7 STEPS TO PLOTTING – A 3-D MAP OF THE NOVEL

Remember to start on top of a peak ;)

If in doubt, I ask Alan Rinzler. I found, then lost, his Blog last year: it was like gaining superhuman strength then losing a leg. He is a genius. 

Writing any novel is a journey in time and space: the characters take a simple path through time as they know it; the author’s trip is through a more complex realm: there are no limitations when control of time is fluid. Scientists call this Chaos Theory.  

When it comes to writing, I'm not a big fan of chaos. There are five steps to avoid wandering in the wilderness:

• Prepare. 
• Plan. 
• Navigate carefully. 
• Adapt only if the prevailing conditions demand it . 
• Don’t rush.

WRITING STAGE 1:

Pre-writing  ;) 


A comprehensive-kind-of plan:

1. Ideas – these appear from sources as varied as labels on a jam jar through to a line in a lyric 
2. Imagining – spend time writing nothing: imagine the characters, settings, conflicts, outcomes
3. Research – read a lot, don't be afraid to go off at a tangent. Research the back history of the back history.
4. Prepare a Working Wall: photographs of places and people, maps, words, phrases, sentences 
5. Calculate the time scale and plot events based on a calendar – there is nothing worse than having a lunar month every second week
6. Write post-it notes or cards for your characters – more detailed if the novel is longer
7. Draw a grid – 12 boxes each approximately equal to a chapter. This grid is a working document. Jot down the main scenes or points you want to cover. This is a notated storyboard. They could contain sketched images to cut down on the number of words you need to write. Plan where to drip feed important back-history and refer to your smoking gun. Feel free to move elements around in the planning stage - it is a lot easier to do here rather than later. Develop the story and the characters as a skeleton. This can be fleshed out while you write. It is a complete over-view of the novel.

Before I write, I like to see the landscape spread out before me. I create a contoured map and a prepared route. Unexpected obstacles are rare opportunities. I’ll stop and smell the daisies, but I always need to know where I’m going. 

The Three Peaks Run makes an excellent graph, or a novel plan ;)