Why Plotting Will Always Be Better

Now don't go getting your panties in bunch here. I know when I bring up plotting, so many of you start screaming that it takes too much out of the passion of the story. I know some of you will complain shoves away all of the creativity. I want you to wait a second and just hear me out.

When I read submissions, so many of these stories get rejected because of a single comment that shows up in my spreadsheet where I keep track of those submissions "TOO MUCH!" In all of these cases, authors have started off with a great idea, but eventually, the story starts taking over from the author. The story starts doing what it wants to do, and not the author. Why? These authors are pantsters. 

I mention it a lot here, but one of my favorite quotes is "If you don't know where you are going, you will end up where you don't want to be." This is why those pantsters are seeing those rejections. They have no idea where the story is going to.

"But I can't plot!" they scream.

Yes you can. Just chill a bit.

When it comes to plotting, authors need to just know key benchmark locations in their story. Obviously the beginning and the end, but within the story, they just need a few stopping points along the way. This is where it might sound a bit formulaic, but if you know the type of story you want to write and the publisher you are shooting for, this becomes easy.

Consider...

I want to write for a single title publisher. This means my story needs to be in the 80-100K word count. This all depends on the line and the genre, so let's go with a standard romance so 80K it is.

I know I have found that I tend to write somewhere around 25 chapters in a book. That means that each chapter is roughly 3200 words. This of course is going to vary if I change things along the way, add an epilogue or prologue. Remember, this is just a guestimate here.

So, we know, if we stick to that wonderful plot line structure. the first several pages need to be about setting up the story and the characters. We know that the last 2-3 chapters is wrapping up the lose ends, figuring out why the butler did it and so forth. We also know that the climax of the story has to happen about 2/3 of the say through the story. 

Now break it down. 

Where do you want it to be at the end of chapter 3? 

What do you want the climax of the story to be?

What do you want the conclusion to be?

When do you want the hero and heroine to realize they are more than just hot bodies to each other?

Pinpoint those chapters and that is all you need. How you get from one point to the next is entirely up to you. Now you can be a pantster. Just stick to your timeline and map. Tell your inner demon to shut up about adding in 5 additional subplots. Tell your critique partners that you don't need some convoluted backstory but a refill of that fabulous Pinot Noir they have on the counter (and while they are at it, grab some more of those Lil' Smokies in the barbeque sauce).

Trust me on this one. You may find more success with your life. 

You Are What You Read

If you know me, I love my cooking shows. I live for the Food Network. With that in mind, I want to start with a quote seen at the beginning of the show, Iron Chef. According to Brillant-Savarin, "Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are." So true. When we look to understanding culture, looking to the food people eat tells us a lot.

And the same goes for what you read and what you write.

Before you start on your writing today, I want you to look to your bookshelf (hopefully you still have one of those loaded with things called "books") and review what you have there. If you don't have a physical bookshelf, look to your digital bookshelf. What you are reading should tell you a lot about what you are writing. 

There is a pretty good chance that you tend to read from the same publisher or two. There is a reason for it. Sure the authors you like are there, but it is also about the voice of the publisher. While many publishers produce the same genre of writing, their style and tone differs a lot. There is something about that voice that you understand and like better than other publishers.

And that is who you should be writing for. That is who you should be researching and learning from.

HOWEVER... (You saw that coming)...

If you are someone who gravitates to all of your "author friends" who self-publish and think they can do this on your own. You may find that the struggles they are facing are probably the same thing that you are facing or will face. 

I remember going to a writing conference several years ago and it was amazing that ALL of the authors who were part of the chapter all wrote for the same small digital press (which BTW, no longer exists). I was judging one of their contests and sure enough, all of those unpublished authors sounded the same as not only each other, but also of the now defunct publisher.

Later that year, I went to another conference with a lot of the big name authors as members. Shock of all shocks... no one there was being published by that smaller author and most were with the larger traditional publishers.  Connection? You bet!

Why? Go back to my Iron Chef quote. You learn from those people around you. The simple fact is, you might be reading and research people that are counter-productive to the goals you have in mind. There is nothing wrong with supporting your friends, but what they write is not what you are hoping from in your career, the odds are you are learning some bad habits.

We know throughout history that the successful people hang out with successful people. They work as resources for each other, but they are also learning from people who know what they are doing. As you go into this new year, I encourage you to consider who you are hanging out with. Changing your surroundings might be the solution you are looking for. 

Time To Get Back To The Basics

Over the last few days, I have seen more and more submissions coming in where authors have been making very rookie mistakes. What is more frustrating is that many of these authors are people who have been around for some time and should have known better. Unfortunately, it is not just them. More and more writers are sending in submissions that are destined to fail immediately. So the question is, why is this happening? 

In all honesty, it all comes down to writers needing to get back to the basics of everything! Writers need to not just figure out how to "market" books, but they need to revisit EVERYTHING! This includes how to plot a story, how to build a story, how to create characters that are believable, and so forth. 

Once we take care of that, authors need to take some time to learn about the entire submission process. For this, it includes how to find editors and agents, how to know what they are interested in, how to write a query letter, how to write a submission and all of that fun stuff. 

I know some of you are saying you are already doing this, and I am sure you are. HOWEVER (you knew this was coming) who are you learning these skills from? I have talked about this problem earlier this week, but there are a lot of people out there, struggling with their own careers and yet, feel the need to teach others how to do it (when they are not able to be successful on their own). 

This is going to take a "all hands on deck" approach. First of all, authors need to get back to learning how to truly study literature. Remember, this is all of that stuff you learned in junior high and high school. It is time to study how authors made those stories tick! How did authors like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Bronte and so forth create those great stories. 

Next, we need to get back to joining professional writing organizations. Sure, those writing groups you formed with your friends are great support systems and sure, those of you who just want to do this all virtually in your Zoom meetings is fine, but it is those larger organizations that will bring together greater resources for you.

Now, let's talk about those larger organizations. QUIT only promoting independent and self-publishing. All that this did in the past was to create workshop after workshop of how to guess your way in the business and how to market your books. As I said earlier this week, it might not be the marketing that is creating your problems, it might be the quality of the writing. These organizations need to bring back craft sessions, working writing sessions and bring in the professionals. Quit holding grudges against these people because to things that happened (or you thought happened) in the past. This is becoming circular. The big editors and agents are not coming to your conferences because you are not listening to them and you are providing them nothing to work with.

Finally, as authors, it is going to take an attitude change on your part. Success in writing is not about what other people are doing to you. It starts with you. I am going to remind you of 4 questions I think I have mentioned sometime before here on the blog:

1. What do you want?
2. What are you doing now to get it?
3. How is that helping?
4. What should you be doing?

Let's try to make 2025 a great year!

Don't Quit Too Soon

Here comes a Captain Obvious statement... 

Writing is tough.

Whaaaaaaattttttt????? Really?

No seriously, writing is tough. It is even harder if you are just starting out. Like anything we do, it takes time to figure out our craft. We go to school. We go and get graduate degrees. We spend hours and years in internships and apprenticeships just to figure things out. Even then, it still takes time to really get to the point that our craft becomes natural.

As a teacher, I remember my first year. I knew it all. I rocked all of my education classes. Heck, I had been teaching workshops and training sessions through the Scouting program (to adults BTW) since I was 11 years old. I knew I could handle anything.

Do you really think that first year went well? Sure, there were a lot of great things that happened, but it still took time. I watch other new teachers just not understanding how I can somehow pull a new lesson plan with curriculum I have never seen out of thin air while they take weeks to figure it out. It is because I took the time.

Too many writers these days are really struggling to get their careers launched. They wrote an amazing story according to their critique group!

I mean, look at these people. They love what each other has written (as they sit there at their local coffee shop and spend a lot more time chatting about life). But the reality is that those stories, while loved by friends and family, may not be quite up to snuff. As I have said earlier this week, it may not be something the market wants. It may be something ONLY your friends and family want to read. It may simply not be well written.

Still, you have submitted that project and you keep getting rejections. You could just say screw it and do it on your own. Besides, those editors and agents really don't know good writing if it landed on their lap. 

But even that approach is not getting you the results you want.

SO YOU QUIT!

You gave up what you loved because it didn't get you what you wanted the first time out. This is not something we only see in writing. Students graduating with a BA or an MA often are frustrated and give up their career plans because they were not making the "big bucks" with that first job. They may even say they'll go get another degree because that one will pay later.

And yet it doesn't.

All of those big name authors you see out there were, at one point in their careers, at the exact same place as you are. They struggled. They got rejection letters. They were ready to quit. But the difference between them and you is that they stuck with it.

They knew it would take some time to get things going. 

So don't quit. 2025 is a year for you to get off your butt. Get back to your writing. And remember, your first book may not be done this year. So what. Keep working!!!!!