It's all a PLOT!

[Katie-Ellen]

Our lives don't have one, unless we believe in destiny. There's a whole other conversation. But our novels, it seems, just GOTTA have one and for our own sakes, it needs working out before we start our descent into the Hades of conjuring, or we risk forgetting the reader.

I plead guilty to a degree of 'pantsing' as well as occasionally confusing prose with verse, overdoing metaphors then having to exterminate them. And like others here, I have been erm, energetically warned by a certain agent known as 'P', that plotting in advance is a completely non-negotiable habit of any novelist who means business.

My completed novel has a plot; a tight arc set over a three month time frame. My character has a motivation; what this article below calls a schmancy-fancy one; BUT the plot was not there at first draft. I only knew the problem and the resolution but not all the steps of how to get there.

This has cost me a heck of lot of extra time; re-writing, plus a fair bit of sleep disturbance as my mind's worked on the unresolved cruxes. How many mega-units of time and energy did I over-spend because I didn't have it sufficiently clear in the front of my mind what the story arc was, before writing the first draft.

It happened because I began crabwise, coming at it sideways, asking myself 'what if?' because I didn't even know yet, if I could even glue my behind to a chair to physically finish a thing that resembled a novel and behaved like a novel, let alone whether it would be a good one or a pile of merde.

I am glad I did it. Now I know I can. But time is precious. I won't do it that way again.

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Plot.html

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm a total pantser. I admit it. I've been near the end of a book with no clue how it's going to end until I sit down to write that day. LOL!!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I've never know exactly how a novel is going to end also, until I've written it. I do have vague ideas, but the 'where-to or how-to' eludes me until the last minute. As I've said before I do not plot a novel out in advance, and doubt I ever will. However, looking back, they always do have a plot, and one event leads to another so they are interlinked. If they are meaningful, they belong, if they don't or have no bearing on the story, they don't belong. Different methods, with hopefully, the same result. It's all about keeping the reader interested

 

[Karen Gray]

I'm the other side of the coin here. Although I don't plot my work. I know my start and end point of every book in each of the series I am writing, its the middle that's up for discussion. Both books 1 and 2 were endings I was writing toward, as are books 3, 4 and 5. Books 6 to 10 are rough skeleton outlines as are books I to V (prequel series.)

It energizes me when I am working toward a fixed point. Probably how I can write as much as I do with the very little time that I have.

 

[Jennifer Stone]

I usually start with a plot in mind, an idea of where my characters are headed, but in the normal course of writing it gets away from me. The characters go their own way and the plot changes and shifts with their actions, hopefully keeping in with the initial idea.

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Our lives don't have one, unless we believe in destiny. There's a whole other conversation. But our novels, it seems, just GOTTA have one and for our own sakes, it needs working out before we start our descent into in the Hades of conjuring or we risk forgetting the reader.

I plead guilty to a degree of 'pantsing' as well as occasionally confusing prose with verse, overdoing metaphors then having to exterminate them. And like others here, I have been erm, energetically warned by a certain agent known as 'P', that plotting in advance is a completely non-negotiable habit of any novelist who means business.

My completed novel has a plot; a tight arc set over a three month time frame. My character has a motivation; what this article calls a schmancy-fancy one; BUT the plot was not there at first draft. I only knew the problem and the resolution but not all the steps of how to get there.

This has cost me a heck of extra time; a lot of re-writing, plus a fair bit of sleep disturbance as my mind worked on the unresolved cruxes. How many mega-units of time and energy did I over spend because I didn't have it clear in the front of my mind what the story was before writing the first draft.

It happened because I began crabwise, coming at it sideways, because I didn't even know yet, if I could even glue my behind to a chair to physically finish a thing that resembled a novel and behaved like a novel, let alone whether it would be a good one or a pile of merde.

I am glad I did it. Now I know I can. But time is precious. I won't do it that way again.

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Plot.html

Cleo is one of my favourite 'carry on's

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hehe It IS awful but that line always gives me the giggles.

 

[EPHahn]

I have an end point. Usually. But even that tends to evolve into something way more than I originally plot out. geddit?

Had an end to book one. Book two surprised me. Book three? I have a scene I want to happen... I'll have to see how that comes about.

 

[Richard Sutton]

The full course followed by my main character never turns out the way I expect it to. IN my current project, for example, I have completed the first half, whcih has clues laid as to what's next, but it wasn't until I downloaded the Nautical charts from NOAA (our charts admiralty...) to reasearch the actual conditions for commercial barge traffic headed upriver on the Mississippi, that the second half cleared up to the point where I can finally begin to write it. Oddly enough, it wasn't even the plotted courses on the chart, but rather the surrounding waterways and landforms (I use the term "land" very loosely...) that looked more like a macro close-up of a sponge than the recognizable banks of a river. It's gonna get murky and stay murky.

 

[tabby3]

How would you like to have your MS referred to as a disparate narrative, held together by a beginning and an ending?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

How would you like to have your MS referred to as a disparate narrative, held together by a beginning and an ending?

Hm, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad one? I suspect the latter, cause it is I presume an agent's reply to a submission? Oh well, such is the life and lot, of any author !

 

[tabby3]

Well, he also went on to say there were many strong parts in the book. By disparate, he meant not conforming to a rigid structure like the Syd Field model, for example.

 

[Marc Joan]

I find plots difficult, which is probably why I have stuck to the short story format to date--it's slightly less demanding, plot-wise. Having said that, for my most magnum opus to date (17,500 words--which I know is peanuts for you novelist gorillas), I did have a rough plot to guide it...but the plot changed somewhat as the actual writing was done.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Joanna Trollope's clearly a total master of plotting, maybe almost too much so, sometimes. Clever lady, clever stories. She takes a social puzzle, problem or issue and forensically examines it. The most recent of hers I've read is 'The Soldier's Wife.'

In a sense that is/could have been me. Il Matrimonio was a serving Army officer when we met. A weird world for wives; I respected what I saw, very much so, but I didn't want it.
But once an army man, something of it remains...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Soldiers-Wife-Joanna-Trollope/dp/0552776424

 

[Richard Sutton]

How would you like to have your MS referred to as a disparate narrative, held together by a beginning and an ending?

Chilling. I certainly wouldn't. Of course, agents and other gatekeepers are masters at the art of using few words efficiently when passing over your work. God forbid they might indicate anything that might actually be useful!

 

[Karen Gray]

Chilling. I certainly wouldn't. Of course, agents and other gatekeepers are masters at the art of using few words efficiently when passing over your work. God forbid they might indicate anything that might actually be useful!

I actually got a really useful partial critique back from Artellus. Was a real boost, even though it was a rejection. They were full of compliment and suggestion. Real change from the norm

 

[James Marinero]

Serendipity sent me a news item yesterday. It took my breath away. Oh, to have come up with a plot like that - and it was true (subject to interpretation of the facts)! I wrote about it here: http://jamesmarinero.blogspot.com/2015/03/mh370-what-book-plot.html

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Well I was in Australia then, and it was news every day for a month or more. Certainly a great mystery given it seemed like the last voice contact was with the co-pilot when it should have been the pilot....

 

[Dudley]

Just because you're a bonafide "pantser" doesn't mean you don't believe in plots. Every story has a plot, whether intended or not.

Ray Bradbury once said to enjoy that first draft because the next seven or eight are going to be painful. I'm not sure who knowing the story arc can keep that from happening.

 

[Carol Rose]

To be fair, since I write romance, we all know how it's going to end. LOL!! It has to end that way. Readers expect it. But the middle part is the fun part. I have no clue what that will be until my characters dictate it to me. I simply type what they tell me to.