Why We Should Plot

Plotting isn’t for everyone. I know some writers who like to sit down with no idea where a story is going and see what evolves as they write. When I first started I did this. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need to plot.

When I write a short story I need to know, in my head, exactly what is going to happen – and, with the short form in particular, how it is going to end, since a short story always needs a powerful ending.

But the same applies to novels. At the very least I need to know how it is going to end, but with a much bigger canvas to work with, I’m finding it more important to know what the twists and turns along the way are going to be. I guess plotting has never been my strongest point. But this is something I really need to crack.

For, even though I thought I’d done enough plotting for the WIP before I started, I seem to have come unstuck. One of my characters, who I’d clearly not thought carefully enough about, managed to involve herself in the story for far longer than she was needed, and now I’ve had to go back and write her out of the last five chapters!!

I think I need to do a bit more work on the plot for this one before I go any further!!

But for now it can sit and gestate at the back of my mind – I’m up to my eyeballs in the ‘novel-formerly-known-as-Myth-Making’ rewrite – and I need to make sure the plot is solid in this one too!