Ah, plotting. Basically, a plot is a the chronological order of events in your novel. So it is an outline of your novel and therefore is essential to writing a novel. Or is it?
On the writing tips section of fantasy writer Daniel Arenson's site, he states that there are three types of outlines:
1. The Detailed Outline
2. The Brief Outline
3. No Outline (hmm, that doesn't seem like a type of outline?)
For a meticulous writer who cannot bear to leave any part of his dear story in shadow, the Detailed Outline is the key. Mr. Arenson himself says that this type off outlining works great for him. According to him, it makes the first draft like filling in a puzzle. You can write scenes out of order and skip the boring ones for later.
And there are those who turn up their nose at the mention of the word outline. They will have nothing but a basic idea of what they want their novel to be and then just start the first scene and romp on. They trust their minds to lead them through one adventure after another and anticipate the great surprises, twists and new ideas they'll meet along the way. And it wouldn't have been that fun if they already knew most of the story, would it? Stephen King, one of the most revered paranormal writers, is such a writer.
Most writers, however, choose the second outline. The middle line. The one that is not extreme in anyway. This outline may be from one single page to four or six pages long. It just gives the bare major events, the big picture, leaving out most of the details. Holly Lisle is one such example. And, though I am still very new to world of writing, I can confidently count myself as one too.
But when I first made my resolve to write a novel and I also had a vague idea of what the novel would be about the first major obstacle I ran into was plotting. I had no idea what to do and how to do it. I would think about the awesome plots of my favorite books like Harry Potter and despair and hopelessness would grip me.
How could I expect myself to create something even half as good as that?
So I searched on the internet. I googled stuff like 'how to write a novel' and 'how to plot'. And I must say I found a whole cargo load of tips and information, not just plotting but everything from characters to revisions to writing action scenes to pacing. Always checkout writers' websites. They usually post a lot of free bits and tips.
But what really saved me- what I was really blessed to find- was the Snowflake Method. I'm sure some of you have heard about it. It is a famous plotting method devised by America's Mad Professor of Fiction Writing Randy Ingermanson, the Snowflake Guy (you can tell the character of a man from his nickname).
It was the method that actually kicked off my writing and I am a complete fan of it. For those of you who don't know it, you can check it out at his site Advanced Fiction Writing (.com).
But for ever writer, the method is different and unique. No two are the same. Even I don't follow the Snowflake method line to line. I usually skip step 7, 8 and 9 and make changes in some of the other step to suit myself. You'll find dozens of plotting techniques online. Some might work in some places only. Most won't work at all. It's all your decision. And if you do find a method that works even halfway (which is lucky) you'll probably add some stuff of your own to it.
The best advice I can give is this: just grab a pencil (or the keyboard) and get your ideas down on paper (word document). Find your way from there. You can't finish what you've never started.
Enough about me. What about you? How do you plot?
On the writing tips section of fantasy writer Daniel Arenson's site, he states that there are three types of outlines:
1. The Detailed Outline
2. The Brief Outline
3. No Outline (hmm, that doesn't seem like a type of outline?)
For a meticulous writer who cannot bear to leave any part of his dear story in shadow, the Detailed Outline is the key. Mr. Arenson himself says that this type off outlining works great for him. According to him, it makes the first draft like filling in a puzzle. You can write scenes out of order and skip the boring ones for later.
And there are those who turn up their nose at the mention of the word outline. They will have nothing but a basic idea of what they want their novel to be and then just start the first scene and romp on. They trust their minds to lead them through one adventure after another and anticipate the great surprises, twists and new ideas they'll meet along the way. And it wouldn't have been that fun if they already knew most of the story, would it? Stephen King, one of the most revered paranormal writers, is such a writer.
Most writers, however, choose the second outline. The middle line. The one that is not extreme in anyway. This outline may be from one single page to four or six pages long. It just gives the bare major events, the big picture, leaving out most of the details. Holly Lisle is one such example. And, though I am still very new to world of writing, I can confidently count myself as one too.
But when I first made my resolve to write a novel and I also had a vague idea of what the novel would be about the first major obstacle I ran into was plotting. I had no idea what to do and how to do it. I would think about the awesome plots of my favorite books like Harry Potter and despair and hopelessness would grip me.
How could I expect myself to create something even half as good as that?
So I searched on the internet. I googled stuff like 'how to write a novel' and 'how to plot'. And I must say I found a whole cargo load of tips and information, not just plotting but everything from characters to revisions to writing action scenes to pacing. Always checkout writers' websites. They usually post a lot of free bits and tips.
But what really saved me- what I was really blessed to find- was the Snowflake Method. I'm sure some of you have heard about it. It is a famous plotting method devised by America's Mad Professor of Fiction Writing Randy Ingermanson, the Snowflake Guy (you can tell the character of a man from his nickname).
It was the method that actually kicked off my writing and I am a complete fan of it. For those of you who don't know it, you can check it out at his site Advanced Fiction Writing (.com).
But for ever writer, the method is different and unique. No two are the same. Even I don't follow the Snowflake method line to line. I usually skip step 7, 8 and 9 and make changes in some of the other step to suit myself. You'll find dozens of plotting techniques online. Some might work in some places only. Most won't work at all. It's all your decision. And if you do find a method that works even halfway (which is lucky) you'll probably add some stuff of your own to it.
The best advice I can give is this: just grab a pencil (or the keyboard) and get your ideas down on paper (word document). Find your way from there. You can't finish what you've never started.
Enough about me. What about you? How do you plot?
