CPGO – Step 5: Plot Sketch

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I’ve said good-bye to BiaM and You Can Write a Novel. Smith’s book will be back when I get to the revision stage. BiaM has a little influence in what’s coming next and will have a say when I get to scenes. Then that is it. BiaM encourages outlining while writing for the rest of the book.

Step 5 is the Plot Sketch. The setting sketch was a list of settings in order of appearance with a description of the story at this place, the time period, season and about how many chapters I think it will take to write out the descriptions (which I’m usually wrong about but hey, it’s a starting place).

Now I have this snapshot of a plot, it is time to answer some questions about the plot. I create a new note called Plot Sketch in yWriter.

FDi30D called the Plot Sketch the list of the elements of the story. In all the books, the elements of the story come up. These are the Hero’s Journey, and Story in 3 Acts, Action/Reaction, Quest, Mini Climax, Black Moment, Climax, Denouement and combinations of all of these. The Plot Sketch asks questions about all of these things.

I really like Alicia Rasley’s article, Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes. Here’s a list of questions and answering them gives you a better picture of your plot. So first thing first, I answer her questions about Between Kingdoms. This covers the main character’s motivation and goals. Once I have that down I fill out FDi30D Plot Sketch.

The Plot Sketch starts with the goal and has you identify romance, subplots, conflict, resolution, downtime, black moment and resolution. I now have character motivations and an overview of the plot.

BiaM has two sheets similar to this, the Story Idea Map and the VBIAM Plot Check Sheet. I find the Story Idea Map redundant at this point. The Plot Check Sheet is sectioned off by things that happen in the story and who is there and does it advance the plot. I might come back to this for the revision but for now, I just put it aside.

Next we get down to the meaty part of the operation, scenes.

Related posts:

  1. CPGO: Step 4 – Setting Sketch
  2. CPGO – Step 6: Scene by Scene
  3. CPGO: Step 3 – Characters
  4. You, my dear, have been the victum of plot rape.
  5. CPGO: Step 2 – Research List & Setup

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