Plot and Character
That hellish tango
Show of hands: are you a plotter? A pantser? A plot-pantser?
As in all things muddled and non-committal, that third category speaks to me, though I admit to hating every minute of mapping out plot points. It’s a psychological chicken/egg conundrum. If character informs (and compels) plot, how can you justify creating a sequence of happenings in a vacuum? On the flip, what good is a character without purpose and action?
Photo by Preillumination SeTh on Unsplash
That’s where the hybridization of plotter/pantser comes in, my friends. It’s a marriage of intent and action that results in story. And it’s typically an arduous, ever circling-back, process that relies on tenacity and instinct—and yup, killing them darlings.
Having just completed my latest 75,000-word manuscript, I’m now going to share the way I blended these elements, this go-round:
I began this project by slamming down 50 pages without revision or over-thinking. I started with a theme and decided on a POV structure, and took a month to write those initial chapters.
Then, once I’d sufficiently backed my main character (MC) into a corner of my dropbox, I interviewed her using this set of questions:
Next, I wrote a four-page synopsis draft (that I updated weekly throughout my initial manuscript drafting).
Then, I slowed down my daily output to anywhere between 300 and 1000 words a day, shooting for 500, but not obsessively until I, as Tom Spanbauer likes to say, “shit out that lump of coal.”
Once I had my “shitty first draft,” I let it sit for a couple weeks, and read other books with similar themes/settings. A little “comp-hunting,” mixed with aspirational jealousy.
I did a modified version of The Inside Outline, where I boiled down the sequence of “happenings” and tied them to character consequence, which led to…
…a compressed two-page synopsis and a “rehearsal” pitch letter that included stuff I hadn’t quite worked out in my draft yet. This exercise actually pointed out plot holes and inconsistencies, as well as forcing me to confront the degree to which my main character’s motivation did or did not appear on the page.
Finally, I revised my manuscript, adding scenes, and changing some elements and motivations to align with my aspirational synopsis.
Anyone want to share their drafting process? Leave a comment below!
The questions PDF is wildly helpful, thank you!
thankyou for this ❤️