Let me take you on a journey!

To begin with let me tell you that there are people who think you shouldn’t plot the novel in advance, because it will rob it of “spontaneity.” This is roughly the equivalent of telling you that you should always drive off-road, or you’ll never go any place new.

 

 

While the roads have been laid out for years – or centuries – their sudden turns and the exits no one ever takes, can take you – and your readers – places they’ve never seen before.

 

 

There was a time people were enamored of formless plotting. Because I’m and evil b_tch (just ask the mini onions) I’ve always sort of assumed that people who use a very innovative form do so because they have no new content to pour into it.

 

 

I’m not talking here of things like “inventing” the novel format or even the type of play that Shakespeare (or, arguably, Kit Marlowe) created which was a new format relative to what came before. In both of those cases, the created thing, though different from what came before was the next logical step for it, and if we sit down over a cup of something at a con, I can make a credible case for the evolution of form being the result of a technical revolution. (The ability to print cheaply for the novel, for ex. Combined with a more wide spread literacy than ever before.)

 

 

No, the variations of form I’m talking about are the ones where “plotless” was in. Or my very favorite – a novel I was forced to read in college. And I use the term novel loosely – where, having got rid of the concept of plot and of unity of action, and of everything else, it got rid of “time.” I.e. nothing happens, because the novel is set in one static movement. No, I am not joking.

 

This sort of thing might be considered a triumph of will, or of the literary imagination. If your goal is to have literature professors swoon over you and to be the celebrated darling of the sort of literary society where your work is known only by twelve people with graduate degrees, then that is the path for you. Go forth and have fun.

 

 

However, this sort of thing is NOT a path to commercial success. And – at least for me – commercial success is far more than the ability to make money, keep cats and kids fed and a roof over my head. (Though I’m very fond of the roof over my head!) The thing is, no matter how many fan letters you get, or from whom, ultimately the only thing you can be sure of is that people are buying your books. Or not. If they’re buying your books, they’re spending money they could have spent on beer or wine, or frilly underwear. They forego something to read your story. And that makes it the most important thing, at least for me.

 

 

The second thing is to define a plot. In my years of writing and mentoring, I’ve ONLY come across one person who could genuinely be said not to have a clue what a plot was and who defined “novel” and “short story” by length. However, for all I know there are whole bevies of people like that out there. So, to begin with, a plot is a unit of action – something happens and it’s centered around something (character development, world change, whatever) so that it’s a cogent hole together and has a satisfying end which can be derived (though not guessed) from the beginning.

 

 

In a short story – or a movie – the plot can center around a single incident, or a single character change. In a novel, usually, there are a series of incidents leading to one big major incident of character or event (this is badly expressed, but I hope you can understand it) which in turn will resolve itself satisfactorily (which doesn’t mean happily, btw) and thus end the novel.

 

 

I’ve been told a good way to think about it, is that a short story is one incident that was significant to someone while the novel is THE incident that changed someone’s life. As a definition, this seems pat. If the novel were THE incident that changed someone’s life, then there would be no novel series. The best I can say for the difference between the two is that if your incident can be explained without getting us intimately acquainted with a lot of other characters and subplots, then you have a short. OTOH if to make sense of the event you need to introduce us to a cast of characters and a whole lot of subplots, you probably has a novel.

 

 

(I am aware this sounds a lot like “it is what it is” but you’ll have to trust me that you’ll know the difference when you see it.)

 

 

Anyway – if you read Campbell, you’ll find that The Hero’s journey is not so much a highway system as one of those outdated road maps you buy at dusty convenience stores at the back of nowhere, where you get to the actual place and find that there are new roads and the old roads have shifted, and perhaps the bridge is out.

 

 

You will find that most of these steps appear in most successful books. In fact, I have heard other writers say that it’s been proven by research that the human brain is designed to respond to stories that have these steps. I’m passing it along as I heard it, but I haven’t read the research myself.

 

 

I can tell you that a major movie corporation was using this structure, until it was “revealed” that they were using this structure, as per an internal memo. They then stopped it. Their movies haven’t been nearly as successful since.

 

 

Let me point out that these steps will be all out of order in some of the novels, or elided or alluded to in others. I’m just going to type the steps below. I will go into greater length on it, with examples, later – probably tomorrow, maybe Sunday. (You have NO idea how crazy things are just now, over here. Just be patient with me.)

 

 

1- All novels start in the ordinary world. This establishes what your hero’s life is like, before the adventure.

 

 

2- The call to adventure comes. This can be a disaster or a literal call, where a friend comes and says “Hey, want to come?” Or something good happening, like an engagement or a trip. Something that takes the character out of the “ordinary world”

 

 

3- Refusal of call. The character refuses the call or hesitates to go. This is sometimes short or even implied.

 

4- Meeting with the guide. This is not necessarily a guide. Some processes cal him a mentor. Think Merlin to Arthur.

 

 

5 – Crossing the Threshold. This is the “We’re in the soup or we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Think of Chicken run. “Put your heads between your knees…” You get the point.

 

 

6 – Tests, Allies, Enemies . This varies with what the novel is, but think of the fairy tale. The character meets with three people. Each of them gives him or her something that can be used on the journey. You get the point.

 

 

7 – Approach to the inner most cave – your character can literally go to the castle of the ogre, or whatever. In the case of a novel I’m now writing, this ogre is internal and facing it is the entrance to the inner most cave. My novels tend to be like this, so I tend to call this the “mirror moment.”

 

 

8 – The TEST. This is the greatest battle. The biggest love trial. Whatever. This is where your character is put through the white hot furnace and melts or not. What the trial is has been set since the beginning – the meeting with the villain, the crossing of the perilous chasm.

 

 

9 – Reward – your character gets the big reward he was hankering for.

 

 

Steps from this point on are usually fairly short, and my husband calls it “the cigarrette.” Many authors, particularly in mystery, ignore this, but books that don’t have them feel “incomplete.”

 

 

10 – Refusal of the return. The character isn’t ready to go back to the ordinary world.

 

 

11- Rescue from within – character calls on inner resources to adapt to changed situaton.

 

12 – Return

 

 

13 – Ressurection, real or imagined. I.e. – Your character might literally come back to life, or wake up or something. I’ve done that at least once. Or… well, think of the Bond coda. He’s attacked, and defeats this final enemy. Tada.

 

 

14 – Freedom to live in the “real world.”

 

 

Again, this is VERY sketchy, and there will be more to come.

 

 

If you have time and it would amuse you, go over your favorite book and identify the steps!