better. And I think, even if I can't come up with a plot right away, understanding my characters will surely lead me to a plot. I am inching closer to an exciting, suitable plot every day.

I try to "sleep on it," as they say, but that's harder than it sounds. Your thoughts inevitably wander as you fall asleep. Even if you can keep your mind on track, the great ideas you come up with often turn out to be absurd once you're lucid. Sometimes they are good though, and you press it deeply into your mind, hoping that it will still be there when you wake up. Often, they are. Some of them are interesting little plot bunnies for other stories. Sometimes, they are interesting possibilities that seem ingenious, perhaps too ingenious. How can I weave such an ingenious idea into my mundane story? You muse over it, fail to come up with an answer, and realize, as ingenious as that idea is, it is still not the exciting, driving force that you're looking for for your story. But perhaps you are one tiny step closer to finding the ever elusive plot.