That being said, I discover an awful lot about my characters as I write the story-and the plot changes too. As we all well know, the best plot is driven by the characters’ actions… and how will I know what they’ll do unless I get to know them a bit? I find this really helps to inform what happens in my plot. While I’m working on my plot, I also like to do freewriting about my characters: sometimes in their voice, sometimes as an impartial reporter, sometimes as a weird mother-figure who loves them terribly (can you tell I’m a mama in my “real” life?).

I watch his DVD at least once at the start of each project, to stop the ever-escalating panic that I have no idea what I am going to do with my bright, shiny idea. This entire planning method borrows heavily from Syd Field’s screenwriting techniques ( Syd Field’s Screenwriting Workshop DVD by Syd Field (Final Draft, 2002).

Then I move them around, taking individual scenes off the wire (and sometimes putting them back on) as needed, until I feel like I have a good sense of how my story will be “shaped.” Usually I end up discarding as many scenes as I keep. 10 words or less) scene descriptions on index cards, and hang them on the wire. While I plot, I write down very brief (e.g. Next, I turn to my “story wire:” a long, long horizontal wire hanging in my office (a $10 IKEA curtain hanger) with lots of curtain clips dangling from it. This may sound a bit clinical or overdone to some, but I find it much easier to be expansive and creative when there’s a structure to start with. I also try to see what the two “pinch points” are–things that help to hold up the plot between the “big events.” I am a plotter who tries to be open to the possibilities of plunging as I write.īefore I start writing, I decide on my story’s major plot points: two turning points with a midpoint between ’em, and the climax. For a hefty price, he helps new kids escape Candor, Florida before they’re transformed into cookie-cutter teens.īut then Nia Silva moves to Candor, and Oscar’s carefully-controlled world crumbles.Īre you a plotter or a plunger? Do you outline first, write to explore first, or engage some combination of the two? Then where do you go from there? What about this approach appeals to you? What advice do you have for beginning writers struggling with plot? Nobody knows he’s made his own Messages to deprogram his brain. He’s got them all fooled: Oscar’s the top student and the best-behaved teen in town. In a town where his father brainwashes everyone, he’s found a way to secretly fight the subliminal Messages. Oscar Banks has everything under control. Pam Bachorz is the first-time author of Candor (Egmont, 2009).

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