Hello all!
As promised, today I want to talk more about how I plotted my second novel, and what parts of the process differed from the first. I should probably preface the whole post by saying I do plot by nature. By that I mean I outline most of the novel in full before I type any words. This includes the main plot, the setting, and many of the themes. Of course, there are aspects of my writing I prefer to grow more organically. When I create characters, for example, I often just decide on a few physical features, add a sprinkle of personality, and go from there. Truly, I don’t think you can figure out who characters are anyway until you see them engage with other people or with the plot.
One question all writers invariably get asked at some point is why they do or do not plan their novels ahead of time. I can think of at least two big reasons why I find myself firmly in the plotting camp.
The first relates to my writing style. Many writers prefer a messy first draft—a quickly-punched couple hundred pages that just about covers the basics of the story. And that makes perfect sense. I mean, why should a first draft include themes and subplots? Can’t all that good stuff be added later on? The answer of course is yes, but my inner critic still shudders at the thought. No matter how hard I try, every time I sit down to write, I wind up treating each sentence as though it’s the final draft. I’m doing it right now with this blog! Viewing my writing with such finality usually means my first drafts end up pretty decent, but it also means I’m more likely to second guess myself. I’m more likely to write slow. And so if I want to write at speed, I need a degree of certainty. Basically, I need to have outlined in advance.
For a novel, outlining in advance means knowing my chapters, the point-of-view characters, and all the major twists and turns of the plot. At a scene level, on the other hand, I often want to know the key action sequences or snippets of dialogue before I start. As you can imagine, plotting on a macro scale is easier, and usually involves a couple sessions in front of the laptop trying to figure out how the story gets from A to B. Plotting on a micro level, on the other hand, feels much more involved. Again, in order to make sure I meet word count targets, I routinely plot scenes as I go about my daily business. By the time I sit down to write, I normally have enough words floating around in my head to figure out the rest!
The second big reason I plot ahead of time comes down to story structure and the genre I write in. Story structure is for writers is a bit like Netflix for college students. They can’t live with it but they can’t live without it. In recent years, it’s prominence in fiction writing has increased, mostly thanks to the Save the Cat revolution in screenwriting. Prior to that, most writers just made an annual sacrifice to the Three Act god and teased out the rest of the structure from there. Occasionally, someone threw in a nice Hero’s Journey for a change. Now, the powers at be talk a lot about inciting incidents and midpoint turns and the Denoument like the whole world hinges on them. If there’s any silver lining here it’s that, for most readers, structure is only noticeable when it starts to collapse. On the big screen, moving a plot point ten minutes is sacrilege, possibly to the point where every movie is now the same. In fiction, a form of entertainment usually consumed piecemeal, most of us still just expect a beginning, middle, end. But while I definitely subscribe to the general theory of oh, I dunno, we’ve-been-telling-stories-for-millennia and-we-kinda-know-how-to-do-it, structure becomes pivotal as word count increases. Structure sustains pacing. Which means for certain genres, it’s an inescapable reality.
I’ve made no secret of the fact I write predominantly fantasy stories. But when fantasy books get epic, we tend to chuck in more POVs, and spend extra words world building. Without some restrictions, the pacing can evaporate. And given that currently I’m writing a murder mystery fantasy, pacing is everything. Sure, readers don’t expect you to have wrapped up the murder by exactly page 286, but nor are there going to hang about forever while you spin the wheels either. So when I outlined my current project, I was not only paying attention to the plot, but also how it would be doled out. How it would be structured.
Overall, the process of plotting my second novel did differ significantly from the first. When I wrote Rise of Exile, I was inventing an entire fantasy world, and I didn’t want to cut corners. I spent weeks drawing maps, creating histories, and fleshing out the key conflicts. I didn’t touch the real story until months down the line. When I did, I plotted based on a three act structure, but probably in the loosest sense of the term. As a result, around about the second major draft, I noticed huge structural issues. All the right words in all the wrong places. One act had too many scenes, another a bare highlight reel. Overall, I had too much content full stop. Worse, I’d skipped over significant plot points, meaning for long stretches the novel just kinda…kept going? After a painstaking edit, I fixed the issues (RoE has a 4 act structure now), and learned an important lesson. For a short story, you can fix structural issues later. For a multi-POV epic fantasy, you better damn well at least consider them up front.
In contrast, for my second novel, my fantasy world already existed, meaning I could focus solely on the story. I also had a much tighter vision of what I wanted to achieve. Again, I followed a three act structure, but this time kept an eye on the big plot points. I feel much more confident with the result.
The only other big difference between outlining book 1 and book 2 was the sort of plot archetypes I was striving to achieve. In my epic fantasy, I had a coming of age story crossed with a mystery crossed with a war on the home front. In book 2, on the other hand, I’m hoping to mix a murder mystery with a romantic comedy and throw in a helping of revolution as well. I’m not sure how well it will all slot together, but here’s to trying!
I’ll give an update on progress with book 2 soon!
Kyle Malone 