Topic of the Month
How did you plan the last novel you wrote (and successfully finished)? Outline? Synopsis? Summary? Divination Rod? Nuthin' at all?
The last novel I wrote was Shift, book 5 of my Shifters series, and I just finished the first draft a week ago, today. Now, I’m a tried and true plotter, for a couple of reasons. First, because I have to turn in a full synopsis for approval from my editor before I start. But also because I discovered several books ago that if I know what’s going to happen in each chapter, I hardly ever waste time staring at a blank screen, waiting for the words to come. They’re already there, and all I have to do is write them down. And for the first draft, I don’t worry about making them pretty. Seriously. At that point, I’m only concerned with getting the story down on the screen. The art part comes in later. ;-)
So, for Shift, I started with my white board and Post-its-a different color for each plotline.
The first step is to scribble down everything I know needs to happen in the book, on the appropriate color note. At first in this process, my head is a huge blank, and I’m sure I won’t have anything to start with. After all, this is plotting. Isn’t that where the ideas are supposed to come from?
But I’m always pleasantly surprised by how many of the ideas are already there, in part because I already have a basic plot in mind, and in part because there are so many things left over from the previous book in the series.
Green is usually the color I use for the main plot in my Shifters books. Why green? Because it reminds me of trees and nature, and my werecats spend a lot of time in the woods. Stupid? Maybe. Effective? Yes. It’s easy to remember. In Shift, Faythe is trying to save someone she loves from an enemy we haven’t seen so far in the series, and she doesn’t have very long to do it. I had several things already in mind for this plot. Mostly just images, including how the bad guys get a hold of Faythe’s loved one, what the enemy’s lair looks like, etc…
Pink is for the love story, which is just as dark and dangerous as the main plot. Yes, pink is a bit of a cliché for the romance, but hey, it works. Again, easy to remember. And frankly, the love story got a bit messy in Prey, so now Faythe’s trying to clean it up. Or at least keep it from getting any messier.
I think I used purple for the political plotline. Werecat politics have been very important in the series since Pride (the third book), and that particular plotline is leading up to the series conclusion in book six. (Wrap it all up in the next book? No pressure…)
I also have yellow and blue Post-its, which show the sub-plots centering around Manx’s life (trial, baby, potential love vs. practicality) and Kaci (adjustment to life as a werecat, missing her human family, finding her place in the Pride, launching Faythe into life as an adult by being a surrogate daughter).
So anyway, once I have all the ideas I’ve come up with jotted on the appropriate color note, I slap them on the white board at random. Then I start organizing them in the most logical order. The beauty of using the Post-its (I recommend the super-sticky kind) is that they can be rearranged without having to erase and rewrite stuff with the erasable markers.
Then I start filling the blanks with more notes. Transitions, and other scenes that start to seem necessary/irresistible. And when I get stuck (never fails to happen at some point), I get out the dry-erase markers and start scribbling in the margins of the white board, jotting down every single possibility I can think of. This usually helps me come up with a solution, but if it doesn’t, I either pace through an intense plotting phone call with my CP, or go out for fajitas with #1. Sometimes both, but not at the same time.
And finally, once I have all my cards in order, I use them to write the synopsis.
I’ve used this process on the last seven of my eleven total novels, and it’s only failed me once. With Prey. But the problem wasn’t my plotting process. It was my plot. Massive, massive revisions. I had to rewrite the entire main plot, without dumping any of the subplots. But that’s a story for another post… And for the record, I love, love, love the way Prey turned out. It’s truly pivotal to the series. ;-)
So, there you have it. That’s how I plot.