For those who write longer fics...

[flybystardancer]

Do you make an outline first? And how do you keep the action from stalling out in the middle of the story?

I want to try to work on a fic for NaNo, though I'm not going to fuss about word counts. I'm working on an outline for it right now, but I've stalled out with what to do. I have the beginning, I know where I want to end it... I just can't figure out how to get from a to b. It's a huge blank. This seems to happen every time I try to plan out a longer fic. I get the beginning, I get the end, but then I have no clue how to bridge the two.

Comments

[flybystardancer.livejournal.com]

My thing isn't so much trying to copy what other people are doing, as it is curiosity at how others work.

The steps between the parts are so basic and stretch over a long time... And I need something to fill in that long time! And no idea what to do with it! lol

[dragoness-e.livejournal.com]

A short story is about one incident. Novels are more complicated. One way to fill things out is with subplots. Perhaps there are additional conflicts besides the big main plot? Minor characters have issues with each other, or their pasts? A romance (or more than one) develops among the heroes (or the villains)? Someone with a totally different agenda crosses the path of the heroes and gets tangled up in the plot?

[flybystardancer.livejournal.com]

This particular piece isn't necessarily going to be a full-on novel (maybe more like a novella), but I do have another on the backburner that needs something and looks like it could be a novel.

I think with the NaNo piece I already have romance and commentary on the evolution of social/gender/sex issues in an alien society going on (the two are intermixed in this case). XD Trying to find a subplot that would work with that without being a "whoo, just throwing this in there for timefiller! :D" vibe is difficult.