Plotting by the Numbers

I've seen a couple of people asking plotting questions on Facebook and Twitter, and since I'm totally stuck on where my next book should go, I thought, "Hey, I could pretend to be an expert on plotting and write an essay of sage advice to help these people out!" So here it is.

Because nothing appeals to writer types as much as being asked to do math, I think everyone will love this idea: to really plot well, just imagine it as a matter of sequencing, subtraction and substitution!

Here's how it works.

First, figure out what your characters are generally going to accomplish in the story. Is it a romance where two people end up living happily ever after? Is it a caper where the clever slink steals the villain's prized treasure? Is it a fantasy in which the hero becomes king or queen of the realm?

Whatever your core idea is, it will generally consist of some kind of goal, and every goal can be reached by a clearly outlined series of steps, right? So the next task in plotting is to write the steps needed for the protagonist(s) to accomplish the goal in the easiest and most straightforward way.

The lovers meet, recognize an attraction for each other, communicate that attraction openly and effectively, spend time together, working mutually to build a deeper and more intense relationship, until their honest and plainly exchanged emotions reach a such a height that they simultaneously realize that they must be together forever.

The villain's treasure is in an easily accessible, unguarded location that the heroic rogue is aware of, and to which the rogue possesses a key, so that she is able to travel to the location, enter, take the treasure, and make off unhindered.

The hero is the rightful heir of the kingdom, the current ruler is ready to retire, and the crown passes happily from sovereign to heir by way of the normal, peaceable laws of the land.

Obviously, these are not the plot-lines of particularly interesting stories. So what do we do? We take some things away.

The lovers don't both immediately recognize their attraction. One is or both are oblivious to or in denial of their emotions. Something keeps them from communicating openly with each other, or something muddles their communications in a way that creates conflict and tension. Something forces them apart, preventing the steady contact that would facilitate their romantic entanglement.

The would-be thief does not have that key, is missing knowledge of the treasure's location, and/or faces numerous barriers to accessing the villain's cache.

The hero doesn't realize his or her birthright. The current ruler is wicked and clings to power. Political conditions in the kingdom unbalance the ordinary path of succession.

Once we've taken away the tools, people, or circumstances that would make the goal easy to achieve, we substitute in the specifics of why those things are missing, and then we add in an alternate means of the protagonist(s) getting through that step.

Although the heroine falls for the hero right away, his emotions are not as immediate, because they've met while she is pretending to be someone else. She can't communicate her feelings without blowing her cover. Desperate for his affection, she tries to get around the situation by sending him anonymous notes.

The thief does not have the key because there are actually three keys, each in the possession of a different guardian. The keys must be inserted in the treasure vault and turned simultaneously in order to open it. Each guardian has a specific weakness that the thief exploits to gain the key, and in one case, the thief is able to convert the guardian to her cause, so that she has an assistant to help manage the simultaneous turning of the keys.

The hero's birthright is obscured because the true queen concealed the birth of her heir, knowing that the kingdom's aristocracy would soon overthrow her. But a locket around the babe's neck provides the proof of his or her true identity, and a wizardly ally of the queen is in a position to make the noble heir aware of the truth.

By starting with the large-scale elements of the protagonist's goal, we create the broad outline of the story. We can then repeat the same process with each sub-element of the plot, listing out the simplest steps the disguised heroine must undertake to complete whatever keeps her in her false identity; describing the surest, safest route for the thief to take with the first guardian, and then the second, and then the third; exposing the locket to the hero's awareness and designing a quick and simple path to the wizard. Then we undertake another round of subtraction and addition to complicate and resolve each sub-step.

This approach can be handled through rigorous pre-planning, of course, writing down and spelling out each sequence, subtraction, and substitution until the entire plot is outlined. But it can also be done on the fly by coming up with the first simple step toward the story goal without necessarily worrying about the ensuing steps until the first one has been accomplished. Working by the seat of the pants like that will sometimes paint your plot into a corner. But in other cases, the process of writing out the narrative will give you ideas for the next piece in the puzzle, and may keep things more spontaneous and fresh than creating and working from a detailed outline. If you try it one way and find yourself stuck, back up a bit and try it the other way to see if that works any better.

In short:

Where is the protagonist going?

What does she need to get there?

How can you take away some of the things she needs?

What challenge does she face in place of those needs?

And what can she use as a substitute to the original need in order to make steady progress toward her ultimate goal?

Just remember that it's much easier to spell out the easy way to do something than to craft a satisfyingly complex way of doing the same thing. And the process of making things a little more difficult and a little more difficult and a little more difficult -- well, that's pretty easy too.

Keep at it, and you'll eventually have something that looks impossibly complex to your readers, and they'll have no idea how you managed to build it.