HOW I PLOTTED A NOVEL

I successfully plotted a novel.

Let me repeat that: I plotted a novel from the start to the end before writing it.

A couple months ago, I would've read that statement and laughed, shaking my head, wondering how such a hardcore pantser like me could possibly have the organized mindset to put the plot in place before writing a novel.

But after I finished rewrites of The Sand Dragon's Song last month, I decided that maybe I should give plotting a try. Since I was going into all these NaNo events without much of a plot, I kept ending up having to rewrite the whole book, which caused me lots of grumbling and annoyance and only ended up in me hating my book. Not fun.

So by plotting out my novel beforehand, I may not be able to avoid rewriting entirely, but I sure will be able to hopefully avoid rewriting the whole darn book. And that's my real purpose in plotting -- to make editing a little easier. (since editing is the actual worst.)

I've had some people ask how I've been going about plotting. Here's how.

(and this is less of a "how to plot post," and more of a, "here's how I did it... give it a try if you want." there's no ONE way to write a novel. do what works to get that plot out of your head and out into the words on the paper.)

One thing that I'm very particular with, is that I have to plot on paper. Some writers love their OneNote or Evernote or Scrivener files, but there's something about the computer screen that doesn't draw out my imagination in the same way. It's been really nice to have a writing project that's not dealing with the computer for once and allows me to do it "the old fashioned way." ;) 

I do miss typing dramatically, but NaNo is soon approaching and my fingers will be able to fly again. Mwahaha. Meanwhile I get to doodle and draw cute little arrows on the page so it works out. xD

I've always had this vision in my head as plotting being this horrible evil thing. But... I...  actually had lots of fun? And it worked?

I used Randy Ingermanson's How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. (recommended by the lovely Nadine) 

Best. plotting. book. ever.

It explores all angles with your novel -- target audience, themes, characters, summaries, three act structure, the fears you might have. It begins big and goes small, eventually moving into a scene by scene outline. (which is where I stopped, because that is too much plotting. xD)

The snowflake method helps develop your one sentence pitch, back cover summary, and synopsis. Before I even wrote the book, I've already gotten those three terrible things out of the way. I now have a pretty good idea of what to say if people were to ask me what my novel is about. I have a three page synopsis, that only took me a little over an hour to write.

For me, the snowflake method was magical.  

It helped me sort out the plot of my novel without having to write an icky outline or plan every. single. scene. (which to me seems like a terrible nightmare.) I know all the main disasters and turning points, but little scenes will pop up in between and surprise me.

And... it didn't take very long? I was expecting for plotting to take days upon days upon days. Which it did, but I split it up into smaller chunks per day. I'm now sitting here with the full plot of my novel, after spending about thirteen hours on it.

(oh, and speaking of times and such, I'm timing how long it takes me to complete this book. from plotting to writing to editing and everything in between. basically just a fun experiment for a nerdy lil' stat obsess-er like me)

Above is a picture of all of my plotting pages. There are eighteen shown, but I'm up to twenty and counting. Even though I have most everything figured out, I'm still doing some prequel ideas and worldbuilding and tightening up things in general.

(these pictures is also why I love plotting on the paper. so visual and exciting to REALLY see how much work you've done. *flailing* xD

There are ten days until NaNo. (whoops. freaked you out. freaked myself out. sorry.) I'm rather excited to not be a panster for once. Hopefully the month will go by a little bit smoother.

And hey, if you want to give plotting a try, you should totally do the thing. Ten days is not much, but it's enough to get a general idea of the plot. Well enough to write it. There's an overview of the Snowflake Method here that you can follow, otherwise I would recommend getting the Amazon copy. It tells a story within a story, with examples, and is SO much fun to follow along with. Seriously. Read the sample if you don't believe me. It's definitely the coolest plotting book you'll find.

(i'm beginning to sound like I'm sponsoring this book but I just found it REALLY helpful for my panster soul to ease into xD)

All in all, my experience with plotting was positive. Will I continue to do this for later books? Probably. Depends on the overall first drafting experience and edits. But let's not think about editing right now with NaNoWriMo in the future. :P 

I wish you all the best in the last week of NaNo Prep, and may you conquer the NaNo beast in November. :D

// katie grace

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

How do you prepare for NaNoWriMo?