Plot, Schlmot!
Warning: this is a heretical post!
I don't consider myself to be very good at plotting. But plot is also my least favorite part of any book I treasure. When I reflect on the books I've loved best, what I tend to remember doesn't have to do with the construction of the overall story line - that urgency to keep on turning pages - but with individual scenes, individual moments, individual lines.
When Mary Lennox turns the key that opens the door to the secret garden.
When Miss Minchin asks Sara Crewe, "Don't you intend to thank me . . .For my kindness in giving you a home?" and Sara replies, "You are not kind. And it is not a home."
When Anne Shirley breaks her slate over Gilbert Blythe's head.
When Kenny Watson's big brother kisses his reflection on an icy car window and gets his lips frozen to the glass.
When Ramona asks Miss Binney how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom when he was digging the basement of the town hall.
When Trotter tells Gilly Hopkins that "Life ain't supposed to be nothing, 'cept maybe tough," and Gilly asks her, "If life is so bad, how come you're so happy?" and Trotter replies, "Did I say bad? I said it was tough."
Many of my most beloved books are episodic in structure, where a character grows and changes through a cumulative series of events and experiences - you know, sort of like the way change happens in real life? When I write my own books, I think first and foremost not of overall plot, but of individual scenes - each one as a shining bead threaded onto a string. I also think of crucial bits of dialogue, where characters finally tell each other what most needs to be said. And small insights into the human condition, like those fabulous lines from the end of The Great Gilly Hopkins that I quoted above.
So, yes, let's read books on plotting and mine them for helpful strategies to strengthen a story. But I can't see myself ever making a "beat sheet" for one of my books and structuring it so rigidly - even though I have writer friends who have produced brilliant books in this way. I want to write the kind of book I love to read: books memorable above all for details that sparkle, insights that illuminate, and moments where I burst out laughing or wipe away tears.
I don't consider myself to be very good at plotting. But plot is also my least favorite part of any book I treasure. When I reflect on the books I've loved best, what I tend to remember doesn't have to do with the construction of the overall story line - that urgency to keep on turning pages - but with individual scenes, individual moments, individual lines.
When Mary Lennox turns the key that opens the door to the secret garden.
When Miss Minchin asks Sara Crewe, "Don't you intend to thank me . . .For my kindness in giving you a home?" and Sara replies, "You are not kind. And it is not a home."
When Anne Shirley breaks her slate over Gilbert Blythe's head.
When Kenny Watson's big brother kisses his reflection on an icy car window and gets his lips frozen to the glass.
When Ramona asks Miss Binney how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom when he was digging the basement of the town hall.
When Trotter tells Gilly Hopkins that "Life ain't supposed to be nothing, 'cept maybe tough," and Gilly asks her, "If life is so bad, how come you're so happy?" and Trotter replies, "Did I say bad? I said it was tough."
Many of my most beloved books are episodic in structure, where a character grows and changes through a cumulative series of events and experiences - you know, sort of like the way change happens in real life? When I write my own books, I think first and foremost not of overall plot, but of individual scenes - each one as a shining bead threaded onto a string. I also think of crucial bits of dialogue, where characters finally tell each other what most needs to be said. And small insights into the human condition, like those fabulous lines from the end of The Great Gilly Hopkins that I quoted above.
So, yes, let's read books on plotting and mine them for helpful strategies to strengthen a story. But I can't see myself ever making a "beat sheet" for one of my books and structuring it so rigidly - even though I have writer friends who have produced brilliant books in this way. I want to write the kind of book I love to read: books memorable above all for details that sparkle, insights that illuminate, and moments where I burst out laughing or wipe away tears.
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