On Writing: Resources To Help You Plot

Piggybacking on yesterday's post, I thought I'd offer up some resources for the plotter. (You pantsers are on your own. I have no idea how your brain works, so I don't understand what kind of resources you'd want. Well, I can at least direct you toward Bad Ass Coffee and Gentleman Jack, because I'm pretty sure you all drink a lot of coffee and a lot of booze, but that's it.)

Brainstorming is an excellent way to begin work on your novel. Or novella, or novelette, or short story, or comic book, or whatever. Have a seat, pull up a cup of coffee or a glass of whiskey (or a cup of coffee made with whiskey), and just start writing things down. Character names. Settings. Bits of dialogue. Events. Worry about making it coherent later. For now, just write.

Personally, I am a fan of what I have recently discovered is called the "snowflake method." (I use it in conjunction with outlining.) Start with one sentence, then one paragraph, then one page. Keep building until you have what you want. I keep the original single sentences to help me keep my focus. Whenever I feel like I'm losing sight of the point of whatever scene I'm writing, I refer back to that single sentence. As a bonus, by the time I'm done, the summaries are already written.

Plot points are another way to go. These can be written on index cards and then rearranged until you have a progressive, cohesive plot progression. If you don't want to use index cards, a spreadsheet or possibly FreeMind might work well.

Remember outlines from school papers? Of course you do. Those suckers are useful. I love outlining. I break out the college-rule notebook paper and a bunch of colored pens and I scribble until I have several pages of bare bones storytelling.

Quick Google searches for phrases like "how to plot a novel" and "how to write a novel" will return a wealth of sites, posts, and book suggestions. Wade through them if you must (if you're stuck, it certainly may help to see how other writers plot) but remember that no one knows how you write better than you do. Go with your own instincts.

Or scoot on over to Terrible Minds and pick one of Chuck Wendig's 25 suggestions.