Not really. If it's a good setting it should be easy to come up with a conflict, and if you come up with a conflict the characters should appear naturally. I mean let's say there's a planet made entirely out of poison save for a few islands. Where do we go from there? Well, maybe the poison is slowly destroying those islands and someone wants to stop that. Who wants to stop it? The hero. Why? Because he feels like if he doesn't do it, nobody else will. There, you have a character.
...Now note that the above example is absolutely awful and should not be taken literally. I was just typing up the most cliched nonsense I could think of.
My point is, if you have a really cool setting and can't think of a plot, chances are that setting is more of a prop than an actual setting. In that case I'd recommend going back to the drawing board or just try to think "How would this setting affect the lives of people? What conflict would this generate?"
edited 14th Jun '12 2:19:48 PM by Lestrade
Well I can come up with all sorts of plots, but my issue is that to get that similar "flash" for a setting is tough. The plot just feels substantially weaker in comparison to what I like about the setting.
Maybe try approaching the setting from another direction by thinking of your protagonist next?
Seinfeld.
Character angle, how do you usually go about creating characters?
Ah yes, Seinfeld, I think that's more like, no setting, no plot... just whatever.
"Random setting-appropriate gags" (=sitcom?) and "moeblobs doing random cute things" are two major subtypes of fiction with no notable plot. Seinfeld. Azumanga Daioh. Keeping Up Appearances.
They think me mad
Both of those have plots, just that they have series of small episodic plots with nothing overarching beyond Daioh (thanks for reminding how much I hate the world moeblob btw) progressing through high school.
to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee
Well my settings don't really tend well to sitcoms (I suppose they could if you wrangled it a bit), although I would like to do some witty comedic writing, I find that to be much more difficult than 'serious business' fiction. I mean if my setting is some dystopian future where humans give up their ability to control their destiny because they're lazy unintelligent slobs, what would the plot be?
See, I really really dislike one aspect of stuff like Atlas Shrugged (maybe I hate all the aspects of this one) or Farenheit 451. They have great settings. Their plots are the most simplistic things in the world. Is there a fear that a complicated plot distracts from either the setting or the characters?
Every so often I come up with a new setting idea and I'm very fascinated by it, maybe because I like the technology idea, or maybe I like a theme it looks at and so on. But there's always the issue that developing a setting first means you have no plot and then I'm usually hard pressed to figure out a plot as interesting as the setting itself.
Anyone else have this issue?