Three Easy Plotting Ideas

Plotting easy? Is that what I said in the title? Well, I guess it depends on who you ask. Some of us are plotters and some of us aren't. Even those of us who are still find plotting a challenge on occasion. (Maybe even frequently.)

So what better than to share our plotting tips and make that challenge a little less hard on ourselves?

Sticky-Note Timeline

Photo by Rameshng

What writer isn't a fan of sticky notes? And here's a new way to put those little guys to use.

When thinking about your story, list as many singular events as you can that will happen in your story.

Jake arrives in town and it's different than he remembered...Jake meets Shannon...the bank forecloses on Jake's house.

Write down every big or small event, in any order, you can think of that could happen in your story. When you're finished writing each event on a sticky note, put those sticky notes in chronological order. This gives you a chance to see how fleshed out your plot is, if you want to fill in the gaps, or transfer the timeline to a sheet of paper and go from there. You can even write from what you've got on your sticky notes and throw away each piece after the event happens.

 
The What-If Conflict Question

I know when I'm initially plotting I sometimes have trouble thinking up different disasters to put my characters through. So I ask strangers. Okay, maybe not complete strangers, but people who don't know what my story is about.

I'll say to my family, "What if I just moved to a small town and ran out of money? What things could happen to make life (and finances) harder for me?"

And they'll just shout out ideas.

The water heater breaks!

Someone steals your car!

Monsters attack! (This from my five-year-old. She likes to play, too.)

I do this with all sorts of what-if questions and my family or friends help me fill in gaps I'm struggling with so I can round out the plot, and do so with a different perspective.


Divisions and Subdivisions

Sometimes I need compartmentalized structure. Because there are so many different aspects to a story, knowing GMC, external and internal goals, etc., I make categories for each main character.

Spiritual Stance and Goal
Motivation (back story stuff) and Goal
Internal Conflict
External Conflict (Can be several things)

You can split this up however you want, but basically you're putting big categories that are going to represent your character's wants, needs, and why, and what's going to hinder that. Then you can start filling out the space under each header. This will keep you organized with each character and you can be as extensive (or not) as you want. Hopefully it will help you stay away from plot holes, too

I LOVE plotting because it really helps me write a solid first draft. But I do it at different levels for different stories, hence the varying ideas above.

How much do you plot? Would you like to be a more extensive plotter or not? And hey, while you're at it, if you have any easy plotting tips, do share!

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Cindy is a Colorado native, living near the mountains with her husband and three beautiful daughters. She writes contemporary Christian romance, seeking to enrich lives with her stories of faith, love, and a lot of humor.

To learn more about Cindy, visit her at her personal blog, www.cindyrwilson.com

How a CPA Writes a Novel (Because I Know You're DYING to Know!)

Did you know it's entirely possible for a book to be written in an Excel spreadsheet? Okay, all you pantsers, stop snickering at me. I'm serious.

Since Pepper shared her writing process last week and Julia has been talking about storyboarding, I thought I'd share a little piece of my writing process today.

When I first started writing novels, I stumbled upon Randy Ingermanson's website Advanced Fiction Writing. At the time, it seemed like a coincidence. Now after meeting Randy, I know it was all part of his greater plan to take over the world. :)

He's known for this thing called the Snowflake Method of planning a novel. Since I like order in my life, I lapped it up like a thirsty dog, only without the loud slurping. When I got to the part where he talked about outlining scenes in Excel, I knew I'd found my place (can't help it...I'm a CPA).

From that point forward, I started outlining my books and scenes in an Excel spreadsheet. For each book, I have columns with the date of the scene, the chapter number, the POV character, a summary of the scene, the word count, the plots/subplots (more on that in a future post), and more. For every version of my manuscript, I have a separate tab in Excel.

I even created a tab where I track my daily progress. I have a line for each date and I log the time I spend drafting, editing, etc. Then I have a column where I track my scene goals for each day. So if I'm starting the editing process, I might have Scene 1a on Monday, Scene 1b on Tuesday and so on. I refer to my word counts on the other tab to help me gauge how many scenes I can complete each day.

Now I know this method wouldn't work for everyone (All you pantsers have glazed eyes right now. Am I right?), but I think it's important to track our goals and progress somehow. Before I started this process, I wandered aimlessly without a real target. But now that I treat my Daily Progress tab like a time clock, it helps me stay focused.

Does the idea of using a spreadsheet to plan a novel scare you? How do you stay focused on reaching your goals?

*Keyboard image: br3akthru / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Minutes image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Shoot! I forgot the 4th!

IMAGINE!

You're reading a really good book. The tension is building with the characters, and you can barely put the book down to go to the bathroom. It's the end of June in your literary world, and the heat is blazing on the pages about as much as it is in the weather. To add a little to the stakes (see Pepper's Monday post) the A/C goes out and your characters are miserable. You smile, because you know that author had a good laugh over that.

The chapter leaves off on a hook that makes you want to scream, especially since you REALLY have to pee now, but there is no way you are putting down that book. Then the next chapter starts, and it's the beginning of July. The days go by, and suddenly it hits you.

Where did the 4th of July go? No fireworks, besides of course the ones between your hero and heroine. No picnic, no mention of a celebration. So what ... are the characters anti-USA or something? Geez!

No, more likely, the author was so immersed in the story that they completely forgot about it. Now, as a reader, I personally forgive it. Especially if the story is awesome.

But other readers, not so much. Most likely, this pretend-author would get a bunch of mail pointing out the error, and some would even put it down in disgust. I guess I'm more forgiving.

I DO understand though, how easy it is to forget something like this.

Example: A few months ago, I was editing one of my books and realized how big of an idiot I was. Now, I remembered the holiday, which in this case, was Labor Day, however I also sent my character INTO the bank... and what's worse, I did it later in the afternoon around 5 or so, when a bank wouldn't be open regardless of the holiday.

I felt like such an idiot. How could I do something so stupid, so obvious?

And a better question, what could I do to help prevent this?

Answer:

A TIMELINE!

We've talked about this numerous times in my local writer's group, and given the holiday weekend, I thought it'd be a timely topic here as well!

What I personally do is use a current calendar and map out my days given the season/time-frame my book is written. This helps me know when I've hit major holidays, when weekends come up, etc.

• Do you have a pregnant woman in your novel? Make sure her pregnancy progresses at the right rate.
• Do you have a child of school age? Make sure they are in school when they should be.
• Do your characters go to church? Make sure you don't have them sleeping in on Sunday for no good reason.
• Does your character work? Keep track of their work schedule so they aren't playing hooky.

There are a ton of other things to keep track of. Find a system that works for you. It might be good ol' pencil and paper. It might be in MS Excel. I've been known to use my MS Outlook and set up "appointments" at the given intervals to track happenings. It's quite funny months later when something pops up to remind me something that Jack and Jenny are doing that day. Ha!

Whatever the way, stick to it and be consistent to the calendar.

Your readers will thank you!

Oh, and watch the clock too. Your character shouldn't go from lunch to dinner with zero time having lapsed, and your character shouldn't eat their first bite of food, then put down their fork and say how full they are, unless of course they have an eating disorder!

So, anyone else have an awesome method for keeping time in your novels?

OH! And everyone... have a WONDERFUL 4th of July weekend!!!! ENJOY the fireworks!