FINDING THE PLOT, CONFLICTS, AND PACE OF YOUR STORY--Wombats CCLXXII

In the course of researching various things I came across something on getting the feel of the flow of a story, finding the bones of a story and by doing so, find out how a popular book on the market is presented and outlined. It was very similar to an exercise I had to do in a college writing course, years ago on the anatomy of a best seller. A simple plotting exercise, if you will.

The suggestion was to pick a current book, about a month or two old in the genre you want to write. Keep in mind even the current books were bought close to two years ago. It was suggested using a book of debuting or newer author since established authors have a lot more leeway with stories than an aspiring author.

Next take a notebook or use a computer spreadsheet—whatever is easiest—and go through the book and mark down the number of chapters. Under each chapter number, count the number of scenes per chapter and mark them on your spreadsheet or notebook. Chapter 2, scene 1, scene 2, scene 3, etc, and once you’ve done that, then treat each scene as a short story and write a one sentence blurb for each scene. As you do this for each chapter, you should be able to see the pattern of conflict and the plot. You can also include a sentence describing the internal/external conflict. If there are subplots these can also be included as a sentence within that chapter. Black moment can also be done that way. You’ll quickly see that the black moment does not happen with in the first 4 or 5 chapters. Once you’ve completed this exercise then write a 15-25-word blurb that describes the story.

What this exercise does is show the bones of the story. It identifies what storylines are working for your target audience and how they’re presented. You can take your own WIP and see if your story’s turning points roughly match up with the outline you have created. It won’t match exactly but it helps you have a visual clue if your MS visually fits your target audience. It also visually helps you to see whether your story is too long or too short, or too simple or complicated. Do you have enough conflict and is the internal/external conflict clear. Where is your black moment?

Even if you are a pantzer, as I am, this exercise helps find the plot, conflicts, flow and pace of a story that fits your target audience and how your story matches up—or doesn’t. It gives you an analytic tool to go back and look at your WIP with critical eyes with the view of making yours better. It also helps in creating a synopsis of your WIP and find the pitch point. Which, as I recently found out is an important part of the process.

One of the things this exercise does is give you and outline, which in turn, theoretically help with a synopsis. I’ve not tried it for that purpose as yet, but I can see where it would help a writer keep the focus.

Have any of you ever done this? If so, what were the results?