Document Map, Microsoft Word and Plotting Novels

How to plot novels and other forms of long fiction is a burning question for many of my writing students. I mentioned The Plotting Problem in a blog post a couple of weeks ago, and how it relates to the plot being more than a head-full of information. 

Document Map in Microsoft Word is helpful to me in tackling this problem - particularly in the stage where I have already written some tens of thousands of words but do not yet have the whole structure clear in my mind. I use it to provide a map of the chapters and sections of the novel – presented in a side bar at the edge of the computer screen. Armed with that visual overview I find the emerging structure easier to comprehend. 

 

Clearly, this system won't be appropriate for everyone. But I thought I would share it in the hope that it might be useful to some.

Screen-shot, showing Document Map enabled

In this screenshot you can see my setup for novel writing using Microsoft Word. The first thing you will probably notice is the colour tint in the background of the page. Background colour can be defined as part of the page setup. Like many dyslexics, I get a certain amount of visual stress when reading black text on a white background. Having an ivory, amber or straw-coloured background is far more easy for me to work with.

The document map can be seen down the left hand side of the page. Every bit of text in your document that is defined as a heading will appear there. I use the ‘Normal’ style for the body of each chapter, the ‘Heading 2’ style for chapter headings themselves and the ‘Heading 1’ style to mark out my act structure: Part One, Part Two and Part Three - or more if necessary.

 

Styles are accessed under the Home tab at the top of the page in Microsoft Word. Document map is enabled by checking the appropriate box under the 'View' tab.

 

Styles on the 'Home' tab

In the screenshot, I have clicked ‘Part One’ in the document map to open out that section, revealing all the chapters within it. I could similarly collapse it down with a click and open up any of the other sections.

Document Map close-up

To assist me in navigating the document, I the chapters names. These are memory joggers to help me know what is in each chapter. But once the novel has been written and edited, I remove the names. They are like scaffolding - taken down after a building has been constructed. The act structure markers are also removed at that stage.

 

The screenshot is from the opening page of my novel The Bullet Catcher's Daughter, which is being published by Angry Robot in September.

Tastes and Tales at the Delish Deli

The Delish Deli and Kitchen in Rugby is the sort of place that makes your mouth water. Literally. Just step through the door and inhale.

But last night it served up something different. Tastes and Tales was an evening of munches and moody readings from three novelists: bestselling crime writer Samantha Hayes, dark fantasy author Joseph D’Lacey and myself.

What’s a deli doing hosting a literary evening? That was the question in my mind when Joseph invited me to take part. Readings only happen in Libraries and festivals, surely?

Apparently not.

I arrived to find rows of chairs filling the shop (all tickets had been sold.) With the lights turned down and clusters of candles artfully positioned around the room, the atmosphere was perfect for the dark readings ahead. And did I mention that yummy smell?

 

Samantha Hayes reads from "Until You're Mine"

I don’t want to review the readings here (except to say that I had great fun listening to Sam and Joseph, who are excellent writers. I would happily have sat there listening to each of them for much longer.) What I do want to say is how much I admire the creative thinking of the people at Delish Deli for putting on such an evening.

Between each serving of literature, they circulated with platters of food for the delighted guests. Being unable to eat anything with gluten (and not having told them beforehand) I had to watch most of it pass by. But I must mention the vegetarian scotch eggs which, to judge by Joseph D’Lacey’s expression as he bit into one, must have been exquisite. Happily the strawberries dipped in chocolate were gluten free.    

Joseph D'Lacey at Tastes and Tales



This is a time of rapid change in the world of books and publishing. Our wonderful publishers, bookshops and libraries are having to adapt as they try to find their place in the digital world.  It is a challenging time for those who don’t like change. But for those who embrace it there are new and exciting opportunities. One of the things that has impressed me about my new publisher Angry Robot (who also publish Joseph’s books) is their fresh thinking and adaptability.  

Where do Dark Tales at the Delish Deli fit in to this new world? All I can say is this: they sold all the tickets, the atmosphere was excellent, many books were bought and stories listened to, the authors were paid and everyone went home happy.  All this at a time when writers are struggling to make ends meet, bookshops are closing at an alarming rate and libraries are cutting their hours.

Such was the success of the evening, I feel sure Delish will put on more similar events in future. And if they invite me to go, I will jump at the chance.

Land of Broken Promises - by Margaret Penfold

Patsy by Margaret Penfold is the first novel in the Land of Broken Promises trilogy. On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the book’s launch in Leicester.

Margaret and I belong to the same writers’ group, so I have seen many extracts from the trilogy over the last few years. I knew roughly what it was about, but I was still in for some surprises.

The three novels are set during the British Mandate of Palestine. Each follows the story of a different woman, one English, one Jewish and one a Muslim Arab. In seeing those formative years from three different perspectives, the series manages to give a beautifully balanced view of what is a tangled and bitterly contested piece of history.
 

Margaret Penfold reads from Patsy - Land of Broken Promises

All this I knew. The surprise for me was learning the lengths to which Margaret went to get to the truth of each story. Part of it was based on memories of her own childhood in Palestine. But the research she needed to do in addition was extensive and painstaking. But even after that she knew that in order to be faithful to the Jewish and Arab perspectives, she would need to find people from those backgrounds to talk help her. This included travelling to Israel.

But the most stunning part of Margaret’s excellent presentation was a reading (one I had not heard before.)  In it she describes the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 from the point of view of someone inside the building. It was an extraordinary piece of writing, made all the more so when we learned that it was based on her father’s first-hand account.

When people describe novels, the word ‘important’ is bandied around quite loosely. But in this case it is appropriate. This is an important book. And an important series of books. Conflict would be easier solved if we all did what Margaret has done so successfully here, and saw the story from the other person’s point of view.

Bravo to the publisher, Bluewood, for grabbing the chance to get this story out.

 

The power of the edit suite - part 2

Further to yesterday's post about a movie being a story told three times, here is another fabulous re-cut trailer. Yesterday we saw a children's story turned into a horror trailer. This one takes one of the scariest films of all time and makes it into an up-beat romance.

The art of telling a story three times

A movie is a story told three times - once in the writer's study, once in front of the cameras and once in the edit suite. I had heard this said, but it was during the making of the feature film “How to make a movie for £43” that I saw the proof.

I came up with the concept behind the movie. I wrote the screenplay. I might have fondly thought that it was therefore MY story. But then I saw what other people did with it: the genius of the director Rhys Davies in being able to take scenes I had written and transform them into a visual vocabulary that told so much more than I had anticipated, the actors, discovering depths and comedy in the characters that I could not have imagined. I could go on and list all the different production roles, because each of them is a storyteller, from make-up artist to DOP and everyone in between.

As for the editor - anyone who doubts the amount of storytelling that happens in the edit suite should definitely watch this re-cut trailer for Mary Poppins. The same footage used to tell an entirely different story. Not for those of a nervous disposition!

Five ways to generate story ideas

Where do you get your story ideas from? Here are five tips:

Many stories come from asking questions. What would happen if... Thought is free so be as wild as you like. What would happen if a whale materialised high above the planet? No, wait - someone already wrote that one. Stories can come from extrapolation. Read the driest news article from the most serious paper, then ask yourself about the people the story implies. The people in the background.

Don't be afraid of using up all your story ideas. The more stories you tell, the faster you'll find new ideas coming to you. The world is full of stories. All we have to do is train ourselves to notice them. One way to do that is to keep a notebook and get into the habit of jotting down ideas when they flit through our minds.

Other people's lives are a great source of story ideas. Happily, people love to talk about themselves. It is their favourite subject. Be a good listener and you'll have more stories than you can write.

I have a faulty digital radio that cuts out at random, usually leaving sentences unfinished. It is exasperating at times, but perfect for a storyteller. When the radio dies, my mind jumps forward, trying to complete the story.

I am willing to sell the faulty digital radio/story generating machine. All reasonable offers considered. Now, that gives me an idea for a story...

~

 

The first version of this article was first published in the original Author Intrusion blog in September 2010.



The Plotting Problem

The plotting problem goes like this:

• The plot of a novel can fit in a barrel.
• The plot of a feature film can fit in a bucket.
• But the working memory in our brains only holds a cup-full.
• Therefore, the plot of a work of long fiction is more than fits in your head.

The miracle is that writers DO manage to conceive of and manipulate the plot of long fiction.

But how they do it - this seems to vary from writer to writer.