After a summer break it’s time for another authors’ Round Robin. This month the topic has been set by author Skye Taylor
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
As an editor I’ve read many, many manuscripts, and my feeling is if the structure has gone awry in the story it’s one of the most difficult things to go back in and put right. So I’m going to start off by answering this question from my point of view as a developmental editor – although if you’re interested in my own approach as a writer, keep reading!
How can you get your story structure right from the start? And why’s it important?
If only there were a single approach that worked for everyone! That’s why I’m always careful how I advise on tightening structure. What’s perfect for one can totally kill creativity for someone else.
I do feel, though, that some writers have an innate sense of structure and how it works, without even having to think about it. These writers can take an idea and run with it and still keep the story in excellent shape as they go along. If you’ve followed my blog for a while you’ll know Georgette Heyer is one of my favourite authors (find out why here!). Her stories are always beautifully structured, but from her letters to her publisher she comes across as a complete pantser:
‘I expect you want to know how my hero ends up in the same town as my heroine. Let’s not worry about that one now. All will become clear as we go along.’
My feeling is many writers gain a subconscious ‘feel’ for structure from many years of reading. All writers are readers, and it’s by reading voraciously that we learn what makes a successful story. (And we learn from film and TV dramas, too, where structure can be even tighter than in a novel.)
So why is structure important? Why not just write the story that’s in your head, with all its many diversions and ‘interesting’ characters? After all, we’re not writing school essays, and readers aren’t going to test us on whether the story fits the perfect three-act structure.
One big reason I feel story structure is important is that without it, readers will get bored. It’s as simple as that. If a story has a strong, consistent narrative thread, readers will get behind the characters and care about them. If there are constant diversions, and new characters appearing and disappearing, readers will, at best, put the book down with a feeling of dissatisfaction, and at worst, not finish at all as they start to wonder why they should bother going down this next rabbit hole.
I totally understand why pantsers pants. Just thinking about arc, the inciting incident, the three acts, plot points one and two, etc., and be enough to give anyone writers’ block. (If you’re really not a plotter, don’t even think about looking at the structure graphs in this Reedsy post, unless you want a brain freeze.)
But if you prefer to work out your ideas while you’re writing, rather than plot everything, how do you keep your story straight as you go along?
One single tip for keeping your story structure tight
One tip I find useful is to ask yourself the simple question ‘What’s my story about?’ Ideally you should be able to answer in a line or two. When I say ‘what’s my story about?’ I’m talking specifically about the plot, rather than the themes. You may say your book is about dealing with grief, but if you’ve chosen to write on this theme through the medium of story, rather than in an essay, then the plot is important.
Jane Eyre, for example, has the theme of being true to yourself. The plot can be reduced to two lines: Jane Eyre is about a quiet governess who falls in love with her curmudgeonly employer. When it turns out her employer is married, Jane does the honourable thing and leaves, even though she has nowhere to go, but is later rewarded with her happy ending.
This may seem reductive, but if you can’t answer the question in a line or two, this can be a sign that the story is drifting.
Plotting in detail in advance can sometimes make you feel as though you’ve already written the story. It can make the actual writing down feel boring and make you feel constrained to a particular path. If you really don’t like plotting, it can help to write a two-line summary of what your story’s about and keep it next to your keyboard. Ask yourself how does each new scene, new character introduced and new piece of dialogue relate to this two-line premise? If it doesn’t, can it be cut?
Of course you may find your story changes slightly if a new idea comes to you. You can always rewrite the two-line premise – but make sure to go back into the story you’ve written and ensure it now follows the brief.
I mentioned above how I’d talk about my own writing. I write romance novels. This type of novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot. Before putting pen to paper I decide on the vital romantic conflict. What is it that’s keeping these two characters apart, even though they’re falling desperately in love? What is it that’s forcing them together, even though their growing love is torment? How will the conflict be resolved?
I don’t like to plot too much in advance, but for me, every scene has to reveal something about the characters, and/or test the conflict, and/or move the characters forward in some way.
This post highlights one simple tip for pantsers. There’s so much more that can be said about story structure. I often recommend Diane Drake’s book Get Your Story Straight. It’s aimed at screenwriters, but it has some excellent examples from film, with their structure explained in an entertaining way. Well worth a read!
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I hope you’ve found this month’s topic useful. If you’d like to hear the other authors’ take on this topic, please click on the links below!
Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3zf
Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Victoria Chatham https://victoriachatham.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Helena Fairfax 
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