[alligator]

I've decided that it's time I finally sat down and wrote my first fiction novel. Plus, I enjoy typing on my PowerBook's keyboard. Seriously though, I'm having trouble flushing out the plot of this book. Are there any suggestions from this board?

Once I have the outline for each chapter, incidents and events for the plot, the rest shouldn't be as difficult. But I'm stuck on the general plot.

FYI - my favorite storyteller is Jeffrey Archer, specifically Kane & Abel.

[Nicko]

It was a dark and stormy night...

[davesimondotcom]

Everyone writes in different ways. I find outlining everything to be quite limiting.

Personally, I just write. I'm now about 20,000 words into my book, and I know where it's going to go, in my head.

Here's the thing, why write a book if you don't have a plot? How do you outline before you have a plot??

[hickey]

my friend just started his biography last night. hes starting young so he can re-write it later with better incite, and so that he'll remember more stuff.

[the macimum]

Could you hook me up with a free copy?

[Ghoser777]

Originally Posted by hickey

my friend just started his biography last night. hes starting young so he can re-write it later with better insight, and so that he'll remember more stuff.

Fixed™. Incite usually means to provoke... which I guess oddly enough almost makes sense in the current context. How old is your friend?

[hickey]

thanks for the fix. i think hes 17 or 18

[Mithras]

Why do you want to write a novel? If you have something to say (either a plot or a theme or an emotion you'd like to evoke), you'll come up with a way to express it.

If want to write a novel just so that you'll have written a novel, don't.

[davecom]

That's nice, but do you think anybody would like to read it?

[TETENAL]

OK, here's your plot:

It's got to be a detective story. So there should be a murder. So there is a man murdered. And he's got to be a Mac user. We should keep it on topic. So he owned some older Mac desktop and bought a black Macbook recently. Those are mean looking so it was a foretelling event. So now he's dead. And then there's got to be a detective. We can't make him a Mac user as well and he would never solve the case waiting for Vista. So it means he's sort of old-school and doesn't know anything about computers. He's just learning all that stuff during the investigation, but he always stays critical. He's not too old though. That is, because we also need a woman. Beautiful and mysterious. The way women are. And there is some sexual tension developing between her and the detective. That's why you can't make the detective too old. Is this woman the widow of the murdered man or someone else? How is she involved? I don't care. As long as she is good looking. And since she is a woman she is not really after the detective. She is after power and money. And this should be big money we are talking about here. So the detective is going to slowly discover some really large conspiracy or something. Maybe about some stock options fraud or something. So the guy was murdered so that some executives could keep their millions. Or it was something more trivial and he had an affair his wife got to know of? Keep that open until the end for the tention. Then to make it really dramatic let everyone die at the end except for one guy. Maybe the partner of the detective or so. The reader finds out that it was him who was telling the story all the time while thinking back to it when he is cleaning up the detectives desk or something. That should make the readers cry. You should call this partner guy Horatio.
And don't forget to twist in some other plots that have nothing to do with the story, like someone fighting for custody of their child, getting off drugs or something like that. That's how things are done in books.

That's it. Let me know when you're done and send me a free copy! Now it is my intention to sit down and play videogames for several hours.

[TETENAL]

What? Not even a thank you? I wrote half a page of your fist book after all.

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by Mithras

Why do you want to write a novel? If you have something to say (either a plot or a theme or an emotion you'd like to evoke), you'll come up with a way to express it.

If want to write a novel just so that you'll have written a novel, don't.

Exactly, you have to have a something to share with the world - a unique character, plot or theme. Otherwise, nobody will want to read it. It's just "fluff."

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by davesimondotcom

Everyone writes in different ways. I find outlining everything to be quite limiting.

I'm just the opposite. I use OmniOutliner and make a flowchart for the plots and key points. I found it extremely helpful especially when dealing with multiple plots and convergence.

[davesimondotcom]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

I'm just the opposite. I use OmniOutliner and make a flowchart for the plots and key points. I found it extremely helpful especially when dealing with multiple plots and convergence.

I also was never a note taker in class. In any class where I took lots of notes, I always learned less than when I just listened.

[Zeeb]

error, sorry!

[molala]

My Powerbook does make me want to write. Remember that scene in "Jerry McGuire" where Tom Cruise writes his mission statement on a white laptop on the floor? That scene was never going to work with a bulky desktop. That's what made me save up for my first Powerbook (Lombard), it also helped that there was Tappy Type under OS9 because typewriter sounds help.

But anyway, 3 laptops later, I've written a few essays/short stories though but I really need to improve them. I also wrote a dissertation but that was more urgent than inspired (it started out inspired then the deadline came too soon, probably could have been written on a PC).

Why can't I get typewriter sounds using the sticky keys in Tiger?

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by Mithras

Why do you want to write a novel? If you have something to say (either a plot or a theme or an emotion you'd like to evoke), you'll come up with a way to express it.

If want to write a novel just so that you'll have written a novel, don't.

Yeah, I agree. Write a book BECAUSE you have ideas, don't generate ideas just because you think you want to write a book.

[Zeeb]

Originally Posted by molala

My Powerbook does make me want to write. Remember that scene in "Jerry McGuire" where Tom Cruise writes his mission statement on a white laptop on the floor? That scene was never going to work with a bulky desktop. That's what made me save up for my first Powerbook (Lombard), it also helped that there was Tappy Type under OS9 because typewriter sounds help.

But anyway, 3 laptops later, I've written a few essays/short stories though but I really need to improve them. I also wrote a dissertation but that was more urgent than inspired (it started out inspired then the deadline came too soon, probably could have been written on a PC).

Why can't I get typewriter sounds using the sticky keys in Tiger?

Well, if you want to write you should just do it--whatever comes to mind. Make sure you love it.

[molala]

Yes, I write for myself anyway. Or rarely, for a few close friends who enjoy what I write. It's not my profession, nor do I expect it to be. But I get a lot of satisfaction from having expressed something precisely, in exactly how I want it said. The English language is so rich that it takes time to find the right/the perfect combination of words.

[Monique]

Authors often say that your first book as to be very personal; about your life or about the life you would like to have.