How do y'all plot things?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I've been poking at this whole "Dick unexpectedly becomes a vampire during the clash on the Island" idea and I keep getting stuck in my head about the plot. I wouldn't consider plot one of my strong suits anyway, but when I sit down and actually try to plot a fic out I wind up trying to do way too much in a story and then never finishing it. Does anyone have suggestions for how to keep a plot simple? Is there such a thing as a plot that's too simple? Does a story about a guy becoming a vampire need cloak and dagger war machinations or is it enough to have him struggle with his new status and figure out that he really wants to bite his friend?

I'm really excited about this story so far, and I've laid down some prose I really like, but I want to actually finish this story someday and I'm so tangled up about this whole "but what is the story ABOUT really" thing that I'm worried it's going to fall by the wayside.

I read plenty of stuff where the only real point is to see the characters kiss or bone or live happily ever after, and I enjoy those stories and never feel them lacking but there's still a method to accomplish that kind of simple tale where it feels meaningful. I don't know. Probably I'm just way too in my head about this.

I don't know that a fanfic really needs an in-depth exploration of how vampires work in a military capacity to be a worthwhile read, and maybe it's enough to just have that knowledge or that general idea in the back of my head, but I can't help but want to put it down on paper. Not everything can be a novel, though, and I'm already planning for a longer-form story that I'd really like to get to. Not to mention all the other fills for H/C Bingo I have waiting in the wings.

For a thing I really love doing, writing can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. :/

(Tangentially relevant question: does anyone know if Nix speaks any languages beyond English and French?)

Comments

[scandalinbohemia]

Well, Ambrose wrote that "Nixon had lived in various part of Europe", which is not the same as saying he would spend two weeks at the Riviera every summer. Living somewhere implies picking up the local language to some degree and at the time English was not the language of the cultured elites in Europe, French was (also, Wikipedia says he travelled to France and Germany, but source unclear).
I think the Carentan bit is the show writers' way of implying that he spoke the language, but agreed, it's not confirmed.

[muccamukk]

Ambrose also said that Nix ran an agricultural empire after the war and his favourite hobby was reading.

I'm fairly sure someone was feeding him a line on Lewis Nixon III, and it might have been Dick "my best friend went to Yale AND MIT" Winters.

[scandalinbohemia]

I can totally see him grow vineyards in California and develop a taste for licentious French prose.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I feel like Nix would run a very real risk of drinking his own profits if he were ever responsible for a vineyard, haha. Probably Dick would have to be there to help him keep it in hand. I could absolutely see him getting into tawdry French novels, though. Hell, I could almost see him writing them, if there were sufficient comedy to be had at someone else's expense or he had enough reason to go to such great lengths to spite someone.

Talk about your post-war return to a civilized place for civilized men AU.

[scandalinbohemia]

And I'm sure sooner or later there would be some minor repairs to be done on the roof. *nod nod*

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Well, sure, that's just science.

[muccamukk]

SOMEONE needs to write Nix having a sideline in smutty novels. Time to read that Sam Steward bio, I guess.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I would volunteer to do it but I'm already working through such a wild backlog of dumb ideas, haha. I mean, I could definitely still be persuaded, but either way I would read the hell out of that story.

[muccamukk]

Oh god, same, but did you see the link I posted today?

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Dick going so hard in his capacity as Nix's unofficial, self-appointed hype man will never not be absolutely hilarious to me.

[muccamukk]

As opposed to Nix, who said he thought the whole thing was stupid and refused to talk to Ambrose at all, and all the other guys who didn't like Nix. I guess Dick decided that SOMEONE who had to be Nix's hype man.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Hahaha I wish I had an even closer up image of that same icon to use. xD

You know, Dick, that's fair. (As much as I'm irritated forever that there's not any canon Nix input that's also such a power move I can't help but admire it.)

Poor Dick, having to be like, "Well, so-and-so might have said Nix did that, but really it went down more in this way that makes him at least a highly likable and sympathetic character if not an actual hero and while we're on the subject did I mention that he's very smart and handsome and loyal?"

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Yeah I was wondering where that bit about France and Germany came from, because that's what I was thinking back to. As long as I can swing it in a way that's at least somewhat believable, I'm totally okay with taking some liberties as to Nix's linguistic capabilities, haha.