How Much is Enough?

How Much is Enough?

In her article The Top Ten Plotting Problems, Alicia Rasley lists the number two item as structural weakness. After giving list of problems such as meandering setups and incoherence between protagonist and plot, Rasley contends that these stem from "misunderstanding the purpose of structure." She writes, "It is not a prison, chaining you to a 'formula', it's a map to help you and your readers explore the issues you're developing with this story. Learning structure can teach you when to modify it and when to branch out on your own."

In Make A Scene we talked about key scenes and how they function to structure a novel, building from a hook (opening scene) through rising tension (plot points) to a climax that forces the protagonist into difficult choices and change. If you have these scenes in mind, or better yet, sketched out on paper, is that all the attention you need to give to structure before you start writing the first draft?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Some travelers can head out on a trip knowing their destination and the general direction in which it lies, and they'll arrive with few wrong turns or detours, if they have any misadventures at all.

Other travelers need a detailed list of how far to go, where to turn, and every landmark or mile marker on the route if they want to get where they're going within the next decade.

Writers are the same. Some need more structure in place before writing a draft, while others need less. You have to work to find your ideal. Just remember that trying the same method over and over again, and expecting different results, is not a sane approach. If your current plan of attack doesn't get you through a draft, consider adjusting the amount of pre-writing time you spend on structuring the story.

If you want to try sketching out more structure beyond the key scenes, Robert Ray in The Weekend Novelist suggests building a story line list. This list expands from your key scene work by mapping out your scene sequence. Working in a problem-solution rhythm, Ray's list produces a believable, consistent story line by using short lines to describe an obstacle that the protagonist faces, followed by an apparent solution, which leads to a new problem. "By working through the problem-solution framework," Ray writes, "you strengthen your plot."

If you want to try your hand at this, use a book that you have enjoyed and see if you can list the problem-solution framework within it. (For an example from The Weekend Novelist, click here.)

There are several different ways you can jot down and organize scenes. The chart at the end of these notes explains several of these, and shows some strengths and the weaknesses for each method. You may be able to add to the chart yourself as you consider the various approaches.

You are not writing anything in detail at this point. Your method of choice may just have a one-line summary of what needs to happen in the scene. If you use a story board outline, you might include details regarding the setting and dialog. The idea is to "manage your creativity," writes Randall Ingermanson, creator of The "Snowflake" Process for Designing Novels. These structure notes give you something to work from as you draft. He continues, "You need a design document. And you need to produce it using a process that doesn't kill your desire to actually write the story." In step 10 of his process, at which point he is actually working on the draft, he encourages pre-planners by adding, "You might think that all the creativity is chewed out of the story by this time. Well, no. This is the fun part, because there are many small-scale logic problems to work out here....But it's fun because you already know that the large-scale structure of the story works. So you only have to solve a limited set of problems, and you can write relatively fast.

Giving adequate attention to structure before hand can speed up your drafting process and leave you with less to fix during the revision phase. Work to find your comfort zone for the pre-writing plot design for your novel, so that you can increase your writing enjoyment and productivity at the same time.

Methods for Story Line Development

Method	Instructions	Pros	Cons
Index Cards	Use a card per scene. Jot key words, dialog, anything that will help you when it's time to write the scene. Consider using the storyboard outline.	Easy to move, eliminate, add scenes. Can move cards to back as you draft, showing exactly where to start next writing session.	Cards get spilled/jumbled, can be tedious to get back in order. (Think 52+ card pick-up here.) Potential to lose cards.
W-Folder	Open up a file folder and write a large W over the entire thing (one V on each side). Story starts at the top of the first leg, initial crisis is at the bottom, top middle signals appearance that things might be resolved, bottom of next V is the blackest moment. Story is resolved by top of last leg. Scenes notes are penciled in along the legs of the W.	Visual representation of plot. Easy to see where information is missing or in which section of the story it needs to appear. Folder can double to hold research and other information pertinent to the story.	Confined space. Difficult to rearrange unless you consider jotting scene info on small sticky notes...
Sticky Notes	One writer uses sticky notes of various sizes and colors to make notes, puts them on 8x11 paper and then orders those sheets in a binder.	Easy to move, eliminate, add sticky notes (scenes). Can add new sheets as well if necessary to fill in gaps that present themselves rather than moving a bunch of sticky notes from page to page. Can color code sticky notes for different aspects of the novel such as subplots, key scenes.	Sticky notes can flap and come unstuck but it's easier to recover from a sticky-note mishap than an index card spill.
Spread Sheet	Each row is a scene. Columns can include things like POV, setting, plot points, etc. Could use each item in storyboard outline. Later you can add a column that designates chapters. For details see The Snowflake Process.	Easy to move, eliminate, add scenes. Can also add columns if you need to.	The learning curve if you haven't used a spreadsheet before can be frustrating. Need a backup or printout in case computer goes down.
Mind Map	Center the story title, spoke key story scenes from center, then group related scenes around key scenes.	Doesn't have the structure of a list for authors who don't like to work linearly.	Difficult to move, change, rearrange items.