Charlotte/ C.K. Volnek - Author - Story Teller
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Adult Books
  • Middle Grade Books
    • Ghost Dog of Roanoke Island >
      • Meet the Characters from Ghost Dog of Roanoke Island
    • A Horse Called Trouble >
      • Meet the Characters from A Horse Called Trouble
    • The Secret of the Stones >
      • Meet the Characters from The Secret of the Stones
  • Contact Me
  • News/Writing Tips
  • C.K.'s Cover Designs
  • Newsletter

Plot Your Novel in 15 Minutes or Less

10/12/2010

3 Comments

 
Here is a great exercise from one of my courses at the Muse Online Writer's Conference this week. Plot Your Novel in 15 Minutes or Less was offered by Claudia Suzanne and this was such a fun exercise. So... take it away Claudia.

There is an old Hollywood trick that makes first-stage plotting a snap and leaves plenty of room for later development, character intrusion, and twists. It's so simple, it's almost absurd, but you won't think so after you've tried it a couple of times. Best of all, it's a fantastic device for brainstorming. It all comes down to this: Simply decide where the story begins and ends, and let imagination and logic fill in the gaps.

Here it is -- the whole thing:

Number a piece of paper from one to fifteen. Write a one-line blurb of where the story begins next to number one. Then jump down to the bottom and write the ending next to number fifteen. Now go back to the top and write a blurb for what happens after the opening next to number two. Scoot down to number fourteen to write what happened just before the story ends. Continue bouncing up and down from the top of the page to the bottom and in a matter of minutes—voila! Modify this basic outline of the entire novel with additional sequences, subplots, and character PMA+A to bring the story to life.


Yup, that's it. It's called Meet-in-the-Middle, and it's been used by scriptwriters for decades. It only creates a bare-bones structure, of course, but often it’s those missing middle points that cause Writer’s Block. The fifteen scenes created with Meet-in-the-Middle are the highlights, or major and secondary plot points of the story.

So let's do one to see how it works. The example below is a quick boy-girl story mapped out in eight easy steps by my friend and I over breakfast one morning. We just wanted to play with the technique. It took us about 12-13 minutes to put this together between mastication and coffee slurps. Note: for the record, my friend is ex-military/merc/cop. He writes "attack" poetry.

STEP 1

The story begins when boy meets girl. The boy is Bill; the girl is Sandy.
The story ends with Bill killing a murderer. Why? See note above.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

STEP 2

Back to the top. Bill and Sandy's true-love-sailing-smoothly needs some kind of interference or there is no story. What better interference than an ex-lover showing up? Whether it is Bill’s ex-wife or an ex-girlfriend does not matter right now.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

Back down here. There’s really no point in Bill killing a murderer unless that murderer is somehow impacting him personally. What would cause a nice, even-tempered guy like Bill to go after a murderer? Maybe he thinks the lout has hurt his girlfriend. Guess he has to find her there to know that…
 
STEP 3

Up here again. They’ve met; Bill’s ex has shown up. The only logical next step is for Bill and Sandy to get into a fight over the ex, eh? Welcome to Boy loses Girl.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

If Bill’s going to find Sandy with the murderer, the murderer must be taking his time rather simply killing her. Hence, a torture scene.
 
STEP 4

What’s a girl to do when she’s just broken up with her lover because his ex showed up unannounced? Probably go drown her sorrows at a local bar. She's pretty vulnerable, so it wouldn’t occur to her that the guy she meets at the bar might want more than just a goodnight kiss.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4. Sandy goes to a nightclub and meets the murderer.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. Murderer kidnaps Sandy.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

If the murder is going to hold/torture Sandy, then he logically has to kidnap her first!
 
STEP 5

Bill loves Sandy, not his ex. Is he going to sit around and dilly-dally with an old girlfriend/lover/wife when his current heartthrob is out there somewhere, maybe meeting someone new? He is not! He’s going to go out and look for her.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4. Sandy goes to a nightclub and meets the murderer.
5. Bill heads out to look for Sandy.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Bill's ex sics the murderer on Sandy, and in return, he kills her.
12. Murderer kidnaps Sandy.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

Why did the murderer decide to pick Sandy, out off all the girls in the bars and on the streets, to kidnap and torture? Why, Bill’s ex must have sic’d him on her. So naturally, he’d turn around and kill her. Hey, he's a murderer, remember?
 
STEP 6

Bill has just walked out on his ex to go look for his current love. Is she going to take that? Absolutely not! If she didn’t care about him, why did she show up again in the first place? She’s still got her charms, and he’s pretty vulnerable right now since Sandy walked out. All she’s got to do is follow him and seduce him the way she used to before they broke up.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4. Sandy goes to a nightclub and meets the murderer.
5. Bill heads out to look for Sandy
6. Bill's ex follows him and brings him home to bed.
7.
8.
9.
10. Bill throws his ex out.
11. Bill's ex sics the murderer on Sandy and in return, he kills her.
12. Murderer kidnaps Sandy.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

How would the ex sic the murderer on Sandy if Bill hadn’t told her to leave? He does, thereby setting the rest of the action in motion.
 
STEP 7

Sandy still loves Bill. She’s left the bar with the mur-derer, which is why Bill and the ex don’t find her, but she doesn’t go home with the guy, she gives him a handshake and one of those “if only we’d met at another time” lines and goes home where, of course, the ex has bedded her honey-bunny.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4. Sandy goes to a nightclub and meets the murderer.
5. Bill heads out to look for Sandy
6. Bill's ex follows him and brings him home to bed.
7. After kissing the murderer goodnight, Sandy finds Bill in bed with his ex.
8.
9. Bill tells his ex he loves Sandy; she threatens to make him sorry.
10. Bill throws his ex out.
11. Bill's ex sics the murderer on Sandy and in return, he kills her
12. Murderer kidnaps Sandy.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

Before Bill throws his ex out, he’s got to realize he really loves Sandy, not her. And since she decides to be a creep and set Sandy up for the murderer, Bill probably tells her in such a way that she gets furious and vengeful. How would he know there’s a murderer running around out there?
 
STEP 8

The story has met in the middle. Right after Sandy finds Bill in bed with his ex and just before Bill tells the ex he loves Sandy, not her, Sandy has to become vulnerable to the murderer. Ergo, she logically runs out of the house.

1. Bill and Sandy meet.
2. Bill's ex shows up.
3. Sandy and Bill fight and break up.
4. Sandy goes to a nightclub and meets the murderer.
5. Bill heads out to look for Sandy
6. Bill's ex follows him and brings him home to bed.
7. After kissing the murderer goodnight, Sandy finds Bill in bed with his ex.
8. Devastated by Bill's infidelity, Sandy goes running out of the house.
9. Bill tells his ex he loves Sandy; she threatens to make him sorry.
10. Bill throws his ex out.
11. Bill's ex sics the murderer on Sandy and in return, he kills her.
12. Murderer kidnaps Sandy.
13. The murderer tortures Sandy.
14. Bill finds Sandy being held/tortured by murderer.
15. Bill kills the murderer.

There it is: a complete plot foundation with plenty of room to impose character quirks and interaction, subplots, characterization, motivation, etc., etc., etc. Continue to map out the "What happens next?" in an outline or do a seat-of-the-pants with these 15 points as your backup. Either way, this is the spinal column of the story, so to speak, to which appendages, sinew, muscle, even toenails can be added; i.e., a basic story that can now be fleshed out into chapters.

"Excerpted from Before Copy Editing by Claudia Suzanne (WCPublishing, 2010) http://wambtac.com.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!
C.K. Volnek
3 Comments
Sharon Willett
10/12/2010 08:59:51 pm

Looks so easy but I bet it takes me longer than it did them. It would be great to have a guideline to work with while writing your ms. Thanks!

Reply
Kay
10/13/2010 01:05:10 am

Charlie, thanks for the info. I know this will help me on my next project. I always have trouble plotting out my stories. thanks

Reply
Susan Davis
10/13/2010 01:15:22 pm

I'm taking the same workshop - wow! She makes it all seem so easy. Thanks for sharing Charlie.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Ghost Dog of  Roanoke Island
    - a tween ghost story with a twist of Native American Folklore and based on the real life mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.

    Available in Print and E-book
    Picture
    View the Book Trailer for Ghost Dog of Roanoke Island
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbJEF9TjZzo

    A Horse Called Trouble
    A troubled teen must overcome her abused past to save the defiant horse who taught her to love and trust again.
    Available in  Print and e-book
    Picture
    View the book trailer for 
    A Horse Called Trouble

    Welcome to my blog.

    Hi. I'm C.K. Volnek, Author and Story teller. I love books and photography, dogs and horses, hiking and tulips, kids, pasta, sunsets and of course…writing. Please come back often and share your passion in writing.. 

    Blogs to follow:

    Moments of Clarity
    Victorine Writes
    Why is My Book not Selling
    Barbara's Meanderings
    Teen Word Factory
    Muse It Up Publishing
    Dasef's Book Corner
    Sue Perkins
    Pembroke Sinclair
    Stories Ala Mode
    Kim Baccellia
    Candid Canine
    Shellie Neumeier
    Under the Yellow Hat


    CK's bookshelf: read

    The Secret GardenThe ShackDear JohnThe Queen of EverythingTangerine

    More of CK's books »
    CK Volnek's  book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists
    free counters

    Archives

    March 2015
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010

    Categories

    All
    #100blogfest
    A Horse Called Trouble
    Al Capone
    Aloha For Carol Ann
    Anne Johnson
    Author
    Author Interview
    Author Platform
    Bad Spelling
    Barbara Bockman
    Barbara Ehrentreu
    Beast Of Noor
    Bethlene Williams
    Blood Chronicles
    Book
    Book Birthday
    Book Cover
    Book Marketing
    Born Of Blood
    Brian Kittrell
    Building A Promotional Platform
    Bullying
    Characters
    Chicken Soup
    Children\'s Books
    Chris Henderson
    Christian
    Christine Irene Steeves
    Christine Verstraete
    Christmas
    Ckvolnek
    C.k. Volnek
    C.k. Volnek
    C.K. Volnek
    Colors Like Memories
    Contest
    Cover Art
    Crimson Dream
    Crossed Out
    Cry Of The Fallen
    Cyrus Keith
    Dark Fantasy
    David Normoyle
    Death In Writing
    Descriptions & Emotions
    Down River
    Dragon Flame
    Dragons Of Noor
    Dragonswood
    Driven
    Earrings Of Ixtumea
    Ebenezer
    Ellen Jackson
    Enchantment
    Exiled
    Fantasy
    Free
    Ghost Dog Of Roanoke Island
    Ghost Dog Trailer
    Ghost Story
    Ginger Simpson
    Halloween
    Heather Cashman
    Herman Agency
    Heroes
    Historical Romance
    Horse Story
    If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor
    Impossible To Hold
    Indian Folklore
    Inspirational
    Internet Book Fair
    Jack Dahlgren
    Janet Lee Carey
    Jan Fischer Wade
    Janni Lee Simner
    Jenny Lundquist
    Jill Corcoran
    Joel Andre
    John Hart
    Jo Linsdell
    Joyful
    J. R. Wagner
    Judge A Book
    Kathy Pieper
    Kathy Rygg
    Killer Valentine Ball
    Kim Baccellia
    Lady-In-Waiting
    Lawna Mackie
    Letters From Al
    Liebster Award
    Life After The Undead
    Linda Barnett-Johnson
    Lindsay Below
    L.K. Below
    Long Story Short
    Lost Colony Of Roanoke Island
    Margo Sorenson
    Marketing
    Martin King
    Marva Dasef
    Meradeth Houston
    Mg Books
    MG/YA Blog-A-Thon
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Author
    Midnight Find
    Midnight Oil
    Mike Larsen
    Mindy Hardwick
    Mirror Mirror
    Missing Assumed Dead
    Muse Author Blog-a-thon
    MuseItUp MG/YA Blog-a-thon
    Muse It Up Publishing
    Napibowriwee
    New Year
    No Goddesses Allowed
    Not What She Seems
    Odessa
    Omm Writer
    On-line Writing Confrence
    Pb
    Pembroke Sinclair
    Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz
    Perception
    Picture Books
    Prophecy
    Published
    Publishing
    Rebecca Russell
    Rebecca Ryals Russell
    Resolutions
    Reva's Quest
    Sb Knight
    Scary Story
    Scrivener
    Seeing Cinderella
    Self-esteem
    Shellie Neumeier
    Shortcomings
    Social Media
    So You Want To Write A Novel
    Spirit Stealer
    Stained Glass Summer
    Sue Perkins
    Tall Tales With Mr. K
    Teen Talk
    Thanksgiving
    The Ballad Of Booser Bogg
    The Beast Of Noor
    The Black Chronicles
    The Burberry Scare
    The Circle Of Sorcerers
    The King Of Lies
    The Last Child
    The Never Chronicles
    The Overtaking
    The Seraphym Wars
    The Tiger
    The Writing Friend
    Three Things To Remember
    Tweeting
    Tweets
    Tweet Tips
    Twitter
    Twitter Tips
    Veiled Virtues
    Victorine Lieske
    Why Is My Book Not Selling
    Witches Of Galdorheim
    Wounds
    Writechris
    Writer
    Writers' Blog
    Writing
    Writing Skills
    Writing Tips
    Writing Workshop
    Ya Author
    Yellow Hat
    Young Adult
    Zarena

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Yuliya Libkina, brewbooks, nanaow2006, orangeacid, peasap, Mr. T in DC, h.koppdelaney, The U.S. Army, Giorgio Montersino, LifeSupercharger, gilles chiroleu, DSuàr, jumpyjodes, Sugar Daze (f/k/a LittleMissCupcakeParis), Ethan.K, the bbp, *Vintage Fairytale*, kenny_lex, striatic, MarkBennett86, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, Pink Sherbet Photography, Xurble, DanielWiesheu, Smiley Stew, George Vnoucek, laverrue, skuds, AngryJulieMonday