During a recent mentoring class in the Book Writing World, we revisited the reoccurring subject of plot. As writers, it is central to our books that we have plot, at least one that is working (sort of).
Of course, in an effort to sound novel and original we are not using the “P-word,” we are using different terms like conflict and tension and causality and build. This is to make ourselves sound better than the broken records we’ve turned into lately, repeating ourselves endlessly with plot questions. J
I have found that writing (or in my case, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting) an outline (or as Angie would say, a problem-solution list) helps.
Three Plot Tips from our fearless leader Elizabeth in the Book Writing World:
1) Ask, what do my characters (or I) expect to happen now? Make something utterly different happen.
2) Ask, what was true in the beginning of my book? What was the status quo? How is that changing? What would challenge that more? What would turn it on its head?
3) Ask, what else is going on, underneath what is going on? What else might be revealed? What do I assume? How might what I (or my characters) assume be absolutely not true?
Answer the questions above for yourself, and see where the answers lead you…. More to come tomorrow!
Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan (who is sad right now because for her, March Madness is over already) and will be reading some of her work on April 9 at the Sacramento Poetry Center in CA.