Tag: planning and development

Thursday Technicalities: Plotting Scenes

Ariel Paiement
Publishing Advice

Introduction

Do you have trouble getting your chapters, let alone your scenes, to a word count or length that feels decent? Or maybe you feel that your scenes seem to be wasting space and fitting poorly in the structure of your book? These are only a few of the problems you may be having with scenes, and there is a simple solution to this.

Plotting.

Yes, plotting your scenes. I know, I know. To those of you who hate plotting or planning in any way, shape, or form, this probably sounds like a nightmare. A long time ago, I would’ve been with you. And I’d be having all the same problems you are too. So just hear me out on this. Give it a try and see how it can make a difference. If it doesn’t work, feel free to stop doing it. I don’t want you to waste your time. But you won’t know if it’ll help until you try, and my experience has been that most people I know (myself included) who have tried this, have found it useful.

So let’s take a look.

What Plotting Scenes Isn’t

First of all, I want to start by explaining that plotting scenes is not creating an entire path for your whole novel. While I often use the list of events that need to happen for my novel’s entire plot to develop a scene list and scene plots, it isn’t necessary to have it. Scene plotting is its own entity, even if it does work well with plotting the storyline.

Plotting scenes is also not a waste of time. Initially, when someone suggested I plot my scenes, I looked at them like they were nuts. Why would I want to do that? It took me extra time to sit down and think about it ahead of time like that. But as I started thinking about it, I decided, hey, why not give it a try? The writers who suggested it had mentioned it increased their scene length and made the scenes much more cohesive, so I figured trying couldn’t hurt.

And they were right.

I went from scenes that might be about 1,000 words max to scenes that could get to the 1,500 to 2,000 word range. My chapter lengths went from 2,000 words max to anywhere from 3,500 to 6,000 on the high end. So, I promise that it can work if it’s approached well.

What Is Scene Plotting?

Okay, so now that we’ve clarified what plotting scenes isn’t, we probably should know what it actually is. Scene plotting means figuring out what the scene’s main focus is, what the intention of the viewpoint character will be, and the main points of that scene that will get you from the beginning to the end. Sound like a lot of work?

Well, it can be. But I usually only spend fifteen minutes to get all of the scenes for two or three chapters done. And it saves me a lot of editing time later. How? 

It does so in several ways. 

First, it saves time because I already know what the focal point of the scene should be and can write it in a way that best shows that focus. Second, I also already know the main points of what will happen, so I just have to fill in the details. No more time spent staring at a screen wondering where I’m going next. I already know. Finally, I know who my viewpoint character is and what they’re attempting to achieve or what they want out of the scene. This saves time in editing later because I will have already included their motivations for the reader, and it will be clear what the character is driving at in the entire scene. No ambiguity or confusion left there as long as I actually pay attention to what I wrote down.

Handling Scene Plotting

There are a few ways you can handle plotting for scenes. Really, none of them are right or wrong. What you prefer to do will differ from others, and that’s fine. We all need different levels of detail and work to achieve our goals. However, there are some key things I have found that work, so I’ll go over those to give you a place you can start.

The first thing I always do is write down what chapter the scenes go to above the plotting. That way, when I go back to it later, I don’t have to try to figure out what it went to. After that, I always label my scenes with numbers in order so I never have to wonder where one scene ends and another begins.

When it comes to the actual plotting, I write a name for the scene next to my number so I have an idea of what the scene’s main point is. I also write in parentheses the name of the character who will be the viewpoint character. Under that, I also jot down what the character’s motivation is. Finally, I use bullet points and fill in the main points of the scene as it goes from start to end. This can be done with sentences or sentence fragments. Whatever will be enough to jog your memory later.

You can do this chapter-by-chapter or all at once. I usually like to have a good number of chapters all plotted out so that I don’t have to take time to do it at the beginning of every writing session, but whatever you prefer is fine. There isn’t really a right way or a wrong way on this one.

The last thing that you should make sure of in your plotting of scenes is this: every scene must reveal to the reader something they didn’t already know. It may only be a new angle on an old fact that will be important later, but some new piece of information should be revealed. Characters should grow closer or further apart. Evidence should turn up that wasn’t there before. Clues should be discovered. New enemies or threats might appear. These are all just a few of the types of new information that might be revealed to a reader. So skim over your scene and ask whether or not it serves a purpose and whether or not it reveals anything new. If it doesn’t do either, you need to cut it. If it serves a purpose but doesn’t reveal anything new, you need to add more and keep writing until something new is there.

Conclusion

Initially, plotting scenes might seem a bit over-the-top. However, it really does save time and makes sure your scenes aren’t filler material that doesn’t and shouldn’t need to be there. If you’re a pantser instead of a plotter, I understand why you might not want to do this. But I really do recommend it. I know pantsers who have effectively worked this method in with their other methods of writing and discovered it helped tremendously. Give it a try and see if it works for you. You never know!

Saturday Setups: Resources

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

Resources are an important part of worldbuilding. Most cities are built near commonly needed resources like large bodies of water or places with rich fields for farming. Civilization doesn’t get far if there isn’t enough resource-rich land to support a growing metropolis. This has held true in history, and it still holds true in fantasy or any other type of world-building. So, let’s take a look at some of the resources your civilization might build up around.

Water

This one is a bit of an obvious one, but most cities don’t build where there isn’t an accessible water source. This might be a river, a major oasis, or a place with rich places to build wells. But a city must have water to survive, so no city will grow up to be a major metropolis without water to support its people.

Precious Metals

This one isn’t as obvious, but cities may build up around places where mining for precious metals and ore can be done. This gives them a good trading resource, and it also gives them the ability to make their own currency. As a result, this is a resource that civilizations founding new cities may look for. Even if they started out as just a settlement in an area with a vein of precious metal ore, the presence of that resource often results in growth later on. 

Precious Stones

Similarly, precious stones can be another reason a place becomes home to a city. People are willing to pay a great deal to gain precious stones for any purpose from jewelry to currency for big ticket items. They can be used to trade, and in fantasy worlds, they may even be able to hold some sort of special magical ability. As this is the case, depending on what uses the world as a whole has for this resource, cities can grow up around it quite easily.

Salt

This one is another less-than-intuitive option, but some cities can grow up around salt flats because salt is a commodity and also essential for preserving food in societies with no way of refrigerating. And if you have a world where witchcraft is a thing, then maybe salt is a special ingredient for them too. It all depends. The possibilities open to you with this resource are endless, and the more uses this resource has, the more likely it is someone will want to build a city near a location with salt flats.

Wood

Another important resource is wood. Building in an area that has lots of forest offers the opportunity to build structures that might be impossible to build without it. It also allows for carving and craftsmanship that couldn’t be accomplished with other materials. It allows for the creation of paper as well, if the people living there are advanced enough to know the process for creating it with trees. Regardless, at any stage, building a city in or near a forest can provide the city with valuable resources they might not be able to access otherwise.

Wild Game

If your civilization is a hunting community, this one is especially important. The presence of various types of animals provides them with both food and furs and pelts to trade. As can be seen in American history, the fur trade can be quite lucrative, so even if your civilization isn’t mainly hunter-gatherer-based, it may still grow around the fur trading capacities the location offers.

Farmable Land

This is a big one for civilizations that are settling down and trying to stay in one place. Often, the need for land that’s arid and good for crops leads to destruction of the forests in those areas so that farmers can plant their crops. This also offers a huge area of trade because farmable land allows people to grow so many different things. If that city or small kingdom owns most of the farmable land, they may become quite wealthy by trading their crops for other things neighboring cities and kingdoms have that they can’t produce for themselves. The other good thing about farmable land, of course, is that it provides a way to keep various herd animals, which can go a long way toward sustaining the civilization.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the many resources available, of course. However, they’re some of the common ones that cities and kingdoms may grow up around, so they’re worth mentioning. Have one you’d like to add? Feel free to leave it in the comments below!  

Saturday Setup: Building Societies – Location Factors

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

We’re finished with the mapping section of the world-building discussion, so now we’re going to look at building societies and the factors that go into that! The mapping you did in the previous sections will come into play here, so if you haven’t read those articles yet, you’ll want to do so and come back to this.

This week’s discussion centers on the location factors that shape a society. We touched on this briefly in the global mapping sector, but now we’re going to take a closer look because location plays a big role in what kind of society is built there.

Location’s Role in Societal Structure

Yes, location can play a role in the structure of your society or culture. If the place your cultural group is located forces them to be hunters and gatherers, then the society may develop as a male-dominant society because, usually, the men tend to be the ones hunting and providing for the women and children.

If the infrastructure of the location has allowed the society to develop into more of a farming and trading setup, things might be more even because women (unless government or family structure dictates otherwise) are capable of doing various jobs or working alongside the men. They aren’t as reliant upon their guy to provide. It doesn’t mean that they won’t. It just means that things will probably be more even with the two parties acting as partners instead of one dictating everything.

Lots of other things can affect the way your societal structure develops here, but location and what is available to shape the people’s way of life will have some influence on this as well.

Location’s Role in Dress and Daily Life

The way location plays a role in these is probably more obvious. If your environment is a steamy jungle, you’re not going to dress like an Eskimo. The reverse is also true. No one in an arctic environment is going to go out wearing a loincloth or cotton shift. It just doesn’t end well. So where the society is located will dictate how they dress.

It also dictates daily life. As I mentioned above, some societies might be set-up for hunting and gathering while others may be focused on trade and agriculture. These two ways of life are very different and result in very different average days for the people living those lives. Knowing what type of location you have and what impact it makes on lifestyle is extremely important because it’s going to determine a lot about a character coming out of that culture.

Location’s Role in Shaping Characters

This one very directly relates to your story. The skill sets of your characters will depend to a large degree upon where they live. If they’ve never lived anywhere with snow or ice, they’re probably not going to know how to ski or how one might go about tracking in the snow. On the flip side, someone who never lived in a jungle environment wouldn’t know how to gather food, figure out what plants were edible or poisonous, or find clean water.

Not only that, since location shapes the culture they grow up with, the things they’re taught and what they feel is appropriate or inappropriate will vary accordingly.

Characters from temperate or cold zones might look as a character who dresses in nearly see-through cotton dresses as being either crazy or scandalous because they would never wear anything like that, even inside out of the cold. The character from the warmer climates would look at the character from a cold zone and think the same thing about some of their traditions and manners.

This is something that’s important to consider as you’re building the society. Make note of places where cultures will differ and might clash. By taking these notes now as you build the necessary cultures or societies, you’ll lessen your work later when you build characters from those places. You’ll already know what basic things they should think are right and wrong, strange or normal, and crazy or sane just based on the culture they’re from.

Location’s Effect on Infrastructure

This is another place where location has a big impact. Living in a zone prone to tornadoes will necessitate infrastructure that is much different from a society that deals with sandstorms.

The main thing to think about here is what the location’s climate is like and what kind of weather might be endured. From there, determine what kinds of features the buildings and structures of the society might have developed to deal with this.

Places that endure terrible storms might end up building houses that are squat and low with slanted rooftops to help with wind-resistance. But a place that deals with constant flooding might build their houses up on stilts to keep the lower levels from being flooded every time it rains.

These are just a few ways that infrastructure might be adapted for location. Take time to figure out what your societies’ infrastructures need to look like for their locations.

Conclusion

As you can see, location impacts a great deal about the society you end up building there. Considering these factors will help you to avoid inconsistency or lack of believability later on in your story.

Do you have other thoughts on how location can affect the societies built there? If so, feel free to share those in the comments!