Mixed up Pantser-Plotter

          Anyone who has been following this blog realizes I’m the organic, seat of the pants, let’s see what happens next type of writer. I love to start with a character or a what if question and just start writing. I love playing with words, trying on different scenes, leading up to different endings. The trouble with that is that there are multitudes of almost or not even close to finished stories on my computer collecting electronic dust. This organic, seat of the pants, let’s see what happens style of writing must give way at some point to a kick in the pants designed to finish . . . something . . . anything.

          In all this rediscovering my creativity I’ve been doing lately, I have decided to embark on an experiment. I’ve decided to try some things that are not natural, that go against my intuitive way of doing things. I’m going to plot a novel! And, come November and NaNoWriMo, I’ll write that novel. . . . . . . I hope.

          I’m actually a little scared. All right! I’m more than a little scared. I have never been able to write from a plot. I’ve never been able to plot an entire story. I think I have a solution! I’ll plot a story I’ve already written. That’s right. I’ll plot it and then rewrite it. Brilliant!

          You may have heard me mention a work-in-progress that has overwhelmed me for months (years?!). It is a story I started over ten years ago (about the time I met Kitty and Shonna, if you care to know that little tidbit of trivia). I have worked on this story off and on for many years, changing this, changing that, developing (discovering?) character motivations and fatal flaws. I’ve added and taken away characters, reworked subplots. All this work has created in a centipede medusa with so many tentacles and legs flailing around, I have no idea how to corral it back into a coherent story. But I know the characters well. I know the most important bits of their story arc. And I know how the story ends.

          The perfect solution is to rewrite the story. Lay aside all my previous, convoluted work and basically start over. I’ve all ready done the discovery process of the characters and important events. Maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to plot out an interesting story arc which I can proceed to write in November.

          Serendipitously, I belong to a writer’s email loop that is doing that very thing, plotting a story. Someone on the loop came across Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method. We decided to embark on a group Plotting Odyssey. Some of us are striving to plot the story we will write in November; some are taking longer to plot a story, ignoring the free-for-all word slinging of NaNoWriMo.

          In case you are interested doing your own Plotting Odyssey, here are our schedules. Always keep in mind that you can change the order to whatever fits your needs best . . . or even pick and choose which bits are best. Choose what works for you!

Ten Week Odyssey

• Week 1: Write a one-sentence summary of your novel.
• Week 2: Expand the sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending.
• Week 3: Do a one page summary of each character: name, character’s storyline, GMC, epiphany.
• Week 4: Expand each sentence of your summary paragraphs into a full paragraph.
• Week 5: Write a one page description of each major character.
• Week 6: Expand a one page plot synopsis into four pages.
• Week 7: Expand character descriptions into full fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character including how will the character change by the end of the novel.
• Week 8/9: Take the four page plot synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel. Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes.
• Week 10: Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand to a multi-paragraph description of the scene.

Five Week Odyssey

• Week 1: Write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Expand the sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending.
• Week 2: Do a one page summary of each character: name, character’s storyline, GMC, epiphany. Expand each sentence of your summary paragraphs into a full paragraph.
• Week 3: Write a one page description of each major character. Expand a one page plot synopsis into four pages.
• Week 4: Expand character descriptions into full fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character including how will the character change by the end of the novel. Take the four page plot synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel. Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes.
• Week 5: Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand to a multi-paragraph description of the scene.

          Care to join me?