Today I find myself wondering if plotting is supposed to be this hard.
For me, writing comes easily. That's not to say that everything I write is flawless; it isn't. I need to edit my fingers off just like the next writer. But it's not something I sweat blood over. Stringing words and phrases is effortless, fluid. It's like singing.
Not so the plotting. It isn't sentence structure and word choices that cause me to stare blankly at my screen. It's plot. Always, always plot.
It's making my brain hurt.
No, really. You know that my-skull-is-aching-on-the-inside feeling that comes from thinking too hard, too long? That. When I can't stand the thought of thinking anymore. And still haven't worked out the plot detail that has me frozen in my tracks.
And then, working it through, feeling liberated and giddy and allowing the words to pour forth, only to stop short five paragraphs later on the next plot point.
There goes my head again. Imploding.
So I ask you. Am I plot-challenged? Or are there other writers out there for whom the process of plotting is akin to refinishing a hardwood floor with a Q-Tip?
I'm obviously thigh-deep in the process right now, in the middle of almost completely rewriting the last four chapters of my WIP. I am, in fact, hard at work on the next-to-last chapter. You know the one--everything pushing forward, tension high, leading toward the climax, everything leading logically to the next thing and keeping the page-turning rate high.
No pressure, right?
It's no wonder I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache. I'm facing the day with a high level of Ibuprofin in my bloodstream and a second-to-last chapter that needs a lot of attention. A lot of pain-inducing thought.
Scariest of all? I think I'm thriving on this. That is, when I'm not despairing that something must surely be wrong with me. Because it's just THAT much work.
Please. Tell me I'm not alone.
Oh, you're so not alone. Plotting flat out hurts. It's when all my insecurities about not being a good enough storyteller come out. Everything sounds lame and like a cheap rip-off of someone else's work.
ReplyDeleteIf the writing itself weren't such a heavenly piece of fun, the plotting would put me off writing.
No, you're definitely not alone. I'm a 'pantser'. I was going great guns on the current WIP, 40k in two weeks. I know what I want to happen in the second half of the book. I have the climactic scene in my head.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm stuck...I need to get my characters out of bed and heading towards the next bit and I can't seem to plot my way forward. I woke up at 2.30 the other morning and drifted in and out of consciousness as I tried to work the next bit out.
My brain hurts.
I know it will be worth it in the end. I think it's just the mid-book slump.
I think you'd be alone if you didn't feel this way from time to time. My current WIP is progressing sooo slow. I can't seem to get each plot point out the way I want it, so it's all 'write a little/stop and think'. Hang in there.
ReplyDeletePlotting can be really hard. I flew through novel #1, not thinking the plot out fully, and I can tell you that reverse engineering a detailed plot into a finished novel is horribly difficult. Thought my brain would burst. (Did manage to work it out and sell it, so it all paid off.)
ReplyDeletePlotting can be a pain. For me, I usually see the whole story in my mind before writing it, but there always comes a point where I realize the details just don't connect, and that's when things start to get tough. Sometimes the details force you to rethink the overall plot. That's what happened with my last novel, the one I'm currently querying (a YA post-apocalyptic book). But at the same time, the feeling you get once everything falls into place is matchless!
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, you're definitely not the only one who has this problem. I'm emphantically not a pantser, but it's because of this that I have such a problem: it is so hard to figure out what needs to happen in my novel that I have to plot it out beforehand or it'll just never happen.
ReplyDeleteReading your entry has caused me anxiety. That's how much you're NOT alone.
ReplyDeleteI can never think of plot. I have tons of ideas but no real storyline holding everything together. Or, when I do think of a plot, immediately I think, "Nope! Boring! Been done before!"
ReplyDeleteIt takes lots of patients and thinking. I'm sorry to tell your throbbing brain that.
You're not alone.
ReplyDeleteWriting is a process. Headaches are part of that process. Waking up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea is part of that process. Reaching for the pen and paper while driving down the road and trying to scribble out an idea legibly is part of the process. Angst is part of the process.
So, grab some chocolate covered cashews, take a few deep breaths, and dive into the brilliance of the writing adventure. You know we're all right here rooting you on!
S
((((Hugs for all the plot challenged))))
ReplyDeleteI am in exactly the same boat. I can write scenes effortlessly and my second half of my book always seems to fly by. But getting the plot to that point...sheer pain.
I 've taken to writing the scens I can visualize and then trying to work the plot in later, which seems to work for me. Otherwise my subplots have a tendency to wither and die while I'm focusing on my main plotline.
How can something so hard be so much fun?
Ugh ugh ugh. I totally feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying a new method for my 3rd novel, where I set the plot out in stone first before I get any serious writing done (well, not in stone stone, just a firmer idea of scenes). I still jot down snippets of scene that come to me as I brainstorm, but I'm hoping this way I won't have a 1st draft so chaotic and convoluted. As my previous 2 novels were. I felt like I was crippling myself before even beginning the editing process.
Wish you luck!
You're defiitely not alone!
ReplyDelete*hugs*
I find that I brainstorm a lot to figure out plot. I might use tools like bubbl.us or I might just scribble in my notebook. Sometimes I have to step away and go for a walk with the dogs or take a shower and wait for the plot point to hit me. Weird, but whatever works. :P
Have some chocolate, reboot your brain. Whatever works, but know that we're right there with you. :)
No, you're not alone. When I'm staring at a blank page with an ache in my head, it's usually because I can't find out how to get from where I am to the next plot point.
ReplyDeleteNope. You are NOT alone. When I hit a wall, I go for a run or a long bike ride....then of course, chocolate. LOL.
ReplyDeleteWrite on, my friend.
Not alone at all - I'm facing the same thing at the end of my WIP. The tension isn't high enough! They're just drifting from one event to the next! ARGH! Plotting is the worst.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it's comforting to know that you are struggling, too. Not that I'd wish it on you. But I often assume that plots come naturally to everyone but me. Like Harry Potter is so wonderfully done, it must have plotted itself, right?
Plotting is fun, but difficult for me. It's often a huge puzzle. I did a series of posts on my blog about mapping and planning and plotting. It was a lot of fun to see how others worked it all through. Some people use maps like I do, and others just wing it. Whatever works!
ReplyDeleteI'm wishing you luck! This is often the most difficult part of making a story work, in my opinion.
Don't Dis The Map
You are soooo not alone! Craft is my strength and my joy, even when I'm struggling to make my craft even stronger. Plotting is my weakness. And you can't sell a book with a weak plot. Unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteYou're in good company. I have trouble with plotting as well. Sometimes the ideas just come out of nowhere, and I'm on a roll. Other times, I rack my brain trying to think of where to take the story.
ReplyDeleteA while back I started using outlines for my stories. Whenever the ideas started coming to me, that's when I'd put them down on paper in outline form. I generally try to follow the outline as I write the story, though I diverge from it sometimes when I'm writing and get a better idea. But, then I go back to the outline to make some adjustments. I find that doing it this way gives me just enough runway to keep the writing moving forward. But, that just me.
Let me join the voices that assure you, you are not alone. Writing... writing can be fun. Plotting? That takes blood, sweat, tears and gallons of coffee.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I'm glad I'm not alone either. : )
Oh wow, did I write this post?
ReplyDeleteWeird. I don't even remember writing this, but it sounds just like me.
My brain hurts so much when I'm plotting that I start thinking maybe I'm not cut out for this whole writing thing.
Is it just me, or does plotting sort of feel like Wac-A-Mole in fast forward? As soon as I whack one mole, another rears its head at the beginning or the end or somewhere or everywhere.
I imagine the "matchless" feeling Deniz Kuypers speaks of above is like whacking every mole into place:
Game over. You win.
You're not alone! Plotting is the hardest part for me too, and the part that's causing a lot of headaches right now.
ReplyDeleteI winged the first draft of my novel and thought the plot was fine. Now I am mapping it all out, plot holes are jumping out at me and I have no idea how to fill some of them in!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that second to last chapter and it's nice to see where not alone in this difficulty!
I'm with you on the cleaning the floor with the Q-tip. It's this massive project that feels like it will never be done. So don't worry. I feel like that too!
ReplyDelete(((((((Group Hug))))))
ReplyDeleteYou're all awesome. I feel much better now.
Mystery Robin-- that's EXACTLY the assumption I always make. That no one else struggles with plot except me. And that Rowling is a genius who plots in her sleep.
Sweetheart, I think Rowling did plot in her sleep, but she is an exception. You have already made great strides in changing the plot. I know you will do it!
ReplyDeleteBrainstorm with your friends!
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm stuck, I call a close girlfriend, go out for coffee at a place where we can sit for hours, and I say, "Let's talk [insert title of work...]. So-and-so is walking along, and she does this and she does that, but then what would happen next?" We laugh ourselves sick over all the possibilities.
My husband also has great ideas. When I got stuck on a sci-fi scene, I asked him, "If you came home, and you were all alone in your condominium, and you sat down on the couch, and you heard a noise, and it was really an alien in your bedroom, what would the noise sound like?" And my husband said, "A click."
Brainstorm with your near and dearest, with lot of laughs, and you'll be amazed at the great ideas that come out.
I have a plotting headache right now. In fact, I saw your post because I'm taking a procrastination break from plotting my new WIP.
ReplyDeleteAlas, we all know, it gets better. We get through it, we write, and write, and write.
Good luck to us all!
I must be strange because I love plotting. Seriously, if I could just write plots, I'd be in heaven. Go figure. :)
ReplyDeleteI always plot before I start to write because it helps me to know where to start and how to end. Not that I claim to do it well. That's still an open question.
My plots at the outset are really basic as in:
Act One (Setup):
1. X is a ____ living in ____ who does _____ leading to ______. (Disaster 1)
Act Two (Development):
2. S/he does ____ in response and ___ happens. (Disaster 2)
3. S/he struggles with ____ . (Midpoint)
4. S/he does ___ and ____ happens. (Disaster 3)
Act Three (Resolution):
5. S/he does _____.
6. The End.
That simple plot outline gives me the basic who, what, where, when and why of the story and the main conflicts and complications. Then, I sit down and write. Usually, my novels involve a romance sub-plot that is tied to the main plot, which I often write beside the main plot.
I do expand the plot outline as I write and add in details.
Now if only I could get around to finishing all the polishing and rewriting and such of queries and send them out, I might actually have some way of measuring how successful (or not) this method is.
Miss Aspirant.
Thank you again for a wonderful post. Not only must I reassure you that you are not alone, I must tell you that you have reassured me. My books always start in my head with characters and fun scenes where they meet. I set pages aflame for a few chapters... then I get stuck and wonder, where are they going now?
ReplyDeleteThe frustration kills me and almost makes me quit, but we all must remember what it feels like when we dig ourselves out of the plot holes. That golden, "AHA!" moment.
Yep, that's me, too. At my husband's suggestion, I decided to try Anon 10:40's outlining method before beginning the novel I'm currently querying, and I do think it helped. I've always been a figure-out-the-first-chapter-and-start-writing-and-really-hope-the-rest-of-the-plot-falls-together kind of writer, so it was a little tedious. But it did force me to think about the best ordering for individual scenes and gave me a more visual representation of my overall novel.
ReplyDeleteP.S. 40K in two weeks? Sue Laybourn, you're my hero for the day:)
I'm happy to report that I've figured out a way through my plot blockage.
ReplyDeleteKrista...don't worship false gods! lol!The editing will be brutal and I'll be cringing as I chop adverbs, excessive adjectives, surplus and random commas, etc.
Dear Authoress,
ReplyDeleteYou may have mentioned the answer to this common problem: Rowling plots in her sleep. Does anyopne remember pysch 101 or even 201: you have unconscios/incompetent/ /conscious/incompetent/ /conscious/competent/ /and then unconscious/competent.
One practical way of acheiving this that worked for me: I was wondering what to do. I pictured my qritique group, and the world of readers and asked myself what will entertain them the most. Then I surrender and write. It flows naturally. Of course, then you'll say what's with this twist or turn...I didn't plan it....your unconscious/or subconscious did or you were outside yourself (the cruel objective world)...and do you really want to argue with (your muse and/or your reader). Hell no. You can do that later after you get readers, but you won't because the reward of a book contract will make you picture yourself as unconscious/competent and you'll never look back.
Hi. Too long to post so this is Part I:
ReplyDeleteYou need a plotting board. A cork board with little torn pieces of squares. You post them on with tacks and make basic notes. Little keys to jog your thoughts.
Torn pieces of paper are very disposable and psychologically not neat little cards. Just notes out of the fog in your head.
But in art school I learned to walk around with a thought book. I see something, a kid doing something cute. Or a question in my head which might turn into pursuing in art something or other. Or a place to come to to take good photos... anything.
I never really turned into a painter but I am a writer. And I do this with my book. I can go somewhere quiet, drive, shower, library, coffee shop - quiet place - and I write notes about this or that on what I think. Current WIP if you could see what I plotted and what I ended up with are two very different things.
If you are not that kind of person I don't think suddenly turning into a deep plotter is going to help you (or vice versa). It's going to do more harm to you because it will linger over your head like a guilt complex hangs over a dieter stealing icecream out of the freezer while nobody is looking.
Long drives really help me. Your hands are on the wheel. The phone is not ringing. You are doing basic stuff. No internet. Just you and your head and your thoughts.
You must have some vague idea in your head of what you mean to do. Take a notebook with you. Park in the sun or the shade when you find a nice spot. Or in your garden away from the computer and dream. Talk to yourself out loud if you want. Act the parts of your characters who are your best friends. Write notes. They don't have to be orderly. You can just give yourself ideas. When you do this you already have something to sit down with and keep writing and the juices flowing. You might never use them (the ideas)- you might throw them away in the end (the essence of them might fit another story another time any way since this is you and your inner self anyway - like a painter - the style is yours). Don't lose that love of the book because I think the readers feel that deep down and your chore will be theirs. Stay spontaneous and fresh.
As an illustrator I know, and my editor knew too, that my first sketches were far better than the finished artwork. So she always said, stay as close to that final artwork as you can because the more they are reworked, the stiffer they get... I have also transformed that into my writing.
That note book is the mess in your head. Write notes on anything pertinent. Leave logic out of it. Nobody is going to be checking it - it's yours and only you will use it.
You haven't written a whole novel bar the last four chapters without an aim and a rough idea. Get your musings down in the note book (not the computer - write it so that it's more organic than cold computer. Those minute books with hard covers are great for this kind of notebook. You can doodle in it while you think.
... end part I
beginning part II
ReplyDeleteMy new WIP has a very close time line. A matter of days. My corkboard filled with notes had chapters in them. Eg.
Chapter 1
Monday. AM. Garden. Walk. Meets old mad man.
These are just keys. I know what's happened.
Each note was a chapter. And where I had no final plot, I still put empty notes there like little thought provokers. Like having an umbrella with you in case it rains.
If a plot is making you unhappy it's because something there isn't working. Your head is telling you something.
I had a children's m/s which got rejected too many times. I knew it was good but it kept being rejected by editors I was actually sitting with in the same room. Finally one editor saw it and saw it's flaw immediately. There was a gash in the middle which spoiled the rhythm. Stories do have rhythms no matter what genre. Like a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. It didn't take me long to fix and got published.
Your characters will lead you in the plot. They are smarter than you think. If they aren't then look at them. Have you given them the credit they deserve? Are they strong? Are there false characters there who really don't need to be?
Are your characters acting out of character? Do you love them enough? Do you hate them enough? Because how you react to your characters will the the exact same way readers who love your writing will be absorbing as well.
If you are having a tough time with the plot you might just one chapter too far in the wrong direction. Don't be precious.
My current WIP has a flaw in it which I didn't pick up until somebody saw it. My age map didn't work. In other words, the date of the birth of the mother could not possibly match who eventually ended up as her son in the end - but that is totally fixable. It was slightly uncomfortable to have to shift the small goal posts but not impossible... and at the end of the novel rather than in the middle, not so restrictive.
Plot boards are physical and you can take them out into the garden with you while you doodle or write notes. It's almost like it's already in print if you see what I mean?
On one corner of the corkboard is an article I found. The author is looking at me. It was such a positive article about how she gets motivated. Very very positive. It's called A Novel Way of Life. Two columns and a picture of her. I don't read it. It just reminds me that inspiration is everywhere. And sends out subliminal good vibes.
Hope this helps. (And hope nothing happens between now and posting because this is a one time write comment)
Stay optimistic. That's a good brain juice. Glass half full at all times.
Pennyoz
I'm the complete opposite! Plotting is my favourite part of the writing process. What really kills me is putting it to words; putting down my mental vision of the scenes into words that precisely convey what I need them to. I get bogged down by the details. It seems simple enough in my head. X goes to Z through Y. But then when I write it out, the nuances just aren't right.
ReplyDelete:) It's okay. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses!
Pennyoz, these are great comments: "Your characters will lead you in the plot. They are smarter than you think. If they aren't then look at them. Have you given them the credit they deserve? Are they strong? Are there false characters there who really don't need to be?
ReplyDeleteAre your characters acting out of character? Do you love them enough? Do you hate them enough? Because how you react to your characters will the the exact same way readers who love your writing will be absorbing as well."
So true. Really get to know your characters, be true to them, and they will lead you into the real story.
Definitely not alone...I hate developing plots. If my characters could just make small talk for one hundred thousand words, I think I'd be happy. LOL
ReplyDeleteJust stopped by to let you know that you've been nominated for a blog award. Drop by my blog for the details. xD
http://m-wolfe.blogspot.com
I did the 1st 3 novels without outlines and then had to go back and re-arrange plot elements. (Still working on those re-writes) I didn't like that process. Now I am listening to my mentors who said all along: "outline outline outline." There are lots of creative ways to do that--and yes the characters drive the outline. They know where they are going better than I do. The outline can be changed any time, but it prevents getting stuck. If I can't figure out how to move from point A to point B, I start asking questions: who what where why when how? The transition between A and B lies in the answers somewhere. Really it does!
ReplyDelete