How I Plot (To Take Over The World)
I lied on my resume. I do not have excellent organizational skills.
Oh, I know the theory, but it always breaks down in practice. I tend to over-think any organizational process and end up with vast layers of organization which I can't maintain because they are much too complicated and the whole system breaks down in a couple of weeks making me more unorganized than ever before. Any organization in my life is either an accident or the work of Husband. Husband loves for things to be organized and is a genius at it.
Example: Making dinner
Me? I stand in the kitchen peering in the cabinets until meal inspiration strikes, which takes about a half hour. I realize I don't have the ingredients and dash down the street to the store to get what I need and maybe some chocolate and those strawberries look great and, wow, they have amaretto creamer! Score! Come home. Make dinner. Go back to the grocery store to get the crucial something I forgot. And voila! Dinner is ready about the time the kids are going to bed. (And we are out of grocery money and gas money a week before payday.) Oops.
Awesome Husband* plans out a two-week menu, figures out all the ingredients we'll need, and goes shopping. Plus his shopping list is ordered by aisle. (!) We fix whatever's on the menu. We eat before 8 PM almost every night. We only dash to the grocery store for milk and to appease the occasional ice cream or chocolate craving. There is always popcorn and Diet Dr. Pepper in the house. And the best part? I don't have to go to Evil UberMart. Score!
This lack of organization transfers over to my writing. I'm a pantser. Meaning I write by the seat of my pants. (Clear as mud, right?) Meaning I don't have outlines, spreadsheets, index cards, and calendars that help me plan out my book before I start writing it. I just sit down and write and whatever comes out of my head and through my fingers is what goes on the page (or screen).
At least for my first draft. (Hey! we reached the point of this post! Score!)
Pantsing
(No, not THAT. Let's try to be grown-ups. I know it's difficult . . . )
I start with an idea. (Shiny!) The idea wanders through my head for a few days/weeks/months gathering up more ideas and growing and getting all sparkly with dragonfly wings and rainbows and . . . you get the picture. Then comes the fun part. I daydream.
If the idea is a character, I make up scenarios putting the character in tragic and dangerous peril. If it's a scenario, I start populating it with characters who must deal with the tragic and perilous danger. I keep the good daydreams and expand on them, discard the not-so-good daydreams, and spend a lot of time tormenting people in my head and not paying much attention to where I'm going.
This might be why Awesome Husband prefers to drive.
Eventually, one of the scenarios is so intriguing, I write it down. Then if it isn't stupid or boring, I write down what happens next. If that isn't stupid, I keep going until I run out of ideas about what happens next. Then comes the important (and really hard) part.
I reread it and try to figure out what the heck the story is about.
Time to pull out the big tools. Time to GET ORGANIZED with SPREADSHEETS.
Plotting (to take over the world)
(Excellent.) ( . . . Are you picturing Mr. Burns or Lord Vetinari right now?)
I have two tools for organizing a story--a character spreadsheet and a plot graph.
My character spreadsheet is for my sanity. It lists details for each character in the story: actual name, nickname, physical description, relatives, personal history, motivation, goals, etc. It is my quick reference to make sure that my hero's eye color doesn't change in Chapter 3 and again in Chapter 25, and that Sidekick No. 2** doesn't gain six inches in height halfway through Chapter 17 thus becoming taller than the villain because she wouldn't put up with that.
The plot graph is a recent addition to my process. Basically every scene gets a card . . . or rather a square on the spreadsheet. (I stole this idea from another author who uses a giant cork board and index cards. However, cork boards are never around when you need them, e.g., in the car or the library, so I use Excel.) Then I sort the squares by plot line. If a square doesn't fit in one of the plot lines, it is removed (or I reevaluate what the plot really is). If a plot line is missing some scenes, squares get added. If a scene is forwarding two or more plots, then the square is duplicated for each plot line that uses it.
The plot graph lets me see at a glance that each plot is moving forward and each scene has a purpose. Also I can tell if I need to rethink a plot because maybe it isn't what I though it was. I can "see" the flow of the story and manipulate it easier than when looking at 200+ pages of scrolling text.
Once I get my plots sorted out, then I go back to the manuscript and start cutting and pasting into a new document. I rewrite scenes that need changing and write new scenes where needed.
Then I read the story and smooth the transitions.
Then I read it for continuity errors.
Then I reread the story again to make sure it makes sense.
Then Awesome Husband and the beta readers*** read it (and I cross my fingers because by this time I have no idea if it's any good or not).
Rereading it, this sounds like a very organized process, but discovering it was very organic and chaotic.
I kept forgetting what one character looked like because I had combined two others and couldn't remember what features I'd kept, I found a couple of basic character sheets online, but they weren't quite right for me, so created the character spreadsheet.
I wandered in editing hell for months because I knew there were things wrong with my story, but I didn't know what or how to fix them. Then I found some great blog posts about plotting and an example of a plot graph and the heavens opened, light shone down, angels sang . . . ok, not really, but it looked like a really good idea, so I tried it. And it worked! I saw plot holes and ways to fix them, how to make my plot tighter and more efficient, and places where crucial things were missing. Score!
So what is the moral? Organizing might be torture, it's necessary. Or maybe, being forced to organize is karmic retribution for tormenting imaginary characters? (uh oh!)
Some other authors have been writing posts about their plotting (to take over the world) this week:
Julie Weathers - She has a picture of one of JK Rowling's mind-boggling hand-written plot charts.
Susan Boyer - Excel users unite!
Lisa Ahn - She doesn't have a blog, so Julie posted her method.
Cynthia Reese - apparently she's my competition for world domination.
~~~
* I upgraded his name because he is awesome and because I can.
** not an actual character name
*** my band's name****
**** not really, but it should be
Oh, I know the theory, but it always breaks down in practice. I tend to over-think any organizational process and end up with vast layers of organization which I can't maintain because they are much too complicated and the whole system breaks down in a couple of weeks making me more unorganized than ever before. Any organization in my life is either an accident or the work of Husband. Husband loves for things to be organized and is a genius at it.
Example: Making dinner
Me? I stand in the kitchen peering in the cabinets until meal inspiration strikes, which takes about a half hour. I realize I don't have the ingredients and dash down the street to the store to get what I need and maybe some chocolate and those strawberries look great and, wow, they have amaretto creamer! Score! Come home. Make dinner. Go back to the grocery store to get the crucial something I forgot. And voila! Dinner is ready about the time the kids are going to bed. (And we are out of grocery money and gas money a week before payday.) Oops.
Awesome Husband* plans out a two-week menu, figures out all the ingredients we'll need, and goes shopping. Plus his shopping list is ordered by aisle. (!) We fix whatever's on the menu. We eat before 8 PM almost every night. We only dash to the grocery store for milk and to appease the occasional ice cream or chocolate craving. There is always popcorn and Diet Dr. Pepper in the house. And the best part? I don't have to go to Evil UberMart. Score!
This lack of organization transfers over to my writing. I'm a pantser. Meaning I write by the seat of my pants. (Clear as mud, right?) Meaning I don't have outlines, spreadsheets, index cards, and calendars that help me plan out my book before I start writing it. I just sit down and write and whatever comes out of my head and through my fingers is what goes on the page (or screen).
At least for my first draft. (Hey! we reached the point of this post! Score!)
Pantsing
(No, not THAT. Let's try to be grown-ups. I know it's difficult . . . )
I start with an idea. (Shiny!) The idea wanders through my head for a few days/weeks/months gathering up more ideas and growing and getting all sparkly with dragonfly wings and rainbows and . . . you get the picture. Then comes the fun part. I daydream.
If the idea is a character, I make up scenarios putting the character in tragic and dangerous peril. If it's a scenario, I start populating it with characters who must deal with the tragic and perilous danger. I keep the good daydreams and expand on them, discard the not-so-good daydreams, and spend a lot of time tormenting people in my head and not paying much attention to where I'm going.
This might be why Awesome Husband prefers to drive.
Eventually, one of the scenarios is so intriguing, I write it down. Then if it isn't stupid or boring, I write down what happens next. If that isn't stupid, I keep going until I run out of ideas about what happens next. Then comes the important (and really hard) part.
I reread it and try to figure out what the heck the story is about.
Time to pull out the big tools. Time to GET ORGANIZED with SPREADSHEETS.
Plotting (to take over the world)
(Excellent.) ( . . . Are you picturing Mr. Burns or Lord Vetinari right now?)
I have two tools for organizing a story--a character spreadsheet and a plot graph.
My character spreadsheet is for my sanity. It lists details for each character in the story: actual name, nickname, physical description, relatives, personal history, motivation, goals, etc. It is my quick reference to make sure that my hero's eye color doesn't change in Chapter 3 and again in Chapter 25, and that Sidekick No. 2** doesn't gain six inches in height halfway through Chapter 17 thus becoming taller than the villain because she wouldn't put up with that.
The plot graph is a recent addition to my process. Basically every scene gets a card . . . or rather a square on the spreadsheet. (I stole this idea from another author who uses a giant cork board and index cards. However, cork boards are never around when you need them, e.g., in the car or the library, so I use Excel.) Then I sort the squares by plot line. If a square doesn't fit in one of the plot lines, it is removed (or I reevaluate what the plot really is). If a plot line is missing some scenes, squares get added. If a scene is forwarding two or more plots, then the square is duplicated for each plot line that uses it.
The plot graph lets me see at a glance that each plot is moving forward and each scene has a purpose. Also I can tell if I need to rethink a plot because maybe it isn't what I though it was. I can "see" the flow of the story and manipulate it easier than when looking at 200+ pages of scrolling text.
Once I get my plots sorted out, then I go back to the manuscript and start cutting and pasting into a new document. I rewrite scenes that need changing and write new scenes where needed.
Then I read the story and smooth the transitions.
Then I read it for continuity errors.
Then I reread the story again to make sure it makes sense.
Then Awesome Husband and the beta readers*** read it (and I cross my fingers because by this time I have no idea if it's any good or not).
Rereading it, this sounds like a very organized process, but discovering it was very organic and chaotic.
I kept forgetting what one character looked like because I had combined two others and couldn't remember what features I'd kept, I found a couple of basic character sheets online, but they weren't quite right for me, so created the character spreadsheet.
I wandered in editing hell for months because I knew there were things wrong with my story, but I didn't know what or how to fix them. Then I found some great blog posts about plotting and an example of a plot graph and the heavens opened, light shone down, angels sang . . . ok, not really, but it looked like a really good idea, so I tried it. And it worked! I saw plot holes and ways to fix them, how to make my plot tighter and more efficient, and places where crucial things were missing. Score!
So what is the moral? Organizing might be torture, it's necessary. Or maybe, being forced to organize is karmic retribution for tormenting imaginary characters? (uh oh!)
Some other authors have been writing posts about their plotting (to take over the world) this week:
Julie Weathers - She has a picture of one of JK Rowling's mind-boggling hand-written plot charts.
Susan Boyer - Excel users unite!
Lisa Ahn - She doesn't have a blog, so Julie posted her method.
Cynthia Reese - apparently she's my competition for world domination.
~~~
* I upgraded his name because he is awesome and because I can.
** not an actual character name
*** my band's name****
**** not really, but it should be