How to Untangle Your Plot Knot

I've always loved untangling knots. Slinkies, necklaces, shoe laces, you name it, I can untangle it. The secret is patience, seeing where one strand got caught up with the other and not making it harder than it is.

Naturally, I love untangling my clients' most difficult plot points. It is oddly therapeutic and terribly exciting for me.

As promised on Monday, here are a few steps I lead writers through in detangling their most gnarly plot knots.


Step One: When considering your story in broad terms, think of a few major milestones you see your character passing through. These are the big events that are pivotal to the movement of your novel as well as the development of your character(s). These big milestones become your major plot points.

Step Two: Car crashes, break-ups and happily ever afters don't just happen - there are a series of events that lead up to these major plot points. Now's the time to fill in the spaces. What made your protag collide their car with another, head on? It takes two to end a relationship, whether the one who was dumped knows it or not - where did it all go wrong? And we all want to know the secret path to happily ever after - don't skimp on the details!

Step Three: Don't make it harder than it is. While writing a commercial novel is no paint by numbers project, the process need not be fraught with riddles and dead-ends...which ultimately lead you to wondering about your talent and reason for being. Writing a novel is all about cause and effect. It's human nature unfolding. You're already an expert in the study. How you choose to capture that human nature is your artistic signature.

Step Four: Avoid cliches. Yes, it's true, there's no such thing as an original plot. However, you can make your novel fresh by avoiding a few over-used plot points: characters spurred into action due to major life-altering events like death, divorce or break-ups; a protag who deals with "The Man" the only way they know how - with street smarts or their feminine prowess!; anything about the life and times of a misunderstood, starving artist...unless you plan to be one.

For more detailed lessons on plot development, I urge you to check out author and past TLCG contributor Michelle Hoover's blog on plot structure and development. Michelle teaches writing at Boston University and Grub Street. A must read, especially if you've yet to check out a writing program or workshop in your area or online.

Here's to untangling your plot knots!

TLC

It's Your Novel, So Take The Wheel, Already!

I frequently get emails from writers who are completely stuck mid-draft in their novel. Whether it's their first attempt or a third revision, their characters, who don't know why they're there in the first place, stubbornly refuse to budge (some have wandered off) while their plot is off in the corner chasing it's tail. Drama left weeks ago to check out The Real Housewives. And Resolution? Umm. He'll show himself...eventually...right?

Oh, dear.

Writers, you are in control of your novel. You control your character's every motion, you control their motives, their challenges, their successes, their drama. You control the nuances of their subplots. You control your plot and the pace in which it moves. You control the rise in action, the climax and the resolution. You are the driver, here, my dears, so take the wheel. It's yours!

Let's start with your baby, your main character. How many of you really know your main protagonist? Do you like them? A common problem I'm seeing with first time fiction writers is not enough in-depth knowledge and appreciation of their main character. They have a general idea of who he/she is and an idea of where they'll find them at the end of the novel, but that's about it. The details are fuzzy. And some of you have larger than life sub-characters that are stealing the spotlight.

Writers, getting your fiction noticed by an agent and/or editor is DIFFICULT. In order to keep your foot in the door of consideration, your main characters must jump off the page, grab the reader by the collar and get nose to nose. And the only way to build a strong character is to know them. You've got to know what your character loves and loathes. What do they fear? What makes them laugh? How do they dress, speak, walk? What do they desire? What turns them on? What do they eat and how? What about their DNA makes them special, unique? Why will your readers want to spend money and a couple of days with them?

For those of you who have strong sub-characters but find your main kind of a snore, consider why you've placed more attention on your sub's attributes. Why are you more intrigued by him/her? Maybe that's your main character instead? Maybe the story starts with them? What does your gut tell you?

I know of a few writers who got so into their characters, they lived like them for a few days/weeks, as a character actor would (I don't recommend extremes, taking drugs or breaking the law). Others cut out pictures in a magazine or found photos of what they wanted their character to look like and they wrote a detailed character sketch around that image. Others simply outlined all their protag's traits from the physical to the spiritual and everything in between. They left out nothing. I frequently lead my writers through this exercise with very good results. And it's fun!

Will you use all this detail in your novel? Probably not. Only use the details that are important to your character's arc.

Does it take a lot of work? Yep. Will you have to dump your current character if they are just not working out for you? Maybe. There are no short cuts in writing. Cut and paste editing is not good writing. But if you do the work, if you get nose to nose with your characters, you'll know their motivations. You'll know just how they'll move in and out of conflict, climax and find their resolution. And most of all, you'll build a character you're truly proud of.

Knowing your characters on a cellular level BEFORE you begin their (and your) journey is the first step to knowing your novel. We'll focus on plot later this week.

Your Action: If you're stuck with your novel, consider your main character. If you haven't taken the time to outline them, to live a day in their shoes, to "see" them, take the time to do it. Hang out with them. Get to know them. Invest in them. Be them. And, you might want to give the people you live with a heads up before they find you doing who knows what. Again, no extremes, writers.

Here's to the birth of your new characters! Have a fruitful week, writers!

TLC