How I Plot Novels
My spreadsheet based toolkit for plotting a novel
I thought it might be good to explain the method I’ve used to plot many, though not all, of my novels. (Sometimes I plot them in detail, sometimes I have a rough plot idea and wing it - it depends on how I’m feeling and the nature of the story).
The core of the method is what I call scenes. Now a scene isn’t a chapter; a chapter might contain several scenes (although sometimes a scene will end up being long enough to form a chapter on its own). Equally, a scene isn’t a section (where a section is a block of text in the novel separated by either chapter breaks or a blank line section break). One scene can often end up being several sections. Equally, I sometimes join two scenes into one section.
In the spreadsheet I have a column for each section, with a left hand strip giving headings for each row. This is what they look like:
The rows are in three groups. First we have grey ones that establish the nature of the scene:
Section: This is simply 1, 2, 3 etc.
Length: This starts off blank, but I fill it in as I complete each section. This enables me (in another tab) to keep track of how much I’ve written, calculate a words per section average, and from that calculate a total predicted word count. (An an aside, my current novel has come out as an average of 969 words per section).
Type: This is a bit of a hazy / optional one, but I tend to use it as a rough description of what type of section it is (action, discussion, investigation etc), so that I can see what kind of balance I’m getting.
Date: When the section occurs, in the timeline of the novel. Useful for just tracking the timeline.
Time: As above, but time. This is usually just general like early morning, or evening.
Strand: Where I have multiple plot-lines going on, this tells me which one it is.
Location: Where the scene takes place.
Now we get onto the coloured rows, and these are the heart of the actual plot:
Goal: What are the protagonist(s) wanting to achieve at the start of this section. i.e. What is their current, immediate goal?
Plan: What is the initial plan they have for achieving that goal?
Result: What happens when they put that plan into action?
Success / Next Lead: What success do they achieve? You usually want them to achieve something, otherwise your plot is stalling.
Complication: What complications come with that success? You almost always want them to not simply succeed fully, in the way they wanted to, without complications, as that would remove tension and jeopardy from the plot.
The final rows allow me to put in extra notes that are really for me. These are very much optional, and I only fill them in for some scenes.
Notes / Flavour / Extra: Anything extra that I can put in when writing. Sometimes, it’s just an idea for a joke or a good line.
Hook / Foreshadowing: A reminder to myself where something is in there because it’s a future hook or I’m foreshadowing something.
Hidden (From Reader): Something “off-camera” that is hidden from the reader, but I need to know, because it’s some crucial aspect of the plot that I’m constructing.
Now it’s important to understand that I don’t follow this plot outline rigidly when then writing the novel. Aside from the fact that I can simply change things if I have a better idea, the narrative is not the same as the plot. Sometimes, I will end a chapter on a cliffhanger without fully explaining the complications I had for that scene, and will then have the complications be explained or become apparent in the next scene. Sometimes, I’ll decide that actually telling the scene would be boring, so I’ll skip over it and tell it in flashback in the next scene. What I’m saying is that once you have the plot, you then weave it in and out of your narrative as seems best.
The way I often explain it is that the plot is akin to the downhill route down a mountain, while the narrative is like a super giant slalom that weaves its way back and forth across the downhill course, broadly following the same route, but in a more meandering and less direct fashion.
But let’s give you an example. Rather than pick something of my own, I’ve written up the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is probably my all time favourite novel. Now this is a famously non-plot-driven novel, so it’s probably a bad example, but what the hell — hopefully it will show you what I mean. So the first scene:
Adding in a second scene (and also introducing a second protagonist):
Bonus points for spotting the typo in there. Note that the goals and plans are from the point of view of the protagonists of the scene. Adding in a third scene:
Now in reality, in the book, the scene was split into two sections, with the second half coming after the fourth scene below. Remember that when writing the book you’re slaloming in and out of this plot, rather than following it rigidly. This is the underlying logic of the plot, which is not the same as the story you end up telling. Adding in that fourth scene, we add a new plot strand and a new set of protagonists):
And so on. This is a method that sometimes, but not always, works for me. I’ve plotted complete novels in it (Sticks and Stones being the notable example), and have also used it to add parts to novels.
You might find it useful.
Or not.
As always, there’s no right way to write a novel.
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