Plotting Exercises – Page 2 – Read First Chapter.com

Peek Behind the Novel – Layer 1 – Organizing the Crime Tips

This is the second step in writing a new fiction novel. In the first step, I start out with writing four potential storylines in FreeMind, which is a mind mapping software. You can see that video here.

Once I finish four potential plotlines, one of them usually pops out and wants to be written. I feel myself getting excited to write it. This process, although it's hard to think of four different storylines, gives me confidence right from the beginning that I am writing the best book for me right now. This whole process fills me with excitement to write.

OPEN SCRIVENER AND BEGIN:

I take my new plotline and open scrivener. I open one document and plan the crime itself. I'm presently writing a police procedural at this time, but even if you are writing a generic mystery, this technique will work. Most great fiction has some level of mystery or suspense in it, so it would even work for generic fiction.

I make a chronological list of the crime as it happens. When it happens, who it happens to, who the first witnesses will be, if any. I also isolate in my mind an actual scene of the crime. I put in all the evidence the cops or detectives will find at the scene. This will begin the investigation. In a mystery or crime novel, this is the inciting incident.

I also add to the list other suspects and what their motivation will be for the crime or mystery. As you begin to add different suspects into the mix, you will most likely have to change your original plotline idea to accommodate these new suspects.

I go through this whole process adding, subtracting and changing up the suspects and plotline in this abbreviated format. It should look like directions from Google maps or a long list of very short paragraphs.

A SECTION CALLED THE ENDING:

I have a section at the end called "How it will end". My books never end the way I indicate in this section. However, by having a solid idea of how I want it to end at this time, it gives me a direction and a destination. Then during the creative process, when I get new and better ideas, I simple go down my list and/or scene outlines (we'll cover these in another installment) and change up the outline. It's easy-peasy.

I do this for the entire storyline. At the end, you will have a good idea what the story is about, but there won't be any nuance, or personality in the story yet, so if it seems dry, don't worry about it. It is very dry at this point. You are knitting together a skeleton and bones are dry. You will breathe live into this as you get to the point of actual writing.

THE BENEFITS OF WRITING THIS OUTLINE:

Most new writers want to start writing scenes and dialogue. They want to just get on with it. But the dark side of working this way is that when you find out your clues won't work when you need to add a new suspect, you will have written two chapters already. My process will save you from writing for the trashcan.

By going through this short one-liner outline in chronological order, anything in the story that won't work, it comes out in this layer of writing. This saves you from throwing away already written work.

There is a video I made for YouTube below. I go over some of these points but others tips and tricks as well. For your convenience, I have time stamps below in case you want to just jump to the section you want to look at:

01:27 - Open Scrivener and open one document
01:45 - Other suspects, their motivation, red herring, etc.
02:15 - How it will End section
03:20 - Determining the framework of the script which will prevent writing for the trash can.
05:30 - Review of the layer elements
05:43 - Sneak peek into the next videos

Writing a Novel in Layers:

First - A Little About the Chronology of a Crime

Writing a Novel - Layer 1
Writing a Novel - Layer 2
Writing a Novel - Layer 3
Writing a Novel - Layer 4
Writing a Novel - Layer 5
Writing a Novel - Layer 6
Writing a Novel - Layer 7
Writing a Novel - Layer 8

Author’s Tips – Plotting with Freemind

ALL AUTHORS NEED A PLOTLINE:

Each new book requires a new plotline. I used to come up with a plotline and go with it. But I noticed I had a lot of insecurities as to whether it was good enough or whether I was choosing a plotline too soon.

By the third book, I started to write four potential plotlines from the beginning. Each one was good enough. They all had a crime or a mystery, they had suspense and even a satisfying or surprise ending. By writing four plotlines, at some point, the one plotline that I "should be writing" clings to me and I to it. I know instinctively that 'this is the one'.

HOW TO QUIET WRITING INSECURITIES:

When I had only the one plotline, I still had an insecurity as I began to write. What I found with starting with four is that I know I worked on all four and I know I'm writing the best one I came up with. I feel like the plotline I chose wants to be written. The characters are already coming alive before I even finish the plotline.

It's more work to start with four plotlines, but the satisfaction of knowing I'm writing the right book, and being able to let go of any self-doubt and insecurity, it's well worth it.

THE TECHNIQUE OF OUR PLOTS WORKED, BUT I GOT SCATTERED!

So I could tell the four plotlines was a working strategy going forward. The first time I did this, I opened a new Notepad document, plotted a crime and a potential storyline. When I finished, I named it the first potential plotline and filed it. Rinse and repeat. Sounds pretty straight forward, right?

Well, after I chose the one potential storyline, I went on to write the book. The technique worked but, as usual, I got scattered pretty soon thereafter. What do I mean? I mean I couldn't remember where I filed each plotline. Did I put it into my blogging folder? Was it in the last book folder? Was it filed as a general document in my website folder? I couldn't find them no matter what.

I don't know if everyone is like this, but as soon as I have more than three pages of anything, I start going upside down if I don't have a "system" to keep myself organized.

ALL IN ONE DOCUMENT?

Then in response to getting scattered, I just wrote all four plotlines in one document, but then I was overwhelmed by how long the document was and it wasn't easy to see which plotline I was in. The Notepad has a tendency to return to the top when you flip out of it to check a spelling or anything. Ugh, I again went upside down.

FREEMIND - The solution:

Then I found Freemind. Of course I saw it on YouTube, where I learn all of my author tricks and tips. Freemind allows me to keep all four plotlines on the same 'board'. BUT I can close each one and it is very easy to determine which plotline I'm on. This is also a way where I can scan over all past plotlines to get ideas when it's time for the next book.

This was a game changer for me, which is why I pass this on to other new authors -- or just authors who go upside down like I do!

I made a very short video on YouTube showing how this works. Most of the FreeMind is intuitive and self-explanation when you begin to use it, but it's always helpful to just see it in action.

A Simple Mystery Plot

TEMPLATE – SIMPLE MYSTERY PLOT

I spent a lot of time in researching novel templates and wound up getting more confused than organized. I may have a mental block on this, or if you are a beginner, you may find the same difficulties in getting your plot or story line to fit exactly over a template outline.

Below is a general and loose outline that I put together after writing my first draft and reverse engineering my two favorite books. I hope this will help you get organized in writing your first novel.

ACT ONE

PRESENT THE CRIME – HOOK

You will need something to happen or raise a question or mysterious circumstance in the initial first chapter to grab the reader’s attention and make they want to find out what you are talking about. This is called a “hook”. This is different from the “inciting incident”.

INTRODUCE THE SLEUTH:
Introduce the sleuth and mention his/her weakness that will be overcome while solving the crime. Introduce what inner conflict is bothering him/her, and what he wants in life or his profession. Keep in mind this character’s arc (where he starts out, how he changes, and where he ends up).
Introduce the sluth’s helper, sidekick or mentor. You can also introduce the romantic interest in this first section of the book if it fits. How he or she wanders into the story.

INTRODUCE OBVIOUS SUSPECTS (minimum 2)
INTRODUCE CRIME COMPLICATIONS

INTRODUCE PRIVATE LIFE/SUBPLOT:
Introduce Hero’s home conflicts, work conflicts or or inner conflicts.
Introduce the Sleuth’s romantic interest, which in a mystery romance is the subplot.

In the beginning, something happens that will call the Hero into action. This is called the “inciting incident”. This interrupts “normal life” and presents a situation that the hero doesn’t want to bother with or think she can handle it simply and quickly. He/She is expecting this will not disrupt life as he/she knows it. (In a mystery romance, it’s usually the first dead body!)

ACT TWO

Act two is the longest act and this is where all of the mystery investigation will take place. The sleuth will begin to collect evidence, question witnesses, suspect some people and think others are innocent.

This will include the initial police investigations and early forensics (medical examiner, bullistics reports, etc.)

Working from your Reverse Engineering Worksheet, decide how you will drop the clues into the various scenes. You will want a minimum of two suspects that both look guilty. Depending upon your plot line, you can have any number of people who could be a suspect. All of your scenes will revolve around the investigator finding clues and following them to the next clue, and you dropping them for the reader.

There could be another murder, the disappearance of a suspect, and any number of tension-building things that can happen. You always want to keep the drama moving, especially in this middle section where books tend to lag.

Raise the stakes: If they don’t find this killer soon, what will happen? If the killer gets away, what will happen or not happen? Make sure you write in the stakes, the risk and why the sleuth needs to find the murderer.

WEAVING THE ROMANCE – During the first and second acts, you will also be weaving the romantic beats of the story throughout the action. Before writing the romantic parts, have in mind the “development of the romance”. You need to know where it begins, where it goes and how it ends up. For example: They couple starts out as trying to be professionals on the case and hiding their attraction, maybe having a conflict on how they see the case, and then the heat or being together makes one of them make a move, they both admit they are attracted to each out, and in the end, they both find true love. In today’s world, you can find something a little more enticing that this flat example, but you get my point; you need to know where they are starting, how they will both change with romance, and where they end up.

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL/ALL IS LOST:

At the end of Act 2, the investigation of the crime is not working out or things seem to be going against the sleuth and any of his helpers. He/she or they reach their darkest moment, they feel like they should give up, their “Dark Night of the Soul”.

ACT THREE

SLEUTH RISES LIKE THE PHOENIX, REGAINS HIS/HER ENERGY AND MOVES FORWARD.

In this section, the sleuth regains his energy and his will and he/she decides that he/she is all in, is going to fight to the death to prove this case no matter what. He goes back to the beginning, reviews his clues, re-evaluates things, and finds something that was overlooked in Act 1 that suddenly has greater significance. This will be the new avenue of approach and this will lead to the ultimate solving of the crime and hopefully to justice.

CONFRONTATION OF THE PERPETRATOR:

At the end of the mystery, as it is solved, you may well have a confrontation of the perpetrator by the sleuth or there will be a scene where the cops run in and take him down, depending upon who your sleuth is.

RESOLUTION OF THE SUBPLOT/RETURN TO NORMAL:

Once the crime is solved, the sleuth will be a better person, he/she will have grown through their character arc, an they will be at a better place, more sure of who they are. If it is a mystery romance, this will also contain a scene or two of how romance has now changed his/her life for the better.

You may also have a scene where your sleuth is explaining the whole plot to someone who still doesn’t understand. Most books no longer have this, but I like it when the author “ties it up” in the end. I think it makes the book more satisfying to go over the plot and see and hear it summarized. I maybe old school, but I just think this adds to the experience of the story. I don’t have to tell you how much I dislike these movies and stories where the readers decides what the book means? I feel like throwing the book at the wall, so I like to have a summation, so to speak.

I hope this helps you if you too are just beginning to write stories.

Writing a Mystery Novel – Where To Begin

DON'T DO WHAT I FIRST DID!

In preparation to write my first mystery novel, I watched random videos on YouTube by successful authors and successful book marketers, all of whom had great information about how to write books. The videos usually take one subject at a time, and when you watch videos in some random fashion, which I did, you wind up overwhelmed with information and no way to organize it or process it. The purpose of this blog post is to give some tips from one beginner to another. This is more like a how not to do things vs. how to do things. The purpose of this post is to help you not waste time and energy and to get right down to business, which I wish I did.

ARE YOU A PANTSER OR A PLOTTER?

When I began to hear terms like “panters and/or plotter” I didn’t even know what they were talking about. A pantser, if you don’t know if someone who just sits down and begins to write “by the seat of their pants” without any organization and without any plot line. They approach the writing from a completely creative process. I imagine that “natural writers” would take this approach. Maybe people who like chaos would take this route. But I would wind up staring at a blank page all day if I didn’t have at least an outline.

I knew I was going to be a plotter right from the beginning. So your first order of business in writing a novel is to then have your plot line. That sounds easy enough, right? Well, depending up on what type of book you are writing, this will determine what type of plot line you will need. For example: If you are writing a true crime novel, you have a chronology of events that is pretty much written in stone. So you will have a ready-made plot line. If you are writing a fictional novel, then you have to write a chronological plotline and you need to determine where to drop clues, where to begin subplots, where to hide subtle clues as to the real villian, where to throw in a red herring or two, etc. This is where it can get a little tricky.

MYSTERIES BEGIN WITH A CRIME AND ARE PLOTTED BACKWARDS:

It took me awhile to realize that it is too easy to write yourself into a corner with no way out if you start writing from the characters. Many of the how-to videos I watched in the beginning said that it all beings with characters and conflict. This is true that each story has characters and conflict, but most mysteries have some kind of a crime and/or injustice. Once I realized that it is easier to begin with the crime and plot backwards, this made things much easier.

REVERSE ENGINEERING A CRIME/MURDER:

1. How is the victim killed and/or harmed?
2. Who is responsible? (This gives you your murderer)
3. Who else in the story has motive to kill the victim? (This gives you your multiple suspects)
4. Who is completely innocent but looks really guilty? (This gives you your red herring)
5. Where does the plot/murder take place? (factory, park, someone’s house, outside a bar?)
6. Who ultimately solves the crime? (This gives you your protagonist)
7. Who is working against the solving fo the crime? (This gives you at least one antagonist)
8. Who wanders in and winds up having a romance with the protagonist? (This gives you your romantic subplot)

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE LOCATION OF THE CRIME/MURDER:

It is best as a beginner to choose a location and setting that you are familiar with. It will cut down on the research you need to do, as you will need to do at least some forensic and police procedure research. For example: I used to be a court reporter for 11 years and I have experience working on criminal cases, how prisoners are moved around the courthouse, how sheriff’s officers and prison guards are different from cops, what goes on in a Judge’s chambers on breaks and after the jury goes home. So this is a good setting for me to write about.

Let’s say you worked in a bar and restaurant when you were in college. You know the intricacies of this setting. Wherever you worked will be a good setting to work with because you already have intricate knowledge about how it all works. This cuts down on wresting with too much in your first novel.

THE MAIN CHARACTER:

One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was focusing too much on the main character. With a mystery, you need to have a unique crime that hasn’t been done before. Because there are millions of mystery books, your specific crime may have been done, but you want to make sure you don’t pick on that has been “done to death”.

So all of the thinking I did regarding who the main character would be was for naught. It was a waste of time. It all started with the mystery/murder and the motive and antagonist. That’s where I ultimately started -- after I had to wipe out a lot of the erroneous information I had taken in about the lead character being the main focus. In a mystery novel, in the planning stages, the mystery/murder is the genesis of the story.

Once you have your crime and a group of suspects, the protagonist almost creates him or herself. It comes down to who would likely solve this crime? Is it a cozy mystery with an Aunt Mildred as the top sleuth or is it a police procedural mystery where it will be all about how the cops outwit the murderer? In my case, I chose a private investigator as I wanted him to be someone who had a friendship with a priest so I could have a Christian/Catholic backdrop to the story. By picking a private investigator, I also allowed for a little leeway on police procedure. A PI is more likely to break the rules and go rogue than a cop these days and the police procedures are so technical now that unless you are an ex cop or you have someone you can literally call a few times a week to run things by them, then you will have a lot of research to do.

WHERE TO GET INSPIRATION FOR CRIMES?

I watched Forensic Files for awhile and paid particular attention to the chronology of how they solved the crimes, what the cops did, and what the scientists did. They have such unusual crimes on these shows and such an array of them, this is a good source of inspiration. I tried checking my local papers, but 95% of the cases are drug cases or random shootings and they don’t make interesting plot lines by themselves.

If you have any other advice for us beginning writers and wish to share with us, please contact me and I would be happy to do a blog post or video featuring your lesson or tips for us.

Category: Plotting Exercises