I recommend plotting your writing project at least three times during a writing project.

1) Pre-plot

Back when I first started writing and long before I started teaching, I was surprised when I heard writers say they did not pre-plot their writing projects before they began. These writers maintained that by "winging it" they remain true r to the creative flow. I used to argue by asking what else in life that has many layers and is full of meaning do we make up as we go along with no advance planning? Now, after working with hundreds of writers, I have come to appreciate there are as many different ways to write as there are writers. That said, creating a Plot Planner before even actually writing a word is a helpful tool for "visioning" the project as a whole before beginning work at the word level.

Each of us has some idea of what we want to say and why long before we ever begin writing. A pre-plot is the place to put those ideas in some sort of order as you brainstorm, allowing the ideas to flow. Think of the pre-plot Plot Planner as a useful boundary that keeps out those things that might lead you astray in your writing or take you on a wild-goose chase down blind alleys. Once you create a plot structure then you are free to imagine anything you want within those boundaries. Or, as Wayne Muller writes in his lovely book "Sabbath," "...imagine that certain limitations on our choices are actually seeds of great freedom."

Granted, this form, this pre-plot that you create will be a skeleton, one you must not adhere to too fervently, for you mustn't push your characters around to fit into it. Still, before you undertake a project that could take months, possibly years to complete, the more pre-planning and careful thought you give, the less time you will spend rewriting.

2) Revision

If you are ready to undertake a revision, it means you have arrived at a most important destination: completion of your first draft! Celebrate! Grant Michaels sees "...the first draft as a test of faith and endurance, the great eliminator that separates people who write from those who want to. It's a rite of passage: you earn the right to write a book by writing its first draft."

Once the celebration is over and before you start in on your first rewrite (yes, there will be many more than just one rewrite), reread your story to see what you have.
Then, roll up the initial Plot Planner you created and roll out a new piece of banner, and taking the time you need to carefully re-plot your story, start a new Plot Planner. There is no better way to analyze your project than to do a complete re-plot based on what you have written.

As you re-plot your story, look for openings where you can broaden and intensify the subtler implications of your original insight. Look for ways to exploit your scenes by making them carry as much weight as they can bear. Make sure the scenes are working for the story on all levels--character, action, theme and where appropriate, historical and political. Does the reader always know the "who, what, where, and when of the scene? Have you incorporated "showing" details? Is the scene well written?

If, at this point, a unifying premise or central theme reveals itself, you're one of the lucky ones. Some of us require a few select trusted readers to uncover the thread. Whatever it takes to find it that thread will be invaluable as you rewrite.

3) Final edit

At this point, exhaustion has likely stepped in, making it tempting to proclaim to all your patient and loyal family and friends that you are finally finished. Please don't shoot the messenger, but I would like to recommend that you first take a deep breath and do a final plotting of your story before you make the heady declaration.

This is the time to test your final product. Does every single scene contribute to the whole? Is the conflict rising slowly as it should? Have you provided adequate suspense? Is your core conflict resolved? Have you seamlessly integrated your theme throughout the project? Is the premise proved? Are you sure? Okay, then go for it. Shout it from the highest hill! You're finished! Congratulations!


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©2006 Martha Alderson. All Rights Reserved.
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