Novels and Shorts - Plotting the Easy Way

Hi guys! My name's TheRedSephaos, and I would like to talk to you about basic plotting tricks for those of you new to planning novels and short stories.

To some people, planning may seem like more work than it is worth, especially for shorts. Sometimes we have ideas that we're just so in love with, we just want to pour it onto the paper, even if we don't always know where it is going. And that's where we tend to get stuck. We look back and are either at a loss for where we need to go, or have dug ourselves into a hole. Or, in less severe situations, we finish and end up with plot holes, which as authors we may or may not catch before publishing.

So if you've never plotted before, how do you begin? There's so many suggestions out there, it can be overwhelming. Today, I'm going to list some of my favorites, and in what situations they can be useful.

Short, But Descriptive, Overviews

You might have an idea that you feel you just have to get onto paper. Maybe you have all the vivid details floating around in your head, and you don't want to lose them by just jotting down some notes. That's okay! This actually happens to me a lot, especially when I have dreams that intrigue me.

One way to plot is to write your idea down from beginning to end.Often, I can write an overview in about a quarter of the length the final products ends up being. This isn't necessarily a rough or first draft. Things like dialogue can be left out of it. You can be descriptive on things, but the goal is to not be too worried about detail. The idea of this method is to get down the important things, and worry about the rest later.

After you finish, you're able to go through it and figure out what's missing and what contradicts in your plot, with a lot less hassle than having to go through a draft.

Lists

Listing is actually a pretty basic method when it comes to plotting, although it can range anywhere from your four basic bullets (beginning, middle, climax, and end) to many more, depending on what you want to do.

For example (from my piece The Dazzling Fair of the Slums):
Beginning: Marissa's mother is insistent that she doesn't go to the fair.
Middle: Why Marissa's mother hates the fair in the slums and her hatred for androids.
Climax: Marissa goes to the fair anyway.
End: Marissa plans to convince her mother that the fair isn't that bad, and neither are the androids.

This is very simple, but it explains the main points to the piece, and while it can be expanded upon, it gives you a minor guideline so you know where your story is going. If I wanted to expand and include all the major points, before climax and end, I would add:
Event: Marissa is impressed by the sights that she sees, and watches the parade with awe.
Event: After the parade, an android takes to Marissa, and she's able to talk about all the amazing sights, as well as realize androids aren't as bad as her mother claims.

Whether you stick to the four basic bullets or add in all events that affect your plot, this plotting trick can be something quick and easy that shows exactly where your plot should go. As you may notice, this method is very different from the overview method. Instead of freely writing and going over and sorting out the plot later, you're organizing the plot first, and writing later.

Stepsheets

This method is fairly close to simply listing it out, but is much more detailed, and I would suggest it for novels, where the above would be better with shorts. Stepsheets are actually a method one of my favorite authors, James N Frey, pushes, and while I'm going over the basics of it, I'll link his books below if you'd like to see his whole planning (plotting, characters, etc) method.

Instead of listing a short sentence to a paragraph under a bullet point for beginning, middle, climax, and end, you thoroughly explain, in order, what's going on in each of these phases. I'm going to use a random idea for this example, as the piece above isn't really long enough for a stepsheet.

Beginning:
1. Alfred catches wind that there's a jumper at a skyscraper downtown. We're in his perspective. He jumps in his van(old and rickety), hoping to get something good and finally get his journalism noticed. He finally gets to the scene, but its stuck with all the other reporters - so far away that he can't see anything worthwhile. He decides to try and sneak into the building next door to attempt to get a better look.
2. Switch to Julia's perspective. She looks down on the world, 100 stories below her, the view making her woozy. She just wanted to die. Everything had been going wrong, and she just couldn't handle it anymore. If only it wasn't for her fear of heights, it would all be over.

This would continue, explaining all the events of the beginning, and then we'd move onto the middle, then the climax, and then the end. Of course, I made these two steps rather detailed, but you can be as short as you want about it. Instead, I could have said:

1. Alfred finds out about a jumper and heads downtown with other reporters. He can't get past the cops, so plots a way to get closer.
2. Julia's on the edge of the building looking down, ready to end it. Her fear of heights is the only thing stopping her.

You're free to make it as detailed as you want. The point is to explain what's going on in the scene, and keep track of your plot points throughout the story.

Overall...

Always remember that these are just a few ways to plot, and they might not be for you. Nothing's better than trying different methods out until you find what works best for you. Thee three methods can also be combined if you desire - plotting methods are flexible to what you need and want. For example, I could use the listing method to get a good idea of my story, but then list both the plot points I find in my overview, and use the list to fill in points that would make the story connect or flow better. Or I could list out my desired plot points, and then expand on them more with a stepsheet.

There's tons of resources out there on how to plot and plan your stories, and as I've mentioned before, you can explore these to find the best for you. No author is exactly alike, and one day, you'll be able to develop a method perfect for you.