The process, part 4 - Plotting
At last, we arrive at crafting the story.
In an earlier blogpost, I mentioned that I had streamlined my plotting process. For The Connickle Conundrum, each scene was meticulously planned. Location, characters present and Point of View (POV) were all detailed for each of the eight-one scenes in the twenty-nine chapters, before I wrote a word of the story. Consequently, plotting took longer than writing the first draft!
With a settled view of how the second instalment fitted into the trilogy’s arc, I was eager to start writing and unwilling to spend months plotting details that would evolve organically within the narrative. So, my writing technique has naturally morphed from dedicated Plotter to a hybrid Plotter/Pantser. And although my new process resulted in lots of back-and-forth between scenes and even more editing and refining, from concept to passing my manuscript to my super-talented editor, Aime Sund of Red Leaf Word Services, I cut more than twelve months from the time to complete The Connickle Conundrum.
Although the story has a beginning, a middle and an end, rather than being linear, I believe the narrative should form a circle told in three Acts which I can best describe as taking my main character (MC) on a rollercoaster ride through an ever changing landscape.
Act One
As the train is pulled up the first steep gradient, the MC is surveying their surroundings, maybe evaluating their life choices During this introspection, one of the other passengers along for the ride, explains something to the MC which they dispute or choose to ignore. Once at the top of the slope, an event causes the train to plunge downwards towards a fork in the track. The MC cannot see where the left fork goes, but knows that taking the right fork would end in disaster (and a very short story!). So after some debate the MC chooses the left track and is catapulted into a loop-de-loop, turning their world side down, before continuing through the new, strange landscape of Act Two.
Act Two - Part A
The MC, along with many of the other characters on the train, find themselves in a world that’s very different from the world in Act One. The track has many genre-specific up and downs, twists and turns, sudden drops and maybe a water splash or two, before reaching the midpoint of the story and another event throws them into the second part of Act Two.
Act Two - Part B
On this part of the ride, the twists and turns are more perilous. The MC has to overcome their fears and, once again, when the ride is plunged into the depths, the MC is forced to pick the least favourable route to find a way out. But in the darkness there is a glimmer of hope as the train heads towards a light at the end of the tunnel and into Act Three.
Act Three
The roller coaster returns to the once familiar landscape of Act One as the MC continues to hurdle towards the story finale. But, of course, everything is not quite as it was and there’s many a twist and turn in this new reality before the train reaches it’s destination. Will the MC survive and arrive safely to disembark at the roller coaster station? Or will they meet their demise learning the error of their ways in a tragic derailment?
For the second instalment, I summarised each major ‘event’, twist or bump in the track and pantsed the story in between using my new tracking spreadsheet.
So, that’s how I plotted the MC’s story. But intertwined with the main story, there are sub plots, which conveniently, is the subject of our next blogpost.
For this week’s featured writer and musical artist, I have delved into the ‘classics’…
H. G. Wells - Godfather of Steampunk Science fiction
Rush - Three piece Canadian Progressive Rock band extraordinaire
Next time… Subplots