McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Plotting the swampy middle.
belial.1980:
I feel your pain. I always have solid ideas for the beginning and then a climatic ending in mind but the middle stuff tends to get tough for me to traverse.
You said that you've got three major threads that you're looking to weave together. I don't know if this works for you but maybe instead of trying to weave them together from the onset just write one at a time. Without knowing more about the structure of your novel I can't offer any specifics but you could try to write thread A from begining to end. There might be huge gaps but you can always fill those later. Once you've written thread B and C you can then get to the messy work of splicing them--cutting and pasting and putting scenes in some kind of general order. Once you've got that worked out you can always go in there and fix it. I wouldn't stress over making something seemless on the first go.
Another thing that might help is writing scenes nonsequentially. I myself write most of my scenes in order but not all of them Sometimes I get to a point where I'm just not happy with a scene or I'm just not "feeling" it. So then I go write another scene that I feel better equipped to tackle. This might work for you since you seem to have a pretty good idea of where the story is going.
Plotting outlines can be helpful but when it comes down to it I think it's best just to write to get something on paper. Remember that you can always go back and change something. Good luck!
meg_evonne:
Uhm, I'm going to chime in that everyone above has really good ideas. And as to your 2nd post--both, each individual thread and all at once. It's a balancing act. We've talked about ways to chart this on poster board, in excel sheets etc. but you might find the visual aspect helps keep things balanced. Give a color post it to each subplot and check your weaving.
As for me? I'm character driven and I'm a firm believer that the characters are on a journey though the book and arriving somewhere different by the end. (Or when I'm contrary I will route one right back to where he started as an utter failure--so s/he has to start off again and hope not to make the same mistakes.) My subplots always involve a journey for the character, even minor characters if I can make it work that way.
[This is how I see life, so this is organic in my writing. Deciding to stop at a diner in hoodunk Itsy Bitsy Kansas (or other state or world or country) changes life in small ways in my opinion. Hum, that makes me very eastern philosophy. Who was that Buddist monk fighter? Well, that's how I view life, so my POV might be different than a lot of people.]
So I have their beginnings and where I want them to go. Then I chart all the logical things that need to happen to get to the end of each character subplot. Then it's a matter of timing, weaving, and creating tension/action/romantic/clue finding scenes that will bring out those steps for the characters.* Keeps me on track too. Wrangling characters can be as difficult as herding cats.
Doubt that helps, but good luck to you.
*And I insist that every scene impacts 66% at a minimum of the subplots, so you really have to get the thinking cap on. The goal is the final last step with 100%, but that isn't horrid if it winds up over the course of maybe three scenes at the end.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on October 23, 2009, 07:19:27 PM ---*And I insist that every scene impacts 66% at a minimum of the subplots, so you really have to get the thinking cap on. The goal is the final last step with 100%, but that isn't horrid if it winds up over the course of maybe three scenes at the end.
--- End quote ---
This is a sight easier with three subplots than with twelve or fifteen.
meg_evonne:
Indubitably dear multi-level Neurovore.
I'm many learning curves behind you. My recent work's learning piece if how to control and move around six characters. So I'm only trying to weave seven. Six on one side and One for the villain. That is keeping me quite engaged as it is. Ask me after a few more years and we'll see if I've risen to the level of 12 or more. LOL
And as you know I'm still fighting my way slowly through the countless POVs. My first POV technique is wrapped up, my third intimate POV is wrapped up. I suppose my next attempt will try a more distant 3rd... Or maybe, just maybe I will have leveled up enough that I'm happy right there for some time to come. Wait, there is my massive historical fiction that is distant 3rd disaster that I could...
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