If you’re writing a novel its plotting will determine if the book is a success and I’m reminded of an old Russian proverb, “Hope for the best, expect the worst.”
Or to put it another way, sometimes it’s better and more positive to be negative.
Let me explain.
When you plot a novel you must avoid the trite, the unexplainable, the predictable and the illogical… (the acronym of TUPI).
Anyone who has watched an old western movie on television may have seen a scene where the horse cavalry shows up just in the nick of time to rescue the hero and heroine. This is a TUPI. It’s boring, farfetched, overworked in dozens of similar films. It’s become a cliché.
The rescuers just happen to show up out of the blue for no reason other than luck to make the rescue. The worst part about this plot crutch is it’s not believable. Human nature being what it is, it’s much less believable (luck happening for no reason), than it is for something bad to happen for no apparent reason.
I think it says something about us as people that we’re more apt to believe something bad happening to us suddenly and for no apparent reason…than we are something good happening (like in the Russian proverb).
Let me give two crude plot examples.
1. A robber jumps out from a bush with a gun and points it at your protagonist.
2. A man who just happens to be standing nearby cries out to your protagonist “Look out! There’s a robber hiding in that bush.”
Which is more believable? Which is more dramatic?
In plotting a book, misfortune is always more interesting than good fortune. Bad luck sets up conflict. The most basic interplay of your book is that your main character has to struggle against someone or something.
Now for plotting….
There are many ways to plot a novel. You can write it down from beginning to end in one sitting. It could take an hour or 20 hours or longer. This might be what some call a “treatment,” a description of everything that happens plus character traits (called arcs), how a character responds to events and how this changes the character over time as the story proceeds.
Instead of a treatment we could also call this a “synopsis.”
It can be short, much shorter, just a couple of paragraphs.
The synopsis for the book Moby-Dick could be, “A manic and obsessive ship’s captain is determined to enact revenge on a white whale and tracks the beast across the sea resulting in the death of he and his crew save for one surviving man.”
In plotting you must build suspense, keep the reader turning pages to find out what happens. Will the hero in your book survive and accomplish his goal or will the bad person of your book be the victor?
Suspense can be built and spread throughout the novel leading to a climax (and resolution) near the end.
A plot can be written like a short story (no quotes or dialog), just a description of everything that happens plus character traits, or if you want, whatever happens can be noted down in outline form….1A,B,C…..2,A,B,C and so on.
Whatever mode you choose, understand that as you write the book a process that can take months or years, you might come up with better plot ideas in the future as you go along.
I never wanted to become a prisoner of a written-out plot description, so I might do a very short version (perhaps a page). Then I do what’s been called “pantsing,” or as I like to call, “winging it.”
I have in my head a general idea of the story. I do a tiny synopsis or none at all. Then I literally make the story up as I go along. This allows me not to become hemmed in trying to stay within the confines of a written-out story plot. But to be free to make it up as I go….realizing that in my case I usually come up with better ideas later on…by days or even months from now.
Based on the pages that I write today, what I will write tomorrow has to be a logical extension of what I had happen in the book today. All of it must be plausible, believable and come under the rather cynical notion that in plotting…..bad luck is usually more interesting than good.
More on plotting next week. …
John Sammon is a freelance writer and the author of 41 books, many of which can be foundhere on Amazon. He is a resident of El Dorado Hills. This commentary is part of a series on the journey of self publishing.
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