National Novel Writing Month Planning 2020 Part 3

In week three of planning for 2020's National Novel Writing Month, the focus was plotting. This is probably one of my weaker areas in the sense that I've never outlined as deeply as I should, but over the past few years I've learned quite a bit more about plot structures. Much of what was discussed in this session came as no huge surprise to me.

There is a quiz on the prep page to take which is supposed to help you pinpoint what style of planning would suit you best. For me, this popped up with the "I <3 Outlining SO MUCH!" option, which appears to be the most in-depth style of outlining and planning. It likely came up with this because I chose on the quiz that I wanted to know as much about my story ahead of time. The funny thing is, I already have a bit of a plan because I'm working off an old rough draft where the story's already been completed once--my goal is to dig deeper with it and make it a more worthwhile effort. If I took this quiz on a fresh idea, it'd probably come up with something looser. I've spent most of my writing time working without any kind of outline, but in doing so I found that many of my oldest stories are a mess. Having at least a rough plan seems to help me more--it's been a question of finding the best, most streamlined process.

Fortunately, the NaNo prep page offers a few different methods for arranging ideas into a plot.

• The first plotting method is the "Jot, Bin, Pants" technique. This is a pretty loose and flexible technique, in which you brainstorm and jot down all your ideas, arrange them within the elements of story structure as containers for your ideas, then tack on additional ideas (the ones you "pants" I suppose) within the outline as they occur. This is something that may suit me for many fresh ideas, but it might not suit my current needs.
• The second technique is the "Plot Rollercoaster" one. This breaks down into six parts, where you'll need to plug in the set-up, the inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. These are all the basic elements of a plot that I keep in mind all the time, really. I tend to apply these six parts broadly across just about all my efforts, especially since this lends itself easily to a three-act structure. It would not be much of a stretch to combine this with the Jot/Bin/Pants method to hammer out a good plotline.
  
• Third, there's the "9-Step Plot Dot" method. This is modeled after the Hero's Journey structure popularized by Joseph Campbell's Hero of a Thousand Faces. This, in turn, is the same structure that was rigidly applied to such stories as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. This still adheres to the three-act rising action/climax/falling action structure, but the story loops on itself as the hero ventures outside his or her comfort zone, learns stuff, and returns to a state of normalcy. There are very specific beats involved with the Hero's Journey--maybe a little too rigid for my tastes, but it's helpful to pinpoint where and how the character fails and changes. I find that other writers have come up and said this doesn't really work for them either.
  
• Next is the Save the Cat beat sheets. The Save the Cat book was written for screenwriters everywhere to find a successful formula, and it can be easily applied to other mediums like novels. Personally, I feel like this is also extraordinarily rigid and maybe too much for my intentions. The formula goes so far to specify exact percentages in which story beats need to fill up space in the overall manuscript.
• Last is Katytastic's 3 Act / 9 Block / 27 Chapter outlining method. This is basically a spreadsheet you can use, plugging in your plot points in a preset act structure. It seems self-explanatory to me and I have no doubt this sheet is useful. For my story though, 27 chapters is not actually enough (unless I want specific parts extend beyond just one chapter). Also, like the last few methods, this might be a little too stringent for my purposes.

Any of these techniques can be helpful depending on what kind of writer you are and what kind of project you're working on. My project this year is a little unique because so much of it is mapped out already. What I've come to realize too is that I might be working with something more complex than a three-act plot--I think it's more like five acts, with much longer middle sections and more turning points than usual. Thus, the more constricted plotting tools (like the Save the Cat method) won't be as easy to plug in. And really, I would have done the Jot/Bin/Pants method eight years ago on this book without realizing it--to streamline the next draft, I'll probably fall back on the Plot Rollercoaster.

Sometime soon, I will sit down and formalize my outline in a separate Word document. Once I do so, I expect to scrutinize it to identify areas that need fixing--most especially any areas that don't seem creditable or may not make sense. This will also be a chance to make sure character depth is addressed, arcs make sense, maybe some world-building issues can be tweaked, and hopefully I can pinpoint aspects of the experience (such as emotional response, empathy levels) and make sure they work correctly.

It helps that I've conceived of so much of this story years ago. The entire first act is pretty firmly set in my mind. Even as I rewrite it, I can take the time to keep working on the outline and finalize some details. Then, when the time comes to write all the scenes, hopefully it'll come out smoothly, quickly, and with less revision needed.