Blog Post: Let Them Eat Cake

[From Our Blog]

New blog post by Robinne Weiss – discussions in this thread, please
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As a writer, I tend to focus on plot. I love a good action scene, and I also enjoy writing dialogue (probably stems from loving to talk, myself. LOL!). Over the years, I’ve developed a method for outlining my novels that’s sort of a mash-up of different methods I’ve read about.

I start with a good old-fashioned plot mountain diagram—the kind I introduce to my primary school students. On the plot mountain, I pinpoint major plot targets. Where does the story start? Where does it end? What is the climax point? What are the key events that lead to the climax? What are the key points in the main character’s arc?

If there’s a lot going on in the plot, or a complex set of character arcs in the story, I’ll then map the key plot targets onto a story flow chart drawn onto a large sheet of newsprint. On the flow chart, I’ll add more details about how the action will progress, what characters will think and do when faced with the challenges I present them, and how various plot threads will intertwine and interact.

From the flow chart, I’ll break the story into chapters. For each chapter, I’ll write a one-paragraph summary of what needs to happen in the chapter. What plot points need to be reached? What character development needs to occur? What information do I need to withhold so it can be introduced later? The chapter summary is focused on plot and character. I don’t really consider where or how the action will take place, only what must happen in that chapter.

From the chapter outline, I write my first draft. The outline keeps me on track and ensures I don’t forget things or muddle timelines or plot threads. It makes it much easier to write the first draft, because I can focus on one chunk at a time, without worrying that I’m forgetting something.

Unfortunately, it also enhances my tendency to write sparsely in my first draft. It encourages me to race from plot point to plot point, character development point to character development point.

In the words of an editor years ago, my early drafts need more ‘tea and biscuits’. They have too much plot, not enough setting. I was reminded of the tea and biscuits comment last week, when my alpha reader (my husband, a wonderfully brutal critic), told me I needed more carrot cake in my current work in progress. He also encouraged the addition of a full chapter of nothing but cleaning and tidying. LOL! He was right. The cake and the cleaning are both vehicles for fleshing out settings and characters, revealing the depths and complexity of both so my readers feel like they are experiencing the plot themselves.

In the past week, I’ve added over 7,000 words to my manuscript. That’s a whole lot of tea and biscuits! And I’m sure there are more to be added.

Should I change my outlining method to include tea and biscuits? I’ve considered it, but the truth is, I’m always daunted by that first draft. Knowing I’ve got a yawning stretch of 30 chapters standing empty ahead of me is terrifying. I find it one of the most difficult and unpleasant tasks in the writing process. My outlining method eases me into the task, breaks it into easily accomplished chunks.

And once I have the first draft down, the fun begins. A fellow writer, who writes lush, emotionally charged stories, once mentioned that they layer in the emotions after the first draft is finished. That they have different editing passes to address different aspects of the story. The idea has stuck with me. The story doesn’t have to be fully fleshed out in the first (or second, or third) draft. I’ve learned to enjoy layering in the details that make a story complete, and I can only really enjoy adding those details when I know that the structure I’m adding them to is solid. It’s fun to go back to a story and add some cake, some tea and biscuits. It’s fun to take a conversation and ground it in the place in which it happens, to establish a character’s motivations by showing them in action in a mundane task.

And so the theme for my week’s work is, let them eat cake.
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By @Robinne Weiss
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

 

[Mel L]

My limited experience with novel writing is very different from yours: I need to start with the tea and cookies, and the characters consuming them, then figure out the plot from there. But oh, it can be messy, and painful! I wish I could sit down and figure out plot in advance like you do, and have an actual roadmap to write to. Even though you say there is a lot of layering to be done afterwards, your approach to getting to the first draft sounds much more efficient. I just wonder how you decide on a sequence of events for the chapter outline? That kind of thinking seems to elude me.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I get where you're coming from @Mel L. I have a folder full of scenes and characters I've written that I know must be part of a larger story, but I can't work out what that story is. LOL! If I like a scene or an idea well enough, I'll chat about it to my husband on our daily walks--he's good at asking the right questions, sparking my creativity, and coming up with ridiculous plot lines that I ultimately reject, but which get my brain spinning.

 

[Mel L]

I get where you're coming from @Mel L. I have a folder full of scenes and characters I've written that I know must be part of a larger story, but I can't work out what that story is. LOL! If I like a scene or an idea well enough, I'll chat about it to my husband on our daily walks--he's good at asking the right questions, sparking my creativity, and coming up with ridiculous plot lines that I ultimately reject, but which get my brain spinning.

Count your blessings for a partner who is also a creative inspiration!

 

[AgentPete]

I just wonder how you decide on a sequence of events for the chapter outline?

At some point, your characters may do this for you. Which can come as a major shock.

 

[LJ Beck]

Hi Robinne, So cool to read about your process! I also love plot. Gimme plot plot plot! So interesting to hear you say add chapters with nothing but cleaning and tidying. That's great! I have a chapter like that, and I was like, is this interesting? Where's this going? But it brought the chars somewhere. Hard to let that happen when you're a plot-freak! ha. I also tend to skimp on the tea and biscuits and cleaning in the first draft. More carrot cake! Such a great comment.

There is always so much to track when planning a story, right? OMG. I TRY to do a big sweep of that stuff first in a spreadsheet of all places. Inevitably, it's a tangled mess to start with. Like the char acrs don't like up with the plot, or the plot doesn't make sense for the char, or there's stuff I just hadn't thought through. Then there's the re-thinking stage that can lead to more research (procrastinating!) I don't think you can ever really get this stage "right" or at least not all of it. Because you don't know what you don't know. I don't think you can add tea and biscuits here, can you? You have to just start writing to get to know everyone and everywhere. To know where the biscuit tin lives! It makes a messy, uneven first draft. But that's what first drafts are for right? I agree, it's so daunting, but I focus on the parts I find fun (plot) so that I can enjoy (and finish!) the first draft.

I keep lots of lists as I go for what to focus on in the edits so that I can forget about it while wiritng the first draft. Usual stuff like timelines, how chars talk, inconsistencies. AND tea and biscuits! Settings, internalizing, imagry, theme, and all that stuff that adds life to the story. The icing. Or highlights on a painting. I know I can't get everything into the first draft so I don't try. Like you, and your writer friend, I love the layering process.

Now I want some cake.

 

[Mel L]

At some point, your characters may do this for you. Which can come as a major shock.

Agree! The challenge for me is that they don't start talking until I get to know them. Which means writing them. Hence the difficulty in drafting a detailled outline before I start.
I wonder if the difference in approach here is largely tied to genre, ie character-driven vs plot-driven. Even though I recognize that all stories need structure, the plot is so much more of a backbone in things like fantasy and thriller than it is in, say, Elizabeth Strout.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I wonder if the difference in approach here is largely tied to genre, ie character-driven vs plot-driven.

I suspect it is in part, but I also suspect that those of us who love plot write plot-driven genres, and those who love character write character-driven genres--there's bound to be a lot of circularity there! Not that I don't love character or setting, but it's not the thing I primarily focus on when I plan a story. Of course, character and setting influence the plot, and even when I'm planning and writing the first draft, the characters and setting are influencing everything. I just sort of forget to add those details in for the reader until later drafts.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I keep lots of lists as I go for what to focus on in the edits so that I can forget about it while wiritng the first draft.

YES! My first draft is littered with comments--me reminding myself to check continuity, add details, etc. so I don't have to break the flow of my first draft to mess around with those pesky things.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Inevitably, it's a tangled mess to start with. Like the char acrs don't like up with the plot, or the plot doesn't make sense for the char, or there's stuff I just hadn't thought through. Then there's the re-thinking stage that can lead to more research (procrastinating!) I don't think you can ever really get this stage "right" or at least not all of it. Because you don't know what you don't know. I don't think you can add tea and biscuits here, can you?

My thoughts exactly! Invariably, if I add tea and biscuits too early, I end up taking them out later, because the plot shifts, or the characters decide they prefer scotch.

 

[mickleinapickle]

For me, it's got to be character/plot driven. Assam tea and chocolate hobnobs no less.

 

[Sedayne]

I enjoyed your blog immensely @Robinne Weiss
It's so fascinating to hear about different writing methods.

My writing is very much character led in that I let the characters plot it for me. I let them talk and they tell me what happens. They also tell me lots of things that happen that don't belong in the novel - like your tidying and cleaning - the holiday in the lake district, a picnic in the park, shopping for guitars - I wrote these scenes and more then cut them because they didn't belong in the story proper. I start with way more words than I need and then reduce. It's a most uneconomical way to write.

But here's the thing that makes me think @Mel L is onto something with the genre difference: my main character, Neil Harper, is an aspiring novelist. He writes sci fi. I don't. I have the storylines for a few of his novels that he's told me about - fully plotted but unwritten. And I'll never write them because sci fi isn't my thing. And I don't start my writing with plot. But he does. But he's my fictional character. He's me and I'm him. It's just bonkers really if I think about it too much. But perhaps sci fi lends itself better to a plotted framework upon which the story can be built, and character-driven fiction is whittled down to the interesting bits out of all the nonsense they get up to.
Once I've plotted Neil's stories, I can't be bothered to write them, but when I don't know exactly what's coming, I keep writing to find out.

I don't really know what I'm trying to say. But your blog post and all the replies got me wandering down a rabbit hole.