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How To Use Screenwriting Techniques to Plot Your Novel
 Posted by Sara Ramsey May 24 2011, 12:01 am in craft, plotting, writing tips, writing tools As much as I’d like to be a plotter, I’m a confirmed pantser. My latest manuscript, ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL, shows the consequences: I scrapped the first two hundred pages — not once, but twice. I love the finished product (and it finaled in the 2011 Golden Heart, yay), but I would really prefer not to go down that dark road again. So as a pantser, the most nervewracking part of finishing my manuscript wasn’t the edits or the proofreading — it was hearing my agent say that she wanted a synopsis for the next book so that she could pitch it to editors along with my finished baby. That meant she wanted a synopsis for a book I hadn’t written.
Reader, I flipped out. Quietly, of course; I brightly told my agent that it was no problem, then hung up and stared at my notebook while trying to remember to breathe. How could I write a synopsis for a book that I only had some vague ideas about? I barely even knew the characters — the heroine appears in SCANDAL, but the hero doesn’t, and I knew little more about him than his name and a few images of what he was up to for the decade before their book begins. But as I calmed down and decided that I could conquer the dreaded synopsis mountain, I remembered a workshop that I took last year with Alex Sokoloff, a screenwriter-turned-novelist. The basis of her workshop is that writers can use screenwriting techniques to structure their novels in terms of “acts” and “sequences.” Before the workshop, I had thought vaguely about things like goal/motivation/conflict, midpoint, climax, and denouement, but I had never stumbled across a great way to pay attention to the timing of those events within my book. But, Ms. Sokoloff broke things down further — into three acts, with eight sequences, and specific events that happen within those sequences to create a structure that the reader unconsciously understands and can anticipate. Admittedly, I’ve stayed away from such things in the past — romance, like all genres, is sometimes accused of being formulaic, and discussing my work in terms of acts and sequences reeked of “formula.” However, the other way of looking at it is like the human body — there are certain things that we need, like hearts and lungs and bones and skin, but on top of that basic framework, every person is unique. Just like every book is unique, even if the underlying framework is similar. You can download an ebook of Ms. Sokoloff’s techniques on Amazon or Barnes and Noble (for only $2.99 — I’m not shilling for her, and in fact never interacted with her beyond that workshop, but wanted you to know it’s available if you can’t take one of her workshops). It includes the whole framework, and also includes analyses of movies to illustrate how those stories are told via the framework she’s provided. She’s not the first person to originate this, of course — according to Wikipedia, the three-act structure has been around since Aristotle. But if the three-act structure has resonated with storytellers for thousands of years, why not give it a try? To plot my next book so that I could tackle the synopsis, I bought a big corrugated cardboard project board from my local art supply store (like any project board you’ve used for a science fair). I divided the board into eight segments, corresponding to the eight-sequence structure. I labeled each section, then put a few post-its in each section to remind me what should happen. For example, a few of the events are:
There are other events that happen within those sequences, and they’re not set in stone, but it was great for reminding me to make sure that my plot contained the key elements necessary to feel like a complete story. Ms. Sokoloff included a lot of examples of how these moments play out in movies, which is probably the easiest way to understand them — if you watch any movie, but particularly classics/blockbusters, you’ll see these moments all over the place. I can’t go to the movies anymore without thinking about what incites the characters to action, when they’re training, what drives them apart, etc., and it’s done wonders for my writing. So with my board made and the beats outlined, I brainstormed over a hundred possible scenes, some related to external conflict with a villain/society, some related to the relationship between the hero and heroine. I wrote them on post-its, with different colors of paper for external vs. internal conflict, so that I could visually see whether I had a good balance of external and internal conflict in every sequence. Then, if a scene resonated with me after I’d brainstormed, I slapped the post-it onto the board in the general location that the scene should happen, based on the overall structure. Of course, my agent couldn’t take my project board out to editors, so I still had to write the synopsis (which I won’t bore you with here). But, by having this visual structure for my novel, it was relatively easy to identify where the weak points were, what needed to be fleshed out, where I might start to have problems with a sagging middle, and whether there was enough conflict to sustain the book. I firmly believe that every writer’s process is different — what works for one of us won’t work for the next one, and vice versa. But, if you’re looking for something new to try, or are struggling to come up with a plot that doesn’t feel too forced, this might be worth exploring. It satisfied my pantser’s soul, since I still know very little about my characters or what they will say in those scenes and will get to discover it along the way — but it also makes me feel confident that the bones of the plot are strong enough that I won’t have to throw away the first half when I get a bit further along in the writing. If you try this out, I’d love to hear about it! Even better, if you’ve found a different strategy for plotting that works for you, please share — I’m fascinated by how other writers write, and I think we could all use some tips. Share:
              
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[...] my regularly scheduled life. I will be active here again any day now — but to tide you over, check out my guest post on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog. I’m chatting with my fellow 2009 Golden Heart [...]
This is fabulous, Sara!
I’m in the midst of tearing apart my 2011 GH book (while trying to plot its sequel) and boy oh howdy do I need structure! Like you, I’m a recovering pantser who’s tired of trying to rewrite my way out of plot morasses.
I’m off to download Alexandra’s book….I’ve read some of her blog about plot structure and have found it incredibly helpful.
Thanks Elisa! I would love it if I could get to the end (or even the middle) of my next WIP without having to tear it apart, so hopefully this structure helps. Good luck with the 2011 GH book (and its sequel)!
Elisa — I *knew* you’d eventually have to listen to your sister.
The Sokoloff book and a good set of colored Post-it’s on a presentation board helped me so much when I was scrambling to finish NaNoWriMo last November. Even when I go back to revise the ms, I use the board to figure out what emotional beats I’m missing. Or when I need to change the POV…
Not to mention that it was a great starting point for discussing this with my husband when I needed another opinion and some brainstorming help.
But… I’m a plotter, through and through!!
I’ve never been much of a plotter either. I’m trying to at least mull the story around in my head before beginning to write, sort of know where I’m heading, what my point is, or how it ends. But I don’t always know my H/H when I begin. I get to know them better along the way.
I took a workshop with a similar breakdown. I used to try to use it as a guide, but gave it up. It’s a helpful tool. I’ve always held a certain disdain for the formula, but your body analogy is a bit of a wakeup call. And I’ve found when I’m reading a book, if it is missing an element, I do feel a bit ripped off. And I almost always write my synopsis after the book is written – I hate the synopsis writing – blurb writing. I know I’m going to have to unlearn some bad habit.
I think saying “unlearn bad habits” is right on – with my first books, I didn’t have a synopsis to start, or a blurb, or really anything other than the kernel of an idea and some vague thoughts about the characters. But, I’m seeing that it’s going to be hard to create a writing career with those habits – I can’t meander for the months/years it took me to write and scrap so much material. So while this particular method might not work for you, I hope you find one that does (and share it with us!).
I’m a recoving pantser, too. LOL. We should so have a support group
I really see it’s a move toward being more professional. I know those of you who are pantsers are rolling your eyes. Sure, you can be successful without a bit of plotting…don’t know how you sell on a non-existent synopsis, but I guess anything can be done.
Oh, I was stubborn about it, too. Clung to my need to be excited by what I write, but I’ve since found some balance. I think I’ve read so many books and seen so many movies that plotting a story out has become somewhat instinctual…this keeps it from feeling too analytical for me. I don’t do notecards, boards or anything beyond coming up with a basic plot structure – here’s how it starts, here’s all the things stacked against the h/h, and here’s the end. Yep, just what you said – I give it bones.
I’m acutally doing okay working this way. I have direction but enough leeway to explore my creativity and allow my characters to act and react without consulting the synopsis. In fact, on the one I’m working on, I don’t even know who the kidnapper is. I said who it was in the synopsis, but now I’m not sure. Shhh! No one tell my editor. LOL.
Wonderful post!
I agree with you, Liz – it really does feel like a move toward professionalism, even if I haven’t sold yet. I know I’ll need to sell on proposal in the future, and I have to figure out how to do that. It’s better to figure that out now than when I’m in the middle of a contract and struggling to come up with something!
I also think that structure doesn’t have to take the joy out of ‘pantsing’. I certainly didn’t figure everything out for my synopsis, and the villain was about as vague as he could possibly be without sounding cardboard. But thinking about the structure helped me write something that felt like a story, even if there are a lot of elements still to be figured out.
Ooh, this post is just what I needed to read today. I’m a pantser trying to become a plotter, because I always get 100 pp into my stories then get stuck and have to go back to page one and figure out what’s wrong. No matter how much pre-planning I do beforehand, around page 100 it all goes to hell in a handbasket. I think I’ll go downlowd Alexandra’s book on my Nook. My way of writing is SO frustrating and slow.
(((Waving hand))I’ll join the reformed group. I wrote several books as a total panster and, well, they’re going to need major rewrites if there is ever going to be hope for them. Otherwise they’re doom to eternity under my bed with the dust bunnies.
At first, I shunned away from doing any structured plotting. Then I hit a wall while writing my fourth novel. I just stopped, knowing the story was not going down the right path. It was going down the same path as the three before it. I remebered a workshop I took on screen writing and pulled the book I purchased and studied. Later, I wrote a synopsis outlining the GMC, conflict, plot twists for my story. That MS became my GH entry, Evil’s Witness.
Now, writing three chapters (I need to get a feel for my characters) and then writing a synopsis is my normal routine.
I like the idea of writing three chapters, then writing the synopsis. For me, though, I tend to scrap the first couple of chapters (repeatedly), so I need to be careful not to get caught in a loop of revising the first chapters and never moving forward. I’ve started thinking of them as a character development exercise that will never actually appear in the book, which has helped a lot for the psychology of cutting them later.
And it’s definitely interesting to me to see how many people are saying they started as pantsers and then went looking for a way to add a bit more structure – glad I’m not alone on this one
This is how I write too! I need the free-form enthusiasm of total pantsing for the first 20% or so of the book then I get serious about plotting it out, chapter by chapter. For smoe crazy reason it works.
Seconded (or thirded?)
I need that time to get to know my characters before I can actually write anything worth keeping!
Hi, Sara. I need to join the group, too.
The last MS I finished, my Nano novel, I did plot out in advance … but my GH finalist was not. I’m paying for it now, as I try to madly rework it before the conference.
I might have to try the three-act structure thing. It seems like it’d work pretty well.
I’d love to hear how it works out for you if you try it, Arlene! The only reason I tried it is because I had such a difficult experience with the last book, and it sounds like you’re in that boat with your current revisions.
btw, I did go back and do this with my 2011 GH manuscript. After I scrapped the first half of the book for the second time, I used this to reframe how I was approaching the story. While this blog post was about using it when you’re brainstorming from scratch, I found it really helpful when thinking about revisions to a story I had already written.
Best of luck with the revisions
I LOVED Ms. Sokoloff’s workshop and downloaded her book so I can revisit it. Her structure makes perfect sense–and I need all the help I can get with structure. Synposis *shudder*.
Thanks for the tips!
Where did you take the workshop? The San Francisco RWA chapter (and another nearby chapter) got her for a weekend retreat, although I only did the daytrip part of it that contained the bulk of her workshop. I really thought she was fabulous – way more into suspense/thriller than my gentle Regency soul was used to, but I thought all her movie examples were so helpful.
Alex is the BEST! My local chapter had her out for a full day workshop in Gettysburg earlier this year. Not only was my mind blown by her theory, which you’ve outlined perfectly here, but she’s a great person to hang out with.
I’ve got two big boards sitting next to my foot right now — one for a series I’m kicking around, and another for the book I’m working on. The interesting thing about the board method is you can use it to plot out a series as well as an individual book. This works particularly well if you’ve got a seven- or eight-book arc. Each book in the series is simply one Sequence on the master board.
Yes, she’s totally awesome – if anyone has a chance to do the full-day workshop, they definitely should!
I’m glad to hear that the approach is working for you in terms of plotting a series too – I hadn’t really thought about plotting a series using this structure, but it makes a lot of sense. My current Regency series is more a set of standalones loosely grouped around a club, but I’m playing with an idea for a paranormal series that would definitely benefit from structure for the series as a whole. I’ll have to try it out – thanks for the suggestion!
Sure thing.
I had this BOOM moment in the workshop when I realized that the Harry Potter series may as well have been plotted out on an 8-sequence storyboard. Yes, there are seven books, but that last was was broken into two movies, and Alex says that the last act is often one big rush to the end, anyhow.
But if you break down each book, you’ll see how perfectly each fits into the Sequence to which it aligns. Like, the first book is all about accepting the call (typical Sequence 1 focus). And the sixth book ends with the death of the mentor, which is a classic Sequence 6 climax.
That makes so much sense – Harry Potter is a perfect example. Thanks!
Great post Sara. Is there a program for us to enter?
I follow Larry Brooks for structure. It works for me
Thanks Rita – there should be a 12-step something for recovering pantsers. I’ve definitely gotten through the stages where I admitted I had a problem and examined my past errors. I just need to keep making progress
I’ve never read Larry Brooks – is his blog http://storyfix.com/? I’ll have to check it out; just a brief perusal of the first couple of posts piqued my interest. Thanks for the suggestion!
Thats him. I’d say there are a handful of excellent structure classes out there. I have a problem connecting with some instructors. They aren’t bad, it’s me. But with Larry I get what he’s saying. His weekly blogs are fantastic and FREE. You can go back through the archives and get most of the stuff in his books. His deconstructing of books and movies has also helped. He has discussed pantser vs plotter many times and those discussions finally turned the tide for me.
Awesome – thanks for the recommendation. I bookmarked his site and will read more as soon as I get a chance!
I can’t work off a plot or outline. Tried it. Several times. But, as I’ve shared before, my M.O. in just about all things—decorating, gardening, cooking, even sewing and embroidery projects—is to mix & match, arrange and rearrange, tweak until what I see matches the vision in my head.
I don’t recommend it. It’s the time-suck from hell. But it’s the way my mind (what’s left of it) works.
That said, I love your skeletal analogy. And, having dressed mannequins in the past, will “tweak” it into something that may fool my inner rebel. I know the “look” I want, now to put the ensemble together. It’s not like my imagination has a limited budget. *G* Anything goes on my mannequin. Rose print with B&W plaid? Why not?
You do see what’s happening her, I guess. I’m making it fun. Yeah, fun works. We’ll have to see what happens. I’m really tired of trashing pages. Thanks for the spur, Sara.
I really hear you on this – even though I tend to follow rules/laws pretty rigidly, I’m such a rebel on the inside, and so hate being told what to do, that I was always allergic to talk of structure, formulas, etc. But, I’m so tired of trashing pages too, as you put it, that I’m going to have to quash my rebel just a little bit (or trick her into thinking that this was all her idea
.
And with writing, like gardening or design or art, I really do think that anything goes. Each process is unique, each artist is different, and nothing works for everyone. But I would like to produce great writing — and the part I struggle with is the “produce” part when I’m just meandering about with the story and the characters. This framework is helping me to meander less, produce more, but still feel like I can let the characters go off on a tangent and then figure out how it fits into the bones of the story later. We’ll see how the rebel responds to that, but I’m staying hopeful
Great post, Sara. I took Sokoloff’s online workshop in January and wow, there was a LOT of great information. Kudos to you for summarizing it so neatly. It was a workshop well worth the money!
Thanks for stopping by, Anne Marie! I may need to do her online workshop sometime as a refresher, but I found her book (which I got a hardcopy of at the workshop I attended with her last year) to be a great resource to look back on when I was struggling to figure out what was wrong with a scene or sequence. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This post makes me feel all warm and snuggling. You see, dear…you’re plotting
You can never again call yourself a true pantser 
I love the structure that comes with plotting. I still veer off course sometimes (and really awesome things might happen), but if I don’t have the course mapped out, I just scribble until I have nothing but a big pile of goo. Then I have to delete everything and plot it out, which is what I should have done to begin with! *sigh*
But I wanted to add to your structure (which is EXACTLY what I use, though didn’t get it from her), I also map in the character arcs and relationship arc along with the story, making all those things weave throughout those 8 pieces and parts, having the big turning points happening in roughly the same places. I have a 4×6 whiteboard at home, but sometimes sneak into a conference room at my office to use their 4×8 one because I sometimes just need those extra two feet. The act of handwriting on the white board stirs my creativity more, as well.
ach, character arcs and relationship arcs and turning points–sigh
lol – I have joined the dark side
Although given what I’ve seen of other writers who are strong plotters, I’ve always been envious of the dark side and eager to join – so I’ll wear the badge of reformed pantser with pride 
I do love writing out the plot and sticking it up on a board, probably for the same reason you love whiteboarding it – that act still feels creative and ‘artistic’, even though it’s related to structure as well. And I need to do a better job of weaving the character development/turning points through the storyboard. I think I do it intuitively, and some of the scenes are very clear turning points, but I don’t always have it mapped out well enough. As it turns out, those things are probably more important than the plot itself – my agent definitely wanted more emotional/character development bits in the synopsis, rather than just a plot rundown, which I found really interesting.
If you have any other tips for reformed pantsers, please share
Though sometimes frustrating, the dark side is a happy place. So…welcome!!!
I have a deep, dark emotional THING for whiteboards. Unfortunately, I have no space for one in my office… so I’m totally jealous of yours!
Oh, all this act stuff so confuses me. Are there equal numbers in the acts? It looks as if Act 3 though, would be really short.
btw, I did take a screenwriting class in college and it confused me as well. I have a feeling life would be easier if I could just but figure this out.
Act Two is very long and basically broken into two halves. Act One is maybe the first quarter or third of the book, and Act Three is the last quarter or so. So yes, Act Three is short. It’s the…oh crap, all is lost but I must go on because I’ve changed so much I can’t go back section. Then they realize they HAVE changed enough to let whatever baggage go and run to each other to find their HEA. And the epilogue, where we see that all is now right with their world.
Basically, what Kim said. The classic structure is three acts, but Alex also suggested thinking of it as four acts – that’s why in the outline I gave above, I have “Act 2-1″ and “Act 2-2″. Act 2 can be almost the middle half; Act 1 is a bit more than 25% (probably 30%), and Act 3 is the shortest of all of them.
With the manuscript that I finished using this process (ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL – the one that finaled in the GH this year), I actually set up my writing program (Scrivener) so that each scene was within the proper sequence, and then did a word count for each sequence. It was my first time using this process, and I was curious how the word counts would look.
I did the final edits in Word instead of Scrivener, so this isn’t exact, but for my next-to-final draft, the word counts were:
Act 1, Sequence 1: 9590 (intro characters)
Act 1, Sequence 2: 10048 (cont. intro characters, point of no return)
Act 2, Sequence 3: 10212 (planning)
Act 2, Sequence 4: 10196 (approaching midpoint climax)
Act 2-2, Sequence 5: 17964 (obsessive drive; things fall apart)
Act 2-2, Sequence 6: 10280 (crossing the line/dark moment)
Act 3, Sequence 7+8: 16730 (final battle/climax/denouement)
Total: 85020
So, Act 1 = 23%; Act 2 = 57%; Act 3 = 20%.
I didn’t force myself to a percentage, but this definitely *definitely* helped me to see if the middle was starting to sag or if I was spending too much time on backstory in the beginning. Does that make sense?
Yes, much more clear. Incidentally I got her book, started reading it, very interesting. Gotta go read some more, thanks!
I completely agree that every writer’s process is different. Mine is a bit loopy and I am utterly anal about it. I do try to be flexible, but still, if I stick with my process, the world is safer for it.
I love using screenwriting techniques as well. I”be been meaning to check out Alexandra’s book. I think I’ll do that now, as a matter of fact. I absolutely love the breakdown like that.
Great post, Sara!!!
Fabulous post, Sara. Best wishes with your proposal and selling One Night to Scandal!