Plot-aholism
By Kathleen Bolton | January 18, 2007 |
I’m Kathleen Bolton, and I’m a plot-aholic. I have an addiction to trying out plotting methods (see my roadtest of the Vogler method). I try one, it seems to fulfill the juice I need for the fix, but by the next weekend I run across a new method and I just can’t leave well enough alone. I have to try it out. A vicious cycle.
Stella Cameron’s method was an early favorite of mine until I realized it lacked specifics. But I think it’s a great place to start thinking.
If your brain is wired to absorb information in a Powerpoint outline, Music Therapie has done all the work for those who favor a three-act structure.
I tried the popular Snowflake Method for a story I ultimately abandoned (it’s not a jinx, I swear), and the advantage to this method is that it asks the writer to figure everything out before writing a single word of the manuscript. This is a good option for intense plotters.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the inimitable Holly Lisle and her treasure-trove of tips for writers. Lisle runs the gamut from how to get that initial germ of an idea into a workable idea to how to format a manuscript. She’s got a pretty good plotting method called Plotting Under Pressure. Give it a go for your next project.
I’ve got another story idea I want to plot out in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Do you have a favorite plotting method? Let us know. We’re always casting around for the Next Great Tool for writers.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
I’m with ya Kathleen — Always looking for some better way to plot.
Right now the thing that’s working for me is to write the story in its entirety in a condensed treatment of 12 pages. You could do 3, or 6, or 20 pages, but the idea is it forces you to figure out everything that’s supposed to happen before you go off on a 200+ page adventure! Which is exactly where things break down for me.
If you can’t do it in 12 pages, how can you do it in 200?
I’m sticking with that until I actually finish my treatments. Hardest 12 pages you will ever write, because you’re forced to overcome those plot issues or you’ve got nothing.
I love plot boards – although I tend to have my board on my computer. I like Karen Wiesner’s First Draft In 30 Days. This book develops an outline to the point where it can be considered the first draft. I also do my work in several software applications which I find help me organize my outline. Currently, I’m using FreeMind (free!!) mind-mapping software, Liquid Story Binder, and for my plot board, Writer’s Cafe Storylines (also free!!).
Well I already fed your addiction with my suggestion of Vogler! So I don’t have a great deal to add.
Though not a plotting method, exactly, I have been thinking about trying a story collage. When I first heard of this I worried it was just an elaborate way to avoid the Real Work. Since then I’ve learned that authors whose work I respect, including Jennifer Crusie and Jo Beverley, do collages. I’m reconsidering.
And it sounds like so much fun. :)
I do a variety of things from brainstorming, to Storylining (a method from author Barbara Kyle), to FDin30D and just straight timelines. Thanks for the links – I always love reading about other methods, but (voice drops to a whisper) Vogler doesn’t work for me (running and hiding at this example of writer heresy).
I really have no “method” to my madness and sometimes, I swear it IS madness. But I like to write everything out on the computer – just sit and type and type until I have the whole plot down. It’s pretty basic, but I know where I’m going, put down my black moments, etc., and know how it ends.
i like to let my plots percolate for a bit, but i like to have the ending planned before i outline. i also like eric’s idea of just getting it all out in condensed form. i also did a storyboard ala jennifer crusie and it was fun and creative. but it’s not a good plot encapsulator. its more like a back of the book blurb. (IMO)