I’ve always been a bit suspicious of plotting devices – particular software – because I figured that they stop you doing the actual writing. That said, I have terrible problems (or differences!) with sequencing, partly because of my dyslexia, partly because I prefer drafting and redrafting to outlining and structuring. Also I’m not too bad at getting words down on the page. Put it this way, I just archived thousands of files that were really hard to navigate but the shear volume of words was overwhelming: loads of words, difficult on the navigation and structure. So a few months ago I decided to research structuring methods to find something I liked. As I’ve been a Creative Writing lecturer for a fairly long time, I had a good idea of what was out there but I didn’t have one particular system I enjoyed using.
I have written a book about how to write a novel, which goes into detail on structure – and in that book I only suggest ideas I’ve used myself, but when it comes to structuring I feel like I need some support. The nearest analogy I can think of is this: when you’re camping and putting up a tent, you need tent poles and pegs, and you need to know what order they go in. An imperfect metaphor, but I hope you see what I mean. I went looking for help with my tent poles. That was when I came across K. M. Weiland’s work on outlining and structuring your novel.
I printed the plan of my novel out today so I could get a sense of how much I’ve done and how much there’s still to do, and I realised that once more I need help with my tent poles. The story is there. I’ve planned it, I’ve written most of the first draft, but I need help with sequencing. K. M. Weiland has just released some software based on her books, so although I’m a software cynic I thought I’d give it a go. So, when I wasn’t being distracted today, when I wasn’t sorting out my files and folders, and when I’d finished setting up a Facebook page, I had a look at the software and started entering some information about the premise, the characters and the story. I had a question about the main character’s motivation and I found that by answering the questions I both asked and answered the question (and it had been bothering me for ages). I’m not sure what it would be like to start your novel from scratch this way. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work for me, because I think you need a sense of your themes and characters before you investigate software. I’ve got the opposite going on: too much information, so I felt excited adding my story into the software. No, Virginia Woolf and Agatha Christie didn’t use plotting software, but they might have done if they’d been living in the 21st century.