So you’ve got this brilliant idea for a novel. The characters are vivid in your mind, the setting is irresistibly intriguing, and the dialogue is pure literary gold. But how do you take that creative spark and sculpt it into a cohesive, compelling narrative with a plot that hooks readers from page one?
Plotting a novel can feel like a daunting task, especially for first-time authors. But fear not! There are as many approaches to plotting as there are books on the shelf. The key is finding the method that works for your personal writing style and creative process.
In this article, we’ll explore various time-tested techniques for plotting a novel, illustrating each with examples from beloved books. By the end, you’ll have a veritable toolbox of strategies to craft a story structure that keeps readers frantically turning pages late into the night.
The Basics: What’s a Plot?
Before we dive into plotting methods, let’s establish what precisely a “plot” entails in storytelling. At its core, a plot is the sequence of connected events that drive a story forward from its inciting incident to its climax and ultimate resolution.
Take J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, for example. The overarching plot follows Harry’s journey to defeat Lord Voldemort. Each book, however, has its own defined plot revolving around a central conflict — whether facing Quirrell’s bid for the Sorcerer’s Stone or the sinister machinations of the Half-Blood Prince.
A solid plot provides the narrative backbone upon which characters arc, worlds are built, and themes emerge. It’s what propels the story and gives readers that deliciously urgent need to discover what happens next.
The Outline Method
One of the most traditional approaches to plotting a novel is the good old outline. By mapping out the key events, turning points, and character motivations before writing, you establish a clear roadmap to follow as you embark on your storytelling voyage.
Outlines can be as simple or complex as you like, ranging from basic bullet points to elaborate chapter-by-chapter synopses. The benefit? You’ll have a solid grasp of your story’s overall structure and trajectory from the get-go, making the actual writing process more efficient.
Many great novels were painstakingly outlined ahead of time, including the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. His meticulous world-building and intricate plotting of storylines for dozens of point-of-view characters likely would’ve been impossible without rigorous outlining.
Of course, outlines needn’t be set in stone. They’re guidelines to keep you oriented, not shackles restraining your creativity. Feel free to deviate when inspiration strikes or new ideas emerge organically.
The “Planster” Approach
Can’t decide between meticulous plotting and pure, unbridled pantsing (writing by the seat of your pants)? Then you, my friend, might be a “planster” — someone who embraces a hybrid methodology blending diligent planning with improvisational exploration.
As a planster, you’ll typically start with a general roadmap for your story’s major beats: the hook, key narrative turns, and envisioned ending. But you leave plenty of white space to discover the finer plot points and surprising detours along the way.
Brandon Sanderson, renowned author of the epic Cosmere book series, is an avowed planster. For each novel’s magic system, history, and primary plot, he crafts fairly comprehensive outlines and notes. But Sanderson embraces room for spontaneity in developing subplots, weaving intricate character arcs, and fleshing out thematic underpinnings.
This balanced approach allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds: a solid structural foundation to build upon while maintaining the creative freedom to let your story blossom organically.
The “Seedling” Method
Perhaps you’re the type of author who prefers a more fluid, instinctive approach to plot development. If meticulous outlines feel too constraining, the “seedling” method might be just your cup of tea.
With this technique, you simply start with the seed of an idea — a single narrative seed to plant and nurture into a blossoming story through focused freewriting. As you write naturally, characters will take shape, worlds will expand, and plot events will unfold one after another like ivy climbing a trellis.
Acclaimed author John Irving employed this very method to cultivate his remarkable novel The World According to Garp. He began writing with only a vague premise in mind. From that conceptual seed sprouted a rich, sprawling narrative filled with unforgettable characters and thought-provoking twists.
The key with the seedling approach? Stay open to the unpredictable ways your story might grow. Embrace the journey of discovery and don’t be afraid to trim away narrative tangents that don’t serve the central plotline blossoming before you.
The Three-Act Structure
For those seeking a more prescriptive framework to scaffold their plotting, the time-honored three-act structure could be your novel-writing best friend.
Borrowed from ancient Greek plays and popularized through contemporary screenwriting, this trusted story architecture divides your narrative into three cohesive acts: the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution.
Act I lays the foundational premise, introduces key characters, and establishes the story problem that kicks the central plot into motion (known as the “inciting incident”).
Act II is the meaty confrontation phase where rising obstacles and complications intensify the struggle to resolve the core conflict.
And Act III brings heightened drama to a climactic head before resolving loose ends in a gripping conclusion.
You can see the bones of this three-act structure at work in wildly popular books like The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. In the first act of The Hunger Games, we meet heroine Katniss Everdeen and her dire circumstances leading up to the reaping that thrusts her into the arena. Act II chronicles her fight for survival and blossoming rebellion over the course of the games themselves. And the final act resolves Katniss’s defiant triumph and revolutionary consequences.
The three-act paradigm may be centuries old, but it remains a trusted friend for plotting a novel with clear, compelling narrative arcs. Just be sure to make those act divisions and turning points your own through original implementation.
The Seven-Point Story Structure
Craving a little more granularity beyond the three-act basics? Say hello to the tried-and-true seven-point story structure popularized by the needs of modern commercial fiction.
In this approach, your plot is divided into seven distinct stages:
- The hook
- The plot turn
- The pinch point
- The midpoint
- The secondary pinch point
- The climax approach
- The resolution
Still with me? Let’s put this into context using the first book in J.K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter series.
The hook introduces us to Harry’s miserable life with the Dursleys, piquing curiosity to see how he’ll change his circumstances.
The plot turn arrives when Harry receives his Hogwarts letter, propelling him into the wizarding world.
The first pinch point reminds us of the story’s stakes when Harry narrowly escapes the Dark Lord’s attempted murder.
The midpoint shift occurs when Harry discovers the Mirror of Erised, signaling his journey has only just begun.
The secondary pinch point raises tensions as the trio become convinced Snape is trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The climax approach builds trepidation to the sequence of Harry confronting Voldemort and protecting the Stone.
And the finale resolution sees Harry returning home to the Dursleys, now forever changed by his heroic acts.
This multilayered structure helps craft intricately-plotted tales while leaving room for creative flourishes. So if you want just a smidge more scaffolding to weave your plot threads, give the seven-point system a whirl.
The Snowflake Method
For writers enthralled by the notion of building a story organically from a single premise, yet still craving some connective tissue for structuring the plot, there’s a lesser-known but brilliant technique called the Snowflake Method.
Picture an individual snowflake: that origami of crystalline complexity arises from a single frozen molecule. Novel plots can blossom in much the same way, with a basic story premise expanding iteratively, growing layer upon layer of narrative details until a breathtaking, intricate design emerges.
Here’s how the Snowflake Method works:
- Start with a simple one-line story summary, like “A young wizard discovers his destiny.”
- Expand that into a short paragraph capturing the narrative setup.
- Craft a high-level summary for each of your major plot threads: the protagonist’s arc, the central conflict, the ending, etc.
- Take each of those summaries and divide them into a series of key scenes or chapters.
- Finally, flesh out those individual scenes with evocative details, dialogue, and character notes.
Through this cyclical process of progressively layering finer and finer plot points, a stunning, multi-faceted narrative crystallizes.
The Snowflake’s acolytes include authors like Jody Hedlund, who used it to grow her historical fiction story An Uncertain Choice from a simple thought exercise into an emotionally compelling tale of love and faith.
Plus, the incremental visual process should speak to all my detail-oriented writer-architects out there!
The “Zero” Draft
Okay, so the previous methods all involve some degree of premeditated plotting before writing the actual novel draft. Fair enough — we contrarians gotta have an alternative!
For those of you who detest excessive planning (or simply prefer discovering your story organically as you go), there’s the gloriously freeform “zero draft” approach.
The idea here? Just start writing with no predefined plot in mind. None. Zero. As thoughts flow and characters evolve, you’ll unearth your narrative’s true arc and sequence of pivotal events through the raw act of storytelling itself.
Best-selling fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss employed this unconstrained technique to pen his captivating Kingkiller Chronicle series. He began writing what would become The Name of the Wind with zero predetermined direction, allowing the world and characters to manifest authentically on the page.
And while this near-pantsing approach may seem reckless, the beauty is in committing to shaping those disparate vignettes and character detours into an overarching plot once your first raw draft exists. This skeletal “zero draft” provides malleable plot clay you can then mold and refine into a breathtaking narrative tapestry in subsequent revisions.
So for all my wildly creative writer friends who resist caging that muse, start with a plotless zero and watch the magic bloom before your eyes.
Finding Your Plotting Sweet Spot
With so many methods out there, how do you land on the right plotting approach for you? The truth is, it takes some experimentation. Every writer is unique, and what works for one may not gel for another. The key is to stay flexible and be willing to adapt as you go.
Experimentation is Key: As you explore different plotting techniques, pay attention to what feels natural and what makes you resist. Do you relish the structure of an outline or feel hemmed in by it? Do you like discovering the story as you write or prefer to have a plan? There’s no wrong answer. The goal is to find a process that works with your creative flow, not against it.
Adapting as You Go: Even once you’ve settled on a method, your approach may evolve from project to project, or even within a single novel. You might start out pantsing but realize you need more structure halfway through. Or you could begin with a detailed outline only to veer wildly off course. That’s okay! Part of the writing process is learning to adapt and problem-solve as challenges arise.
Resources and Tools:
There are plenty of resources out there for plotting a novel, from books to software to online courses. One helpful tool is the writing shed, a technique where you compile all your inspirations, research, and ideas in one place (digital or physical) to draw on as you write.
Scrivener is a popular writing software that includes features like virtual index cards for scene-level plotting and a corkboard for organizing story beats. Other writers swear by mind-mapping tools like Coggle or old-fashioned sticky notes arranged on a wall. Find the tools that help you visualize and manipulate your story elements in a way that makes sense to you.
Try This! Pick a plotting resource to explore, whether it’s a craft book like Save the Cat or a software tool like Plottr. Give yourself permission to experiment and see what techniques resonate with your writing style.
When Plotting Isn’t for You
While we’ve focused a lot on how to plot a novel, it’s important to acknowledge that plotting simply isn’t for everyone. Some writers thrive on pure intuition and find that too much structure sucks the joy out of the process. If that sounds like you, embrace it! There’s no one path to a great story.
Normalize the Intuitive Writer: In the writing world, there can be a lot of pressure to plot, as if it’s the mark of a serious or professional author. But the reality is, many successful novelists don’t plot much at all. They trust their instincts and let the story unfold organically. If that’s what works for you, own it!
Focus on Other Strengths: If you’re not a plotter, you likely have other writing superpowers. Maybe you’re a master at crafting vivid settings or unforgettable characters. Maybe snappy dialogue is your specialty. Lean into those strengths and trust that your story will come together in its own way.
Conclusion
Plotting a novel is a highly individual process. What works for one writer may be anathema to another. Some relish the structure of the Three-Act model or the Hero’s Journey. Others prefer to discover the story as they write, letting their characters lead the way. Most fall somewhere in between, blending methods to suit their unique creative process.
The key is to experiment with different techniques, from detailed outlining to organic pantsing to everything in between. Pay attention to what feels natural and what makes the words flow. Don’t be afraid to adapt your approach as you go. And if you find that plotting simply isn’t for you, embrace your strengths as a writer and trust your intuition.
Remember, there are as many ways to plot a novel as there are writers. Let the process be a joyful one, full of exploration and discovery. Find the methods that ignite your imagination and help you craft a story you can’t wait to share with the world. Happy plotting, writers!