Plotting a Novel: Where to Start!

I've started planning my new novel, working title: DEER LEAP.

It's been so long since I started a significant piece of writing, so I revisited what worked that first time around. A writing tutor introduced me to a useful tool for brainstorming plot some time ago:

MAP YOUR PLOT

• The situation with the main characters
• The characters
• The main conflict
• Initial idea for final resolution
• Characters who will help
• Characters who will hinder
• Other obstacles
• Minor conflict 1
• Minor conflict resolution
• Minor conflict 2
• Minor conflict resolution
• False resolution (optional)
• Place of resolution
• Resolution

The 'Map Your Plot' tool allows you to brainstorm eventualities. I found it useful to start there, and then add more detail to the plot following the three act structure. (Image borrowed from Raindance, the film organisation).

Act One

• Takes up about 25% of the novel.
• Introduces us to main character and setting, their hopes and dreams.
• Presents the protagonist with an inciting incident, from which there is no return.

Act Two

• Takes up about 50% of the novel.
• The protagonist should face minor obstacles which they may overcome, only to be faced with another, more significant conflict. 
• At the midpoint, something happens which changes the way the protagonist sees the world, and how they are dealing with their major conflict.
• At the crisis of Act two, we can't see a way out for the protagonist - the stakes are raised even higher.

Act Three

• Takes up the remaining 25% of the novel.
• In the climax, the protagonist must face whatever or whoever has caused the conflict in the story. Usually, because of what he or she has learned in the process, they win, and the problem is resolved.

I recommend this as a good post on plot from Janice Hardy.


An Act 1 example from KEPT:
This is a detailed example of the original plot I mapped out for KEPT. Planning to this level of detail works for me, but others like to be more spontaneous.
Just Act 1 for fear of boring you!

Sequence A

• Katherine, 30, wakes up hung-over and heartbroken
• Katherine opens a letter from a solicitor, revealing that she has inherited a lighthouse from her estranged paternal grandmother
• Katherine is reminded of the father that abandoned her before she was born, and locks herself in the bathroom to get her emotions under control
• Katherine breaks the news to her mother, Sally, who insists that she sell the property.
• Katherine’s step dad Simon books a house clearance company to make the arrangements, and Katherine is annoyed that he is sticking his oar in.
• Katherine decides to defy her mother and make a secret visit to the lighthouse.

Sequence B

• Katherine takes the train to Weymouth, but it breaks down and to her frustration she is delayed for several hours, giving her time to worry about her mother and about what she might find out about her father.
• Katherine meets the solicitor, who makes her feel like a little child that doesn’t know anything
• Katherine enters the lighthouse, and is repulsed at the state it is in, and realises that she does not know this woman that called herself her grandmother
• Katherine tries to find meaning in photographs and possessions, but doesn’t get very far.
• In the master bedroom, she finds a painting of a young lady rolled up underneath. She is intrigued by the painting.
• Katherine realises she will have to spend the night here, and has a restless night on the itchy sofa.
• Having slept very badly, Katherine is happy to pack up a few items (including the painting) and heads home early.

Sequence C

• Back in London Katherine tries to go back to normal, but can’t hide her disappointment that she has not found her father.
• Katherine tries to go back to normal, going out drinking with her work friends, but has a run in with her ex, Marcus, who makes her feel like she knows nothing about art
• Katherine is reminded of her single status by her married housemates
• Katherine does some research on the painting she brought back from the lighthouse and finds out that it was stolen from the National Gallery in the 1950s.
• Katherine decides to take the painting to the police.
• It dawns upon Katherine that the girl in the painting looks familiar. She has seen this face in photographs in her grandmother’s album, and she thinks it’s the same woman but she can’t be sure.
• Katherine decides she has to go back to Portland and check, before the house clearance company destroy the evidence.
• Katherine pretends to be ill to avoid her housemates’ questions, and does some more research on the internet, not getting anywhere.

Sequence D

• Katherine travels to Portland again.
• Katherine searches the lighthouse for photos of the girl in the painting, which she recalls seeing in the wedding album
• Katherine finds the wedding album, but is interrupted by a knock on the door
• Paul from the clearance company arrives a day early to clear the house, with his assistant Josh
• Katherine and he exchange words, and he agrees to come back another day, but Katherine is left feeling hurt and foolish
• Katherine finds a photo of the girl from the painting, with the name ‘Olive’ on the back