Do you use a method to plot your novels?

[Nerds_feather]

Planners: do you use a plotting method, such as Blake Snyder's "beat sheet" (from Save the Cat), or do you have your own that you've devised?

 

[thaddeus6th]

I start with a basic outline (for example "Princess Sophie is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Narglepuss. Brave Sir Jeremy has to rescue her") and then flesh it out a bit more. After that, I break it up into chapters and do an outline of each, focusing on major characters present, who the POV is, and the general sentiment of the chapter.

I do usually end up straying on a few chapters, but the approach helps keep things fairly in line.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

At the moment I use the 7-point plot structure for each plot thread (I have 3 at the moment) in my WIP, work each out individually and then see how i can merge them together with the main story arc. I then just fill in the gaps as i go through the WIP.

 

[A. Fare Wells]

I don't know. My imagination creates the general story idea and I start writing based on that—revising, cut-and-pasting, revising over and over until it works. The framework stays loose.

If I find I'm having a particularly difficult time piecing it together, I will then revert to a rough outline. My stories are in a constant state of flux until they're done and I can live with them. Sometimes that might create unanticipated problems, but as long as I'm happy with it, then it doesn't matter what else happens.

 

[Dozmonic]

I couldn't plot the whole thing off the bat, but I do think of it in milestones.

So, for outlining something intended to be more commercial, I'd go through and decide the 7 point plot structure, just to make sure it's solid. That can take some time, too, because it's easy just to fill points, but not so easy to fill them well.

Having done that, I can then think about the 4 acts (3 act is such a misnomer, act 2 is twice the size of acts 1 and 3, and it has a divide in the middle...). The set up, the response, the attack and the resolution. Probably not in so much detail, but so I know I'm not thinking about my protagonist as he is in the attach and putting that into the set up, because it's out of place.

I'll use plotting tools more as a means of analysis on more complete work, to check that I have things happening that make it all come together. Something like Larry Brooks' page here: The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page

I have another one of his that I use instead of that, but it's one I extracted from other posts, so don't have a direct link to it.

But yeah, analysis using plotters' techniques works well I find.

 

[Tecdavid]

Thinking up the general theme, then plotting out key stages of its development are how I've done things so far. I agree with Dozmonic: of course it'd be a tall order to just sit down one day, think of every step the story will take, and write to that design. So thinking of certain milestones the plot will reach is handy. Afterward, I've been told it's a better idea to join those dots as you go, lettings events and characters carry themselves between them.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

No, I just write them. The plot comes to me as I write them and then I change it around as I reveiw what I've written. Sometimes I have to change large chunks as I decide on a new plot point in the work.

If I actually did plan things I think I'd be in a lot of trouble. There's an old saying that no war plan survives the first battle, and I think that applies equally well to me and writing. If I tried to write to a plan I'd keep having to change the plan.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Wendigo]

I usually don't really have much of a formal plan beyond the basic idea/concept (e.g. in the future, this character sets out to do whatever).

The main "planning" technique I do use, though, is to, after I start the story, work out the end and maybe sketch out a rough draft of the ending before I go on too far with the rest of the story. That way even without a set-in-stone plan for the rest, I still have some idea what I'm working towards.

I might revise the story and/or ending to fit each other along the way, usually several times, but it's still easier to go from A to B, even if B might be slightly fluid.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Not really, I have an idea, characters and know roughly the path I want the story to go. As I write, it grows and changes. New characters arrive, join in, situations arise. Research has to be done. I slowly plough through the first draft, each chapter building on the last. Once I have a first draft I begin to edit. Characters can be added, situations altered, scenes re-written from another characters POV. Additional scenes added.

Once I have a draft I am satisfied with I edit again and again, tightening up the story, developing the characters over if they need to be. This can result sometimes in a novel length of 200,000 words or one of 75,000 words. Then I start working on bring the work count up or down. I try to aim for about between 100,000 and 120,000 words to keep it within submission requirements.

I then let it loose with beta readers. Alter bits of it.

Then paid editor.(If I can afford one at the time) Alter bits.

Submit it.

Works for me.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I have used Storymind's "Storyweaver". It's a paid-for system that leads you to develop a three-act plot and also think about characters, theme, etc.
I have found it helpful, and have used it to analyse and fix existing novels as well as plan new ones.
You also get a large amount of free stuff with it, some of which you might find useful if you are prepared to wade through it all.

Good job you asked, as I don't seem to have re-installed it since I upgraded to Windows 7.

 

[hopewrites]

If I come at a writing project where I know what is going to happen before I've "Written" it, it's because stole the plot and characters from a dream. So I don't often have an ending in mind, (one simply cant end a book "and then I woke up" people would throw things) like I do for my current WIP, but that just makes the process more fun.

I think.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

My most successful foray into planning was the snowflake method. It took me a couple of weeks to do the book but it is coming on really well and did not deviate until Chapter Eleven.

 

[Bowler1]

I have an overall plot plan that I stick to, but that's it. I feel planning has to be loose enough to allow for new ideas to grow too, characters to develop etc.


SJAB's working method sounds very similar to the working method I'm developing, which boils down to write it - then using a large editing stick, beat the living daylights out of your WIP.


But I still think you have to have a good plot plan to start with and not just write aimlessly. Saying that, lots of people just write too.

 

[barrett1987]

Writers who just sit down and write amaze me. I think i 'could' do it but the results would be messy

This novel began with two clear scenes in my mind. What i thought was the start scene and what i knew would be the end.

Since starting to write in February i've learnt more about the 'science' of writing and what a story needs and thus have had to begin the book earlier than the original scene.

The only way to visualize and know what my goals are each writing session is by having an outline next to my keyboard. Scene by Scene. With arrows linking scenes that are happening at the same time in different areas and p.o.v's. I tend to write one scene per session. I throw myself into the scene and work on nothing but that scene until its finished. If i was to jump to another scene mid way through then the result would be scenes that lack...depth.

If I was to write one p.o.v and follow the character throughout i could in theory just write without a plan but that is how Stephen King writes most of his books and most agree his books have poor endings. By planning you can look ahead and say "ok..thats where i'm heading...now how do i get there?" Without planning you can turn around and say, "ok the train is going full pelt how the hell do i get off?"

I feel that if you are writing an 'epic' novel - something i will one day try. (Maybe in 10 years) then planning is crucial and has to be intense and detailed because without it the story won't hold together.

Just my two cents on the subject from my decades, no scratch that, weeks of experience on the subject Take it as the opinion it is meant to be.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I wrote an entire trilogy without knowing the ending. I was pleasantly surprised when I came to book three how well things came together - my subconscious knew what it was doing, evidently. it's not that I don't plan, it's that I don't do it before I write. But I certainly hadn't planned out book three while I was writing book one. But I will hit plot hurdles and then my notebooks come out and the planning happens.

Shifting pov can make it messier simply because of continuity and I usually end up shifting some scenes around. I also do quite a bit of rewriting, which works for me as I write very fast anyway.

I don't think I could write from a plan. A. Because my characters are deviant and do their own things and b. Because I'd get bored, knowing what's going to happen next. Ths surprise of going, wow, how did that happen? Is a big bit of the fun of writing for me.

 

[hopewrites]

I agree with Springs, part of the fun of writing is being the first to read the story

Course the price of this is having to edit the thing so others can read it too.