Plotting the swampy middle.

[buglovin]

Hi. First post, so bear with me. A little intro.  I'm a novice screenwriter/director with grand delusions that I want to tell stories to entertain the masses.  I had a concept that I was going to write as a screenplay, but realized early on that it was far too in depth for 100 minutes of screen time.  So, I put that on the back burner, wrote a few more screenplays, filmed most of a movie (production died a horrible death), and then lost all confidence in my writing/creative prowess.

Well, I'm back.  After a year(or so) of heavy self-loathing, and only a few creative endeavors, I'm feeling the need to be creative again.  So I've dusted off my over zealous script idea and decided that the characters really want to be a part of a book.  I've been working on the idea in my head and it has branched to trilogy of plotlines, a fairly interesting cast of characters, and a heaping of pseudo-political intrigue(which really isn't my thing, go figure?). 

In steps my problem.  You see, I'm an outliner.   Not a rigid, everything is there outliner, but a solid backbone, see where the story goes between major scenes type of guy.  This works pretty well for me in the screenwriting world.  But for this idea, I have what I think is a strong start and a great finish where all three subplots come crashing together, however, the "great swampy middle", is playing hard to get.  How should I best approach the middle if I'm feeling strong at the beginning and end?  I've been trying to go from the end, and work my way backward, but as an analytical type of person, my brain is giving me fits. Almost always in the past, I've started at scene 1 and plotted straight through to "the end".

It's not that I don't know what I need to do in the middle.  My subplots have logical needs, but the change from screenplays, where everything is somewhat vague and not as full bodied to a robust, no holds barred novel setting is bogging me down.  When you outline a novel with multiple threads, do you outline individual subplots and then weave them together, or is it better to look at the project as a whole?  The swampy middle has me and I can't find my hip waders.  How do you guys go about multiple subplots in the initial phase of writing?

All help is greatly appreciated and I've learned a great deal just from reading this forum.
buglovin

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I am unconvinced middle is inherently swampy, but that could be just me.

How I would do that would be; structure, structure, structure.

You have three subplots ? Locate the key scenes along them, the ones that really matter. Then figure out where you want to put them, pacing wise. They're the pillars for your suspension bridge.  (Jim's concept of the Big Middle seems to me in the same direction as this notion, except that he as I understand it is talking about a single major support between beginning and end, and myself I tend to use more, though I suspect if I could ever write a novel as short as Storm Front it might well only need one.) Do you want them coinciding ? Do you want them complementary - key moment of revelation in thread A while threads B and C are in moments of transition ?  Do you want the transitions between threads to play up similarity or intensify contrast ? How can you make them echo well off each other ? How much are the people in any thread thinking of the others ?  How much can little things in any one of the threads echo defined key things in the others ?

[buglovin]

How much can little things in any one of the threads echo defined key things in the others ?

See.  After reading that, I think I understand a little more of my trepidation.  My biggest problem, is that the threads need to be woven together in such a way that the "thread echos" do define and trigger events and understanding in the main character.  The intricacy of the weaving is what is killing me.  I keep thinking that the middle won't work as well if I keep to my old screenwriter's loose outlining style.  I need to plot out more pillars so that it is less likely to run astray.

I think the fact that I'm adding more subplots in a novel that I would have ever thought about for a standard screenplay is what has me stalling.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I think the fact that I'm adding more subplots in a novel that I would have ever thought about for a standard screenplay is what has me stalling.

I think at best a screenplay can accurately represent a story the size of a novella (unless you happen to be William Goldman, which basically not many people are).  Either significantly longer (or indeed significantly shorter, as witness the stuff added to Where the Wild Things Are to make it at all workable as a feature-length film, the text is ten sentences long) just isn't going to work like a screenplay; and I am quite out of sympathy with the Robert McKee-ish notion of writing novels as if they were screenplays.

What are all the subplots for, and how do they each add to what you are doing as a whole ? Does that give you some means of organising them ?  I'm currently in the process of writing the ending to a roughly 500,000 word novel with eight major viewpoint characters, after leaving it on the backburner for a long while, so this is in the front of my mind recently.

[Kris_W]

Somebody sagely said, “You can make a story a comedy or tragedy simply by selecting the point where you begin and end the tale.” From that I (somehow) get to the idea that every point in a story is the beginning and the end of something.

So, best way to handle the middle is to find those beginnings and ends embedded in there. At every moment in your tale ask yourself “What would the story be like if I start telling it here?” AND “What would this story be like if I end the tale here?”

Pull the excitement you need for the middle by showing aspects of those beginnings and endings.


* Sounds good, and dang, I wish it were really that easy. *sigh*

[belial.1980]

I feel your pain. I always have solid ideas for the beginning and then a climatic ending in mind but the middle stuff tends to get tough for me to traverse.

You said that you've got three major threads that you're looking to weave together. I don't know if this works for you but maybe instead of trying to weave them together from the onset just write one at a time. Without knowing more about the structure of your novel I can't offer any specifics but you could try to write thread A from begining to end. There might be huge gaps but you can always fill those later. Once you've written thread B and C you can then get to the messy work of splicing them--cutting and pasting and putting scenes in some kind of general order. Once you've got that worked out you can always go in there and fix it. I wouldn't stress over making something seemless on the first go.

Another thing that might help is writing scenes nonsequentially. I myself write most of my scenes in order but not all of them Sometimes I get to a point where I'm just not happy with a scene or I'm just not "feeling" it. So then I go write another scene that I feel better equipped to tackle. This might work for you since you seem to have a pretty good idea of where the story is going.

Plotting outlines can be helpful but when it comes down to it I think it's best just to write to get something on paper. Remember that you can always go back and change something. Good luck!

[meg_evonne]

Uhm, I'm going to chime in that everyone above has really good ideas.  And as to your 2nd post--both, each individual thread and all at once.  It's a balancing act.  We've talked about ways to chart this on poster board, in excel sheets etc. but you might find the visual aspect helps keep things balanced.  Give a color post it to each subplot and check your weaving.

As for me?  I'm character driven and I'm a firm believer that the characters are on a journey though the book and arriving somewhere different by the end. (Or when I'm contrary I will route one right back to where he started as an utter failure--so s/he has to start off again and hope not to make the same mistakes.)  My subplots always involve a journey for the character, even minor characters if I can make it work that way.

[This is how I see life, so this is organic in my writing.  Deciding to stop at a diner in hoodunk Itsy Bitsy Kansas (or other state or world or country) changes life in small ways in my opinion.  Hum, that makes me very eastern philosophy.  Who was that Buddist monk fighter?  Well, that's how I view life, so my POV might be different than a lot of people.]

So I have their beginnings and where I want them to go.  Then I chart all the logical things that need to happen to get to the end of each character subplot.  Then it's a matter of timing, weaving, and creating tension/action/romantic/clue finding scenes that will bring out those steps for the characters.*  Keeps me on track too.  Wrangling characters can be as difficult as herding cats.   

Doubt that helps, but good luck to you.

*And I insist that every scene impacts 66% at a minimum of the subplots, so you really have to get the thinking cap on.  The goal is the final last step with 100%, but that isn't horrid if it winds up over the course of maybe three scenes at the end.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

*And I insist that every scene impacts 66% at a minimum of the subplots, so you really have to get the thinking cap on.  The goal is the final last step with 100%, but that isn't horrid if it winds up over the course of maybe three scenes at the end.

This is a sight easier with three subplots than with twelve or fifteen.

[meg_evonne]

Indubitably dear multi-level Neurovore.

I'm many learning curves behind you.  My recent work's learning piece if how to control and move around six characters.  So I'm only trying to weave seven.  Six on one side and One for the villain.  That is keeping me quite engaged as it is.  Ask me after a few more years and we'll see if I've risen to the level of 12 or more. LOL

And as you know I'm still fighting my way slowly through the countless POVs.  My first POV technique is wrapped up, my third intimate POV is wrapped up.  I suppose my next attempt will try a more distant 3rd...   Or maybe, just maybe I will have leveled up enough that I'm happy right there for some time to come.  Wait, there is my massive historical fiction that is distant 3rd disaster that I could...