A mutating menace called Plotting

Anyone who’s even remotely related to storytelling, be it Novels, short stories, or even movies for that matter, would be familiar with the term plotting. In fact, plotting is the first tool that any aspiring author gets introduced to while they start off. 

We can think of plotting as the mesh that holds the story together and keeps it from flowing down the drain, like the slippery goo it is. 

So, what’s plotting?


Oxford Dictionary defines plot as - the core events of a story, developed and presented by the writer as a connected sequence. 

That pretty much covers it! Yeah. It’s story events laid in a particular sequence. Alas, an easier definition does not make the shape-shifting beast any less intimidating. There are tons of articles on the internet which will guide one to craft a perfect plot. So, once again, like in my other articles, I won’t be concentrating on how to plot, for, neither do I have the experience nor the expertise. 

So, I’ll stick to what I know and try to elaborate my experience with plotting (mostly about how plot evolves over the course of your novel and replotting. Surprisingly, none seem to be talking about this!)

  • Start - No clue where to start?


Yes, plots are intimidating. Yes, they are complex. But, they are also easy to start.

Like every tree, a plot germinates from a single seed-of-an-idea and that idea might be anything under the sun. A scene, dialogue, character quirk, inciting incident, etc., etc., etc. 

No one gets a handbook of plots. No plot is ever fully developed until the final word of the final draft is penned down. You’ll get more than enough opportunities to perfect it once the whole plot is known. So, don’t bother getting it perfect the first time. All you have to do is, cling on to the seedling idea and nurture it.

The first time you plot, it is just to discern the elements of your story. It should be a journey of discovery and not one of perfection. So, where to start you ask me? Anywhere, is my answer. 

Start anywhere and ask yourself this question, ‘how do I make this believable?’ and answer this question until you are satisfied. If you are starting with a scene where your protagonist is doing the impossible and kicking your antagonist’s butt, then ask yourself the questions like, ‘why are they fighting?’. You might have an answer like, ‘Because the villain stole your hero’s lollipop’. Fair enough. For this to work, either the lollipop should be ‘reaaaaaly’ special or both of them must be kids. In the first case, try figuring out (for yourself) as to why is the lollipop so special and why can’t he get another one. In the second case, well, just make the hero a vengeful child! 

Trust me, when you keep asking questions, you’ll have a nice little story in your hands before you realise it (I started out with one of the sketches I had made, where two guys are standing across each other with weapons in hand and nothing else. Pic below. And now I’m done with my first draft. I just kept asking questions and answering them as realistically possible within the confines of my world). So, all you have to do is start somewhere.


  • Tantalises with options, leading to dead ends


More often than not, as you write your first draft, the plot tends to slip out of your hands. And the changes are so subtle that, in one fine chapter, you find out that it is not what you had once envisioned. But, if you have a rigid plot, a lot of it will hinder the natural progression of the story. 
Plots are like the Atlas, representational. Whereas the stories are like the world around us, complex and contorted. Try navigating the world with just an Atlas in hand!

That doesn’t mean plots are useless. Like an Atlas, they tell us where to go, but not how or what’s in that place. And as any other journey, where you go from your current location is no certainty. Likewise, plot points are there as a rough map (drawn by a child) and not the word of god.

So, where does ‘dead ends’ figure in all this you may ask. As you are navigating your world (story) with the help of an atlas (plot), many a time you have to take chances to find the right path. Every path ahead of you looks like the best path or the worst. So you have to take chances in choosing the right path, of which you have no clue at this point. And, sometimes they eventually lead to dead ends. The one thing we can do is, explore, explore and explore all those paths. You never know in which of the paths you would find the magic dagger that will help you kill the dragon that appears in your last chapter.

I myself had to cut down almost 40k words from my first draft on several instances as I followed one line of thought because the story would not progress any further.

  • Plot holes - Yeah, I feel you!


Yes, I’m going to say it once again. The plot evolves over time. That means, you are going to have innumerable plot holes in your first draft (I have lost count of mine). Each rule that you sew into your story is bound to increase plot complexity and each sentence you write after the halfway mark of the story will seem to violate one or the other rule that you had laid out earlier. 

Don’t start correcting them already. You might not know how the plot is going to change as you proceed further. So, just note down what has to be done when you encounter a plot hole and then move on. They can be corrected in later drafts.

  • Replotting


Everyone on the internet seems to be talking about plotting and never about replotting. If you ask me, replotting is as important or might even be more important than plotting. Why, you ask? Because replotting is when you add layers to your plot, which makes it believable. And we all know how important it is for a story to be believable.

Also, while you set out plotting, you are venturing into new territory that you or no one on this planet has ever set foot on. It’s only natural to make mistakes along the way. 

You won’t know your characters as well as you would like to. You wouldn’t know the setting too well. You wouldn’t even know the story properly. That is why it becomes important to replot your story once you are comfortable with these things.

Sometime repotting happens even after the final draft! Even published books can have a change in plot.

Plotting is my favourite part. I relish it. It’s the fun part of writing. One thing I have understood from my times of plotting is, there is no right or wrong way. In fact, a plot can never go wrong! Both great and terrible plots act as a guide to your writing. The only difference being their effectiveness.

So, yes, plotting is a shifting maze and the only way to navigate it is for us to shift our mindset along with it.

P.S: Subplots and foreshadowing and adding layers to your plot also fall under Plotting. But those are a different topic for a different day. Will be covering them in my upcoming pieces of work. 

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