Plotting, AKA writing random stuff and hoping a story is born

Sometimes I have a story idea that consists of nothing more than an image, a title, or even worse a feeling. While I love coming up with plots, the procedure is... messy. I just write down everything that comes to mind in a sort of brainstorming session. So, as I shared my first draft, I thought I might as well share this, too.

Don't feed the dragon, err, the trolls.  - sometimes writing anything that comes to mind goes badly when you actually forget to think. 

Our hero is a proud warrior - too proud. - This part is much less evident in the final version of the story. 

His ally the POV. Hopeless young boy stuck with the mighty warrior.

HUMOR ALL THE WAY!! Or a pathetic attempt at it... 

They get under a bridge, in a classical troll setting. - And this one got deleted in the final version. Mostly because I was too lazy. 

Our hero wants to feed the trolls? Nah. It's a senseless sign out up there.

Mighty weapon. You know, mighty weapons usually get monsters a little annoyed.

Pity I can't write humor tales the same way I write these things. - I did say everything that comes to mind, didn't I?

Okay, I should just get on with writing. - And sometimes I need a sound yelling from myself. 

So, back to plotting. Our hero is travelling through a forest to get to his next destination. Ally POV. And maybe a third character? Nah. Actually, yes. Small pixie. Boy or girl? Girl.

Use adverbs.

Intentionally bad writing? Maybe not too much.

Get back to plotting, girl!

So, they pass under a bridge, after seeing a sign of don't feed the trolls. The ally doesn't like it, not one bit.

The trolls appear, mighty weapon, pixie and ally run. Hero got eaten.

You know what, I'm done with this story. - This was my own thought, but it ended up also being the ally's last line. Heh. 

So that's how my stories are born. Yeah... I'll go now. 

Next up, today's story!! I think I'm done with these backstage sort of posts. 

An examination of my writing procedure - or why I don't publish the first draft

So, while writing yesterday I realized it sucked. But! Staying true to my story, I didn't edit anything, which probably saved me from losing the challenge and the story from sucking. I actually unders

For example, here is a short scene as first written. This was the very first draft, written out in a minute or so.

"Are you sure this is the right way?"
"Yup."
"But it looks dangerous."
"Come on, Fra! Didn't you want an adventure?"
"You know Francesco, he always whines about something."
"That's not true!" Francesco whined.

No description, actions, reactions or an of something. That something being that no one besides my could understand what was happening.

I resisted the urge to edit it (mostly so I could write this stuff) and went on. The next sentence needed to be a physical reaction. It just had to.

Martina sarcastically raised an eyebrow, while Giorgia chuckled lightly and ruffled Francesco's hair.

So, I now had a sentence with no dialogue. I also had a sentence with three long names in it, no indication as to who the first two are and an adverb. I'm not a fan of the 'avoid adverbs like death' rule, but I still recognized the sentence sounded weak and clumsy, not to mention it hurt my ears and my brain.

"Giorgia, I'm falling!" Who is talking?
Giorgia mechanically shot out a hand to help the younger cousin. One does not simply 'mechianically' shoot out a hand. One does not introduce a character as a cousin before they got a minimal description, a name or a hint to the fact that I'm talking about a fourth character and not Francesco. She caught her arm and pulled her up, but the ground beneath her feet ceded and they both tumbled down. The English dictionary defines 'to cede' as giving terrain to an enemy, often because of a lost war or battle. Or something like that, I wrote that from memory. This is where it's very evident that I actually write in hybrid, not English. In Italian 'cedere' could mean many things, from giving in to crumbling (as in terrain falling or a seat being broken by a weight). But I often insert English terms in my Italian writing, too. So my mind is set on a weird sort of hybrid language. 

Okay, I'll skip the next part. You get it by now. Let's get to the main fact: I can actually remember very few stories I've written where the plot remained the same. So Giorgia tells Francy that there are trolls. I was still dead set on my original plot: the four getting lost. But Francesco didn't give a friggerboying graft of my plot, he wanted to have fun and to tell a message.

"I'll protect you from the monsters, my princess!" he claimed, puffing out his small chest.

Yeah. So I spend two hours on planning and writing the first part, and my second youngest character decided he wants to tell another story.

Thing is, I needed half an hour to write the rest. Which didn't need nearly as much adjusting as the first part. Of course it still needed some, but you get the thing.

Another half an hour was spent on editing. The most important things to add were descriptions, actions, character names and other stuff. Some sentences needed tweaking to become less confusing. At the end, I managed a more decent result.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" a small boy asked, his tone of voice bordering on a cry.
"Yup."
"But it looks dangerous."
"Come on, Fra! Didn't you want an adventure?" a much taller girl turned around to face the boy, her hazel eyes gleaming with a challenge. A second girl, slightly smaller than the first, appeared from behind a tree.
"Don't even try. You know Francesco, he always whines about something."
"That's not true!" Francesco whined.
Martina raised an eyebrow and threw a sarcastic look at the boy, while Giorgia chuckled lightly and ruffled her cousin's hair.
"Giorgia, I'm falling!"
Giorgia spun around and shot out a hand to a small blonde, who was sliding down the hill's slope. She caught her arm and pulled her up, but the ground beneath their feet crumbled and they both tumbled down.

 

Okay, it still needs a lot of help. But bear with me, it was 11pm, I was tired and wanted to finish this as soon as possible. Plus, it's far more acceptable that the first draft. So I'm happy with the final result.

Next up, today's story. Then tomorrow a background on the very initial phase of today's story: plotting.