How To Plot Your Novel: Into the Arc Theory

Third post in How to Plot Your Novel series. Here we explore an in depth look at the "Arc Theory" technique introduced in the last episode of my very own tips; Plotting For Pansters.

 Q: How do I know where to put my plot points? How do I know what plot points to put there?!!!

A:  Never fear! Stay calm. There is absolutely no reason to panic.
 Even though we're pansters here, and there is that mean, growling word "plotting" hanging around a lot, I'm going to show you that ol' shadow monster is actually the reflection of a puppy dog in front of a bulls-eye lantern.

 (No idea what a bulls-eye lantern is? Here you go. > ) 



Okay, on to the meat of this post.

 So, as I was saying... think about getting your plot-lines figured the same way you approach arranging food on your plate at a buffet. There's no hard and fast rule about the mashed potatoes going in the upper right corner... but you do know that the potatoes had better be between  the creamed corn and the roast with gravy.
 It'll just taste better that way.

 In the same vein,  the exciting dramatic points in your story taste better when dividing up the less sparkly, thoughtful stuff. So keep that in mind when you're spreading your ideas around the arc that you made last time.

This is a real arc I'm in the early stages of using... so I've blurred out specific words! *Spoilers!*

 Boil down your plot points to a spare few words. Two is good. One is even better!
 So, say it's that robber/mystery in Texas from our Road Map post.
 
 The City would go over here at the left hand corner, 'cause that's where they start from. Pencil in "Meet" next to it. You'll have to figure out how they meet later... or maybe you already have an idea. (Is at a cafe, where they both order lunch? Or when the one fender bends the other at a stop light?)

  Maybe the Shabby Hotel would go at the top of the arc, at the midway point. Cause right after that scene our mis-matched protags break up in disgust with each other after the argument... and then travel their separate ways to each find out a different clue which they will use when their paths cross again, (and they've simmered down enough to forgive each other.)

  So put "Shabby Hotel" up  there, sticking out from the arc. Then scribble "argue - split up" underneath that.

 There you have it! Your climactic middle scene.

 So... then, the "Prison" part would be half-way between the two. This is at the place where the Rule of Arc, (or Story Beats) dictate entering the Uncomfort Zone.
  Well, say one of them has a jailbird past, and going back into the pen as a visitor gives him a bad case of raised heart rate.
That's a definite Uncomfort Zone.
 (Poor character. They're just going to get more Uncomfortable from here on out!)

   (Write that. Write the reaction and the self control it takes to make themselves go back behind those iron gates... a testament to their drive and dedication to solving the case.)

 

Keep Updating the Arc Plotter

 
Do you have an end scene in mind? No?

 Not a problem. Do you have any idea how it'll work out?
Yes? Good. Maybe put "Robber Caught" at the other end.

 And when you get the idea; "Oooo! Must write that argument scene at the shortcut!" jot that scene down in it's approximate place. This will remind you what you have so far, and can keep you from writing the same scenes twice.
 (What?! You've never done that? I'm the only one???)

 And if you get a nifty idea, and write a real whip-cracker of a scene, then boil it down to one key word and jot it in on the arc. That way you can easily see your progress at a glance.

 Keep this with you, and whenever you get a really sparkly idea, whip this little plot arc out and jot down the one or two word code that will recall that idea whenever you read it. Then the next time you are at your writing place, just take a gander at this handy little arc sheet, (or big arc sheet, which is better, with more room for jotting.)

 And there you have it!
            Off you go, fingers flying like the wind!

                                      No fears! Just writing!

  Writing... writing...!!!!

 


  (But seriously... have you ever written a scene, then forgot you'd written it, and then wrote it again, slightly different? And then couldn't decide which scene to keep, because they each had good parts, but totally cannot ever, ever, ever mesh????)
 

Plot Arcs: How to Use Them in Your Novel

Example of the Basic Arc

Second post in How to Plot Your Novel series. Here we explore a another technique I use, which can help you Pansters Plot your Novels.

Q: How do you plan a plot arc?

 A: Okay! People have been asking me about my methods of tracking plots, and since I'm a panster this is a big topic with me.

   All of you plotters can take your Excell spreadsheets and binders full of detailed notes for each scene and step outside with those now.


 (...Or you can hang around. You know, just for fun, and to laugh up your sleeve at other people's problems.)

  All right! Onward to glory we go!  (Props if you recognize that song...)

 As a major panster, I've had a hard time coming up with a plotting method that actually works with my "all over the place" writing style. I can't tell you how many different ones I've tried, but most of them failed miserably.

Okay, so here it is! The What Works For Me deepest secrets.


  We all know by this point that story arcs basically kind of have a similar shape all the time.

Like, beginning, middle and end.

   Or Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, if you're into that. (Personally, it always really bugs me that Act 2 has three parts, and they still call it a "Three Act Structure". What?! Who did you get to do your counting for you?)

 Or some people get all into the Hero's Journey, and the book that shares that name.


 Myself, I just want to write the story.
   So here's the "Arc Plot" that enables me to do just that.

 Draw a half circle. (All right fine, it's more than half a circle! Just make a big loop out there that covers most of your paper.)
  Divide this arc in half with a little line at the top. Then divide each half in half with another mark.

 You start at the Ordinary, move to Uncomfort Zone, on 'til you reach Confrontation/Greatest Fear. That is your climax, or the midway point of your story.
 (Some tales' climax is longer than others, and so it can slide into the Deepens Problem territory. That's totally okay.)

 Half way between the middle and the end of the book you come to Hits Bottom. This is a great place where you can have fun with making things look really bad for the protagonists and their dearly held dreams.
 Really turn the lights out on this!

  And then... oops! They turn things around! It's not that bad after all, and they all go home and be cozy in their caves.

   They have faced their fears and mastered them, (as well as the Big Bad). This makes them not only safe once more, but they actually have grown and have a bigger comfort zone than they had before.

  So... everybody wins!

Hope it helps, everyone! :-)

 (And while you're at it, you can get really creative and use the brightest, most diverse range of colors! Make one stand for one thing, and so on, that way you're creative muscle can easily see what's going on and get inspired!!! :-)

 Next time we'll get into the details of how to really make this Arc Plotter your own.

How to Plot Your Novel with the "Road Map" technique

Okay! In honor of November being NaNoWriMo, with all those writers determinedly writing, I thought now might be a good idea to break down and put up those novel plotting posts I've been asked about. 
     (Also, a good idea to write them, first.)

  I'm thinking I'll call this series "How to Plot Your Novel ... or Plotting For Pansters".

Q: I know specific plot points my novel is wanting, but I'm unsure about how to figure out what goes between them. Any suggestions?


A: As a died in the wool panster, this is what I'd recommend! :-)

 Start writing madly with every plot point you have in mind. You can make a "road map" on a piece of paper, jotting down the main important destinations. Big City  - - - -  Visit Prison (to check up with incarcerated witness) - - - - Shabby Hotel - - - - etc.  Then, when you're writing along, and suddenly in the Shabby Hotel your MC yells, mid argument, "I told you we shouldn't have taken that stupid short cut! If you'd have listened to me, we would have been here hours ago, and that little girl never would have been shot in the bank robbery, 'cause we would have stopped it before it happened!!!"

Real, actual road map plot I've been writing from for a couple years now, off & on.

 Then make a note in your road map.

 In between Prison and Shabby Hotel jot down "Short cut - argue about". There you have another scene that you will need to write so readers will know why your MC is so mad about not being listened to.

 You can use symbols, or scribble pictures... whatever will spark your memory later on.

 This is the method I use, and it works really well for me. So long as I am faithfully following the story by putting down on paper the scenes I DO know, the others will generally follow... like clues on a mystery case. As the writer/detective you get a feel for where you need to go, (and take your readers along with you) next.

               Hope this helps!!!
                          Have a good NaNo!
                                           Elizabeth

October Update: 20k is Down and OUT!!!

Okay, peoples!!!
 
 I'm just as thrilled as pink peaches to announce to the world today that my 20k for October is

Found at FrontPorchCandles; don't they look scrumptious?!

accomplished!!!
 (Post-scriptus: I wrote this on Saturday, but since my poor blog already had a post that day, I set this to post on Monday. )

   I had several thousand words left over in September from that month's 20k goal to "pay forward" towards October's... which was a good start for "Month Before NaNo Crunch Time".

   ...And then I had a good sit down with my main-brain side-kick and plot-planning partner, and we roughed in some timelines and got several sticky details nailed down.

 (P.S. Snapp and Snurr are some long lived reindeer! They're treading 13 years old now, at this point. And still going strong!!! I tell you what,  does Kai really know how to treat his team or what? He's a master herdsman! )

Current Mock-up Cover Art

 (P.P.S. What do you think of those names for a pair of reindeer? Sound reindeer-y enough to you?)

 So, jet-fueled with all the new scene ideas richocheting around in my head I plopped down in the chair and typed madly for the rest of the day! I held out against distractions, against movies being watched in the next room over.
 I even held out against naps and... food. (Kinda. )

 And I did somewhere in the neihgborhood of 5-7k that day!
  
  And then I hit the keyboard in the days that followed, putting in late nights, and middle of the night writing sprints and anything you can imagine to be sure that I
 A) Got these good ideas down, and
 B) got to 20k as soon as possible.

 Now, I have.
   My 20k for October is accomplished, so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

 And most of my good ideas are down, and I'm feeling very confidant in this book's future as NaNo project starting next month.


 So, with those two worries off my mind, I can now concentrate on the one obstacle that remains: Prince of Demarken, Mission Code Word:WRAP-UP.


 Like seriously, Wrap-UP!!! I've been talking about getting that thing finished off for months now, and I'm deadly determined to make sure it happens before November.

 'Cause I can't start on Reindeer King with the clear conscience it will definitely require if Prince of Demarken is STILL lurking unfinished in the background.
 
  Come one, now, WIPs!!! This is NOT funny by now!

 So... that's my plan for the rest of the month.
 
   What about you?

  ( And do you think it is remotely possible that I will actually finish off this long-haunted project at long last??? )

Guest Posting on Vaguely Circular

Hey! I'm a featured guest poster recently over at Vaguely Circular's Imagine This! celebration of
creativity.
 I maybe should have given everyone a bit more notice, but it just snuck up on me!

 Oh, well!

 In other news, I'm over 20k on my July writing, so that means I've reached my Camp NaNo goal. Should I reset my official goal to 30k, or just keep that as an unofficial goal?
 What say you all?


 Anyway, on the my guest post opening!

 "It seems a lot of ideas come from dreams, and I have a theory that dreams and spec-fic actually are located in the same place… as in, spec-fic is stories set entirely in the dream world, that is why they work, and why they appeal.
Because we are waking when we read them, our conscious minds demand the stories follow their own internal logic and rules (unlike dreams); but, so long as they’re consistent, writers can get away with anything… because we all know in dreams, anything goes.
I’m known for active and colorful dreams, and there was a stretch..."

 Go check the rest out on Vaguely Circular!

Day 19: April Camp NaNo

Whooo-hooo!
     What a rush this month has been so far! With plenty of real life hectic-ness going on, it's been almost a relief to have a word count goal to worry over, because that at least I can influence!
 I know, but it's true all the same.

  And, I've not had much trouble worrying over my word count lately. I'm ahead of schedule, even on the challenging 30k goal, and I'm super excited about where the story is going!

  First off, in an attempt to get into a friends cabin, I opted out of the un-talkative cabin I was in. But instead of getting into her cabin with her, I ended up in another cabin, pretty well populated with motivated writers and interesting chatting going on.
  This has made the Camp experience much more fun, and encouraged me anew to tackle the major plot points in my tale.

 Secondly, I met a friend of a friend also doing April Camp, and her word count was astonishingly high. I was flabbergasted, and then that little bug came up and said, "If you could catch up with her, you would be happy."

 This itched at me for several days as I tried to get my daily words in, and then I was stuck by brilliance! The story rolled out of my fingers like water out of a culvert in a spring rain, and I loved it!
 My sister also loved it...
 And soon I was within striking distance of that really high word count...

  And then, I had passed it!


 And of course that WriMo had written more, so I wasn't up to her.

Day 19, 4:48 Mtn time!

 But brilliance continued on, and I wrote over and above my daily goals. I got multiple thousands per day, and soon... yes!

  Today, I caught up with her word count! I am ecstatic! I am happy.
 And I am way ahead of schedule, so that means I am also Not Scared I won't make the total.

 And I can't wait to be so far ahead that I burst through my 30k goal line, and then I'll be like, "Good! So glad! Hm, lets' see if I can secretly do 40k before the month is out."

 There is every kind of way that will make this story get finished huge lots sooner, and I really want to send this on to betas! I think they may like it as muchly as my sister does... ('cause she can be hard to impress sometimes, and she likes this!)

So... that's how I'm doing. 

 Tell me, how are you doing?

Day 12: April NaNo Camp

Okay, so you may already know that I've been working on 20k per month goal since last Novemeber,

and I've been being successful so far. But since April is "Camp NaNo" month, it seemed like a good idea to join in on the fun there with my 20k goal and kill two birds with one stone.

 Since I'm trying to concentrate on one project, and I'd really love to have it done, done, done!

So I did.

  It was interesting.

 Last year I did July camp for the first time, so I am somewhat familiar with the way the Camp site works. (Haha, got you there, that's an accidental pun!)
   Anyway, the real NaNo site is more fun, with the Plot Doctoring forums my favorite part, but having the "cabin mates" chat to talk in can be fun, too. My cabin mates so far aren't very talkative, so that's kind of sad. (I may have to resort to a different cabin...)

 So, I got some great days of really productive sprints in early in the month, and was almost nearing the halfway point on my wordcount.
 "If I'm doing so well at this," I thought to myself, "Shouldn't I try to do more? The faster this project is done the happier several people in my life will be, and that includes me. So... why not up the word count to 30K? After all, a measly extra 10k on top of the pile shouldn't be too hard, right?"

 So, I did.

 And now I've hit some days where I'm not getting the scenes rolling like they used to, and I'm kind of losing momentum, and I'm thinking "What was I thinking?!!!"

 But, I think I can still do it... it just won't be easy sailing. I'm on track to accomplish it, as the site stats say:

"At This Rate You Will Finish On

April 30, 2014"

In order to write 30k in 30 days; I simply need to come up with one thousand (high quality, intensely expressive, and on-track-with-the-plot) words per day.
 At 12k on the 12th, (today) that means I'm theoretically doing okay. But I know that I did more than 1k per day early in the month, which means that my actual production has downshifted... and this spells a bad forecast for the upcoming weeks.


 To add to my problems, I have the ridiculous tendency to desperately want to finish early. To the degree that if I simply finish on time I will feel somewhat like a failure; only if I finish early will I have actually won.
 And the degree of actually enjoying the win will directly correspond to how many days early I finish.

   Is this crazy? (Are you afraid to answer that honestly?)

   Does anybody else feel like this? It's actually pretty miserable, 'cause it totally steals the joy out of most accomplishments. (At least timed ones.) And I don't like to think of myself as going through life all joy-less, etc. but I'm not sure how to alter this tendency, or ever from whence it springs.

  Anyway, let me know what you think and make me feel less lonely, will you please? :-)

   Thanks!
    Elizabeth

How I did on NaNoWriMo

Okay! November is OVERRRRRR!

 Yes, that is about how happy I am to be able to say that.  It is not like I didn't appreciate it while it was here, but 50k words later, I am very, Very VERY ready to say goodbye to the month and move on to a little different headspace for a while. My creativity is strained and sprained and feeling mighty sore, but the words I got out were mostly good, high quality ones... even if I had to slip into Science Fiction scenarios there at the end.
 (Hey! Some day I'll have a crack-shot group of sci-fi story lines... )

 So, at first I did great. I was like:

Kristen Coco oil paintings

   Oh, yes. I can do this!


  Then on the 5th my sister had a cattle working accident that bashed her teeth in, and we spent all day in town at the oral surgeon's for emergency dental care. I was pretty worried about the situation; stressed and keyed up... and didn't write that day, or the next.
  I barely made any progress the third day, and (I think,) the next two either.

Tiny turtle on keyboard.

  My mojo was just gone. I had nothing to say.

Cartoon stock.

 So shortly I was like:

Sad dog.

 And pretty soon I was like:

Reminder beagle.

 Then I recovered my creativity and started to write. I was determined to make up the lapse, and even pull ahead. 

  At this point I was like this:

Armored Beagle

 I wrote hard, pulling those emotions out of the clouds, making things tough.
 I made it to my goal post, but had a hard time keeping up later.

           I flagged, I felt exhausted.

Dramatic Animals

I struggled to find compelling scenes to drag me back into the world of my tale.

 Then on 13th, it happened. I surged forward! The story was a wild thing, and I was riding it, hanging on for dear life! We sailed forward toward the horizon!
 

Photoshop Disasters

I over shot the line! I got down great scenes, sweeping complications of people trying to do their own thing in a world that draws harsh lines. Hard things. Sad things.
  I fell behind once, but it didn't bother me. The tale was coming, in bursts and snippets. The words bubbled up and sank away again, ebbing and tiding like an ocean of meaning that would fill my cupped hands, and now flee away.
 
 Then it simmered down to a faint  hum, and wouldn't sing to me any more.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

   

 I researched ancient Rome.

And the legions.

I found shiny pictures.

 But not much inspiration.

via Pinterest

 This was starting to get serious. My lack of fire in the direction of my story was worrying me. Had I overworked the plot? Were there not enough holes for my imagination to play with? Were there too many?

  I cut off into a new direction... pitting hero against a dragon, on a burnt and blasted wasteland.

That was a lot of fun to write, and so I allowed my imagination out to play. I switched between "real stuff" and "playing stuff", and kept on track with the word count goals.

Then it was the thirtieth. And I needed 2000 words by midnight to officially make it.

 I didn't feel good. My brain felt fogged. I was sick.
 

White Tiger

But there it was: the fact!

Feature Pics

  So I tackled what may be the toughest scene in the book. The one where the hero finally understands he has to make the right choice, even if it takes everything from him.

  I typed madly at the keyboard on that afternoon, determined to make it those last couple of thousand.
   I was kind of like this:

Typing madly

 But he fought me. Why would he give everything up? He's had it good, he's done it his way. What would make him change his whole mindset, his whole life? When he has nothing to gain, and everything to loose? Hasn't he already lost enough? Shouldn't he hold tight to the things he has left to him?
    Grrr!!

On the road to Damascus

 So I had him turn aside to a small spring, and there he met a young man. They talked. He pondered. Time slipped away....

 I crossed the 50k line.

Think Stock

 My MC still hadn't decided to commit. All the way in. 

Kingfisher Dive

   But... I was done.
   I didn't feel done though.
        I felt... behind. Like I should have written 60k, or finished 5 days early, or... something.

 Or found a way to resolve this pivotal scene.

But I couldn't find a way. I thought I was getting close, read it to my sister, and she said "That's not a believable change."
     So I quit writing and watched a movie with Dad and was like this:

Watching TV

 

 The next day was December first. 

  I walked around kind of jittery, trying to remind myself that there was no required word count today. That I was free. But I didn't really believe it. Not totally. It hadn't sunk in.
 So I was kind of like this:
 

 Then it was the 2nd.


     It was real.



   I checked my NaNo profile.

 

 I had written 50k.

  And then I was like:

Exultation

 And this:

Triumphant joy.

 Sure there was a lot left to write. And my hero's turning point would come. Later...

 But right now: there was a whole lot less left to be written.

    

 So that was my November.

 How was yours?

How I Do NaNoWriMo

  The whole idea of National Novel Writing Month is to write recklessly and with abandon, churning out a whitewater rapids of words; so that when you reach the end of November you have A) more words in one piece than you've had before, and B) something to start rewrites on with the goal of eventually honing a novel out of the midst of it.
 
  This can be a good thing if you are a "slush" writer, one who writes junk and then sifts it for the good things. But if you're a more "only good things, though slowly" kind of writer, getting that kind of volume actually messes up your creative potential.
 I've run across many people who say that writing total drivel en masse in the hopes of cleaning up later and finding something good... doesn't work for them.

   This is a good point.

  I, too, found that sheer quantity isn't useful... (or hard, for me; quality is what makes me sweat! ) so I limit myself to only writing keeping-worthy words.
    Yes, I know how that sounds!
       But here's how it works: I do not have a daily goal, just a monthly one.
  I try to focus on coming up with some really good chunks of time to write great ideas before they dissipate, and go for 2,000-5/6000 per inspiration. For November I put writing first, and squirrel away from other "entertainments".

     By the end of the month my creativity is flagging, but I push for a few more sprints on scenes I already know need written, and I have always finished over goal. Usually, I don't stop just 'cause I've reached 50k, but kind of coast on til the end; and then give myself a writing free month of December!

     (I don't take it, but it's a nice feeling for a few days to just be like "No Writing! No writing anywhere!!")

 
    What do you think? Does wildly NaNoing sound like it'd work for you?

Why I Do NaNoWriMo

 I am a pretty consistent writer.
    Not consistent in "I write every day" (I don't) but consistent in "I write every year, every season, whenever something big isn't immovably in my way I'm either writing, thinking about writing, or talking about it."

  So it's no surpirse that I've racked up A LOT of wordcount all told, and several book length ms.
  I've released two YA low fantasy novels, and I've got too many WIPs to shake a stick at. (All of which I am working on!)

 So why do I do NaNoWriMo?

 Because it's fun...
   Because it's energizing in a big, big way.
    And because the WriMos are too much fun to miss out on!

  The general, contagious excitement and creativity that is unleashed onto the internet is super infectious, and I find the adrenaline pumped air a heady boost to my usual creative output.
   The fun, the enthusiasm, the wild and wonderful plot doctoring... I love the NaNo site in November, when it comes alive like the toys after midnight. There are clowns walking on the ceiling and wooden soldiers dancing on the desk lamps. It's a crazy, beautiful festival of words, and the ideas and solutions I have found among the WriMos are beyond anything I've found anywhere else.
   These strange folk are extremely helpful and upbeat... and, we must admit, just a little weird; but that makes their eyes fresher, their brains quicker, their plot-hole fixing powers just that much more enhanced.

 I so enjoy their witty comebacks to any problem, their realistic assessments of book related facts, their inexorable power of creativity on any subject matter, however fantastical it may be.

 I love the exuberance of the electrons wafting off their activities all month long.

   That's why I do NaNoWriMo.
      And I'll actually start writing any day now.... any day...