Nov 20 2008
Organizing Your Plot
Creating a unique plot for a short story or novel can be both exciting and frustrating.
Perhaps you have a fantastic cast of characters in mind. Maybe you’ve thought up a great premise as well. However, integrating characters and premise into an engaging plot can be difficult.
A good plot has many key elements:
- Introduction/Exposition
- Rising Action
- Climax
- Falling Action
- Resolution/Denouement
A novel needs many chapters or scenes to cover each of these essential plot elements. Once you’ve written those, you may find your story works better with parts rearranged in a new order. This can lead to a chaotic mess.
Here is a simple technique to overcome this:
- Buy a deck of lined cue cards and a photo album with clear pockets.
- Make a note on each card indicating which chapter or scene it will represent.
- Slot the cards into the photo album pockets in the order your scenes are written, leaving a few empty pockets throughout.
- Shuffle your scenes around until you are happy with the order. You can rearrange them again at any time, should you change your mind.
It would be possible to use an electronic version of this strategy—a spreadsheet or a table could work. Personally, I prefer to have the album in my hands.
If you find this tip or any other plot organization tool helpful, please share your thoughts.
A useful tool for students writing a paper; anyone with a need to organize steps, sequencing, proposals.
Great idea!