Hello, folks! Yes, I know, another post later at night. *apologizes* Writing hasn’t been the kindest to me lately (especially blog posts), so I’m starting to dread hammering these words out. XD Ahh, the trials of a writer!
BUT! I am here to share a bit of advice that turned my plotting life completely around. If you didn’t read last week’s post, or the first one in this series, I would suggest doing that now. Otherwise, you will be confuzzled. 😉
I’m not going to bother giving you a summary of both of those posts – instead, I’m going to trust your memory for the first one and BRIEFLY (*reminds self a gabgillion times to be brief*) summarize last week’s post, as way of review. 🙂
Review
The perfect climax brings all three elements of a story (theme, plot, and characters) together. It is the ultimate perfect where the evil force is defeated (be that the villain or the hero or something else) and happiness and peace is restored.
You should have a thematic question for your story, and the climax will give the answer to that question – this is your theme’s end (and one of the most satisfying parts, if I may say so). 😉
As for your plot, I already touched on this two paragraphs above. This is where all the events of your story come to a head. Your character’s goal is either achieved or destroyed. The villain is either defeated or victorious. The protagonist either wins or loses. Keep in mind that winning or losing is not necessarily a plot thing – it could be a character development thing. 😉
The character end of things is one of the most touching. The lie your character believed is either disproved and no longer believed, or accepted as truth. You’re rooting for the protagonist to win his internal battle as well as his external battle, and this just serves to raise the stakes.
Alrighty, now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the meat of reverse plotting – the middle. 😉
The Middle
I don’t know about you, but for me, the middle is the absolute hardest thing to write ever. The beginning is fun and exciting as I’m delving into the story, and the climax tends to come fast enough my dad thinks I’m gonna break the keyboard and, when I go back to edit, I’ve missed several words to result in sentences like, “He rached for and slammed the pommel head so hard the metal crmpled he fell to his knees,” (Typs included – whoops, TYPOS. XD)
But the middle…? It sags. It’s murky. I struggle through it, keeping my eyes on the climax and hoping it’s worth it.
It didn’t take me long to realize that doing that wasn’t working. Feedback from alpha readers was quite negative about the middle, and my own gut wanted nothing more than to delete the document and start over.
So I turned to Ydubs. After all, this is what I paid for: help. XD And in a lesson about plotting, the instructor said something that changed my writing life.
“Instead, what you want to do is start [the protagonist] pursuing his goals, give him a plan, and then destroy that plan. Force him to abandon that plan and come up with a completely different way to achieve his goals. Then destroy that plan and force him on another plan, and so on and so forth.” -Josiah DeGraaf
😲🤯😱
The middle, as big and complicated as it is, is just a trial-and-error cycle where your protagonist tries one plan to achieve his goal, fails, and has to come up with a middle. Keeping your climax in mind as you write his plans creates (at least for me) a tight, well woven story.
Remember the example story I used last week, Lioness? Whelp, I’m gonna show you what I mean with a few plot points from that. And of course, I’ll implement our favorite three basics as well. 😉
Número Uno: Plot
Main goal: to find and rescue the missing baby before the kidnapper’s dire note comes true
Way it’s achieved:
Plan A: the mother (I’m gonna call her Shana for now) does the first thing a young single mother would do when her child is kidnapped with a ransom note left behind – she calls the police (not actual police, but the “police” of her world).
Problem: the police say that they can’t help her – they’re short on staff as it is, and the baby has to be gone for 48 hours before they can really investigate anyway.
Plan B: Shana decides that if the police won’t help her, she’ll rescue her child by herself. She’s smart enough, strong enough, has all the girl power. So she grabs what money she has and heads out the door to find her first clue.
Problem: the note only gave her vague instructions to where the kidnapper has hidden the second note. Shana is forced to play his treasure-hunt game in order to find her child. Problem is, she can’t find the second note. It’s not there. She’s hit a dead end.
See what I mean? The middle (plot wise, anyway) is all about your character trying a plan, failing at that plan, and coming up with another plan that also fails. Amazingly simple, easy, and keeps your novel on track without letting you follow those tempting bunny trails. 😉
Número Dos: Characters
Character is a bit harder to work out, for me at least. You’ll need to do the same thing you did with the climax – have the protagonist’s lie disproved multiple times, but, unlike in or near the climax, the protagonist won’t believe the disproving. They’ll cling to their lie. Savvy? Here’s an example:
Lie believed: that she is strong enough to rescue her child by herself
Way it’s disproved: Shana fails time and time again when she relies solely on herself (especially for physical activities). She still runs into people who boost her “girl power” point of view, though.
Número Tres: Theme
The early middle is when you want to begin dropping hints about what your theme is. Repeated words or phrases often help readers notice this. If you want to keep your theme a bit more subtle than that, though, you still want to work on incorporating it into your middle – and here’s how. 😉
Just like with the character, you’ll basically be plotting this the same way you plotted your climax, except with the thematic question in mind instead of the thematic answer. Leave clues that will get your reader thinking about the question and set yourself up perfectly for the big reveal in the climax. 😉 As before, here’s the example:
Question: am I strong, able to do whatever I set my mind to?
Main message: You are not able in and of yourself to beat all odds and to do all things. You need God, the LORD, to be your strength and shield.
Way it’s used: Shana believes she that she is strong and capable. She constantly reminds herself of this as a sort of solo cheer to help her continue, but doubts begin to assail her mind about the truth of that teaching. In the climax, all her doubts pour in like rain, leading her to dismiss the idea as false and gain strength in her Lord.
See what I mean? Honestly, for me, the theme is one of the hardest. But once I figure that out, the rest of the pieces fall into place! And remember: your theme, character, and plot all tie closely together. It doesn’t really matter if they resemble each other (at least, not as far as I know. XD I am by no means an expert on writing, so test what I say). In fact, it seems to create an even more tightly knit story when you do it like that. 😉
Wrap Up
*wipes forehead* There you have it, folks! My new favorite method of plotting, thanks to the amazing teacher Josiah DeGraaf over at The Young Writer’s Workshop. Most of these ideas sprouted from his teaching, so credit there. 😉
HOWEVER! Please keep in mind that I am not in the least a writing professional. I have taken advice I’ve been given, applied it to my own writing, found it productive, and shuttled it back over here to you. Try it yourself, and, if it doesn’t work, don’t blame me. XD As Gandalf the Grey once said, “Advice is a dangerous gift…” 😛 So, like I said in Número Tres, test what I say. Apply it to a mental project. Compare my article to others. Find out what works best for you.
And, as always: take courage, pursue God, and smile while you still have teeth! *bows and vanishes*
~Joelle
(P.S. Be prepared for about two extra posts sometime this week. I’m planning on adding a few pages, and you’ll get emails from those when I post them. They’re really nothing special – just lists – so feel free to ignore ’em. ;))
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