Authors can generally be categorized into two groups: plotters and pantsers (although some might be a combination!). Plotters, like me, plan and outline their novels ahead of time, whereas the latter folks fly by the seat of their pants.
One isn’t better than the other. It all depends on what works best for you. I’ve been writing books for over 10 years and have played around with all types of plotting and outlining, and in this blog, I’m going to share what’s worked best for me personally.
Psst! If you prefer videos to blogs, I’ve got you covered.
Okay, let’s jump in! In this blog, I’m going to use a previous manuscript—Hey, Sugar, which I’m currently querying—as an example.
For a little context, here’s a quick overview.
In my book, a woman’s roommate is killed and because she won’t provide a solid alibi, she essentially becomes a suspect. Both of these women are sugar babies and that’s why she won’t tell the police what she was doing that night. She was with a client.
So, that’s a very, very condensed version of my novel.
I like to start broad—with the story arc
I have the best luck starting from a bird’s-eye view — the traditional story arc.
I know that there are various iterations of the story arc, but this is what works for me. 🙂
I learned the hard way that I can’t simply tackle a whole plot from the get-go. Instead, I then split it up into three acts, which might look something like this.
Next, I’m going to make four marks here:
- The inciting incident
- The climax
- Pinch point #1
- Pinch point #2
(We’re going to talk about these mean in just a minute, so keep reading!)
This is where I first begin plugging in some of the more major plot points.
- The inciting incident is that big “thing” that happens at the end of Act I that sets the MC on this new path. It’s what triggers the whole story, to begin with.
- Pinch points are more prominent events, maybe small turning points, throughout Act II. They’re not as big as the climax, but they are important and help to raise the stakes.
- The climax, you probably already know. It’s when everything explodes. The tension reaches its peak and this is when the action goes down.
In Hey, Sugar…
The MC learns that the police suspect she might be responsible for the death of her roommate. She also realizes that they’re more concerned with just finding anyone to pin it on, and she’s an easy target. So, she decides to try to clear her name herself. That puts her on this path of trying to retrace her roommate’s steps so she can learn what truly happened to her the night she was killed. This is the inciting incident.
One pinch point in my story is when the main character witnesses her client’s driver engaging in some questionable behavior, kind of revealing that he might be living a double life. This could be a huge clue for her!
Another pinch point is when my MC is able to prove, thanks to surveillance footage, where her roommate went the night she was killed.
During the climax, the main character (MC) learns who the killer is, and they get into a physical altercation.
I’ll take a pen and jot these four points down in my story arc, and I’ll try to keep them brief—just enough so I know what I’m talking about.
I’ve found this approach super helpful for a couple of reasons.
First, when I come up with a new idea for a book, the first parts that come to me are normally the climax and the ending.
So, I add those to my blank story arc.
Second, pinch points were a game-changer for me because one thing I really struggle with is pacing and increasing the tension as the story progresses, which is vital if you want to keep the reader engaged. You have to keep building tension.
By adding in two pinch points, it helps to keep me on track. I have a better idea of what I need to work toward and how I can raise the stakes along the way.
Now, the first time I played around with a story arc like this, I just kept plugging in more plot points—and that’s when I ran into the same struggle… again!
The story arc alone is too limiting for me
I mentioned a moment ago that I have a hard time with pacing and increasing the tension. While working off a story arc proved helpful, it still wasn’t enough for me.
More specifically, I found myself struggling a lot with the second act because it’s such a huge part of the story—roughly 50% of a manuscript! That’s a lot to tackle in one go.
Plotting a novel in four acts
I finally realized that in terms of the second act, the story arc doesn’t suffice. Thankfully, I learned a few new things from Sarra Cannon on YouTube, and they’ve proven to be immensely helpful to me while outlining my novels.
Sarra actually splits the story up into four parts:
- Act 1
- Act 2, Part 1
- Act 2, Part 2
- Act 3
Like this:
Notice how I still have all the same points from the previous iteration.
From here, I ask myself a very important question: What has to happen in order for the MC (and the other characters) to get from the beginning to the end? What has to happen?
Let’s see. I know that the MC has to attend her roommate’s funeral. Of course, her roommate’s parents will be there. And they do not have a good relationship with my MC, so there will be some sort of tense conversation between them.
I know that, in trying to track down her roommate’s whereabouts the night she was killed, my MC is going to hit up various bars and clubs on the Strip to see if anyone recognizes her.
Fantastic! I would add those to my four-act breakdown.
What am I doing here? I’m adding more scenes and chapters.
But…
I still get stuck because you can cram in all the scenes you want—that doesn’t automatically mean you’re building tension.
How I increase tension throughout the plot
Here’s what I do.
I will look at some of the plot points early on versus closer to the climax, and I’ll ask myself two things: What is making my MC increasingly desperate to reach their goal?
My MC’s goal is to clear her name. Earlier on, she’s feeling the pressure but not a ton because the police are just starting to dig into this case.
But as the story progresses, not only do they start questioning her more, but as she gets closer and closer to the truth about what really happened, scary things start happening to her. Someone knows she’s getting close and they don’t want her to. They’re trying to get her to stop.
So, not only does she really need to get the police off her back, but she has to figure this out before she ends up dead.
That needs to be reflected, it needs to escalate, as the MC moves through these plot points.
She’s going to be way more desperate toward the end than she was in the beginning.
The second question I ask myself, along the way, is what is stopping my characters from getting what they want? This is what creates conflict. Without conflict, you have no story.
Conflict can be small. There’s conflict at the funeral because the parents don’t like my MC and basically kick her out. Was it earth-shattering? No. But it was conflict.
There is some sort of conflict in every scene I write.
If you don’t have these things in your plot, your manuscript is going to fall flat.
Story arcs by character
Another thing I tried was making individual story arcs for some of my characters. To be honest, I only found this beneficial for my MC. When I did it for supporting characters, it was a little overkill for me, personally.
Every character is on a journey and they’re all trying to achieve something, even if it’s small, but I just didn’t need to take my plotting this far.
It’s a good idea to at least try it, though. You might like it.
Plus, even if you don’t explicitly include that information in the manuscript, building out story arcs for supporting characters can better help you understand their journeys and, ultimately, what you do want to include in the story.
Back to the four-act structure
Personally, I like to fill out the four-act breakdown as much as possible because I learned the hard way that if I try to do too much plotting as I write, I’m going to pay for it. I have to plan in advance.
Some writers will take this a step further: They list all of their scenes and even write descriptions of their scenes. You can use index cards or even a spreadsheet for this.
I didn’t like this approach at first. It felt too structured. But in my latest manuscript, I followed this approach and found it very helpful.
What comes next?
Once I’ve plugged in as many scenes and ideas as I can, I step away for a couple of days. Or even a week. This lets me come back to it with fresh eyes.
I then revisit some of the questions I asked earlier, for each character:
- What are they like in the beginning?
- What are they trying to achieve?
- What is stopping them along the way?
- How are they different in the beginning versus the end?
If I cannot answer these questions in a concrete way, my job isn’t done.
3 final tips for plotting a novel
I want to share a few more tips that have helped me tremendously before I wrap this up.
Tip #1: Start at the end and work your way back
I was so stuck on writing my stories sequentially that I singlehandedly killed my momentum. Good job, Meg.
I don’t know why I did this to myself, especially considering the climax and ending are usually where my ideas start.
By starting there (at the end), I gave my characters something to work toward. Don’t be afraid to go out of order.
Tip #2: Act it out
I was working on my current work in progress—the first iteration of it, which I’ve since scrapped—and my husband and I were having a brainstorming session. (He’s my support system for writing.) We were trying to work out the climax, and it just wasn’t sinking in for me. So I said, “Let’s act it out.”
In our kitchen, we did exactly that. Kind of like a little skit. We really had to use our imagination because the climax, at the time, took place in a cabin in the woods and it was very action-packed and physical. But in bringing those scenes to life, even just a little bit, I was able to definitively say, “This is not it. It doesn’t work. I don’t like.”
To this day, I couldn’t tell you what exactly was wrong with it. But I distinctly remember acting it out and seeing, feeling that it wasn’t the right story.
You can read your dialogue out loud. That helps me a ton. If you don’t have a buddy to read for other characters, do it alone and just change your voice. Get these thoughts out of your head and vocalize them, act them out, and it’ll help bring the story to life so you can better identify where any gaps might be.
Tip #3: When you’re stuck, step away
I mean it. Go away!
I know that when we writers decide we want to write a new book, there is no stopping us, and we are stubborn and will not quit.
All you’re going to do is stifle your creativity even more.
Don’t be afraid to walk away for a week or a month. What’ll happen is that you’re going to give your brain a break and when you come back, your outline will feel new again. Fresh. You won’t be so sick of looking at it.
And if you feel like you’re in a major creative rut, the best solution for me has been to create…literally anything.
Find a craft you enjoy. Draw. Paint. Even if you’re “bad” at it. Consume other creative works. Listen to music. Watch movies.
Getting in that creative flow in ways other than writing will help you write. Look at it like research. Or like exercise but for writing. You’re still helping strengthen those muscles.
I’ve finally cut myself some slack and allow myself to take breaks instead of beating my head against the wall. And I’m so glad I started doing this because it’s made a huge difference for me. The writing process is now a lot more fun and productive.
Wrapping up
Whew. That was a lot!
I know there are infinite ways to outline a novel, but I hope maybe this blog planted a few new seeds for you and you picked up some ideas.
Above all else, we’ve got to have fun with this. Writing should be fun. So, give yourself some space and grace and enjoy the process.