WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK ON PLOTTING?

After I volunteered to write on the subject of plotting, I wondered whatever made me think I could write anything useful about the subject. Then I took a few deep breaths and realized that I’d finished eight novel manuscripts, published two, and taught Fundamentals of Fiction for Writers Digest Online Workshops for nine years.

Okay, you’d think I’d know a little about plotting, but truth is, I’m what we call a “pantser.” I write from the seat of my pants. Most of my ideas for novels come from fascination with a certain character. I think about character for a while, then figure out a location, and a specific incident that will hook the reader into the book. From there, things seem to flow naturally. But what happens when they don’t?

One of my favorite things to try is an online class from RWA, either an individual chapter, or from RWA Online Chapter, which I’ve joined. I find them invaluable, taught by pros with good clear advice and critiquing feedback. The other nice thing is the price. Compared to the online classes I instruct for Writer’s Digest, they are very affordable. You’ll find these classes promoted on the RWA-WF e-mail log as well as other RWA links. I took an RWA Online plotting class from Kara Lennox called Plot Doctor: Fixing Your Story. In this class she also discusses sub-plots for bigger books. If she repeats that class, take it. Even if it’s your fifth book, take it. It will be some of the best money you ever spend.

And you can check out other blogs for advice. Writer’s Digest has a newsletter they will send you free for the asking. At the bottom they have several helpful blog links containing advice about many subjects. It was WD’s blog topic of How to Make Your Novel a Page Turner, by Elizabeth Sims, that led me to volunteer to blog for our chapter this month. (And I’m mentioning that blog now because I’ll be using more ideas from it later.)

First Sims’ article speaks about the importance of suspense in plotting. Then she writes on the topic of PLOT FROM THE GUT. I realize that’s the way I do most of my plotting. And IT WORKS! Or it works most times, that is, the combination of always creating suspense in my work, and letting the plot come from my gut.

Apparently, my subconscious is working all the time on the plot and when I reach a certain point, it throws out some ideas that I pick up and run with. Sometimes they come in the form of dreams, sometimes daydreams. Sometimes I just sit down and my characters take over and plot happens.

But invariably, I reach a point where I get stuck. That’s when I have to stop trusting my GUT and look elsewhere for plotting help. There are books on plotting, seminars, classes and blogs.

A moment I remember distinctly occurred at a seminar I attended in 2009, where the speaker—Todd Stone, The Novelist’s Book Camp—said to ask yourself questions about your heroine. One question was, “What one thing would your heroine never DO?” Then have her do it. Write the scene about what your heroine would never do. My heroine in that book (which I’m revising now) would never go outside naked. She absolutely would not go outside naked.

What one thing would she never SAY? She’d never say, “I hate you,” to anyone. Okay, write a scene where she tells someone she hates him/her.

And what would she never THINK? She’d never think, I will kill him. She might think she wanted to kill him, but she’d never reach the point where she would say she was going to kill him. Wanna bet? Take your character past the point of no return and see what happens.

After deciding my heroine would never go outside naked—she would die first—I wrote a scene where she did just that. In the big climactic scene near the end where she is running from the “bad guys,” I put her in a canoe that she paddles out into the Potomac River. Over her cell phone, my heroine is told by the FBI that she has a tracking device hidden somewhere on her. They tell her to take off all her clothes and dump them, as well as her purse and cell phone, into the river. And she does. She’s naked when the FBI arrive. They haul her out of the water, and an agent puts his suit coat around her (which adds some humor when she asks if they always wear suits). The big scene in the book came from my brainstorming what my heroine would never do.

Elizabeth Sims’ blog for WD suggests that when you’re stuck, try brainstorming all of the life-shaping incidents that might threaten your heroine. Write them down individually either on 3 x 5 cards, or using a computer program. Then see where those incidents might fit into your novel. Just by writing them down and putting them on the screen or on poster board in front of you, your unconscious will absorb the ideas/events and figure out for you where they will fit into your plot.

Kara Lennox says in her RWA Online class that we need at least three major turning points in each book and they need to be interspersed throughout the book. The first one should be roughly one-fourth of the way through the book, one at the halfway point, and one at the three-quarter mark. Using these guidelines will help avoid the dreaded “sagging middle.” As writers of Women’s Fiction, we want to be certain our books don’t sag in the middle, or we don’t get so caught up in so much introspective angst that we forget to keep the plot moving in a way that will keep our readers reading.

Are you stuck on your plot now? Or have you been in the past and have some useful ideas you’re willing to share? If so, please scroll down to the bottom and start a discussion on this important facet of writing successful novels: plotting.

Joyce Wells, www.joycewellsauthor.com www.joycewells.com
The Peace Seekers
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Kate Austin

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