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Baraka_Guru · 07-19-2010, 09:32 AM

Okay, so I just had a plot breakthrough. I was tumbling around some ideas in my head while having in the background the structure of Joseph Campbell's monomyth (the hero's journey) that I've been reading about.

I have also been keeping my eye out for these elements in what I'm reading and watching. I've seen the structure crop up in various forms (deviations are key) and pop out at me while watching the first two Harry Potter movies and the second Chronicles of Narnia movie.

So what I was doing is letting these ideas I've had gestate and I found a way to connect this one recently planted seed with one that I've been developing for years, and the two clicked into a larger sustainable plot, whereas before the two separate ideas seemed to fall flat on their own. The older idea had problems of origins: Where did the character come from? Where does the story start? The recent idea had problems of development: Where is the character going? Where does the story lead? On their own, they didn't work. The character didn't have enough motivation to do anything. Nothing hooked him. And so neither idea allowed me to create a cohesive story.

Well, put the two together and I have myself a solid plot that will get a bigger story going quite easily. I think I have enough basic plot structure here to get at least one reasonably sized novel out of it, but it is a story that will need to expand beyond one book for the wider plot to resolve.

So...it's a heroic/epic fantasy story. I'll need to figure out how to tell the basic origins story I want to tell while setting up a wider scope for an overarching story. I hope to move from suspense and intrigue to all-out civil war between a crumbling kingdom and a treasonous duke.

That's all you get from me. I don't want to scare the ideas away.

07-19-2010, 09:32 AM	#11 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	Okay, so I just had a plot breakthrough. I was tumbling around some ideas in my head while having in the background the structure of Joseph Campbell's monomyth (the hero's journey) that I've been reading about. I have also been keeping my eye out for these elements in what I'm reading and watching. I've seen the structure crop up in various forms (deviations are key) and pop out at me while watching the first two Harry Potter movies and the second Chronicles of Narnia movie. So what I was doing is letting these ideas I've had gestate and I found a way to connect this one recently planted seed with one that I've been developing for years, and the two clicked into a larger sustainable plot, whereas before the two separate ideas seemed to fall flat on their own. The older idea had problems of origins: Where did the character come from? Where does the story start? The recent idea had problems of development: Where is the character going? Where does the story lead? On their own, they didn't work. The character didn't have enough motivation to do anything. Nothing hooked him. And so neither idea allowed me to create a cohesive story. Well, put the two together and I have myself a solid plot that will get a bigger story going quite easily. I think I have enough basic plot structure here to get at least one reasonably sized novel out of it, but it is a story that will need to expand beyond one book for the wider plot to resolve. So...it's a heroic/epic fantasy story. I'll need to figure out how to tell the basic origins story I want to tell while setting up a wider scope for an overarching story. I hope to move from suspense and intrigue to all-out civil war between a crumbling kingdom and a treasonous duke. That's all you get from me. I don't want to scare the ideas away. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 07-19-2010 at 09:35 AM..