Finishing Sarah Waters’ Affinity reminded me how important good plotting is for good storytelling.  Sometimes as writers we can get a bit lost in one character or another and forget that keeping the story moving is important too. 

Think of plot as the road that leads you from one end of your piece to the other.  Too many diversions or roadworks and you get a little confused or a little lost.  Ask yourself as you’re writing, Where is this going?   Some writers will even benefit from a map – plotting out their route from start to finish.  Others like to take the road as it comes.  Either way, keep in mind that you are going somewhere… Sarah Waters is a planner, a map maker.  And reading her work, you can see just how well it serves her.  Here are her thoughts on plot –

I pretty much had the whole plots worked out before I began writing; the exciting part, then, came in discovering how my characters felt about each other, and about the (sometimes dastardly) things I needed them to do. (Sarah Waters)

And here are 3 practical plot tips from me:

1- Keep your characters doing something.  Too much sitting around and staring out the window is deathly for your plot.

2- Each scene should move the story forward in some way – even if it’s only a small step.  Think about how the scenes connect to each other and how one leads into another.  Be ruthless in cutting out scenes that don’t serve your story.

3- Read well plotted books.  Learning from (and being inspired by) writers like Sarah Waters is part of your job as a writer.

Having quotations from other authors around to inspire a writer is always helpful.  This is an extract from one of the essays by Peter Selgin in his 179 Ways to Save a Novel:

There’s another kind of genius, though, immeasurable and mysterious, that can’t be willed or saddled or forced, that rises from the depths of our egoless souls, and that seems not to belong to but to be using us, laying claim to our bodies and brains as aliens do to their victims in horror movies. But artistic genius is a benevolent force, one that seizes only a few select souls that volunteer themselves—and even then genius may not strike. This type of genius isn’t a product of drudgery and has little to do with intellect; intellect may even be antithetical to it. But it has plenty to do with patience, courage, generosity, and faith: faith that the mystery will present itself; patience to wait as long as it takes; courage so if and when it does we may look it boldly in the eyes; and generosity to share with others what we have seen.

I’ve just read and loved YA novel If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  Simple and clear, sad and compelling.  Just the sort of novel I enjoy reading.  I’m in a writing phase where I’m reading everything I can, getting ideas and inspiration from books around me.  I finished Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen the other day and am starting Alice Hoffman’s The Story Sisters now.  Books are the galleries of the mind – and for a writer thinking about what to work on next they are like visiting rooms full of paintings.

Gayle Forman says: Such is the wonderous magic of writing.  There’s a wall.  And then, suddenly, there’s a door.

I like that.