Stories that don't go anywhere

[Cognisant]

I can't help but wonder if this happens to a lot of INTPs or just me; many of my story ideas (springboards in literary theory lingo) are scenes that have come to me in my daydreams or concepts born of other wayward musings. And while they make great excerpts by themselves, I can't figure out how to fit them into a larger narrative or how to derive such a narrative from them, they just work as an isolated scene and that’s it.

On a similar note I often come up with a great beginning/ending for a story, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to continue on from that beginning or construct a story that leads to that ending, at least not worthwhile ones.

Any advice?

 

[Words]

I have the same problem. Ever tried forcefully fitting these isolated scenes even how crazy the result would be?

 

[sagewolf]

This is why I like short stories so much. They're not much more than isolated excerpts. (In other words, can't help you. I suck at plotting long works of fiction. Sorry.)

 

[Agent Intellect]

Try just writing the scenes in any way you can. I'm sure anyone who has read anything about writing has heard the song and dance before, but a first draft doesn't have to be perfect - it doesn't even have to be good. I know for myself I find it easier to revise and mold something already written than it is to actually write it down, so the best strategy would be to just write the idea down in any way you can, and then keep re-working it.

Also, I wouldn't worry about writing in a linear fashion, either. When an idea pops into your head, write it down and worry about connecting it to the rest of the story later. Instead of writing from the beginning to the end, it's more like writing it in a series of dots that you connect together by adding more dots in between them (this, I would say, is the Ne -> Ti approach; Ne just furiously puts down ideas, then Ti makes sure they function in a cohesive narrative after the ideas are down).

To sum up, I would say that 80% or more of my actual writing happens during the revising and re-working stages, and it's a lot easier to do if you have a skeleton of (sometimes poorly written or even poorly thought out) ideas down, because my method is generally taking a small idea and running with it, even if it was my own idea.

 

[Da Blob]

Yes, some good advice by AI. I might note that if one does aspire to be a good writer that this forum is a good place to perfect such talent. I mean if any one of us decided to write, seriously, there is something very useful about posting a couple of thousand unrelated comments beforehand. The problem is in synthesizing those 'unrelated' comments into a single plot line or narrative.

Read Schank's "Tell Me a Story"

Covert story fragments into single paragraphs that can stand alone, complete and meritorious in themselves. Paragraphs that can function as independent units can be more less (with minimal change) be interchangable. It is like accumulating an entire lego set one piece at a time and then when enough pieces are accumulated, one can start building lego worlds and producing lego videos

YouTube- The Three Stooges Lego Parody

Ernest Hemingway when once asked by a novice what it takes to write a Great Novel, replied"the ability to write a single great paragraph" Accumulate enough great paragraphs in a linear sequence of some kind and one may have produced a great story... Plus it is certainly an easier goal to reach, the writing of a single paragraph as opposed to the goal of writing an entire book. Besides, If one can't learn to enjoy and perfect the construction of a single paragraph, how could one ever truly enjoy writing a book. It would seem that any satisfaction or self congratulations would be deferred until the entire book was finished - as opposed to experiencing the feeling of accomplishment, knowing one has written one excellent paragraph...

BTW - nice avatar, reminds me some professor