I had one of those lightbulb moments yesterday. You know, like in the cartoons. I've always dreaded preparing a synopsis or chapter-by-chapter outline BEFORE I write a novel. I do it because, as Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." I also tend to have more details for the first couple of chapters and just before the end than anywhere else--which certainly makes suspense in my life...if not in the novel!
On the other hand, when I write non-ficiton, I'm a detail freak when it comes to organizing my Table of Contents, aka the outline of the piece. I have no problem listing the topics I want to include and organizing them into chapters. From there, it's a breeze to come up with two to four sub-topics in each chapter.
HEL-L-L-O! That's plotting! The topics in non-fiction equal the sub-plots, conflicts, and character growth/development in fiction. (Not to mention the pivot point after the first third, the plot-points, the mid-point, and the climax/black moment.) A chapter of non-fiction equals a chapter of fiction. The sub-topics in non-fiction equal scenes in fiction.
Now that I figured out all I need to do with my [fiction] plotting is use the same technique and brain activity I use when "organizing" my non-fiction works, it's a breeze.
How do you...organize and plot? Feel free to share tips and secrets. I'm all for making my life easier.
My answer, Linda, is to react in exactly the same way to two of the points you make:
ReplyDeleteYogi's warning that 'you might wind up someplace else'
Your own 'plotting' of non-fiction.
In both cases, there's a missing ingredient that can alter (sometimes cussedly) the best-laid plans. I mean, of course, the characters. The only time I tried building a foolproof plot was in a radio play - and it turned out to be one of my worst.