Story Development

Story Development (formerly Plot Doctoring until September 2019) is a catch-all forum for plot-related questions, plot holes, and ideas. Until 2010, it was also the primary home of adoptable threads. These threads received their own forum, Adoption Society on October 1, 2010.

Posts meant for the Story Development forum are occasionally misposted in the Reference Desk forum, meaning a moderator must move them to the appropriate forum.

In 2012 the Character Cafe and Appellation Station were added to relieve Plot Doctoring of all the posts regarding naming things and character development. As such, the Plot Doctoring description needed to be edited to reflect the questions that needed to be taken to these forums.

The Worldbuilding forum was added in 2014, relieving the Plot Doctoring forum of the many worldbuilding questions (both real-world and made-up) that the forum received simply because they didn't fit anywhere else.

As of September 2019, Story Development is a top-level forum containing five subforums: Character Cafe, Grammar & Style, Appellation Station, Worldbuilding, and Adoption Society.

Tip: If your post is seeking a name for something, take it to the Appellation Station. If your question is about an aspect of your character, post it to the Character Cafe. If you have a question about the mechanics of writing, ask it Grammar & Style. If you need a fact, figure, or anecdote, the Reference Desk or Personal Experience are your best bets. If your topic concerns worldbuilding, then the Worldbuilding forum is for you. Story Development is for resolving plot problems and gathering plot ideas that do not fall in the above categories.

Forum Description

2003-2007: "Is your plot running out of steam? Are you unsure of how to tie everything together? Unload your thorny plot problems here, and let our team of literary technicians get your book back on the right foot."

2008-2011: "Is your plot running out of steam? Don't know what to name your main character's third uncle? Are you unsure of how to tie everything together? Unload your thorny plot problems here, and let our team of literary technicians get your book back on the right foot."

2012-2014: "Is your plot running out of steam? Plot holes so deep you can drive a bus through them? Are you unsure of how to tie everything together? Unload your thorny plot problems here, and let our team of literary technicians get your book back on the right foot."

2015-September 2019: "Is your story running out of steam? Are your plot holes so wide you can drive a bus through them? Let our team of literary technicians get your book back on the right footing. Paving over plot holes since 2002."

September 2019-present: "Plot questions, story tweaks, and more! Is your story running out of steam? Are your plot holes so wide you can drive a bus through them? Let our team of literary technicians get your book back on the right footing. Paving over plot holes since 2002. This forum is for all your plot-related questions."

Moderators

Current Moderators

• Heather Dudley (2008-present)
• The global moderators (September 2019-present)

Former Moderators

• Cybele May (2004-2007)
• Evening Scribe (2007)
• Sarah Mackey (2006, 2008)
• Trilli (2009)
• s_m_clark2006 (2009-2010)
• MermaidSirena (2010)
• FireFallon (2011)
• Liz Lynch (2011)
• TommehBell (2012-2013)
• essbee (2014)
• Xander Writes (formerly artofcheatery) (2011-September 2019) (joined global moderators)
• elyndra (2017-September 2019) (joined global moderators)

External Links

• Story Development forum (with subforums filtered out)