Eyyyy, new novel. You shouldn’t be able to read it, don’t worry. In fact, please don’t try and let me know if you can besides the title because that would be An Issue.
Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to post this, because we’re right at the start of NaNoWriMo, and even though I’m not doing it this year I know people who are (good luck, you brave souls) and I know that sometimes a new angle can be really helpful. So, props to @q-not-qt for suggesting I post this. I hope it helps!!
This is the Phillip Pullman method of plotting. I think. I got the ideas from a board at my school library in like, year 8 That was quite a while ago, so it could be misinformed. Anyway, it said that he wrote down all his plot points on post-it notes and moved them around until he was happy with the order. And the first draft of my synopsis is due next week, and I was stuck and a bit lost and needed to sort my brain out, so, I tried it. And it actually worked??
I’m quite new to such in-depth planning. Up until now, planning and writing have gone hand-in-hand, the one informing the other, and the first edit is usually a major overhaul to bring everything in to line.
Seven or eight novels into that method, I can definitely recommend giving this a go instead! It’s highly unlikely that I will iron everything out perfectly before I start (properly, that is, I’m writing snippets and segments all the time to develop plot and character and world), but it’s really, really helping me get a better idea of plot. Keeping the whole thing malleable is actually really important. It helps identify plot holes, character issues, and brings up some majorly important questions that get harder to solve the further in you go. Especially because the easiest way to solve an issue isn’t necessarily the best. And it means you get to know your story and your characters better!
Everything that I’m doing now is about finding the heart of the story, and I love it. Usually I write to find the heart. This time, I would like to write it with the heart already firmly embedded in the story.
I know some people don’t like to plan. That’s totally fine! But if you’re struggling with a plot or a new concept or just finding the motivation to write, this can definitely help. Hell, I’m going to move this to above my desk instead of in my living room (I have housemates, poor things) but it’s going to stay up there until I’ve finished my novel. And it’s going to stay malleable until I’ve finished my novel, too.
If anyone’s interested in the structure I followed, it’s the fairly basic one:
- Exposition (what is the world like before the story starts?)
- Inciting Incident (what happens to make the story begin?)
- Rising Action (this is usually the longest and sometimes hardest part, and this trick is especially good if you have a start and an end but no middle because it can help you pin down the in-between)
- Climax (everything comes to a head)
- Falling Action (things start to calm down)
- Denouement (what’s different now that the story is over?)
Your story doesn’t have to have a resolution, but if it does, it should be in one of those last three sections. Incidentally, as long as you have a climax, you also don’t necessarily have to have the last two sections either.
Also, because what this doesn’t show is that putting it all together took me hours of writing, re-writing, re-arranging, and scrunched up and then unscrunched post-it notes, the section that I liked most:
(a.k.a I know that I want this to happen but I don’t know where it fits - definitely the fullest section on more than one occasion)
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to start with a whole plot. You don’t even have to finish with a whole plot. The important thing is the development.
