Master of Plot

link to original here

On paper, Brandon Sanderson looks formidable. He’s the bestselling author of multiple books (an easy to digest list can be found here), as well as the writer chosen by Robert Jordan’s  widow to finish the Wheel of Time series. 

In person he is just as daunting. 

There was so much information he jam-packed into his 45-minute workshop titled, "Advanced Plot Structure" at the writing conference I went to a couple of weekends ago, my notes don’t do justice. There was no way I could keep up. My blog post will do even less justice, so bear with me please, but there were a few things that really hit home with me from this workshop. Maybe they’ll be useful to you too.

First, he says that when it comes to plot there are two basic types of writers:

link to original here

Those that are all about the Discovery as they go (Stephen King would be a great example) – in essence, for this type of writer the characters create the plot, and the story develops from who they are and what they do with the circumstances they've been dumped into.

If you are this kind of writer, here are some things to be aware of:

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• Your stories may have fizzled endings, because there's so much excitement and adventure as you're going, and then huh. The story just seems to...end? Watch out for this.

• Many of these types of writers tend toward getting bogged down with too much revising as they go, so you may have a hard time even getting to the end.

And then there are those that first create an Outline (Orson Scott Card is this type of writer) – the outline provides a place for the characters to inhabit and act out what's been already planned for them…

If you're this kind of writer, keep these things in mind:

• Your stories may have wooden characters, because the plot takes precedence over what a character may or may not do due to their personality traits, etc. Watch out for this too.
• Many of these writers never want to revise while they're going, so do whatever you need to do to make yourself go back and polish.

Second, readers need to have a sense of progressing. Understanding types of plots/subplots is essential, four main types being:

·       Mystery – readers feel progression through this type of plot by slowly giving out info throughout story.

·       Relationship – readers progress through the story as characters develop relationships with each other.

·       Big Problem – this is a big thing we can break up into smaller steps for characters to accomplish, and readers have a sense of progression through the story as each accomplishment is made.

·       Character Arch – progression is felt as the character grows through dealing with their various issues.

Then he says to cross-pollinate plots to get your wild and crazy stories, if that's what you're going for, but don’t worry about being too original with the plots themselves. This is not the place to be original, which leads me into…

Third, writing is about making promises to readers. 

link to original here

So this was a light-bulb-moment for me. Ever since last summer, when I seriously sat down to plan and plot and prepare to write something bigger than a 5-page essay, I've been wondering whether to write for myself or write for my readers. 

The answer if you want to be a published author, is of course, both. But this approached the problem from an angle I hadn't looked at before. For example, if I'm setting up a story that uses relationships do drive the plot forward, then I better resolve problems with the relationships in the end, because I've made that promise to my readers.  

And that doesn't even skim the surface of what he had to say. It was awesome. I've heard lots of people give the advice of going to conferences and workshops, and now I'll add my affirmation too. If you can go, do go, especially if Brandon Sanderson is giving out his two (times infinity) cents.

Oh, and, if' you're up for a writing challenge, don't forget to do this.



**Update: Brandon Sanderson had the following to contribute about this post over at reddit.com --

"One thing I've found is that writers really like to talk about writing, and I'm no exception. The problem is, the longer we write, the more most of us seem to move by instinct rather than intention. Perhaps that is a result of becoming increasingly comfortable with our own process.

Regardless, it can sometimes become difficult to describe what we do and why. I sometimes feel like I act more like an expert than I truly am. I'm mostly trying to describe my process after-the-fact, and my analysis may or may not have any validity.

For what it's worth, however, here is a video of me talking about some of these same concepts at JordanCon a few years back."

Many thanks to him for his thoughts, and especially for his link. The video helps me breathe a little easier because he says it much better than I, and you can watch him there saying all the things I couldn't get down fast enough. So you can sit back, relax, take notes, and go back to parts you want to hear again.




Total pages logged as of today: 183 but visit my Deadline Updates page for more info

Moment of Magic today:

Sitting in a secluded isle at the library, leaning back into shelves of books, reading the first few pages of a book I was thinking about getting. I love that subtle first taste, first glance. And then I had to sneak a wicked glance at the last page... heh. Anyone else out there do that?