Plot ideas for a Medieval Fantasy book?

[tdnewton]

Ok so I'm writing a fantasy book, and I have all my characters and research and plan and the like, but I'm having serious trouble with the plot!
Not what actually happens in the book, but the reasons for what happens in the book and what happened before the book. I keep thinking up ideas but they never seem to work or they've been done too many times before, and I'm kinda getting to the stage now where I can't even think of anything else!

Its really getting me down, and I wondered if anyone here has any advice or suggestions or just anything helpful at all, if you do then that would be great

Keep in mind that what you're doing is not set in stone.

That being said, the best way to come up with new ideas is to think of how best you can complicate your characters' lives. Think of big events in your own life (births, deaths, marriage) or events that endanger you and your close ties (war, plague, famine) and imagine how they would change your story. Kill a character. Introduce a new character. Try everything and see what you like best.

[KatG]

Oy, Holbrook, did you have to do that?

Two things: what publishing people say they want in terms of content and what they actually end up acquiring are not always the same thing. What's going on is that all fantasy is selling, which has been the case since the mid-1990's. Historical fantasy is slowly expanding. Paranormal romance is moving into SF, etc. Shifts occur. We can rejoice that the genre is healthy. If you're going to go with the idea that publishers are conservative, we would never have had the growth in contemporary fantasy, because no one would have dared to write anything but alternate world fantasy which was selling great guns. I'm not calling them liars, exactly, but they don't always know what they want until they see it.

Second, publishing people are often wrong and frequently disagree with each other. They also frequently change their minds. It's entirely up to you what you are going to do -- go with elves because you feel that's the market or don't.

But that wasn't really the original poster's question. Or maybe it's related but it's hard to tell. So please take your elf, orphan, wizard issues and dump them -- or at least move them to that thread about the quiz -- and maybe Celestial will actually clarify what he/she meant, if the person hasn't run away screaming.

[xCelestia17]

Ok firstly, I have no vampires, werewolves, elves, UFO's, Jedi, Trolls or anything else mentioned so far lol
However, I do have witches, faeries, uh, evil faeries, sorcerer/esses, pirates, spirits and a mermaid

Someone said about having scenes to write but nothing to link them together, yea I've kinda done that.. . .

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, just inspiration of some form really

[worldmaker]

Ok firstly, I have no vampires, werewolves, elves, UFO's, Jedi, Trolls or anything else mentioned so far lol
However, I do have witches, faeries, uh, evil faeries, sorcerer/esses, pirates, spirits and a mermaid

Someone said about having scenes to write but nothing to link them together, yea I've kinda done that.. . .

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, just inspiration of some form really

Oi, you, we HAVE been mentioning faries, so you can't say they haven't been mentioned so far. And sorcerers are the same as wizards, who have been discussed, so you can't get away with that either.

On which basis I've arranged a raveging horde of gobblins to come round your house and beat you up with lots of Dangerous Ideas.

Serves you right!

[hippokrene]

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, just inspiration of some form really

You've come to the right place!



http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2...r-demotivator/

If you become a famous writer, you will be rich and adored by all!
Writers contribute to the cultural and literary life of their generation, and possibly future generations!
Your story can inspire, entertain, and enlighten a reader like no other!
A writer's mental creative output is spent towards their own work, instead of being one of many supporting a large corperate machine!
Writers are sexy. You'd best believe it!

[Holbrook]

Oy, Holbrook, did you have to do that?

.

"Scuffs feet in the dust and glances down" I was answering Kerry, and just repeating what I was told (did not say I believed it ) The industry has the jitters over here, it was the main topic of conversation at Eastercon, and continued at the London Book Fair....

I also said "put whatever you want in, and see what happens!"

You know I never tell folk what to write...

[worldmaker]

Someone said about having scenes to write but nothing to link them together, yea I've kinda done that.. . .

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, just inspiration of some form really

How about just writing lots and lots and lots of words, then cutting out all the ones that don't make sense?

I know it sounds daft, but as you begin writing some inspiration, somewhere, some time ought to strike you and you can see where it's leading you?

I've been mulling over a story for the last year, similar to my last shorts it's filled with scenes not a continuous plotline, taking a 200 year spread through unique moment. Why not try that, create the scenes you're interested in, then start to weld them together?

[KatG]

Someone said about having scenes to write but nothing to link them together, yea I've kinda done that.. . .

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, just inspiration of some form really

Inspiration, plot ideas, connective tissue links in narrative -- three different things.

My answer is always to ask questions some folk here have already asked: why did you want to write the story? Why did you put the stuff you have in it in it? What do you want to do with the characters? What is it you're exploring in the story? Stuff like that. Because if you don't have a clue, we can make suggestions forever:

Write about llamas!
Write about mermaid sex!
Write about the destructive side of extreme grief!

And it's still not going to help you out. Your brain, your story. You may not have it all figured out yet, but your brain will eventually get there if you keep asking it those questions.

If you want to throw some things around, say I've got this, what do you think about doing this with it, we're happy to do it. We had great fun figuring out different ways to blow up an office tower for a SF writer a few months back. We have people here who are in law enforcement or have been in the military, know lots about weapons medieval and modern, a fair amount of folklore knowledge, etc. There is also the Writers Resources thread, a Sticky thread at the top of the Writing Forum menu that may offer useful sources of information.

[Neyska]

Writers are sexy. You'd best believe it!

Apparently you haven't seen Stephen King or George R.R. Martin or...


On the inspiration thing...just take what scenes you have, think of what would motivate you to do the things you have written about, and twist that to suit the character and the world.

[hippokrene]

Apparently you haven't seen Stephen King or George R.R. Martin or...

I find them about as sexy as I find Brad Pitt or Hugh Grant.

Anyways, I think we need to have an Authorial 'Hot or Not?' contest.

[Expendable]

There's all sorts of plots, really. But they all boil down to cause and effect.

Something happens, then someone or something reacts. And it carries on, a chain reaction, where others react to the first reaction.

It's like going in to the back yard or garden and looking at a small pond, still and serene. You toss a small stone into the water with a splash. A bird you didn't notice takes off chirping madly. In the water, the ripples from the stone make the lilypads dance, while the fish under them already spooked by the stone dart about.

Many of the stories I critique here start with the ripples, expecting me to automatically care about the still pond that they've forgotten to show, so eager they are to get to the action, or the stone that gets tossed.

Look at Tolkien - he wrote "The Lord of the Rings", then had to go back and write "The Hobbit" to better show us the still waters of the Shire and the stone he tossed in there, the One Ring, and how it got there.

So choose your rock/plot carefully, then pick where you're throwning it and see how your characters react.

Of course, this is just my own personal opinion on this and you can accept or reject anything I've said here.

[xCelestia17]

Oi, you, we HAVE been mentioning faries, so you can't say they haven't been mentioned so far. And sorcerers are the same as wizards, who have been discussed, so you can't get away with that either.

On which basis I've arranged a raveging horde of gobblins to come round your house and beat you up with lots of Dangerous Ideas.

Serves you right!

Ok thanks for that lol!

And yea faeries were mentioned, I'm sorry I guess I just wasn't awake when I posted that, thats what I get for staying online obscenely late at night -slaps wrist-


And I have been doing some of the things mentioned here and I think I'm actually getting somewhere, I think I'm going to do what quite a few people have said and change a few things around and then write and see what happens

[worldmaker]

And I have been doing some of the things mentioned here and I think I'm actually getting somewhere, I think I'm going to do what quite a few people have said and change a few things around and then write and see what happens

Verily I say, 'tis a Bank Holiday.
Switch everything else off except your pen and a candle to burn.
Set forth on a scribblethon.
Report back to everyone next week.

[KatG]

I like your analogy quite a bit, Expendable, but it should probably be pointed out that Tolkein wrote The Hobbit first, before Lord of the Rings, and the true origin of the One Ring wasn't explained until Lord of the Rings. But that aside, a good analogy.

Except...sometimes starting with the stone and then widening to the pool works too. And sometimes the pool and the stone are described together. Sometimes the writer forgets the bird, when it might be cool to include the bird. You know what, I think I will stop now.

[hippokrene]

Dear Mr. Agent-Gal,

I am a first time novelist seeking representation for my 90,000 word dark fantasy, POND OF RIPPLES.

STONE has lived a boring, quiet life at the edge of a pond until the evil HAND sweeps him up and tosses him into the pond's watery depth. Sinking down, STONE causes RIPPLES and these two unlikely allies explore the dark underbelly of the pond. There STONE finds a world he never imagined, and soon learns that he is not the only stone to be sent to here. Hundreds of stones dwell at the bottom of the pond, sent there by the merciless HAND. But for what purpose?

STONE and RIPPLE finally meet the wise and powerful BIRD, who can return STONE to dry land. STONE finds it hard to deny his growing love of RIPPLE and cannot bare to abandon the other stones to their fate. Choosing instead to remain STONE begins a mad and desperate battle against HAND. A battle that will eventually change the fate of both his new home and his old.

POND OF RIPPLES is a dark, low magic setting reminiscent of Glen Cooks BLACK COMPANY. It focuses on a few, mortal characters caught up in battles and machinations much larger than they are. Though this is a standalone story, I hope to make this the first in my STONE, PARCHMENT, SHEARS trilogy.

Thank you for your time,
A Hopeful Author-to-Be