Story Planning Template | WORDSNSTUFF

Linked to this post is a free google slides document I’ve designed for the purposes of character and plot development. You can use this in several ways, including:

• Making a copy to your google drive and editing it digitally
• Downloading as a Microsoft powerpoint document
• Editing in google slides and then downloading as a printable PDF

This document includes technical instructions and guides to the planning models I integrated. The included pages are:

• Character/arc design sheet
• Secondary characters sheet
• Three-act flow chart
• Plot story map

[watermark is only present in these screenshots]

fragmentedink:

A small tip: if your characters have a traumatic experience, and they have nightmares about it, more often than not, those dreams will not be a play by play of what happened, but will often hold symbolism to the event than the actual event itself

These dreams can often not be genuinely scary but can leave you feel shaken and unrested when you do wake up. It may take your characters hours to let go of the feeling

It is also common to have the same dream roccur often. It might be unsettling enough that your characters will try to avoid sleeping for as long as they can, or will they to self medicate in some way to try to make the dream go away

A common reoccurring dream I had after my mom died was I would be watching her die, similar to how she did, but it was faster, and then we had her cremated. But the next day [in the dream] she would be back on the couch, just like any other day, as if she had not died the day before. But then futher on into the dream she would slowly start to decinigrate into ashes, but it would be ten times slower and it would be like losing her all over again

I would sleep completely through the dream and not wake up in some cold sweat or hyperventilating, tho that’s not to say that’s never happened before , but the next morning I would be shaken when I did wake up and it took me hours to get back to normal. I had that same dream several times over the last few years, and it still makes me shaken, but not to that same extent as the first time. That can happen over time with desensitization

Flashbacks work the same way. They’re not often a perfect play by play of what happened, but can be flashes of what happened. Or it can not be visual at all

You have five senses, and certain tastes or smells or sounds or touch can be just as impactful as visual flashbacks. For the most part, unless you have a disability that prevents otherwise (like being d/Deaf, or blind), all five of those senses are working together at the same time and each can carry their own weight in trauma

Especially when traumatic things are happening, adrenaline is rushing through you, or you are in a high stress situation. Parts of you are processing things faster than other parts of you. Your brain is working to take in everything that is happening and sometimes things are not always remembered correctly

no beta we die like my ability to write as soon as i have the time to

solomonrobert:

I find it incredibly difficult — nay, impossible — to write a protagonist that only has good qualities and good intentions. Same for an antagonist. They’re human. They have dreams, goals, a past, some good traits, and some bad. Sometimes they have “the right” intentions, and sometimes not so much.

Yes. All of this. Yes.

How to Get Over Writers Block

(I know this isn’t really an INFJ thing like I usually post, but I felt the need to write this to help others with this problem)

So, I have been writing book for forever it seems like, but, as a book writer, I could never finish a book because I was always having writers block, I never understood why I couldn’t finish it…

Until now.

So here are some things you should to to prevent writers block or get over one you are having without completely stopping your book writing process.

Don’t focus on the details. Remeber, this is draft one. You can always edit it later. So I tend to write only the dialogue and add in notes what I can image the character doing or thinking so when I edit it, I can add more detail to that part of the book and describe step by step after draft one.

Write down every idea. So, sometime, I get random ideas on what to write. Like, I’ll be eating breakfast and get an idea to write something that might happen in the book I want to add in the future. So I write it down. And the whole plot build because I write down every single thing I want to happen in the book, it’s the matter of arranging it in order.

No such thing as beginning to end. This is what really got my attention and made me realize my source of writers block is from the feeling I have to write the book from beginning to end when, in reality, that’s not how it works for most people. If I feel I can’t write anymore of one part of my book I am writing, I will skip that part and move on to either the closest part I feel like writing or, I might even write something that happens towards the end, so that way I can always edit it and it will flow smoothly while still keeping that idea I had beforehand.

Who are the characters. This kinda helped me a lot. If you do end up taking a break, this helps remembering which character is who and their personality. For instance, I like to use reference pictures to describe the looks of my character and I write the description of the characters appearance and their personality. I also to a background of their life so I know what they have gone through to be who they are today.

I don’t know if this would help anyone. I know this helped me a lot when writing and I’m getting closer to finishing my first book than I ever did before because of this method I decided to use. I hope this advice could help others with their writings! Let me know if this helped you!