What Kind of Plotter are You?

Exactly as the title says: what kind of plotter are you?

Are you the kind of person that's really great at coming up with plots on a whim, or are you better at taking a plot given by someone else and expanding it? Or is there a completely different method to your madness?

I'm definitely the latter, I sometimes have a hard time just coming up with plots out of thin air, but if my writing partner comes up with an idea, I'm usually good at expanding on it and adding to it. I'm finding this is hindering my ability as an admin at times, because I want to help new people come up with fun ideas for their characters and I sometimes struggle at it x'D

So I'm curious what everyone thinks of their way of plotting? :]

 

*coming up with plots on a whim, or are you better at taking a plot given by someone else and expanding it*

Yes, *chuckles* I do come up with ideas, but usually, I love to ride along with a writing partner and instead of detailed plotting, I work with my partner on the overarching plot, be it adventure, romance, etc...then as we write, the sub-plots develop as our characters develop... and yes, its fun to throw in unexpected twists and turns in the story.... Gotta keep the partner happy, right !!

 

As someone who was a player first and a DM second and with... well, too many decades of experience to comfortably admit, I can do both - if necessary.

For myself and my OCs, I do like coming up with convoluted histories and then building future storylines with my partners. I am a whiz at whipping plot up out of thin air with only the tiniest hints of prompts or ideas.

This has also rolled over into world-building - give me a kernel of an idea and I can spin a whole universe out of it within hours of brainstorming.

I think the necessary ingredient is having a sounding board you trust and enjoy and can bounce ideas off of? An unknown quantity of a brainstormer can sometimes inhibit those abilities - as can someone who simply comes at you with the demand of 'I need a reason why this happens, or why this person exists', since that just feels like lazy roleplaying to me - personally.

 

I'm usually pretty adaptable in terms of plotting - I can very easily adapt to what partners want to do - but I absolutely loathe threads where "these two people don't know each other let's just throw them together in this place they'd never talk and arbitrarily concoct reasons they would" threads.

 

I just go with picking characters, and genre first when it comes to being a roleplayer. Which is what I am more then an gameowner, and writer. With some partners in roleplay I let them decide everything 'cause that works best since we only do fandom related stuff together for one of my old friends on fanfiction.net.

 

Definitely both! Depending on the character, and my mood haha, I can come up with plots on the fly or go along with something that my partner has thought up. Either way, it usually results in a lot of fun and mischief XD

 

I am a mix of both. Sometimes I can come up with plots off the top of my head, but usually, I prefer to expand on ideas given by other players.

 

I think for me it's less a question of coming up with ideas/following a lead and more when and how I come up with ideas when I am the one to offer stuff up. I'm very much in the realm of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, and do a lot of improvising in-thread. I probably drive some of my partners crazy; I've played with a lot of people who prefer to do a certain amount of plotting prior to writing anything. I try to be flexible there, too, though! One cannot help the way one's brain works, though...

 

I enjoy to have at least a basic idea of a plot before threading. I'm not very good with the tactic of no prior plotting and putting two characters in a thread to see what happens. I guess this is mostly because I write in a way where my characters have reasons for being places and doing things and I fear coming up with something on my end that works for my character and posting it up only for my rp partner to feel very frustrated because they don't know what to do with it. That's why I like the confirmation that the universal plot between our characters works on both ends.

 

I tend to get inspired by dreams, or completely random sentences I hear, and then turn those into plots. I'm definitely a very detailed plotter most of the time. Sometimes characters and worlds just pop into my head, sometimes I have to give them more careful consideration and sometimes I just go to sleep and I've dreamed an entire fantasy epic. It fluctuates a lot.

 

I like plotting out a good medium of detail, but I don't want to get to intricate. I like to see how things flow organically.

 

A great question! I love to have plots to look forward to and need sort of the story beats done out in broad strokes or I lose direction. However, I also love when a thread doesn't go the way I expected. My favorite partners are those who are willing to scrap an entire storyline if something starts going in an even better direction. :)

 

I am completely terrible at plotting anything in depth.

However, minimal ideas and things like that I can do. Start with a basic thought and then develop it through IC interactions. Makes it less forced writing to achieve a goal. Then as the writing goes on add some more building blocks but I always try to do 3-4 different scenarios that can accommodate to different possible interactions/how things go in thread. And then build a few more building blocks. :)

 

I'm similar to this too! My ideas are a little vague and through talking with others we tend to set out kind of a path we want to go to or achieve, but what happens in between is definitely up to what we make up along the way or how it flows organically. I'm also terrible at communication most times and tend to get awkward while plotting sdjfsdjfdsk

 

I like proposing plots to other players, and I like writing characters who are on an arc of their own. However, I never want any plots that I come up with to be closed or "finals". It can feel suffocating if you have a defined end-goal, and I quite like having the flexibility of negotiating how to get from point A to point B as the writing goes on.

I just really like organic development and seeing how things unfold. I'd rather be surprised.

 

I tend to think of myself as an ideas guy, but left alone I flounder around a lot, so I always appreciate having a partner to help me expand on things and make an idea bloom!

 

I can do both types of plotting, I'm really great at coming up with big ideas and I think that's why I like adminning and staffing so much. It allows me to come up with big, adventurous plots that members can enjoy and it really fills my heart to see other people getting into these big ideas.

I can also expand on ideas given to me as well! I've come to dislike pre-plotting too much and have found that my style is more make it up as you go. I love a good organic plot development and seeing how my partners & play off each other.

 

i'm used to coming up with ideas with my partners, so i like to have ideas offered to me sometimes. i would say i can do both, but plots that are outside my comfort zone might be harder to brainstorm for. i'm definitely not someone who likes to plan out every little detail (because you've basically written it at that point, so what's the point of going back and writing it with slightly more interesting words?). i like there to be some excitement and twists and turns in a plot, but there's a line between planning and no planning that is sometimes difficult to straddle. i do sometimes just throw a character into a scenario with just the background of how they meet planned out and then see where things take off from there. sometimes, it just completely fails, and the thread ends up getting tossed, but it can lead to the growth of a whole new plot idea. it's helpful when the well of other ideas has run dry

one thing that honestly is a pet peeve of mine though is when my partner doesn't really contribute anything to the plot. it's like the rp equivalent of "starfishing." they just want to go along with the ride. you ask them their preferences, and their answer is always some form of "whatever you want." i'm okay with doing the plotting sometimes, but if i'm going to be doing all of it, i may as well just write by myself. part of the fun for me is brainstorming with my partner so we can come up with new and better ideas together

 

I enjoy taking part in bigger plots that the admin on site control. But I also love coming up with personal plots for my characters. It helps me connect with them and improves my muse if I give my characters tangible personal goals for me to reach for. These goals often go hand in hand with personal plot/development.

 

chill and laid back, i'd say. lately i just go with vibes