The Plot Thickens

I'm going to talk about plot here (GET IT?!). Plots are hard, man. 300,000 words without getting off topic  is no easy task. There has to be a beginning, some other stuff, an ending and it all has to be coherent and not self-contradictory (there's a better word for that, I'm sure). So how do we make that happen? Hire a good editor? Sell our souls to Satan? A movie montage?

Eh. Yeah, sure.

I've stressed before the importance of notes, particularly using them early in the process to create your world and keep track of the rules and people therein in a way that's fairly easy. If a bit time-consuming. For Skyborn I spent the first two full weeks writing notes for the story, everything from a creation story to the lay of the land, but it all served a purpose and, by and large, that purpose was keeping me from contradicting myself. When you're writing, just about every aspect of your world is going to affect the plot in some way. It can be as minor as your characters being tired at the beginning of a fight because they had to climb over rocky foothills to reach it, or the disposition of a supporting character (or even a minor, background character that the protagonist has to deal with) causing further trouble for your plucky hero. Everything will affect your story, and your story needs to flow properly.

Now, that said, I do not believe in the use of outlines. I don't think a writer can, if they're being honest, sit down and actually plot an entire novel before they write it. An honest novelist will realize that much of the magic of writing comes from letting it flow organically. Some errors are par for the course, and that's the purpose of re-writes and editing. That process exists for a reason. However, there's a difference between sitting down and hammering out a story without any forethought and letting the story come out of you naturally. The latter requires a great deal of work. I think that's where many would-be writers lose their drive.

Every writer comes to a story differently. Many of them get a scene or a character stuck in their head and the story forms from there. Others see the end of a story and unravel it from there. Still others will have other methods. There is no accepted way to begin the process. But putting the work in, the forethought, is the best way to make sure you have a story to work with, instead of series of disjointed scenes.

Likewise, I'm sure we've all had this experience where we're sitting down to write and an idea for a scene or a plot point from a different part of the story comes to us. What do you do in that situation? I used to set aside what I was doing and write the scene, in its entirety, in a separate document. The problem, I found, with doing that, was that I then felt like I had to move the story toward that scene. Then the story no longer flows naturally. It feels forced and stunted. Maneuvering the story to fit the scene doesn't work. The scenes need to fit the story. The plot has to flow, in other words.

So now, when I have an idea like this, I jot it down in my notes. No actual exposition, no dialogue, just a brief note or a very simple outline of my idea. If it doesn't work for this story, then it doesn't work, but the idea might be a good one down the line. I do the same thing with my poetry. If I find myself with a great line, rather than working my current piece around it, I jot it down somewhere else for later use. But I never, under any circumstances, leave what I'm doing in favor of skipping ahead.

One other suggestion before I wrap this up, and I like placing it here because it ties things neatly together. Remember how I talked about self-discipline? If you keep to your regimen of writing every day, it will help keep the story fresh in your mind. This has the added bonuses of making it less likely that you'll have those nasty errors I talked about and keeping those creative juices flowing. You won't even need to think about plotting because it will come to you naturally.

So, plot is great but only honest plot. Natural story-telling. Anything else, and you're just wasting your time. The challenges involved are some of the most difficult parts of writing a coherent narrative, but also the most rewarding. Keep at it, but don't forget to let the story come to you as it will.

Yours,
-S.R.