Plotty? As in having the emphasis on plot events rather than character reaction to happenings, emotional epiphanies, PWPs and all that?
Dawn: You're not fleeing. You're... moving at a brisk pace. Buffy: Quaintly referred to in some cultures as the Big Scaredy Run Away.
'Touched'
Fan Fiction: Writers, Readers, and Enablers
This thread is for fanfic recs, links, and discussion, but not for actual posting of fanfic.
Theodosia - May 02, 2003 10:27:41 am PDT #5308 of 10000
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
Consuela - May 02, 2003 10:28:57 am PDT #5309 of 10000
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Well, I didn't mean to derail the conversation, just thought that a warning might be appropriate. We're a lot more public than we used to be, here.
Lyra Jane - May 02, 2003 10:30:49 am PDT #5310 of 10000
Up with the sun
To me, "plotty" means the point of the story is the unfolding events, not character interactions or character development (or The Sex.)
Katie M - May 02, 2003 10:32:59 am PDT #5311 of 10000
I was charmed (albeit somewhat perplexed) by the fannish sensibility of many of the music choices -- it's like the director was trying to vid Canada. --loligo on the Olympic Opening Ceremonies
How do you all define "plotty"?
Something happens above and beyond "and then they got together." Also, I'd say it usually has to be fairly long - it'd be tough to write a plotty vignette.
Huh - poking at my reaction a little more I think it has to do most of all with how embedded in an outside world a story is. A story which was written to get them together can still be plotty if it feels like it's happening in a real world, where other things have an impact on the characters and vice versa.
Am-Chau Yarkona - May 02, 2003 10:35:35 am PDT #5312 of 10000
I bop to Wittgenstein. -- Nutty
As in having the emphasis on plot events rather than character reaction to happenings, emotional epiphanies
In my world emotional epiphanies are plot events.
Um.
People write PWPs that are plotty by my standards, too.
P.M. Marc - May 02, 2003 10:35:51 am PDT #5313 of 10000
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Plotty? As in having the emphasis on plot events rather than character reaction to happenings, emotional epiphanies, PWPs and all that?
Define plot events. I'm feeling very short bus this morning.
amych - May 02, 2003 10:37:57 am PDT #5314 of 10000
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
"Plotty" to me doesn't necessarily mean that the plot and not the character development is the point. I've certainly seen plotty stories whose entire point was ultimately some emotional arc. For me, it means a story in which a lot happens, and at a steady pace throughout -- rather than one where the characters sit around and chat or brood or contemplate their navel lint.
P.M. Marc - May 02, 2003 10:39:36 am PDT #5315 of 10000
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Huh - poking at my reaction a little more I think it has to do most of all with how embedded in an outside world a story is. A story which was written to get them together can still be plotty if it feels like it's happening in a real world, where other things have an impact on the characters and vice versa.
So, I'm working on something now that's at 13000 words. It may have started to get slightly potentially shippy about 3000 words ago, more or less. And it's been insanely claustrophobic, by the nature of some corners I painted myself into early on in the game.
I'm trying to determine if it's plotty.
Connie Neil - May 02, 2003 10:41:29 am PDT #5316 of 10000
brillig
Plotty=things happening, emotional or physical, and outside events have an impact on the characters. Reaction to the world is as important as personal interaction. Two people in a motel room could be a PWP or a character study, but if you say why they're in the motel room and where they're on their way to and it's important to the whole story, then you're into the plotty zone.
Am-Chau Yarkona - May 02, 2003 10:41:55 am PDT #5317 of 10000
I bop to Wittgenstein. -- Nutty
For me, it means a story in which a lot happens, and at a steady pace throughout -- rather than one where character sit around and chat or brood or contemplate their navel lint.
But I think there's always going to be some grey areas-- one writer's 'brooding' is another's 'thinking until they reach some conclusion/thought/emotional state'. The first is a look inside the character's head, and isn't plotty unless the thinking is basically a first person narrative; the second can be a point in long plot arc, or even enough to hold a short story up on it's own.