Five Plotting Methods – How to Plot a Novel Series

NaNoWriMo is nearly here. I recently ran a poll on Twitter asking what you would like featured for Preptober. Novel Advice won by a landslide. So for the remainder of October, I will be sharing all the best novel writing advice I can muster. This is a three part series that will give you all the information you need to plot your novel. This post covers the second element, five different plotting methods.

1. The Basic Elements of a Novel
2. Choosing a Plotting Method (This Post)
3. Choosing a Story Structure

Five Unique Plotting Methods

Method One: The Snowflake Method

The Snowflake Method is a highly detailed novel outlining method that can be applied to both novels and characters. Much like a snowflake, you begin with a small spec and slowly expand into something beautiful.

I wasn’t sure whether to include this with the Story Structure article. But I decided to keep it here because it’s more about outlining your novel than it is about structuring your story.

The Snowflake Method is a ten step process that’s fairly simple to understand, but a bit time consuming to put into practice. This is more for plotters, who like to know every single detail of their novel before they begin writing. For a more detailed explanation, read this article.

The Steps:

Step One — Summarize your story in one sentence.

This is also known as your premise. For the snowflake method, this is the seed around which the crystals of your novel will form.

Tips: Make it short and sweet. Don’t use names, don’t give too much away. Make it irresistable!

Step Two — Expanding Your Premise into a Synopsis

These are the large brush strokes. Take your premise and add the major details. The goal is to create a short summary of the plot from beginning to end, including some information about the setting.

Briefly touch upon the main characters and their roles (make sure you include your protagonist and antagonist). Don’t add too much, you will be expanding on this as the method progresses.

A good idea is to dedicate one sentence to the introduction, two-three for the middle of the story, and one-two for the ending.

Step Three — Characters

Create a one paragraph summary for each of your characters. Create a vert brief summary of their character arc. Who they are at the beginning the story and who they might become at its end, and what could this happen.

This step will give you greater insight into your overall story. Use this stage as a benchmark. Make any major revisions that you think you might need now before things get more involved.

Be sure to include the following: for each character

• Name and Description
• Motivation and Goal(s)
• Major and Minor conflicts – What stands in the way of their goal(s)?
• The Storyline for this Character – Summarized in a couple of sentences only.

Step Four — The Synopsis Grows

Take your synopsis and expand upon it. A common method is to take each sentence and turn that into a paragraph or a page. There are no rules here. Add as much detail as you want. The main goal of this exercise is to get to know your story better.

Figure out exactly how the story starts. Create some plot points for that long and treacherous middle section. Bounce around some ideas for how to close out the story. Take your crystal shards and watch them bloom into sparkling prisms.

Step Five — Character Development and Exploration

This is where the shards of your characters become more crystalline. Take each paragraph description and expand upon it. Add more detail, provide more background information, give the character more depth. A good benchmark is one page for major characters and half a page for minor characters.

Step Six — The Story Begins to Form

It’s time to focus more on the storyline. It’s at this stage that you might want to move on to the Story Structure article. You have most of your basic details and it’s time to start thinking about the story on a more in-depth level.

If not, this next phase is about expanding the story. You have the three main parts of your story – beginning, middle, and end. Take each of those and write at least two pages about each. If you already have two pages, then add two more.

Really dig into the details. Add in the character arcs. Start constructing scenes. Developing your world building. The story should really start taking shape after this step.

Step Seven — Expanding The Characters: Creating Character Charts

Through step six, you learned more about who the main players are in your novel. Now it’s time to breathe life into them. For step seven, you will completely flesh out your characters.

A common way to do this is with character charts. Decide on the important details you want to know about each character. Some examples include:

• Name, Age (Birth Date), Description of Physical Look
• Likes and Dislikes
• Affiliation (Houses, Guilds, Royal Last Names, etc…)
• Hobbies
• Goals
• Quirks
• Backstory
• Hopes, Dreams, Wishes
• Character Arc – Beginning, Middle, End
• Key Roles in the Story
• Friends & Enemies

You choose what you think is important to your characters. It’s not the same for every novel. It’s not even the same for every character. Create a collection for each character – a notebook page, a digital chart, a whole notebook, etc… Record all of their information in one place so that it’s easier to reference later.

Step Eight — Create Your Scene Structure

It is often suggested to use a spreadsheet for this stage. I will explain how to do this, but know it’s not essential. If you want to construct your scenes a different way, please do so. The point of this step is plot out your scenes. Then roughly define what happens in each of them.

To Create a Scene Spreadsheet:

1. Create a horizontal row for each scene.
2. Create a vertical column for each character.
3. For each scene, go across the columns and define what happens to each character in the scene.
4. Add additional columns to incororate more details for each scene.
   • For example, you can add something that happens to a village, or an element of magic that is discovered.
   • Make it yours.

Step Nine — Use Each Scene to Write a Narrative Description

Take each scene that you created in Step Eight and expand it. Take the nitty gritty charts and spreadsheets and transform them into beautiful prose. Add vivid details, supplement storylines with imagery, give depth to dialogue.

At this stage, you are essentially writing your story piece meal. You can complete your story like this. Or you can shorten your narrative descriptions so that they’re more like scene summaries rather than full on scenes.

Step Ten — Start Your First Draft

Now you have everything you need to begin actually writing your story. Congratulations! You might want to use this outline as your story structure. Or you could take it and transform your story with one of the story structures mentioned here. (Finally… See? I told you this one was only for plotters.)

Method Two: Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is my favorite plotting method. It’s so versatile that it works for plotters, pantsers, and plantsers. It’s also super easy.

The Steps:

1. Start with a blank page. I use my writer’s notebook for all my mind maps.
2. In the center of the page, draw a circle or a line or whatever shape you like. In the circle (shape) you will write your main idea.
   • Mind maps work for every stage of plotting.
   • I have a mind map for everything in my novel:
     • General notes and ideas
     • The overall plot
     • One for each of my characters
     • One for all of the elements in my world building
     • Even research notes, thoughts, and ideas
3. This is the fun part. Now you just write down *whatever* comes to mind when you look at that central word.
   • This is a freewriting exercise, so don’t think, just write.
   • Set a timer and do this for as long as you think is necessary.
4. Next, look at the page. See if you can connect some of the ideas. Draw lines to similar thoughts.
5. Finally, go back and do step three again. Only this time, expand on the ideas you already have.
   • Do this as many times as you need to until you have a completed map.

Once you have a complete mind map, you can move on to structuring your story. See the next post in the series to learn more about how to do that.

Try out this beautiful Mind Map starter page:

Method Three: Sticky Notes

I have never used this method, but I know a lot of people who do. This is a very visual method. It’s similar to mind mapping. The main difference is the scale.

The Steps:

1. Grab your sticky notes and get ready to think!
2. Write down your novel title, premise, or theme on one sticky note.
3. Throw it up on your wall, or a special poster board you’ve dedicated to this novel.
4. Divide your novel board into sections:
   • Plot
   • World Building
   • Setting
   • Theme
   • Title Ideas
   • Scenes
   • Characters
   • Notes & Ideas
   • Research to Complete
   • Research Notes
   • Whatever else you think you’ll need
5. Take that fresh stack of clean sticky notes and start writing.
   • Pick a category and write down whatever comes to mind.
     • You can set up times to do this work, or you can just write down notes whenever they come to you.
     • However you get an idea related to your novel, put it on a sticky note and place it near the proper category.
6. Before you know it, you’ll have your whole novel up there on your wall. Ready to reference as you write your masterpiece.

Method Four: The Flow Chart

The Flow Chart method is really great. It’s so neat and organized and can be used for so many different story structures. You can choose your story structure first, or simply begin and follow where your pen leads you.

Steps:

1. The top part of the flow chart is your main idea, your premise, or your story title. Everything “flows” from that. It is a good idea to have at least a one or two sentence summary of your novel there. Makes for good reference.
2. Below the main idea are three (or more) boxes. These represent the beginning – middle – and ending of your story. You can simply write those words, or include a formal summary of each, or just jot down some notes. It’s up to you.
3. Next come the subplot points. Fill these out with as much or as little detail as you want. What happens:
   • In the beginning?
   • During in the middle?
   • At the end?
4. You don’t have to use the exact number of boxes that I used. You can use however many you want. And you can arrange them however you want.
5. You can also use this method for your characters.
   • The top bar can be labelled “Characters.”
   • Use the second set of boxes for the character names and basic details.
   • The other boxes can be used to:
     • Explain their storyline
     • Develop their character arc
     • Record information systematically (e.g. one box for backstory, one box for goals, etc…)

The key message of this plotting method is “flow.” One box should flow to the next in some reasonable fashion. Whether it’s characters that meet up, scenes that connect, events that happen sequentially, it should logically fit together. This way when you look at your flow chart as you’re writing, you’ll be able to see what (or who) comes next.

Method Five: Pantsing & Plantsing It

Want to know the difference between plotters and pantsers? Read this article.

Pantsing It – This method refers to not creating an outline or a plot before you begin writing. You just start writing and keep writing until your story is finished. I tried this once and epically failed. But a lot of successful authors write this way, including Stephen King. If you feel like you don’t want to waste time planning, go ahead and try this method out!

Plantsing It – Not that different from pantsing it, the plantsers jot down some notes, maybe think about the events in their story a bit before they write. They might create an outline shell – possibly just a list of scene titles – and then get started writing.

I consider myself a plantser. But I still do a mostly complete outline. I use mind maps, and tend to follow the Hero’s Journey Story Structure. Most people fall into the category of the plantser. They’ll start an outline, maybe finish it, but it won’t be as detailed or complete as a plotter’s.

However you choose to write, it’s a good idea to have some form of an outline. That way if you get stuck in your writing you have something to lead you in the right direction.

Bonus – The Bullet Journal Plotting Method

Want to use a bullet journal or writer’s notebook to plot your novel? Check out this post to learn how to do it!

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Recommended Reading – Books to Help you Plot Your Novel

Anatomy of Story

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Save the Cat

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Save the Cat: Writes a Novel

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Zen in the Art of Writing

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On Writing

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The Snowflake Method

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20 Master Plots

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