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A notebook for fiction writers and aspiring novelists. An editor’s perspective.
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“I want to write a book, but…”
The fiction writers that I know, we’re all daydreamers at heart. The obstacle that many of us confront is—well, we’re all daydreamers at heart. And, sorry to say, but daydreams don’t magically turn into completed novels. You’ll need to develop a whole different set of skills. See First Drafts for a deeper dive into that potential quandary.
However, to briefly recap: Our Right Brain—that artsy-fartsy, huggin’ and feelin’ hemisphere—is content to sit on a comfy couch all day, dreaming about pirates or dragons or what happened that one night at summer camp. Our Left Brain—the logical, mathematical, factual part—pays the bills. Sets the alarm clock. Saves for rainy days. Begins to write a novel, word by word, and page by page. And guess what, sometimes those diametrically opposed abilities, those two halves of the same damn brain, don’t easily mesh. However, when our Right/Left lobes are able to synchronize—that’s how best-sellers are made.
Two mistakes that novice writers often make are: 1. Ignoring the Right Brain part, and sitting down to write a novel without a game-plan.* And, 2. Ignoring the Left Brain part and pretty much never getting past the daydream stage, content to play with our private fantasies day after day, year after year and rarely, if ever, getting those words down on paper.
Part of the issue is basic plotting. Why? Because plotting involves both Right and Left sides of our brains. It’s a very transitional step in writing a novel, very much the Persephone of the literary world. You’ve got one foot firmly in Right Brain world, the other firmly in Left Brain world. Some writers hover there, unable to fully commit.
Your ability to plot out a novel—on paper (whether in outline form, or as a first draft) beginning to end—is you, the writer, making that commitment.
The Shortness and Sweetness Of It All.
What is plotting? Whether in your head or on the page, a plot is simply a series of dramatic events that take readers from Point A (your first page) to Point Z (your last page.) No matter your genre—love story, sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, mystery, romance, horror, dark comedy, light comedy, coming-of-age, zombies in Manhattan… all of it!—a writer’s basically asking, and then answering, a sequential series of What If…? questions.
Yes, we covered What If…? scenarios in the previous blog, but it’s pretty important stuff, so here’s a bit more info, because those What If…? scenarios are synonymous with creating a dynamic plot structure.
What’s a ‘What if…? Q. A woman named Maggie is vacationing alone on Skull Island. While on a moonlight walk, she discovers a suitcase with a million bucks washed up on a beach? (Your inciting incident, BTW.) A. She decides to sneak the suitcase back to her hotel room to further investigate. She’s just about broke, and a million bucks would be nice. She has a few drinks, but ultiomately decides to report the money come daylight.
So then what? What if…? Q. The next morning she learns the local police chief is dead, the money missing and she realizes she might be implicated in some horrendous crime. Now what does she do? A. She’s already befriended Pierre, the resort’s handsome, charismatic bartender, who seems to be a rational, likeable sort. She’ll seek his advice.
So then what? What if…? Q. Pierre listens sympathetically and tells her to keep the money a secret until he can figure out what do do. She agrees. So what does Pierre do? A. He stealthily places a call to Dr. Martinique, vicious head of the island’s crime syndicate.
Q. So then what? A. Ah…and that’s plotting. You’re providing the appropriate questions, and then providing appropriate (and sometimes intentionally misleading) answers—sequentially and compellingly. Over and over for a few hundred pages, until a reasonable conclusion presents itself.
Is there a key to good plotting? Yes. One must provide a suitable beginning, and a middle, and an ending, as seen through the eyes (POV) of your character(s) and/or through omniscient narration.
And that’s all the help you’ll get here. That should be the only help you’ll require. Because creative souls thrive on the unknown. But piercing that cosmic uncertainty in any journey imaginable—that’s your choice. Your vision. But the genre, the style, the passion, the energy, the suspense and revelation—that’s all you.
Bon voyage!
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* When I say “ignoring the game plan” I’m talking about the clueless, not about Pantsers—at least the successful ones—e.g.; those among us who begin writing with little or no concrete plot in mind. But don’t confuse a pantser with a literary anarchist—knowingly or not, a pantser does have a game plan in mind, just one not physically outlined or jotted out on endless Post-It Notes. That aforementioned roadmap is still there, just its cerebral. A pantser’s journey will have a logically deduced beginning, sequentially sound middle and a relevant, often inevitable ending—or else that manuscript will never see the light of day. At least not by traditional publishers.
Refer again, should you desire, to: Where To Start. And: Focus on the Now. And: First Drafts.
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We’ll be in Portland April 7-9 for the Independent Book Publisher Association’s Publisher’s University conference, because there’s always more to learn about this wacky business. We’ll be the ones with the MHP tattoos! (Not really. We’ll probably have some sort of identifying lanyards around our necks, though, so watch for that.)
