On Plotting, Rising Action, and the Try/Fail Cycle

Notes from SLC ComicCon 2014 panel, including Kevin J Anderson, Brandon Sanderson, Dave Farland, Larry Correia, Brandon Mull, Brad Torgersen.

Plotting:
When you're writing an epic, you can't wing it. When you're building a skyscraper, you really need a blueprint. My outline sometimes runs to 100 pages--it gets to be a first draft.

My plot is "What promise am I making the reader, and what steps do I need to take to fulfill that promise?"

I'm a loose outliner. For each character, I know where they're going to end up. I need to know the ending. And I blow something up every forty pages.

I need to look for movement.You never have a static scene--a character is always going up or down. I think about where my protagonist is, and what's the worst thing that I can do to him....

Pantsing is for the daydreaming at the start of the project. Once you've got the ideas, you outline.

I can pants a short story but I need a skeleton for a novel.

If you do pants it, go back and write an outline afterwards, as a post mortem tool.

Try/Fail:
My characters are my friends, but it's an abusive relationship. They can't have it easy.

"Try/Fail" is a diagnostic tool, for finding problems after you've finished. Practice writing and you'll internalize the need to give your characters trouble, although you may not call it "adding a Try Fail cycle" while yoiu're writing it.

Remember that there's not just the one Protagonist/Antagonist Try Fail Cycle. There are other characters and other subplots and they need their own cycles.

The response to "Try" can be "Yes" or "No"--which are boring--or "Yes But" or "No And". The "No And" is what you'd call a Try/Fail"; the "Yes But" isn't  "Fail" but can also be interesting.

Productivity/Writer's Block:
Don't look for perfection. You need to be prolific. The more you make, the better you get. Ask your alpha readers if there are parts they find boring or confusing.

If I get stuck, it's because I made a mistake the day before; but when I figure out how to fix it, I get excited and write even more.

Destress. It's a first draft; you don't have to be perfect.

Set a deadline so you're committed to getting stuff done, rather than thinking I"m A Writer" but not doing any writing.

Sanderson: I'm usually writing one book, planning one or two more, and editing another. I write 500 words per hour, which is low; but I write 8 hours a day, five days a week. If you figure half my time is editing, travel, and other non-writing activity, that's 500words  x 8 hours x 5 days x 26 weeks = 520,000 words per year. One 400,000 word epic and one 120,000 word novel.

Correia: I write 10,000 words per week, every week.

Write what you think is cool--that you'd want to read.