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Braiding Plots
by Alison Kent

I tend to date my writing career as beginning in 1990. That was the year I discovered and joined Romance Writers of America. I'd toyed with one story the year before, and that story was my first to complete, my first to submit, and earned my first rejection.

Since then, I've written over a dozen novels and sold even more - all, in fact, but that very first one. (That doesn't mean I don't have at least two dozen uncompleted, unsold projects because I do!)

I reached the point a few books ago where I'm now able to sell on synopsis. And writing a synopsis is a true difficulty when you have trouble with plot. Like me.

My synopses, in fact, are almost nothing more than studies in character growth with vague plot points thrown in. I joke with my husband and my critique partner that my books are all plotless wonders.

Obviously, I have a subliminal grasp of plotting or I wouldn't have sold the number of books I have sold. My current writing goal, however, is to master plotting. To learn what makes up a plot and how to weave those elements into a cohesive story.

Don't get me wrong. I still believe that the basis of a strong story is its characters, but those characters need something to do in order for the story to be worth reading.

So what I want to offer you are a couple of tips that I have found to be almost magical in weaving a romance plot into the central plot while wrapping subplots in and around.

And these tips involve office supplies - a writer's best friend!

It helps me to have a visual layout of the various plotlines I'm working to braid together, rather than trying to keep them straight either in my head or in a narrative synopsis. These tricks are ones I've picked up in workshops I've attended over the years. By no means are they original.

So, first of all you need BIG paper, either posterboard or newsprint sheets.

Next you need markers, colored, one for each plot line. And finally white index cards.

Now to begin.

Say, for example, you are writing a story where a stranger rides into town and hires on to help a widow save her farm by bringing in a bountiful crop in order to pay off the mortgage loan her husband took out from the local banker to cover gambling debts. (Main plot)

The stranger (hero) has come to town in search of the outlaws who killed his brother. (Hero's plot)

The widow (heroine) cannot lose the land because both her mother and father as well as her two stillborn children are buried in the family plot on the hill. If she can't come up with the money, her only choice will be to marry the banker's evil son. (Heroine's plot)

The banker and his evil son want the land because of hidden gold but the widow is in their way. (Antagonist plot)

On the paper you are going to draw a different colored line for each of your interwoven plots.

Red will be your main plot-this is the struggle of the hero & heroine to save the farm. Along this line you will mark the events that effect this plot line only. Drought, fire, etc.

Blue will be your hero's plot-the search for his brother's killer. Along this line you will mark his progress and his pitfalls.

Pink will be your heroine's plot-her struggle to pay off the debt and fend off the banker's evil son. Along this line you will mark the heroine's personal struggles-dealing with her husband's betrayal, the unwanted suitor, etc.

The events you mark on the blue and pink lines will often be internal events, emotional decisions and dealings that propel your characters toward their personal goals.

The fourth line, purple, is the romance plot. Along this line you will mark the progression of the romance. The awareness, the first kiss, the events that bring your hero and heroine closer to love.

The fifth line, black, is the antagonist's line where you will show the plotting and scheming of the banker and his evil son.

Now, the events you've marked along each line will be the natural progression of that story arc from beginning through various scenes and acts to the climax.

By marking these events along each line, you can see the relationship between your various stories, how an event in the antagonist's plot will effect the main plot, etc.

This way you have a perfect chart of cause and effect from beginning to end.

The second step is to take your index cards and, using corresponding color coding, list each of the story events from each plot line. (This is extra cool if you use colored index cards!) Then lay out your cards in progressive story order.

One look and you'll be able to see if one particular plot line is overwhelming the rest, or if you've failed to resolve one plot point that impacts another.

If you're writing a romance, then you should have a lot of purple cards.

If you're writing more action suspense, then your main plot line needs sufficient attention.

Having your cards laid out this way shows you exactly where you need to add, adjust, or rearrange the emphasis of story events for proper impact.

Ordering your events also points out pitfalls in pacing.

You can visually eyeball where you've overlooked the hero's personal quest while spending too much time focused on the heroine's need to save the plot of land where her family is buried.

This is so important when you're dealing with subplots that are dependent upon one another for their cause and effect.

It's hard to miss plot points or inadvertently drop clues in the wrong order when you have each scene outlined so simply.

If you've studied Robert McKee's book STORY or done research into the basic three-act structure, you can even better use the plot line method of cutting your individual plots into their proper story arcs along their line.

And I have no clever ending but to say, "Go forth and braid."

Articles Index > Braiding Plots