Help discovering if your plot stands up to snuff or not.

[anthorn]

So, currently 10'000 words away from my project finished. Instead of stopping and starting I've decided if I plow through and get it done, when I need to change things such as plot threads or character arcs, at least I have the framework to make it as little work as possible.

But I've recently taken to a new method to discovering whether or not a plot makes sense.

What I'm doing is picking 5 books at random and writing down their plot in a brief paragraph, then comparing it to my own to see if my own plot is easily explained, or makes sense. It helps you in finding out whether your plot is clear enough.

I've chosen. The Blade Itself, City of Stairs, The Traitor, and View from the Mirror.

Example.
Bayaz and his cronies gather people for a mission to the Old Empire and manipulates events to put players in place for the Endgame. Glokta investigates the mercers and eliminates them before being assigned to investigate Bayaz. West prepares for war in the north.

If your plot can't be put in so many lines without sounding random then it needs work, maybe.

Thought I'd share this idea with people and see if it helps someone else.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I wish it did ...

At the moment I have a severe affliction of Crepitus Profingens Terra - in other words, my head is in the sand.

I considered the unlikely circumstances that someone wanted me to write a synopsis of my WIP and concluded, fiddle de dee, that I'd think about that another day. I don't even know where to start?!

So yeah, but no, and good luck!

pH

 

[Biskit]

It depends on what you mean by the plot making sense or being clear enough.

Your example sounds more like drafting a paragraph for a pitch letter and with not enough detail to know if the plot actually works. Testing the idea on successful novels might be misleading. What you really want is a book where you know the plot has problems and see if you can condense that down into a few sentences.

 

[anthorn]

It depends on what you mean by the plot making sense or being clear enough.

Your example sounds more like drafting a paragraph for a pitch letter and with not enough detail to know if the plot actually works. Testing the idea on successful novels might be misleading. What you really want is a book where you know the plot has problems and see if you can condense that down into a few sentences.

True, maybe. But my example and method can be used in helping someone with their own plot. If they can't identify what the plot is as simply as the Blade itself example then they might need to work on it, to identify what is the plot, and might learn that when they thought they had one main plot they have several and then should focus on the main plot.

 

[hopewrites]

I hand mine to my inner Cubert.

If I can live with his snarkings, I keep writing. If not, I check in with the characters to see what I've done wrong.

System seems to work for me, as my characters are getting better about not letting me go wrong, or I'm getting better at leading them down plausibly awesome paths... my ego won't let me decide which.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I'm clear on the plot, just that it's a story of 4 timelines plaited together. In my synopsis do I tell them concurrently or...

pH