• Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work

Learning to Plot

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I wonder, would anyone be interested in evaluating each others' plot outlines? We could post them in the SYW forum or something. Although, I'm not entirely sure one of my plot outlines would be intelligible to others since it's sort of written in my mental shorthand, or uses worldbuilding concepts that would take several paragraphs to explain. :/ I dunno if anyone would be up for reading somewhat kinky science fantasy romance plot outlines either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adinaluca

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
10,361
Reaction score
1,032
Location
In your mind
Website
maxoneverything.wordpress.com
I wonder, would anyone be interested in evaluating each others' plot outlines? We could post them in the SYW forum or something. Although, I'm not entirely sure one of my plot outlines would be intelligible to others since it's sort of written in my mental shorthand, or uses worldbuilding concepts that would take several paragraphs to explain. :/ I dunno if anyone would be up for reading somewhat kinky science fantasy romance plot outlines either.

My plot outlines would be totally unintelligable to all of you, tbh.

I basically use the 3-act system, but it's handwritten, and there's a lot of notes and stuff that would be like chinese out of the context of my jumbled thoughts about any story.
 

Fredster

Village idiot
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
261
Reaction score
26
Location
Alabama
I can see what King is saying about plot, and I kind of agree. It's hard to force a plot. For me, I start with a situation and a basic goal (hero saves the day, or whatever), then try to figure out what my guy would do in that situation to get to the final goal.

At the same time, you have to think about your antagonist and what he/she would be doing...and why. Ditto for your supporting characters. Once you set them in motion toward their goals, the plot seems to come naturally. There was a good analogy earlier for thinking of it like a chess game, where each character makes a move and the other characters react and respond to that move.

So, even though I know the details (and have a 20+ page outline) of how something is going to end, and how everyone is going to get there, I don't think I arrived at that by forcing a plot. The plot is just the result of the main character(s) trying to get out of a situation, like King said.
 

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
10,361
Reaction score
1,032
Location
In your mind
Website
maxoneverything.wordpress.com
I can see what King is saying about plot, and I kind of agree. It's hard to force a plot. For me, I start with a situation and a basic goal (hero saves the day, or whatever), then try to figure out what my guy would do in that situation to get to the final goal.

I'm only half-organic myself. I need to know the boundaries of the story-box, so I use the three-act system, adapted a bit for me. Otherwize I'd get lost and never get beyond chapter three.

BUT, and it's an important but, if I overplot I kill the story. It feels as if I've already told it, and I lose my enthusiams for it.

So, a lose story architecture (which isn't the same as an outline/plot arc!) and I can be creative moving to the goalposts of the story.

It works for me, at least.
 

Fredster

Village idiot
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 21, 2009
Messages
261
Reaction score
26
Location
Alabama
So, a lose story architecture (which isn't the same as an outline/plot arc!) and I can be creative moving to the goalposts of the story.
Yep, I definitely do some moving as I progress - you learn more about your characters as you go, and sometimes when you get to a point you realize they'd react differently than you originally thought. That happens to me fairly regularly - I think "wait a second, he wouldn't do this, he would do THIS."

Generally, those are minor points, though; only a few times have they been major. That's where the joy of the outline comes in, because it's a lot easier to change that than to try and go back and rewrite.
 

Ruv Draba

Banned
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
5,114
Reaction score
1,322
I wonder, would anyone be interested in evaluating each others' plot outlines? We could post them in the SYW forum or something. Although, I'm not entirely sure one of my plot outlines would be intelligible to others since it's sort of written in my mental shorthand, or uses worldbuilding concepts that would take several paragraphs to explain. :/ I dunno if anyone would be up for reading somewhat kinky science fantasy romance plot outlines either.
I'll happily critique outlines when they're written with an eye to spelling out plot, and I don't much mind the genre. But I get headaches trying to read personal notes -- especially when they're full of world explanation.

For plotting purposes it doesn't matter what a gloompchum is, or what the people of Arblewaggle are like. The important thing is that character A wants something and character B wants something else and they get in each other's way and A faces some diabolical dilemma while B faces a test of ingenuity and courage.

Plot is the cake; setting is just the decoration. Ladling setting detail into scene outlines is like dressing up in a tuxedo to go for an X-ray.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I'll happily critique outlines when they're written with an eye to spelling out plot, and I don't much mind the genre. But I get headaches trying to read personal notes -- especially when they're full of world explanation.

For plotting purposes it doesn't matter what a gloompchum is, or what the people of Arblewaggle are like. The important thing is that character A wants something and character B wants something else and they get in each other's way and A faces some diabolical dilemma while B faces a test of ingenuity and courage.

Plot is the cake; setting is just the decoration. Ladling setting detail into scene outlines is like dressing up in a tuxedo to go for an X-ray.
I often find that the worldbuilding does affect the plot - if a gloompchum is a rare thing needed to found a new clan, it's only going to be important to aspiring clan leaders (plus the usual fact that everyone like valuable objects they can sell). If there are only two ways to make a gloompchum, and one requires killing an elf, all elves will live in fear and try to hide their race. If an elf hiding his race is a major character, the theme of the hidden race and fear of being kidnapped or killed is going to be a major theme that drives the plot. Other characters will act totally differently toward the elf depending whether they know he's an elf. If the elf gets romantically involved with a human, the question of when to confess his elfiness to that human would be a major plot point.
 

Ruv Draba

Banned
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
5,114
Reaction score
1,322
if a gloompchum is a rare thing needed to found a new clan, it's only going to be important to aspiring clan leaders (plus the usual fact that everyone like valuable objects they can sell).
At the summary level, reasons only matter if things will change. It's important to the plot that a gloompchum is rare and desired because a character is going to seek it, but reason for desire will only matter if desire changes, and reason for rarity only matters if someone attempts to find a different gloompchum.

So, depending on plot we could write...
  1. Aspiring to found a new clan, Schmoodle seeks the rare gloompchum. But with the last known gloompchum atop Dragon Mountain, will he even make it down alive? Or
  2. Tired of cleaning pig-sties and with no opportunity for promotion, Schmoodle decides to found his own clan. But that requires the rare gloompchum, and with the last known gloompchum atop Dragon Mountain, will he even make it down alive? Or
  3. Aspiring to found a new clan, Schmoodle seeks the rare gloompchum. But with all the old gloompchums lost at sea, and the last known gloompchum atop Dragon Mountain, will he even make it down alive?
Version 1 tells us that Schmoodle must either succeed atop Dragon Mountain, or abandon his dream.

Version 2 tells us that even if Schmoodle's clan-founding dream fails, he might find opportunities for a new career elsewhere.

Version 3 tells us that even if Schmoodle fails atop Dragon Mountain, he might find a glompchum in the ocean.

Depending on the actual plot, only one of these is appropriate as a summary.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
Hmm. When I try to plot out my story, I do so at the level of MRUs, so my plot outlines focus on why every character does something or reacts some way, and that's the level I'd want constructive criticism at, so any reader would also have to understand all the whys. I'm not sure one of my outlines can actually be described as a summary. But I agree with the general principle that irrelevant info should be left out of any document I plan to show to anyone else. (I might jot down irrelevant stuff in my personal notes just so I don't forget it, or to remind myself to make it relevant later.)
 

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
6,735
Reaction score
1,833
Location
Limbo
If I were to try to contribute and add to all the great stuff already in this thread, I would add that i've noticed that better plots tend to come from books that have great world building.

IMO, the realer the world, the more complex the world. The more complex the world, the more complex the story. Complexity tends to provide greater opportunities for unexpected conflicts. Unexpected conflicts tend to be more interesting.

Now, I think a lot of writers view worldbuilding as a chore and I think some also tend to think of worldbuilding as just 'setting'.

But IMO, everything is worldbuilding. You build your world through action and interaction, through descriptions, through dialogue, etc. etc. And i've found that some writers miss alot of opportunities to add that little bit of worldbuilding that would give their stories that extra sense of realism and complexity.

anyways, great thread

Mel...
 

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,776
Reaction score
417
I'll happily critique outlines when they're written with an eye to spelling out plot, and I don't much mind the genre. But I get headaches trying to read personal notes -- especially when they're full of world explanation.

For plotting purposes it doesn't matter what a gloompchum is, or what the people of Arblewaggle are like. The important thing is that character A wants something and character B wants something else and they get in each other's way and A faces some diabolical dilemma while B faces a test of ingenuity and courage.

Plot is the cake; setting is just the decoration. Ladling setting detail into scene outlines is like dressing up in a tuxedo to go for an X-ray.

I agree. Sometimes people write really boring long things about some magical world that I don't actually care about and some person who's supposed to be 'destined' and apparantly that constitutes a plotline.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adinaluca

Ladyhawke_18

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
63
Reaction score
5
Location
Georgia, USA
Website
storybysasha.blogspot.com
I would be interested in trading outlines with folks. Mine are sort of minimalist. They almost read like plain tables of contents.

I have trouble filling spaces between larger events. I want to be building character in those spaces and I'm not doing it yet.

I recently read that (I'm assuming this is especially for YA) conflict should be apparent on every page. I'd like to inject more conflict/ tension into my outlines.

~Sasha
 

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,776
Reaction score
417
I would be interested in trading outlines with folks. Mine are sort of minimalist. They almost read like plain tables of contents.

I have trouble filling spaces between larger events. I want to be building character in those spaces and I'm not doing it yet.

I recently read that (I'm assuming this is especially for YA) conflict should be apparent on every page. I'd like to inject more conflict/ tension into my outlines.

~Sasha

Conflict doesn't need to happen on every page but YA books should be fast-paced and have a strong conflict.
 

Ruv Draba

Banned
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
5,114
Reaction score
1,322
If I were to try to contribute and add to all the great stuff already in this thread, I would add that i've noticed that better plots tend to come from books that have great world building.
Writers need to research setting just as they need to research character, but this alone won't create good plot.

So what is a good plot?

The oldest writing we have on dramatic theory is Aristotle's Poetics, in which he wrote about how to design great tragic plays. Here's what he said back in 335 BCE:

Aristotle said:
Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all. Again, without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character.

[...] if you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in point of diction and thought, you will not produce the essential tragic effect nearly so well as with a play which, however deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and artistically constructed incidents.

[...]The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy; Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

To paraphrase Aristotle, what glues us to the page is not 'where is it set', or 'who is this character', but 'can this character be happy?'

Here's the old feller again, on what makes a good plot:
Aristotle said:
Unity of plot does not, as some persons think, consist in the unity of the hero. For infinitely various are the incidents in one man's life which cannot be reduced to unity; and so, too, there are many actions of one man out of which we cannot make one action. [...]

As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is one when the object imitated is one, so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed. [...]

Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear or pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follows as cause and effect.
I think Aristotle's key points are:
  • The essence of drama is 'can this character be happy'?
  • There's no drama without plot, while we can have drama without character (and also without setting. Samuel Beckett's play Act Without Words I illustrates this -- it features a single actor alone in a dazzling desert. He never speaks, but he's constantly in torment.)
  • The essence of plot is not to chronicle the character, but to chronicle the character's search for happiness in a given situation.
  • A good plot is one such that you cannot remove a single element without hurting it; and
  • A good plot keeps us sympathetic and fearful for the main character (which is why the much-mocked Mary Sue-type stories are not considered good plot)
  • A good plot contains plenty of surprise.
I'd love to contribute something to improve on this, but I can't. I think that the qualities of plot that kept the ancient Greeks glued to their seats 2345 years ago are still turning pages today.
 
Last edited:

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I agree. Sometimes people write really boring long things about some magical world that I don't actually care about and some person who's supposed to be 'destined' and apparently that constitutes a plotline.
The fact that it's a boring plot doesn't make it not a plot. Often, if described without any context, plot is the most boring element of a story because for the most part we've seen it all before.
 

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
10,361
Reaction score
1,032
Location
In your mind
Website
maxoneverything.wordpress.com
The gathered wisdom of that odd-ball Max on AW....

The key to the successful read is how much you care. That is the key to the whole thing, to the whole experience - that question: do you care about this person?

Think about it for a moment.

You read a book because you care, and since you care you act on it. In book terms, you turn the page to find out if your new imaginary friend if going to be allright.

To make sure your readers care, you have to write a setup. You have to show the character for a bit, pull the reader in, make him care.

But if that character just sits there, doing nothing, living his usual life, then you're going to stop caring. There's nothing to see, you move on. Therefore, you need to have things happen in your character's life.

You need to make sure something happens to the character, and that something is plot point 1 (PP1). Plot point one must be big and important enough to turn your new imaginary friend's life upside down. It might be the most important event in the book. I will define everything. The setup leads up to PP1, and everything after is in response to PP1.

You've got the BIG EVENT, and your character reacts to it. He's hurt, bewildered, frightened, human, but he's moving - and what he's moving toward is Plot Point 2. Plot Point 2 is, as someone wrote, "where the car chase starts". At that point the character's know how to fix what happened in PP1. It's the dropping of the shields around the Death Star. The character can stop, and go on the offensive.

And doing that, Luke can fly in and release the torpedoes into the death star. And after that, the PP1 is fixed. Everything is changed for Luke, but PP1 is fixed. And after that, there is no more story.

Setup -> PP1 -> PP2 -> Resolution -> Fade-off

And that's the 3-act structure for you. It needn't be detailed. You can wing most of it, and write most of it organically. But if you know those points, from the setup to the denouement, you're halfway there and what remains is writing the words of the manuscript.

That's how I understand it, but of course it's different for all.

But for me, I can finish off with an anecdote. Where I live there is a little restaurant that makes the world's best omelette. The chef can make the tastebuds do a little dance when you order it. It's art, that omelette. But the chef always starts with breaking eggs, and then whipping them together. Like all other omelette-chefs in existence.

I think his art comes in the variations, and not in the basic technique.
 

Ruv Draba

Banned
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
5,114
Reaction score
1,322
The fact that it's a boring plot doesn't make it not a plot. Often, if described without any context, plot is the most boring element of a story because for the most part we've seen it all before.
Yes, because events are not 'infinitely varied', as Aristotle might put it... Characters only ever chase stuff, protect stuff, or lose stuff and they're unhappy until these issues are resolved. Our sympathy for chasing, protecting, losing stuff is predicated not on the stuff (which is just gloompchums), but on the stuff's impact to the character -- and of course, what we think of the character itself.

But it doesn't take pages of character and world background to explain why a gloompchum is important -- it's important because Schmoodle has ambition. So for plotting purposes (i.e. working up Aristotle's 'Best Plot' qualities of sympathy, anxiety, surprise, minimality and cohesion) we just need to know the situation, the motive, the desire, the risk and the passion. The reader will want to know more than that -- eventually -- but for plotting purposes we can take it on faith.
 
Last edited:

The Lonely One

Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
3,750
Reaction score
477
Location
West Spiral Arm
Thank you all for this thread. Please continue to enlighten us as you wish. This has been infinitely helpful.

I rally that this thread be made a sticky. Plotting is so basic yet it eludes so easily.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LucindaLynx

Slushie

Custom User Title
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
1,497
Reaction score
235
Originally Posted by Aristotle: As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is one when the object imitated is one, so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed.

A similar quote by Leon Alberti, an architect, artist, philosopher, etc.
Originally Posted by Alberti: Beauty - the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.

To me, that is the definition of a well constructed story: when every scene, every bit of dialogue, etc. cannot be taken away without compromising the story. This is essentially the re-writing and editing process. The second and third (and fourth, and fifth, ad infinitum) rounds are where a decent story is made into a great story, regardless of how you outline. A decent story can be written without a rigid outline, but I seriously doubt a decent story can be made great without several rounds of re-writes; this means re-writing is more important than outlining (not to downplay the importance of driving with headlights, but what good will headlights do if you can't get out of neutral?).

I don't put too much emphasis on outlining, preferring instead to focus on the re-writing. I usually write short (of word count guidelines) anyways, so I know my later drafts will require lots of work. Finishing the first draft is like taking the car out of park; I still have a lot of driving before I've reached my destination. Okay, this metaphor has gone far enough. :)
 

Slushie

Custom User Title
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
1,497
Reaction score
235
Thank you all for this thread. Please continue to enlighten us as you wish. This has been infinitely helpful.

I rally that this thread be made a sticky. Plotting is so basic yet it eludes so easily.

I sent a PM to jst5150 recommending this be stickied.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I picked put the one of my story ideas that was most complete and thus suitable for writing up the plot outline for critique. I didn't realize how long it was going to be - at the 2/3 mark I stopped and counted that it was already 6 handwritten pages. o_O Wonder what the word count will turn out to be when I type it up?
 

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,776
Reaction score
417
The fact that it's a boring plot doesn't make it not a plot. Often, if described without any context, plot is the most boring element of a story because for the most part we've seen it all before.

But is this a plot? (this is a random example):
'It is 5038474678 in the world of Wibblydoo, an ancient kingdom. The Grand Chamber which rules the land was created 162536 years ago is made up of 48 chosen ones (proceeds to name them all and give lengthy description). Xftsbd, the Chief, wrote up a special charter to protect the land from their enemies, a tribe called Gdhdfy. It has 39 points (tells us all the points).
Mary is the daughter of the current chief, 300 years old Fdget. She has been chosen to rise up against the tribe using the magic sword of Ghdygbv (tells us how wonderful the sword is)'

Is that actually a plot? No, it's a lot of background. It's a conceit. Such as this:
'Boris Humfervann is a vampire in love with a human called Aggie. It is set in 1929'

That sounds more interesting than the first one but it is still only a conceit. It could go somewhere but the writer hasn't indicated where.

A plot needs to be set up intricately. One thing leads to the next; even if there is an accident, it must be rooted in what has gone before.
The 'And then?' and 'So what?' questions work well for honing it into a plot:

So if you apply it to the second example:
'Boris Humfervann is a vampire in love with a human called Aggie'
'And then?'
'He decides to stalk her somehow'
'And then?'
'He morphs into a boy called Raymond.'

You get the idea. Slowly you can see that some sort of action is happening. We are moving forwards.

With the first example, there's lots of boring lengthy ideas but no discernable plot. We can tell that as Mary has been chosen to go on some quest, this will probably be the main plot, but Mary's being chosen is only a fact like everything else before it.

So if you apply the 'So what?':

'It is 5038474678 in the world of Wibblydoo, an ancient kingdom'
'So what?'

Now the writer comes into some difficulty here. They've got loads of information but they haven't given it any importance.
Now they're forced to think about it:
'5038474678 is the predicted date of the fall of the empire'
'So what?'
'The chief is worried as his daughter has been chosen to rise up against the enemy tribe. He wonders if this year will be the date of the attack, and he is afraid that at age 16, Mary is too young'

Finally, that's the start of a plot. It is now vaguely interesting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LucindaLynx

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
10,361
Reaction score
1,032
Location
In your mind
Website
maxoneverything.wordpress.com
Here's my plot for trunk novel of mine.

I divide a plot into four sections: setup, response, attack, and resolution.

It's three acts: setup, response + attack, and resolution

At the end of the setup I have 1 plot point.
At the end of the attack I have 1 plot point.

So, for the trunk novel, this is something I can end up with what's below. And I always start with a setup to show the character in his normal, mundane life before things go to hell. Here I strive to show how he works in normal circumstances, what makes him tick, and so on.

SETUP
Harry is a perfectly normal owner of a bookshop in London, doing perfectly normal things like waking up after a club night with a nasty hang-over and a strange woman next to him that he wish he hadn't brought home. After getting rid of her he hurries to work, only to be the victim of a strike in the underground, which strands him in an unknown part of town where a package literally falls out of the sky into his lap.

>>PP1:<< A package containing leaves of papers written in a strange language. Rather than throw the package away, he decides to bring it to his bookshop, where he discovers that the paper is written in what looks like Hebrew, and that it is probably VERY old. Old means valuable. He's rich!

There's the setup. Something has happened (PP1) that's turning Harry's life around. The promise of wealth, introduction of greed, and the ambition to capitalise on the fortuitious find.

You can't however, logically, have the character thow himself at the root cause at once. He needs time to digest, to think, to plan and plot - so I divide the second act into two halves that I call RESPONSE AND ACTION.

Here's also where you start to play with the characteristics exposed in the setup. Harry is greedy, and he's needy. So, you start to attack those. Is he greedy and needy enough to risk his life?

RESPONSE
He can't believe his good luck, but he needs to be careful, he tells himself. So he contacts experts, lets them have a peek, and the consensus is a great swath of interest. Lectors, doctors, professors and publicicsts swarm around him, and he learns what the text is.

It is a document, written in arameic, from around 20 BC. There's only one place in the world that arameic was spoken -- the roman colony of Palestine, and everyone knows who walked around those parts at that time.

But the previous owner would likely want it back. Badly. And they do, and they've set out to find it, by any means possible. And they are ever so thankful for the publicity that Harry is getting. It makes their job so much easier

That's the response. The MC is rushing off to get rich quick, and the antagonists respond to the character, which leads into the third part, and the second half of act 3. The MC is acting now, and this is the time for the antagonists to to not just size each other up, but to fight as well. The second half of act 2, and the characters are aligned at each other.

In the third part, you also have the second plot point at the end. That plot point will give the MC the solution to the problem posed by Plot Point 1, but it will also up the ante considerably!

ATTACK
Suddenly Harry gets shot at, his home gets broken into, he has to flee head over heels into the night. His car explodes. It becomes clear that someone is out to kill him. But who? The only thing new in his life is that manuscript. Someone wants it, but he won't let them have it. Finders keepers, and he's a damned happy finder.

Wherever he turns, there seem to be a shadow that wants to kill him. And how do they find him all the time? How can they have such detailed knowledge of him? But no matter, they can't have the manuscript, even if it means that he has to act preventively, and to find them before they find him.

>>PP2:<< The next time Harry keeps an eye out, and he hides near his car to observe who goes there. And he's in luck, not long after a man approaches his car and slips under it. He rushes forward, grabs the man, and when he searches for the weapon he finds a badge, from the London Metropolitan police.

Now, here's where this story fell apart because I could never understand how to connect the Metropolitan police to these kinds of guys, and swapping in MI5-people just didn't seem very plausible. So, here's where my notes end, and that's about where the 40k of words on this novel doomed it to the trunk.

But if this had been a real project, this would be where you got into the last section, and act 3. Supposedly there would be some revalation in PP2 that would allow the MC to solve the problem in PP1. PP2 exists to give the MC the tools, knowledge or ambition to handle the question posed by PP1.

In the RESOLUTION the MC would have made the final stand against the antagonists, and then won or lost, and you'd have the dissolving of the story after that.

Now, I hear you ask - only 2 plotpoints? Isn't that kind of few for a whole novel? And my answer is, not really - because the 2 plot points handle what your novel is about. You can pepper the novel with what I call plot twists. That's cool, but the main conflict is constructed with 2 plot points. The plot twists are character arcs, random evens, and such which feeds either PP1 or PP2.

Say you need something to happen in order for PP2 to happen. Let's say PP2 requires that Harry has a special key. Then you have a sub-plot culminating in the acquisition of the key. But that sub-plot feeds into Plot Point 2.

Is this formulaic? I don't think so because I don't detail every single turn and twist with this model. It allows me to know where I'm going, and what's going to happen, but I have lots of freedom in choosing scenes and adding in subplots.

Anyway, this is my model. I'm not sure it works for anyone else, but if it does, I'm happy. :)