Thursday, September 26, 2024

Seeing Your Plot As An Itinerary by Connie Berry

My husband and I love to travel. We enjoy seeing new things, meeting new people, experiencing life in a different way. What we don’t love is wasting time—showing up at a National Trust property, for example, only to find that it closed for the season two weeks earlier, missing the last ferry between islands in Norway, ending up in Paris on a Sunday and Monday when many tourist sites and restaurants are closed. Yes, these things happened to us in the past.

That’s why I always do a bit of pre-planning now. Knowing how many days we have, I make an itinerary, noting the driving distance between stops. I book places to stay overnight, and I think through each day and the possibilities open to us. Where might be a good place to have lunch? Should we take the boat ride on the lake or get advance tickets to the museum? But here’s the point: our most memorable experiences are almost always things we didn’t plan (with a few photo):



Meeting an accordion maker and his wife in a small Austrian village




Joining the festivities as a bridal couple marched to church in Dubrovnik



Being serenaded by a Cornish men’s choir out for a weekend holiday in Devon (wish I could have uploaded the video!)



Seeing an elderly Italian man cry as he thanked us as Americans for liberating his small mountain village in WW2

Being kicked out of four taxis in Beijing because we didn’t understand their zoning system (or their language)


Watching Prince William’s new girlfriend, Kate Middleton, navigate the paparazzi as she arrived at a wedding in the Cotswolds (photo by one of our travel companions, Patti)


Plotting a novel is a little like planning an itinerary—at least it is for me. I’m what people call a “tent-pole” plotter. I know the major plot points, twists, and reveals in advance because I don’t want to waste time writing myself into a corner. But the best ideas usually occur to me in the process of writing.

Last week, for example, I was doing a bit of online research for my WIP when I happened upon a strange phenomenon connected to AI. I was fascinated by it and immediately saw how I could use it in my plot, adding a layer of intrigue to one of the characters and tweaking the plot to give it greater depth. I couldn’t have planned it ahead because I didn’t know it existed.

These “plot thickeners,” like serendipitous travel experiences, can’t be planned out in advance. They just happen. And when they do, they are almost always exactly right.

Thinking of my plot as an itinerary—a list of possibilities, stops along the way, with room for the unexpected—makes sense to me. My “tent poles” give me confidence to know I will make it to the end of the journey, but the spaces between them leave room for the unforeseen and fortuitous.

Do you leave room in your plot for the unexpected?

What is the best unplanned plot point you’ve ever used?

 

12 comments:

  1. Happens to me all the time- have found a new character, realized all the clues were there but I had misread them ( had to toss half a book and rewrite for correct murderer, and learning something new about characters.

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  2. As a pantser, I start the journey and then it's all a mystery to me until I get there.

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  3. Great way to write. I love seeing a work of fiction unfold. And it's often not until I've written it that I realize how something will work out.

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    1. So true. I don't really know what the book is about until I've finished the first draft.

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  4. My process is similar. Hit the highpoints then get in the “car” and drive between them. I usually have some bullet points for each chapter, but not always.

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  5. Connie, I miss traveling and love reading about your experiences. As for plotting, I've become more of a pantser and welcome the new twists that come as I write.

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  6. My most startling moment was when Imogene Duckworthy and a male character shared a kiss at the very end of one of the novels. I had no idea he was even interested in her. In the next novel, they had to get together, obviously. I won't tell you who the guy is, in case you want to read the series. I still remember how surprised I was when my fingers typed that scene.

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  7. Ooh... I think I'm a 'tent-pole' planner too. Loved this, Connie ( ;

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  8. I've been a panster and it's gotten me into trouble, like having to do a timeline and rearrange a whole book. I'm trying to plot more. Tent pole (love that) is all that I can hope for.

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