Plotting without losing passion

Writing a novel can feel like embarking on a vast, uncharted journey. The excitement of new characters, complex plots, and endless possibilities, is often balanced by the overwhelming challenge of keeping track of it all. That's where, for me, outlining comes in, a roadmap to guide me from start to finish. A way of plotting out my story without losing the passion and the excitement of the ride.

Personally, I've found that Excel is an invaluable tool for mapping out my scenes, especially when working on larger projects with multiple timelines or points-of-view (POV) characters. The beauty of Excel lies in its versatility. You can filter rows by POV character ensuring consistency in each character's arc throughout the story. It's easy to track shifts in motivation, emotional beats, and the overall progression of the story. By breaking down the scenes and plotting them into rows with the columns representing key elements of the scene, emotions, locations, other characters and most importantly, for me at least, action, I can view the entire structure of the novel at a glance, which makes it easier to see any gaps or inconsistencies early on.

I can also hone in to specifics, for example if I want to know what a character does limited to one specific location, I can do that. Or I can look at the emotions and see if there's one emotion my characters lean into the most, and whether that's right for the story. For example, if I have a POV character who's supposed to be angry most of the time, but when I filter by emotion I find another emotion comes through stronger, that gives me something to work with. It might be that I need to consider whether my character truly is angry, or to rework a scene so that the anger comes through stronger than other emotions. Or if I find that a character is emotionally one-dimensional, I can explore why that's the case and make adjustments. After all, like us, our characters don't just feel one emotion all the time.

Another way that Excel comes in handy is in my novel Twisted Connections, part of the Twisted Series which spans both sides of the globe (spoiler alert). I had to keep track of times in both the UK and Queensland to make sure when something that happened in Australia it didn't happen before it's instigating action in the UK, and vice versa. In one scene I had a character in Australia call a character in the UK, problem was, it was mid-afternoon in Australia which meant in the UK it was something like 2am and yet my UK character was up and about and getting on with their day. Yikes! As a result I did a deeper dive into the timings of all my scenes and discovered this wasn't the first scene where that sort of thing happened. Talk about shooting your credibility in the foot. In The Watchers Prey there's a 'ticking clock' and in an early draft I'd left so much time on the clock for Anna as the story rounded the bend to the final conflict, that it defeated the purpose.

But outlining doesn't have to be a creativity killer. It's about striking a balance between structure and the freedom to let your imagination soar. When I first started seriously plotting my novels, I also leaned heavily on a few go-to books that helped guide me through the process:

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a must-have. While it's an excellent resource for writers, it also has some life lessons that I leaned into. For me, Bird by Bird isn't just a writing tool, it's a source to lean into when everything feels overwhelming.

• The Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson was something I tried but never quite clicked with. However, it does offer a logical, manageable way to begin plotting your story. If you're just starting out, it's a great system to help you organise your thoughts and getting that first draft down on paper, or screen, whatever works best for you.

• The Writing Book by Kate Grenville is another gem. It offers great exercises that allow you to explore character, setting and theme in a structured way.

• And of course, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is, in my view, essential for understanding story structure. While I found the Beat Sheet in Blake Snyders original script writing books more helpful, Jessica Brody's Save the Cat Writes a Novel is fantastic for translating those beats into a novel format.

These resources work wonders for the plotter, the writer who thrives on structure. But what about the pantser or discovery writer? As much as I lean towards plotting, I've been known to let loose with a pantser approach now and then. In fact, the first draft of my WIP, Three Little Lies, was entirely written by the seat of my pants. For those who embrace the spontaneous side of writing, I'm told that On Writing by Stephen King is the go to resource. I will admit I haven't read it but it is on my very long TBR list. If you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

In the end, whether you are a plotter or a pantser, what matters is finding a system that works for you. For me, outlining helps me maintain the passion and energy for the project. I like to think of it as a road trip for your mind. You have a rough idea of where you are going but you're not locked into how you get there, or how long it takes.