ksmith | Plotting

This morning, I heard whimpering and the occasional soft howl from a few houses away. Somebody's puppy was spending the morning outside, and they wanted to be inside.

I thought I saw a robin the other day. Couldn't be sure--it flitted by so fast. Fingers crossed that they're on their way back. I so want Spring to come. Except for the mud. The ground is still frozen a few inches below the surface. Sodden topsoil+snowmelt+a day of rain=mud. Mud+two large dogs=two large mudballs. Who still love their mommy and want to jump on her and step on her shoes and rub their faces into the legs of her khakis.

What I said in the previous post about a mudroom.

Still working on the GIDEON proposal. What I think I'm doing is working out all the sniggly plot issues now--motivation, roadblocks, necessary bits of worldbuilding that drive the plot forward, even though I know in the back of my mind that much of what I think is solid now isn't going to live through the protodraft. Some of you have heard me complain about my plotting/writing process before. I fear that with this book, as with every blasted other book I've written, I'll think I have it all worked out. Then I'll write the first 200 pages (aka protodraft) and find that I don't really have it worked out. So I'll save what I can of that, which usually isn't much, and start over. I'll think that this time, I have it all worked out, and I'll write to the end...only to find out, often via editorial feedback, that there is still much that needs to be fixed. So I'll rewrite again, and that will be the book. I've done it 5 times, which seems to indicate an established pattern. Yet still I try the end-around.

In the interest of attempted shortcuts, I decided that Scrivener was worth the US$34.99, and paid for it last night. I was able to download it to the laptop and register both it and the desktop copy using the same license, so that was nice. Now I can play with the virtual index cards on both systems, and start picking things out.

I really enjoy working things out with those index cards. It's similar to another plotting method I'd used before, which was simply to sketch the projected highlights/major plot turns/climax on a 4x6 inch index card, or one side of a sheet of paper. It was very rough. I assumed that the draft would be about 600 pages long, and therefore that something kinda big had to happen around page 150, something *really* big at page 300, something twisty/nasty at 450, followed by a build to the Big Wind-Up around page 580 or so, ending up with no more than a chapter or two of wrap-up.

Looking at the manuscript of ENDGAME, which came in at 659 manuscript pages, I see that the major driver falls in around page 165. At the midpoint, page 325, something plot-driving has occurred, tempers are short, and everyone is in a state of bundled underwear. Page 461, about the 3/4 point, something important is happening that no one expected. Then, from page 540, 550, 557--all big stuff. Catharsis around page 621--well, I think it's cathartic anyway--followed by windup. Then there's a final chapter.

I'm guessing that most books follow that pattern. I find that if I deviate too much from that pace, I start getting edgy. Little voice in the back of my head tells me that sections are dragging, that the beginning is too long or this or that part is moving too slowly. And if I think I've managed to cover it up, My Editor is there to tell me that nope, I really do have everyone dawdling too much at this point.

Scrivener will now serve as my virtual index card/one side of a sheet of paper. And I can twitch back and forth between GIDEON and the two short works I have buzzing around in the back of my head. And there's a way to attach research files to projects, so that I can open them and look at them and always have them handy, which I also think is neat. And I can send things into Word when they're ready.