#plotwrimo

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The Path to Publishing #PlotWriMo Tour and Giveaway

Writing a book (or a screenplay) is not for the faint of heart. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not saying that only a few people have the talent to write. Everyone has stories to tell. But story telling is more than the sum of talent, inspiration, dedication and craft. When I first started down the road of writing a screenplay, it was as if I’d set forth on a journey without a map, car, or even the…

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[sarafujimura]

3 Ways to Pave a Plot Hole

Like many of you, November was a month of quantity-over-quality writing for me. Though I wasn't doing NaNoWriMospecifically, I wrote about 20,000 words for my SCBWI-Nevada Mentor Program. Twenty-thousand words that probably nobody will ever see. Twenty-thousand words that my Inner Critic insists are wasted words and time. Those 20,000 words were my first mentorship assignment: Giving my MC's love interest his own tight, coherent plot arc. It wasn't easy to write. Mostly because I've never been a 16-year-old boy. But it was a good writing experience. It taught me that sometimes you have to dive in and muck around a while before stepping back and looking for the treasures buried in the muck. Despite what my Inner Critic says, it wasn't wasted words or time. In fact, it will make my next revision easier, because by knowing why Love Interest is acting the way he does makes my main character's story arc stronger, too. So what about you? Did you reach the NaNoWriMo finish line but realize you have huge plot holes that need to be paved? Or maybe you didn't reach the finish line because you wrote yourself into a corner. Or maybe you have a rogue character who routinely walks into scenes, creates chaos, utters some witty banter, and then leaves. As tempting as it might be to File 13 the whole project, don't. Here are three ways to pave a plot hole:

Write the same scene over again, only this time in the other major character's 1st person POV.

If you've ever had to referee a fight between your kids, you understand how two people can have completely different accounts of the same event. Warring parties assume all kinds of intent based on body language and sometimes even the most innocuous of dialogue. What are they truly arguing about? Dig deeper to find out why two people are fighting over a coveted object. It's one thing to have Good Guy fighting Bad Guy for the magic sword. It's a completely new story if Good Guy has to fight Best Friend, who has a noble agenda of his own, for the same sword. 

Write the whole scene as an email conversation or a text or--if your character is particularly loquacious in scenes--as a series of tweets.

Now you can't rely on body language or inflection to tell what is going on between the two characters. Are they telling the whole truth? Or are they someone who think a winky emoticon excuses any rude or too direct suggestions? If you want to dig even deeper, write the scene in first person and let the character give you an inner commentary along with their outer narrative. Are they telling the whole truth? Sugar-coating something? Avoiding the truth? Or maybe they've hit their breaking point and now nothing is censored? Though it won't all go in your book, now you can play with the back story of your character. What happened in their past (good or horrific) that shaped their choices today? What burned them or gave them hope?   

Give your secondary character/Buddy/Love Interest their own complete plot arc.

Just like your MC, your #2 Character needs to have changed significantly by the end of your book. Not sure how to do this in a condensed way? Here are a few online resources:

Dan Wells on Story Structure

Martha Alderson, The Plot Whisperer

**In December, Martha runs PlotWriMo, which is a series of short exercises to help whip your NaNoWriMo project into shape before you start serious revisions in January. I've donePlotWriMo three times now. I highly recommend it. And it's free! Can't beat that.**

Now that I know what Love Interest is doing and why he's doing it, I'm ready to put his plot arc on top of my MC's plot arc and start weaving the two of them together to make a stronger, more cohesive, plot-hole-free manuscript. You can do this, too. Now get that manuscript out of the trash, identify the plot holes, and start steamrolling them.

Good luck on your writing adventures,

Sara

  P.S. My Book-of-the-Month for December is a YA book set in Japan which features kendo, shodo, and kami (fencing, calligraphy, and Shinto deities). Go here to see.

P.P.S. So, how’s the Golden Hour going? Did you doNaNoWriMo last month or are you doing PlotWriMo now? As the year begins to wind down, look back to see all that you've accomplished over the last twelve months. Even if you didn't hit every goal, did your writing increase exponentially? Start thinking about new, higher goals for 2014.

  Return to my main page: www.sarafujimura.com