Writing Tips - Story Plot

Jan Fields, ICL web editor, has published in many and varied children’s and family magazines including Boys’ Quest, Highlights For Children, Shining Star, Crayola Kids, Ladybug, Single-Parent Family and Charisma-Life.  Though she began her career writing for adults exclusively, she was soon lured into the challenging world of children's writing. Jan has taught adult and children’s writing for over twenty years. In addition to this busy schedule, Jan is the editor of Kid Magazine Writer e-magazine. She is a member of the SCBWI and a repeat speaker at local SCBWI conferences. Her articles about writing have been published both in print and online markets such as Keystrokes, Byline, Children’s Writer, and Children’s Book Insider. Her first middle grade novel is presently in production with DRG Publishing. In her spare time, she sleeps.

"Getting There From Here"

by Jan Fields

Plotting a novel can be challenging. You have so much more room to spread out than in a short story -- but that extra room can lead to wandering scenes without purpose. There's also the questions of

Ultimately all of those questions will need answers. For some writers, the answers must be found before the first word is written. For others, the answers exist loosely in mind, but most of the 'pre-writing' is mental and always changing. For still others, a novel may begin with only an idea and a leap into the unknown. Ultimately, each writer must choose the method that works best.

ORGANIC WRITING -- THE LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN

For some novelists, the writing of a novel is an organic act. Jane Yolen writes this way. In a letter to The Horn Book she said, "I do not outline when I write but rather 'fly into the mist' as one writer friend calls it. There are always characters arguing with me in my head. And even when I try not to listen to them, they are there: insistent, seductive, overpowering."

For a strongly organic writer, trying to do a lot of outlining and planning can be stifling to the creative process. Novelist Nancy Werlin writes in another Horn Book article, "The plan-in-advance method paralyzes me, while my method not only results in finished work of which I’m proud, but is also fast and efficient — because, I suppose, it’s my own method, perfectly adjusted and attuned to me, and because I have learned over the years to trust it implicitly, knowing it will take me places that planning never could."

THE ARCHITECT -- WRITING WITH A PLAN

Some writers use very complex plans and steps to reach a completed novel. So important are these things to the writer, that they may look askance at the organic writer who seems to write by "magic." In another Horn Book essay, Novelist Jennifer Armstrong describes her writing process this way, "I ask myself what my book is about, what ideas will be in it, what images I will use to reinforce those ideas, what metaphors, what kind of language, what tone, what voice, what characters, and why. I make lists of words that may be important. I write outlines, the way a sculptor makes the armature for a clay model. I move things around, trying them this way and that for balance or for contrast. Only when I have made extensive preparations do I begin to write."

The tools of the plan are almost endless. There are software tools, such as WriteItNow 3 which I've used and found fun and interesting. There are more hands-on tools like multi-colored stickie notes on posterboard, flow charts scribbled on wipe off boards, file cards and scraps of paper. one nice thing about the hands-on tools is how "user friendly" they are. You simply pick up the stickie note and move it to a new place in your novel plan. But, of course, software doesn't fall on the floor and stick to the underside of your shoe -- everything has good points and bad points. Ultimately, you try a lot of different things and stick with what works. Novelist Marilynn Byerly likes notecards, "On each notecard, I put down a major scene or turning point in the central plot of the novel. Each of these scenes gives several important pieces of information on plot or character as well as moving the novel forward by causing change...I also made notecards of the subplots. Each subplot must reflect or influence the main plot, and must change the plot for better or worse...I laid out the cards for the main plot, then I tried to figure out where the subplots would fit in with it. Most were just decisions in plot logic. Some were decisions about pace."

Holly Lisle is another notecard plotter and she tries to have a little fun with it, which you can read about on her site. For Holly, the notecards are part of the brainstorming process so her method feels both organic and architect.

Novelist Lynn Viehl uses a template to plan novels -- the template allows you to quickly organize the elements of plot required of your novel. If you're an organic novelist -- the template may help you create your synopsis by being a handy way to reduce your novel down to these important elements (as well as a great way to check whether your novel has them at all!).

If neither of those methods interest you, there's Novelist and Nonfiction author Randy Ingermanson's "Snowflake Method" which caused a bit of a stir for a while -- though, I have to admit, I found it way to complex for me -- I'm not quite that architect yet.

FREEDOM TO PLOT

Ultimately, only you know what kind of plot construction works best for you. I do know, that all methods are improved by reading. If you don't read novels -- lots and lots of novels, including novels for young people -- it's going to be hard to create a cohesive plot. I once read a novel written by a man who said he had never read a book all the way through. He watched lots and lots of movies though and felt that was all he needed. I read his manuscript -- clearly he was profoundly crippled by not reading. He didn't understand plot at all and confused constant action (something always happening) with purposeful action. Movies do that too sometimes. So, try a lot of different plotting tools, but in the end -- don't forget the most important tool of all. Read...read a lot. Never stop reading.

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