I’ve recently entered the brainstorming stage of my next book. It’s a fun, crazy time. Sometimes my mood is rainbows. Sometimes it’s angst. Right now my mood wants lists (as it often does), so here you go: a step-by-step guide to plotting a book. All you writers out there, this is for you. You’re welcome.
1. Find the most inconvenient time/place. Showers are good. Cars, too. Lying in bed, comfortable, mostly asleep? Perfect.
2. Think about something else.
3. Bolt of lightning crashes above you, singeing little bits of your hair as it sizzles past. Geez, that was close.
4. You’ve got it! THE idea! (By the way, you’re brilliant. Good job.)
5. Ignore it or write it down? Debate the options. Decide to wait. You are wet/busy steering/warm and comfortable. The idea can hold…Can’t it?
6. Suddenly remember the last time you told yourself that. Disgraced and petulant, that particular World’s Best Idea slunk away, never to return again. The only things you remember about it are that it had something to do with the letter ‘R’ and it felt like perfection on a milkshake. So, yeah, not helpful.
7. Curse your memory. Curse the timing of lightning. Curse the notepad, which always parts ways with the pen you were certain you put it next to. Curse writing. Who invented it, anyway? It’s their fault you’re even in this mess.
8. Find both the pen and the notebook. Finally.
9. The pen even works. It’s a miracle. Celebrate.
10. But not too long, because ideas have an expiration date, and this one’s nearing it.
11. Grab a towel/pull off the road/sit up in the dark.
12. Write. Begin to feel giddy. This is the best idea ever! Ooh! And there’s a nice subplot! And a turning point! The first? Second? Whatever. You’ll figure it out.
13. Maybe later, though, since you ARE naked and freezing and hogging the bathroom/getting honked at/burning under the glare of a grumbly spouse who JUST WANTS YOU TO TURN OUT THE LIGHT ALREADY. These people do not understand the joys of writing, poor things. They deserve your pity.
14. There’s no time for pity. You have an idea to write. Get back to work.
15. When you are satisfied, stash the notebook and pen and resume your mundane, non-writing task, all the while planning time to type in those pages and further flesh out your idea before you a) forget what you meant by “arrow moonbeam swirl” and b) forget how to read your own handwriting.
16. Repeat process until book is outlined. Then repeat throughout the writing phase. And revisions. And after you turn in your revisions. And basically until you start a new book. And maybe even a little after that.
BONUS STEP: Later, when you are visiting an elementary school, describing your writing process, an earnest third grader will ask you where your ideas come from. A few good answers may cross your mind: Wal*Mart, the newspapers, dreams. But ultimately you will find yourself telling the truth: “Bad timing. My best ideas come from the worst timing.”
I am so relieved that I am doing things right 🙂 My best ideas always come as I am drifting off to sleep. Gotta put a notebook under the bed with a glow pen or something. This list is SO my life right now.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and, yes, parks and pools count as fun events. Totally.
Ha! Love it. My favorite was number 15. It’s so true, even if I get up to write it down, the next morning I can’t make sense of it because I wrote it in the dark so as not to disturb the poor shmuck who made the mistake of marrying a writer.
Ha ha! Well said. Sometimes I feel sorry for my husband for marrying a writer, too. We’re not always easy to live with, are we?
OMG! You crack me up. This is all so so so so very very very true. I have lost a couple great ideas because I thought I’d remember them when I got out of bed in the morning. Stupid me! This is a fantastic post. I love your voice. 😀
Thank you so much, Julia!
I do the same thing as you with telling myself I’ll remember in the morning. In fact, that happened just last week, and was part of the inspiration for this post. It never works, though. I feel like I should know better by now, but it still happens.
You are too hysterical, Caryn!
Thanks, Heather! 😀
I love to plot while I mow or weed the flower beds. But lying in bed works well too!
Oh, yes! I can see why gardening would be perfect for plotting. It keeps your hands busy, but your mind can wander, and connecting with nature is very inspiring.
LOL! It’s funny ’cause is true! How many nights have I NOT slept–thank you stories ideas? Whew! I’ve opted to carrying a digital recorder any time I’m away from home.
Smart! I know a lot of writers who’ve been saved by their digital recorders.
Funny, sad, and true. Love the best/worst answer about where you get your ideas!
Thanks! I just know I’d have a whole answer planned out, and in the end I would blurt out the truth. Oh, well. Honesty is a good thing, right? 😉
Absolutely! I have had so many ideas when I really needed to get to sleep and had already shut everything down.
That’s the worst, isn’t it? When you want to type instead and you already have everything shut down for the night? It’s why I rarely turn my poor, tired laptop off, even at night.
So funny and true. Sometimes I get ideas from weird places, like from the newspaper or reading street signs on vacation.
Love the idea of finding inspiration from street signs. So much potential there! You never know where or when the ideas will come, do you?
lol at #5 I do that all the time and seem to never learn
Me, too! Even when I know it’s a mistake. It’s just so hard to switch gears sometimes.