I used to be an over plotter. A plotter who annoyed herself because she couldn’t do anything until she had planned ten ways to Sunday. The problem with that is, I ended up JUST plotting and not writing. Thank god I came to my senses!

Even though I am now edging towards free writing. There is one thing I can’t live without – a basic novel structure. I need to know what happens at A, what happens at Z and a couple of the key turning points at roughly F and P or maybe H and S…!

One of the things that helped me untwist my knickers was Dan Wells and his Seven Point Plot Structure. If you haven’t come across it, then this will be a delicious candy book covered treat.

I struggled for a long time to find the right sort of structure tool that would give me enough detail to create an effective plot but not so much detail it was overwhelming and prevented me from actually writing. I used this method to give me the basics, the simple A, F, P and Z, and then I expand up and out into my synopsis. The brilliance of this method is its simplicity. You can start with just 7 sentences, and those 7 expand to become paragraphs and eventually pages.

His method is to establish the following:

• Hook
• Plot Turn 1
• Pinch 1
• Midpoint
• Pinch 2
• Plot Turn 2
• Resolution

The interesting bit of Dan’s structure is not the plots points above – they seem pretty obvious and logical to me, but the order in which he suggests you create/complete them.

Dan starts at the end…! The order in which he writes the plot points is:

1. Resolution – This is where your entire book, all 100,000 words of it is leading to, so make sure you know what your ending is. Write your ending down first.

2. Hook – Once the end is written down, go back to the beginning. If you know your end point, then generally speaking your beginning will be the opposite state. For example, Rodney and Delboy end up as millionaires at the end of the TV show, but at the beginning of their story they start as paupers.

3. Midpoint – This is the point in the story where your characters move from reaction, to action. This doesn’t always have to be the ‘physical’ middle of your book, it could be a quarter of the way in, or much closer to the end. But it’s the point where the story stops happening to them, and they start driving it towards the end.

4. Plot Turn 1 –This is the first twist in the story. What conflict are you introducing? What pressure are you putting on your character to push them from the hook at the beginning to the midpoint where they need to take action?

5. Plot Turn 2 – This is where your protagonist gets the final piece of the puzzle in order to get to the end. For example, in the Matrix, this would be when Neo realizes he is The One.

6. Pinch 1 – After the first plot turn, you need to apply pressure to force the characters into action and towards the midpoint. Often this is the point the villain is introduced.

7. Pinch 2 – this is where you add even more pressure, make the situation look completely hopeless, ‘how will they ever be able to get out of this mess?’ Using the Matrix as an example again, this is when Mr. Smith shoots Neo, and it looks like he dies.

To watch the whole lecture series where Dan has much better explanations and examples, you can see the first video below which will take you through to YouTube where the others are.

For visual people, check out the diagram below:

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The post The Quickest Plot Structuring Tool There Is appeared first on Sacha Black.

I am going to run a series of writing tips posts, and a series of writing inspiration posts. As an aspiring writer myself, I am constantly researching and reading other peoples blogs and tips, so I figured why not share the nuggets of wisdom I’ve found for all the other aspiring writers out there.

Scene Lists –

When drawing up your novel structure, something to think about is a scene list – akin to an outline – it helps to formalise the order and details of your scenes – in order. If you use a spreadsheet or table it also makes it super easy to rearrange them. Plus when you need to quickly remember your story – or certain aspects this sheet will provide an easy to read, easy to navigate summary for you.

Key things to include in your scene structure:

• Chapter title
• Chapter number
• Summary sentences of content / key action points
• Proposed word count
• Actual word count
• Scene location
• Any foreshadowing

Theres a link here to nine famous authors scene charts.

The post Write Tips #1 Scene Lists appeared first on Sacha Black.

I am a planner, down to my core, and no more so then when planning my novel. I have been toying with trying to understand how much planning is too much, and it’s always a difficulty, particularly for someone who really does love all things planned, structured and organised!

I had been having issues understanding exactly how to structure my novel, how to ensure that it was structured correctly, whether the structure I was creating was even a ‘story structure’ you know – one of the ones you find in an actual book – a published one!

Anyway in amidst my writing strife, I recently discovered the seven-point plot structure, and a lecture by Dan Wells, a pretty successful writer, who has written and published several successful novels.

He talks through the seven-point plot structure in detail with examples of famous stories to make it ’real’. The summary is:

Hook –   (HERE 2^nd ) If you know your ending – your start is generally the opposite stance – if you end with someone in prison – then they need to start free.

Plot Turn 1    (HERE 4^th) introduce conflict here, it’s the point that moves you from the hook to the midpoint

Pinch 1           (HERE 6^th) Apply pressure, force the characters into action (often introduces the villain.

Midpoint        (HERE 3^rd ) this is the exact point in the story where your characters move from reaction, to action. Note it doesn’t have to be physically in the middle of the book.

Pinch 2           (HERE LAST) apply even more pressure – make the situation seem hopeless.

Plot Turn 2    (HERE 5^th ) This moves you from midpoint to ending, its where you obtain the final piece of the puzzle in order to get to the end.

 Resolution   (START HERE) Everything leads to this point – make sure you know  what your ending is.

To watch the whole lecture (which I strongly advocate) visit youtube here.

The reason I love this so much, is because it was simple, clear, and only 7 sentences, it gave me such a clear understanding of my story arc, that my head felt clear and able to pad out the subplots, character sheets and all the other faff that comes with planning a novel. Its clear and simple, and forces you to go back to basics – if you can’t write your story into this structure then there’s probably something fundamentally wrong with your novel.

Hope it helps – let me know what you think of it.

The post Write Tips #0 Seven Point Plot System appeared first on Sacha Black.