I Have A Plot! – The Climb #617

Saturday 31^st October 2020

So I have a plot.

Of course, I’m currently filled with doubt about it. Is it too basic? Are the characters a little simplistic? Is the story just… well… dull?

At this stage I have to fight myself a little. There’s a lot of fear and it’s easier to find excuses to delay. I have no doubt that if I sat on it a month some improvements would be made. I’m still a little worried about the length of the start.

But… I have a functional plot.

There’s enough here that I could write an outline for a publisher. Not that I intend to (at least not until I’ve done a few drafts), but the fact that I’ve pulled something together that could be used commercially in such a short time, is an accomplishment.

I’ve done this in 6 days – 5 if you consider I lost a day – so that’s something. Tomorrow I can start writing as part of NaNoWriMo. It’ll be a whole different fight – one with a blank page rather than with an outline.

And yes, I worry that I don’t have character outlines for a couple of secondary characters. Yes, I worry that the plot could be better… but the truth is, I’m probably more prepared for a NaNoWriMo than I’ve ever been.

So what’s the next stage?

I came to the realisation that Shadowlands releases on the 24^th so I’m going to have very little time after that. That gives me 24 days to write 25 chapters, one of which is an epilogue. And if I believed in numerology and conspiracy stories I would say that this is telling me to write a chapter a day.

Except this draft is probably going to be around 120,000 words long. And I’m not sure my sanity wants to do a chapter a day.

Before writing I need to plan out the chapter. I always do this before I write. That way I can bring what I’ve already written to the table, pull on threads I’ved just sewed.

I’ve helped myself a LOT here. I go into the chapter knowing WHAT the scene goal is. From that and the one or two sentences of plot, I’ll construct something with a beginning middle and end. It won’t be a lot but it’ll give me a rough guide to aid my writing. It means, if I ever get stuck or find myself slowing down, I can just look at the chapter outline and know what I need to write next.

I honestly love that this filters up into plot and think that this will help me write very fast… but we’ll see. Starting is always hard. Around 66% (70k – 80k words in) I’m going to hate this novel [Interestingly this works out to around chapter 18 which is when the story switches into the final act, proving my theory that I struggle with act changes]

My aim for NaNo is to write 50,000 words of this draft. Especially with Shadowlands looming I don’t expect me to write it all in under a month. But we’ll see,

Tomorrow I face the dreaded blank page.