TECH: Plotting Your Novel

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 29 Dec. 2013

It's time for a moldy oldie! I was cleaning my office and found some of those great Writer's Digest articles that I had pulled out and saved. The pages are turning brown, so it must be time to make up a posting here on writers about them.

Pages 22 to 25 in the September 1995 issue of Writer's Digest has an article by Jack M. Bickham. He starts off talking about organizing the storyline, also known as plotting. Some people just make a list of the major events, other people make up a careful timeline, and some people worry about all the events before the present story. No matter how you tackle putting together your plot, there are three common problems that you may want to try to avoid. First, a story with a timeline that is just too big for an ordinary novel. Second, starting the story without enough dramatic incidents or events planned for inclusion. And third, not really having enough of a plan about how to present the events in the most dramatic way possible.

There are some simple tactics that help with these three issues. First, consider the time span of all the events you have imagined for your novel, and look for the latest possible time that you can start and still get everything major in. Second, keeping in mind this tight time frame, look for new twists, surprises, or even subplots that can make the plot denser and busier. Third, develop a dynamic plan for presenting everything in the most dramatic way possible.

So we want to start late and fast. The trick here is that we almost naturally start digging into the back story, but we really want to start the novel at the beginning -- which is a scary place to start! After all, change is threatening, and yet that is the right place to start your story. Really good novels usually start with a moment of critical change that puts two or more story people in conflict with one another.

How can you pick out something like that? Well, try making a list of all the major happenings or events that you think are going to take place in the story. Now look for one that contains a threatening change. Try laying out a plot that starts there. Everything before that is back story.

Now, you might be tempted to try sneaking it all in as flashbacks. Sometimes a flashback is good. But a lot of the time, it's just an author being lazy. Ask yourself whether the reader really needs to know all the details. Or can you do it in some other way? Remember that flashbacks stop the present story which really plays havoc with that momentum you a trying to build.

Now, you want to make sure that your plot is full of events. Yes, we want to start late, but we want there to be enough going on, enough at stake, enough complexity, enough meaningful stuff happening. You need little incidents, and you need events, happenings that are important because they have impact, and make other things happen. Wherever possible, pick events that the characters initiate.

"How do you facilitate this process? Remember: every major character should have his or her own problem or goal or ax to grind. Each should be motivated, trying to accomplish something. Work to identify clearly in your own mind what these characters' goals and plans are. Have the characters act to accomplish their goals. Each such act is an event, and someone else must respond to it with his or her own -- which in turn becomes a new event for the other character. Move and countermove, event leading to event, keeps the plot proceeding at a fine, hot pace."

Next, Jack recommends using 3 x 5 cards to help lay out your plot. On each card, briefly describe the event. Note what you think will cause that event, and what other events it needs to. In pencil, you can note where you think this event fits in the chronology of your story. Write up all the events that you know about. Then put them in order. You might want to lay them out on a large table. Look for holes in the sequence. Add to your pack of cards. Shift them around.

Before you transfer your outline from the cards to a wall, or a typed up listing or whatever, stop and think about the story question. Readers like to worry. If a major character wants something or needs it, readers are going to make that into a story question. Will the character get what they want? And they interpret most of the events in terms of the questions. So take a look at your cards. Does the first or second have a decision by the major character about a long-term goal?

That's what your reader will say the story question is. So go ahead and write a card stating the question, so that you can make it very clear. Then double check that your other cards relate to this goal and this question. And at the end, there needs to be an event that answers the question. Take a look at the main story question, and at the secondary story questions for the secondary characters.

All right? Figure out where you're going to start, make sure you've got lots of events, figure out the right order for them, and make sure the story question and the story answer are in there. Then write your first draft.

Simple, right? Or is that write?