Welcome to Practice Corner

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

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

Comments

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

Meg/Slytherin

What do you do when plotting your longer stories?
Usually I start with an idea, and develop it into a summary. If my summary/prompt can't be put into at least 3 whole sentences then I almost always don't plot; it's always a smaller story and really doesn't help with a plot. If it is over 3 sentences, I start with an outline, and usually plot out the major points first, and then fill in the smaller things... If it's a sex scene I just write that, and then let my characters lead me around. If it's a major plot point, I'll go back after I think I have all the small plot points and elaborate on them...usually this gives me even more major points. By this time I'll have a full outline and am ready to write. As the characters dictate to me, I might also add in some smaller plot points.

Unfortunately, if I was using one of the prompts, my plot would be very short, if plotted at all. For Draco’s new neighbor keeps him awake late at night I might have written that and then Harry playing music/having sex...and then Draco interrupts and results in more sex. That would have been my plot and then I'd have written the story. I'm weird like that. I let my characters have quite a bit of say in where I go, especially in sex scenes.

Recently I came up with a prompt for a new big bang that I'm writing. The prompt was: Harry runs into Scorpius Malfoy at a BDSM club, and Harry thinking Scorpius is just having a little fun decides to push Scorpius' boundaries. Scorpius quickly disabuses him of the notion. Afterwards, knowing that I wanted to make this into at least 12k of a story, I wrote a proper summary, with a hint of a huge plot twist. This is what I came up with: Harry, a long time dominant, literally runs into Scorpius Malfoy at a bdsm club. Harry is not pleased to see the Malfoy scion and thinks he's just there for a little fun. Scorpius quickly convinces him that he's there for so much more than just one fun little time, and he finds so much more than he originally thought he would at the club, including a dark secret that Harry has kept to himself for quite a while!

(My comment is too long for just one, so I'm breaking it here and posting the second half as a reply below this.)

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

(second half) Meg/Slytherin

From that summary I'm able to come up with a decent plot outline that I can use to write a 12k word fic, compared to a 1-2k word fic. My major plot point outline would consist of: Introduction, Harry bumping into Scorpius, Harry brings Scorpius home with him for the first time, The dark secret revealed, Ending/possible collaring ceremony. (Sorry those are done in bulleted points but I don't know how to do that on here!) After that I'd fill in the small plot points and this is what I'm left with:
Introduction
Harry background/owner of the club/how he got from the war or epilogue to a dominant at bdsm club/possible hint at ‘the dark thing’
Scorpius background/mouthy little brat personality/going to Harry’s club for a little fun/possibly witnessing some things; good and bad
Harry bumping into Scorpius
Introduction to the club/the stations, places, in the club/possibly a scene
The accident
Harry’s surprise and attitude toward Scorpius
More of Scorpius’ mouthy attitude/him on his knees on the floor and offering to suck Harry off or something similar
Harry putting Scorpius in his place…this place is not for a fun time
Possibly Harry either doing a scene with Scorpius trying to get him out of his ‘fun idea’ or showing him a scene
If scene play happens then Scorpius’ reactions, and Harry sending him home to think
Scorpius comes back for more
Scorpius comes back to the club, at first without Harry knowing
Scorpius gets Harry to do a scene/another scene
Harry sends him away again and this time with a plan to see each other again
Scorpius comes back to the club and meets with Harry for another scene
Scorpius meets with Harry at least two more times, possibly once outside of the club
If outside scene, how the public reacts/Draco/Harry’s family
Harry brings Scorpius home with him for the first time
Possible Scorpius POV/his impression of Harry’s house/the play room
The scene/sex
Aftercare/Harry’s bedroom
Scorpius waking up/Scorpius questioning Harry
The dark secret revealed
How Harry started in the bdsm scene/how Harry became a dominant/possibly Harry’s trials in being a submissive
Harry meeting the other guy/their roles in the relationship/the scene between them
(Redacted due to spoilers)
Harry’s spell
Harry’s guilt/possible fallout from (Redacted due to spoilers)
Harry sending Scorpius home to consider his options
Ending/possible collaring ceremony
The next meeting between Harry and Scorpius
Scorpius’ decision
Sex scene
Possible collaring ceremony

The main plot points are the ones in bold, with the small plot points following. As I start writing, and find where my characters want to take me, all the possibles will become either scenes in the fic which would be described better in the outline or removed entirely from the outline.