Conclusion
So, the previous sections explain how the three elements of Plot – Themes – Characterisation form a story worth reading.
Callbacks for those who might have forgotten by now…
- A Plot without Problems is just ‘stuff happening’.
- SHOW, DON’T TELL themes
- Characters must affect the plot, and be affected by the plot: they’re real people, not wooden dummies
- Plot gives ACTION, themes give DEPTH, Characterisation gives CREDIBILITY
So, the point of everything I’ve handed you so far is that once you’ve filled your spreadsheet structure out, the actual writing itself becomes EASY.
All of a sudden, you sit down at your keyboard and waiting for you on your screen is a list for what needs including in each passage.
Writer’s block? Thing of the past, my friend.
Even if you’re not “feeling it”, even if the passage you’re scheduled to do isn’t coming easily, you can bash out something that covers the necessaries and you can come back to it later when you’re in the zone, or when you get a brainwave.
I found there were days where I was really in Ron’s head and writing his passages came easily to me, so I used my spreadsheet to hit a few Ron episodes. Other days, I was interested in certain parts of the story, normally because of the research I’d been doing along the way, and I would focus on those.
With this Skeleton Key method, it gives you the freedom to write what you want, and not necessarily in the order of the events in the finished piece.
And YES - the process as described can feel like it takes the “fun” out of writing: but there’s nothing to say you can’t go a little off-piste if an idea springs into your head. This happened with WSP on more than one occasion: the trio being met at Hogsmeade by Hagrid did little else other than inject some nostalgia into proceedings and give a little info about what Hagrid had been up to all these years… but it ALSO set up the distress of him being attacked later, when you realise he’s got something to lose. Establishing ‘stakes’ for any character’s involvement in a story also gives great motivation to the other characters.
Ultimately, the process I’ve detailed is how MOST decent stories are written, these days. It’s a process no AI can fake, because it’s just too complex, multi-faceted and … human.
There are various formulas different authors have created for themselves which they stuck with due to success. It IS a complicated process, but if you follow it, what results is a tightly-written, well-thought out novel rather than a chaotic, haphazard product. Every time you start a passage, you have to ask yourself “What does this passage need to achieve?" If you’re unsure, then your readers will be, too.
This whole piece I’ve written here relates to novels you intend to release as a complete work. Serial works, released as they are written, can be excellent, but they are hard going as a reader, and never contain the level of polish and overall satisfying structure that a novel written by a careful author contains. There is craft and significant hard work involved in plotting out a novel, let alone writing the prose with nothing in front of you other than a blank page and a blinking cursor.
I found that knowing where I was going, what I was including and how my characters would behave in the scenes I was sitting down to write actually increased my enjoyment of writing the prose, and in fact freed me from pausing my flow to work out what I needed to do next or remember some intricate point of the investigation I needed to cover.
It also needs saying that, in following this process to draft a novel, you get to know your story inside out, front to back, and top to bottom. You’ll be able to weed out inconsistencies and irrelevancies, you’ll be weighing up the value of including a certain plot beat against pacing, and wondering whether you can afford to shorthand certain action sequences for the sake of giving your characters time to say their bit. You’ll naturally detect exposition and root it out in favour of dialogue. You’ll thread themes through your work that will drip into the consciousness of your readers. You’ll be able to focus on how the writing needs to be, rather than the CONTENT. It frees your mind up to be as creative as you can be.
The one biggest point I will say, however, about writing anything you value and want others to value…
Respect your readers’ valuable time by putting in effort, and they will respect your work back.
If you enjoyed what I’ve shared, if it’s helped you, or if you have questions, feel free to reach out on the Contact section.
SLJ