hd_writers | Welcome to Practice Corner

I am a true believer that you always can learn and grow, in anything you do. And in the case of writing, every time you start a story, it's a blank canvas, and anything can happen. You can play with styles and techniques, because you can go as far as you imagination and the delete button. So, weekly I will post writing tips and exercises to help with your writing.

To start, I chose a topic that, yes it's back to the basics, but I think is a great place to start with winter fests, exchanges and NaNoWriMo -

Plotting

So you looked over a fest and found the perfect prompt, or was bitten by a bunny, and now you're itching to start writing. You sit down at the keyboard, favorite drink by your side, ready to write the next epic story that will have readers running to your creation and ...nothing. Or in my case, too much of everything.

I am not talking about writers block (that is a whole other post) I am talking about not being able to map that story in your head. So what you do? Well go back to plotting it out!

Here is a list of 25 ways to Plot, Plan and Prep your story. It is really interesting and, yes, you will not use all of them, but I bet there is a way that will work for you on that list.

Question: What do you do when plotting your longer stories?

Now for the exercise part. Pick one of the following H/D plots and plot out how you will write it. You don’t have to write it unless you want to, but work on how you will write the story.

AU! Harry and Draco didn’t meet in Hogwarts. Instead, they meet at the Quidditch World Cup as rival seekers

After believing Harry Potter died in the war, Draco Malfoy receives an unusual letter.

Draco’s new neighbor keeps him awake late at night

Draco finally gets the chance to be the knight-in-shining-armor

As a Prefect, Draco discovers Harry out of bed after hours one night

Prompts from http://drarrypromptoftheday.tumblr.com

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It's funny because I just posted my thoughts about writing in a recent post (http://slashedsilver.livejournal.com/11803.html).

I tend to have difficulties with plotting because my brain works in a very direct manner -- I want to get Characer A to Place B. So the whole fic works towards that, and is usually centered around one main idea. So usually there's a main scene in my head, or a very general idea that I encapsulate into a few keywords. For a

mini_fest fic that I had been plotting, I planned out everything, because it seemed like it was going to need a slow relationship build and some sort of plotting, and it seemed impossible to "go with the flow" as I tend to do (I tend to write scenes haphazardly as they occur to my brain). However, what happened was that I lost all motivation to write the fic in the end! Backfired.

Since I seem to have typed a whole bunch of contradictions in the paragraph above, I figured I might as well try the prompt and see how I actually do think.

Prompt: Draco finally gets the chance to be the knight-in-shining-armor.

Great! What happens to lead Harry to be stuck in some kind of situation he can't get out of? Is it going to be angsty, life-threatening type? Or shall I go with something fluffy? I feel like I'm in a fluffy mood, so I'll go with the second one. So obviously Harry is stuck in a tricky situation, that doesn't need to be life-threatening. And indeed, does it need to be Harry? I feel like making him a bunny -- but no, that's a bit too close to the other animal-transformation fics there are out there.

So through this situation, I need Harry to see Draco in a different light. He sees that he's caring, has an incredibly soft spot (my head canon is that Draco is a marshmallow), and I like that scene so much I think I'll write it first: Harry watching (unnoticed) as Draco tends to... all right, a soft bunny rabbit who has perhaps hurt its paw. Why is Draco tending to it? Maybe he feels lost and lonely since returning to Hogwarts for Eighth Year (I love Eighth Year). Maybe Harry's noticed and that's why he's continued his Malfoy-watching. Maybe before this we'll have several scenes of Harry watching Malfoy suspiciously -- then confusedly -- then ohnoeshelikeshim! Then the question is, how do we get Harry to approach Malfoy without Malfoy putting his guard up?

All right, I've realised it: I tend to write around my scene rather than plot it out from start to finish. I also realise I'm not much about the plot as I am about the feels. Maybe that's why I struggle so much with coming up with an intelligent plot.

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