After a year away from a project, it takes time to get back into the groove of writing again every day. Since I'd nearly forgotten what my story was about, I decided to start by getting the latest version of that story and just start reading. (I had created no plot outline, so I couldn't work from that.) Therefore, while reading, when I came across something that didn't seem right (maybe it needed clarification, maybe it just stunk) I began editing. In that way, I plowed through the finished portions of the novel (from Ch 1 to where I'd stopped), and then I reviewed the "statements" I'd written for each succeeding chapter up to the book's end.
So, then I edited and read, edited and read, edited and read, until I wasn't sure anymore what I was reading. I didn't know if the chapters flowed smoothly one to the next, nor did I know if my plot was cohesive and ran consecutively. In other words, I no longer knew if the plot made sense. Since the WIP is a mystery, it really needs to make sense, and it has to be cohesive, and the clues have to be given up one at a time, in proper order, and not too soon (or the story's over). That, plus the fact that the novel is an "open mystery" meaning the reader knows who the bad guy is but the protagonist does not, and so, as the story unfolds and the plot moves forward, the protagonist eventually comes to the right conclusion and learns what the reader knows, and the mystery is the journey while the protagonist discovers the truth.
As I finished the last few chapters that ended the story (some middle chapters are still left to be written), I realized that once again I had written a story "on the fly" so to speak, with no planning, no outline. That's not all bad. Some very successful authors write this way. They start with Chapter 1 and continue until they reach the final chapter. And it all works out beautifully. But in my case, although I have a strong beginning and I've written the ending three chapters, and I know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is, the middle of the book is wavering. Tottering? Crumbling?
So, what did I do? Well, I took what I've written so far and am creating a plot outline from what's already there. I've created a matrix, and for each scene I'm indicating on that table, the scene goal, the conflict, and the disaster (the dilemma that will carry the character on to the next scene and it's goal). In this way, it's easy to see if one of the three requirements is missing from a scene; maybe there's no clear goal; worse, maybe there's no open conflict (as opposed to conflict inside a character's head, which is usually fairly boring to a reader); and maybe there is no clear "does he get what he wants?" or "does he not get what he wants?" or better yet "surprise! he does get something, but whatever it is puts him in such a bad spot that it looks like he'll never get what he wants".
Another aspect I like about plotting in this manner, I've been able to quickly pinpoint those spots in a chapter that ought to be cut and turned into a sequel to the previous chapter, instead of being written in the present chapter as something that previously occurred. I keep forgetting that the reader likes to be carried on a torrent of "now" with the character and can easily get bored when a character "remembers" something that happened a day or a moment ago.
The last good thing I learned in doing this plotting exercise, I sometimes write a scene where a character rehashes in his head about conflict that occurred in the past, or, he might think to himself about something that upsets him in the present (but he doesn't speak up). Well, that's going to change . . . at least in this current WIP. While creating my plot matrix, any time I see the possibility of "open" conflict (as opposed to in-the-head conflict), I will rewrite that scene. I mean, why have someone frown or scowl, when they can just as easily speak up and tell the other character (in dialogue) what is making them frown or scowl? This can be great dialogue, with lots of hostility, maybe some name-calling (if they're the type to name-call), accompanied by some effective body language, expressions, and at the very least, it will create great drama.
Oh, boy, I can't wait.
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