New answers tagged plot
1
All the aforementioned answers are really good, but you should keep in mind that no matter what you write it is going to be similar to SOMETHING out there. Every idea, no matter how original you think it is (and I am speaking from experience) will have been done in some form before. It is just important that you realize no one can tell the story quite like ...
0
If you're an analytical type (and if you do technical writing, I guess you are), Writing Fiction for Dummies could be a very good match for you. It was for me :)
If you want to "try before you buy", read http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
2
Questions about "what to write about" are off-topic. But your question can be also interpreted as "how to start a novel" and so I'm going to answer that one.
First a misconception on your side:
I know nothing about writing.
This sentence is only excusable as a citation. But your name is not John Snow. So forget about it, because writing this question ...
2
I guess sometimes it's about writing, not the idea... And sometimes you just get inspired by some other thing. The line between the two is really thin.
For example, Walking Dead has a lot of similarities with Romero's movies, yet it's completely different not because of the idea but because what happens with the characters and the motivations.
It's just ...
1
It sounds like you need to wait a while before writing this. If all you can think of is something you've already seen, you're not spending enough time taking in ideas. In this case, I'd actually suggest you spend several hours on TVTropes, where you'll find better ideas than the ones you're getting, and decent analyses of those ideas.
Secondly, quit ...
1
I have not seen "Saw" so I can't comment on the details you refer to. But in general:
This is all a matter of degree. Unless you're exceptionally creative, it's likely that any story you write will fall into one of a pretty small number of common categories: romance, murder mystery, coming-of-age, time travel, etc.
There's a sense in which you could say ...
3
One method of buying yourself a benefit of doubt from the reader, before you have the opportunity to show that you're not just a rip-off, is lampshading the similarity. (Warning! TV Tropes link!)
"Do you think I'm some cliché self-righteous psychopathic murderer from a long series of movies, merely bound on getting people killed in most sophisticated ...
-1
If you can see the similarities, then you must expect your readers will do so too. Do you want them to say
"At first I thought it was another Saw clone, but the twist ... wow"
or
"What a rip-off!"
4
If you're aware that your work sounds a lot like someone else's, start changing yours until it's not so close. If you have to keep justifying "But it's not Saw!" then you're too close. Change a method, change a time frame, change a motive, change the number of instances.
1
There are two classic good, satisfactory approaches to ending a story. Let me call them "Less is More" and "Afterglow."
"Less is more" ends before the key point - possibly seconds or hours before it. The text built a rich story in the reader's head, there were many threads that converged towards one single point. Then the explicit story, the one told to the ...
6
If you didn't create an outline — that is, if you didn't know beforehand how it was going to end — then you're suffering from impeded arborvision (you can't see the forest for the trees).
1) Put it in a drawer and don't read it for a month. Come back with fresher eyes. You'd be amazed what you catch.
2) Hand it off to someone else and ask your ...
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