If you’ve been following my blog or my twitter feed, you’ll have picked up on my seemingly lengthy process for planning a novel. I use the Save The Cat process, then I write a 21 point outline, then a 60 point outline.
It sounds like a lot, but in reality, it’s only the last phase that takes a lot of work.
Thinking of an developing an idea is easy when you’re motivated. The thing that stumped me in the first year I developed this process was a fear of making a decision. Once you’ve made it, you’ve assigned the path of the story. As you write enough stories, this goes away.
The first decision you make is that something must happen. This something drives everything else in the story after that. And this must be placed early in the story. This is your inciting incident.
Your protagonist sees the killer. Ok. There you go. It’s turning into an element of a cat and mouse game.
This event drives everything else in the story after that. Your next two decisions are the turn into act 2 and the turn into act 3. I can recall watching a movie and looking at my watch the whole time, because the movie was so well written I literally could tell when it was the turns.
Your Act 2 and act 3 scenes intensify the movie. Everything is boiling down to the climax. In the case of the movie “Remember”, the protagonist is hunting for the Nazi War Criminal who murdered his family. They have the name he assumed when he hid from the US Army, and there are four men in the United States with that name. The protagonist must visit each one and determine if they are the killer or not. Each person he encounters determines there is one less. And you’re waiting for the inevitable as the movie progresses.
I’m not giving it away. You have to see the movie.
You’re writing a novel and not a movie, but it works the same. The same outline is what the public has come to expect. All you have to do is make a decision.
Once you get over the fear of making a decision, everything gets easier. Just decide. Pick an action. “He buys a pickle sandwich.” “He finds a time tunnel.” “He takes the gun.”
Something.
Once you have these turns in place, all you need is the ending. Usually I’m SEEING these endings. One I decide on the turns, the ending pops into my head.
Now you see how you’re working towards the end. The next moment is the halfway. This usually is a need to decide. Act one is about realizing, introducing the world and its players, and a need to decide something. Your protagonist is usually caught up In things and trying to stay ahead. By the midpoint, that has to change. The protagonist must begin to start doing something. The realization you could make it home all along – or beat the villain – comes during the climax scene, not now. But the protagonist must know they now have to get involved and do something.
If you get 30 out of 60 points by the time you’re on the 60 point sheet, then you’ve got a crisis. You’re not happy with the plot. Go back to your save the cat and redo it. Just make a decision. Pick something.
If this seems very seat of the pants, it is. All writing to some point or another is seat of the pants writing – I just spend a lot of time pre-planning.
Once you understand story structure, then it just comes down to a few decisions. PIck them, see how it goes. If you can develop a story with 50 of your 60 plot points, it worked. If not, go back to the beginning and find what stifled the workflow.
Have a different process? Did you try this yet and see how it does? Leave a comment below.
