Day 11: A Quick and Dirty Plot

Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle from theworldneedsyourbook.com here. Today is day 11 of the challenge and we are talking about a quick and dirty plot. We are on day 11 of the challenge and today we're doing a quick and dirty plot. So what we're gonna focus on today is doing the 5 tentpole moments of your story. I'm gonna use this tool I have called the Ultimate Novel Plotter, and it will take you through 6 questions. So you answer these questions for each character and character arc that you have. So you don't need to answer this for your secondary characters, your tertiary characters, but really you probably want to answer this for your protagonist, maybe for your antagonist. I think it can be really helpful, especially if your antagonist is a person. And then if you have any other point of view characters, typically it can be really helpful to answer these questions for them as well. So, um, some of these questions we've already answered. So the fatal flaw and transformation, we already talked about this. That was day 7, which was about character fatal flaws. So you can actually go back and look at that, and then I will you know, I'll explain the other ones. So here it is, the quick and dirty plot. Um, you can do this, uh, using this, uh, sheet, and you do this for each character. So on one side of this timeline is the internal arc, so that's the fatal flaw and false beliefs that we talked about in days 7 and Day 8. And then the external arc is the motivation and goals. We talked about that in Days 9 and Day 10. So what we're doing is we're really just trying to, um, figure out the biggest moments of the novel based on a lot of the stuff that we've already done. So the timeline, uh, there are a couple different markers on it. So we have 0 to 100%. This is, uh, the, the range of your novel. So 0% is the very beginning of your novel, 100% is the end of your novel, the last page of your novel. So you can really plot this based on two different structures. So the first one is you can do the traditional storytelling structure, which is 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. And so what that is, it really brings the— it brings the decision to about the 25% mark. It brings, you know, going into the final battle to about the 75% mark. You can also, depending on your genre, it may make more sense for you to have that setup piece only be the first 10% of your novel instead of being 25% of your novel. And if you are going to do that, then that means that the final part of your book— so, you know, what's typically considered Act 3, or the, you know, the final battle sequence— that could be 90% to 100% of your book. And so you would have just a much longer Act 2, and you would condense Act 1 and Act 3 in that case. Or, you know, if you're using, um, the 4-part story structure, you would have the setup or the orphan energy stage be just 0 to 10% instead of 0 to 25%. And you would have the, um, the martyr stage, which is also called the resolution in the 4-part structure, that would be 90 to 100% rather than 75 to 100%. So you'll want to make that decision based on your genre. Sometimes, you know, thrillers can sometimes have those abbreviated pieces. And another place that I've seen that a lot is like a romance novel. So sometimes in a romance novel, you know, 0 to 10% is really the whole setup. And then, you know, we already know at that point, like Oh, well, this is an arranged marriage or whatever. And then so then the rest of that intersection is really about them falling in love and like it's the other romance beats for that. So some books are going to, and some genres are gonna work better with just the traditional ones. So I know fantasy is one of those. Science fiction, mystery, like typically you have quite a bit to build in that setup piece, so that's 0 to 25%, and you'll want to stretch out that section and not condense it to the 10% because there's just a little bit too much information. All right, so make that decision first because you're going to need to know how much space you have for all of these markers. So the first question is, what is this character's fatal flaw? Because this is going to drive this whole entire internal arc. And so, um, you should already know the answer to this question. If not, go back to the character, um, character fatal flaws, day 7. And so you'll want to put that somewhere between either the 0 to 25% mark or between the 0 to 10% mark. And you want to put it on the left side because that's where the internal arc is. And so you'll want, you just wanna list that out there. If you'd like, you can list out those false beliefs as well in that column. You may want to wait until you have a couple more of these questions answered. So you may want to fill that out kind of at the last part of this. So with that, you know the fatal flaw, and so you may want to put its counterpart, the motivation on the other side, on that external arc side on the right. And then the same with the goals. You may want to fill those out as you fill out the false beliefs because you should kind of already have those figured out and in alignment. So the next question is, what is your character's difficult decision? That's the 25% mark, or the 10% mark if you are doing a condensed setup and a condensed final battle. So this question— what basically what happens is you have what's called an inciting incident. And so that is, um, it's basically the extraordinary, uh, out, you know, the extraordinary thing that happens that is out of the ordinary. So for example, in The Hunger Games Katniss is kind of having an ordinary day, and then we find out it's not completely an ordinary day. So at first she's like hunting, and this is like something she does all the time, but then we find out that it's not actually an ordinary day, it's an extraordinary day because there is a reaping ceremony later that day. So she has to dress up in her best clothes and she has to attend. It's a mandatory attendance. It's also the first year that her younger sister is in the reaping. So we have ordinary day, we have extraordinary day, and then we have the inciting incident. So in this story, the inciting incident is that even though Primrose's name is, you know, not— it's only in there once— that name is drawn. And so that means that Primrose, her younger sister, is selected for the Hunger Games. And then she makes a difficult decision. It's a very split-second decision for her, but it's, it's the one that she ends up making, um, which is the, uh, so this, so this is, it's, it's kind of still an inciting incident, but she basically makes a split-second decision that she is going to take her sister's place in The Hunger Games. So she volunteers as a tribute. And it is essentially the decision, but that decision continues to unfold. So yes, she makes that decision, but over the next several chapters, it's still unfolding in the sense that she doesn't decide— she doesn't change her mind, she doesn't decide to run away, she doesn't, you know, she doesn't grab Primrose and like try to escape. Like, she doesn't do any of those things. Um, so the real decision is that she decides to go to the Hunger Games. Like, she's already going because she already volunteered, so they could force her, but she decides to go to the Hunger Games and she decides to try to win the Hunger Games. So that's the true decision. And if you look in the story, that, um, that decision is really at about the 25% mark, um, that she is going to like go and she's going to really try. And so you see her kind of moving toward that decision in the fallout of her initial, you know, kind of shock decision to become the tribute. So that's a 0 to 25% of The Hunger Games. And that decision to win The Hunger Games, because she could do— she could decide that you know, she doesn't believe in killing people, so she's gonna go to the Hunger Games and she's just gonna die. Like, she could give up, um, and she could decide that she's gonna stick to her values, or she could decide that she is going to try to win. Um, and so that, that's the, that's the, um, that's a difficult decision. That's a 25% mark decision. Uh, the other one, you know, it is To me, it is still a decision, but if you were mapping this out in story structure, it would probably be considered a second inciting incident. All right, the second or the third question is, what is your character's figurative death? And this is at the 50% mark. So in The Hunger Games, the figurative death is a part where Katniss is— she's already in the games. She thinks that her, um, kind of partner in this, uh, partner in the Games, which is— it's just another person from her district named Peeta who is in the Games with her. It's the, it's the male, um, and she's the female from the district. And so that person, she has believed this whole time that he was working against her What she finds out at exactly the 50% mark of this book is that he is actually on her side and he has been trying to protect her the entire time. So this is an internal character arc death in the sense that her false belief about him is dead. This The external piece of this is also there in this exact scene, and the, um, what's happening in the scene from sort of a plot perspective is that she, Katniss, has realized that she has to get this bow and arrow back. And until she feels very uncomfortable in the whole Games because she's paralyzed because her weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. So she has to get this bow and arrow. These other team members that are with Peeta have the bow and arrow, and she has to, you know, basically go— she kind of tries to sneak to get the bow and arrow from them. And in that scenario, she has been essentially infected with tracker jackers. These like, I don't know, they're kind of, they're like poisonous, poisonous super bees basically. So she, she has experienced this and she, she is like kind of almost to death basically. So as as she is dealing with this physical death, she's also— and she doesn't end up dying, obviously— but as she's dealing with this physical death, she's also dealing with this, you know, death of a false belief, a really big false belief that she was struggling with. So then the third part of this, this is very interesting and very specific to The Hunger Games. I haven't seen this done very well in other books, but there's a transition from wanderer to warrior. So this is the fourth question: how does the figurative death spring the character into action? So how do they go from wanderer to warrior? And the false belief has to match up to this. It has to move that character from being a wanderer to a warrior. And if you're not sure what those terms mean. I'll explain them quickly, but we're going to get to that in the coming days. So the Wanderer energy of this character is really they're letting things happen to them. So they're passive. So they will— basically, they will fight back, but they're not doing so aggressively. They're not making their own plans of attack. They are really just dealing with things as they come to them. So, you know, in this 25 to 50% of the book, Katniss is kind of going along and like trying to do her best at all of these pieces of the Hunger Games. But after that 50% mark of the book, she is coming up with her own plans. She's attacking other characters. She is, you know, she's making her own decisions. She's going off book. She's not playing the game, basically. Anymore. Or, you know, you could also say she's going off book in order to play the game to win. So she is, you know, the first— the first— that 25 to 50%, she's really kind of stumbling around warrior style. And then the 50 to 75%, she becomes the warrior. And so these, these two things that happened are really valuable, and they're actually represented by something really specific in the book. Which is that at the 50% mark exactly, she gets the bow and arrow from this other team. So now she has her weapon of choice, and this gives her confidence. Additionally, as far as Peeta goes, she learns that Peeta was helping her the whole time. She figures it out kind of on her own in the following scenes, and then she also learns that he's still alive and that they can win the Hunger Games together. So with that information, she goes— she decides to go find him, and she decides to, you know, basically, uh, team up with him on this. And so this, this helps her. This helps her. She's not fighting just for herself now. She's fighting for his life as well, and she's trying to save his life. And there's like a new level of trust. But this is— there's a— the symbolic piece of that is that she receives her bow and arrow. And so that's, that's like pretty cool. And if you want to look, look this up, you can probably find it in the movie as well. But if you want to read this, you can find this at exactly the 50% mark in the book. Very, very cool thing that Suzanne Collins, who is the author of The Hunger Games, did there. And Yeah, I mean, that was a huge— that was a really huge book series. So definitely check it out because this stuff is very powerful. So then the fifth question is, what is the final battle? And that's at the 75% mark or the 90% mark, depending on, you know, which, which structure you're using. So this question is pretty simple. It's basically like a point of no return. What is the final battle you're going to be looking at? You know, there's basically— there's no new information. There's actually a very specific sequence around this final battle, and there's like— and we will get into that as the days go on. But for now, it's just basically, you know, it's, it's just basically like figuring out like who, who are— who is the character fighting at the end. And this is— you'll, you'll have that information at the 75% mark. Like, they will— that it doesn't mean that they're in the battle, but it does mean that they know exactly how the rest of this has to play out. So for Katniss and for the Hunger Games, this happens when the field has narrowed down. So basically she has Peeta as her partner. They're fighting together now. And, you know, she has, she has a lot of support. She has like all her, all the weapons she needs. She really has everything she needs to actually win the Hunger Games. And the field is narrowing. There are not very many people left. And so she sees like, okay, I have this many more steps. Like, I don't have much more to go. And she knows what the final battle is. For her and Peeta, the final battle is that they have to face, I think his name is Cato. And if I'm wrong, then sorry. It's very hard to remember. There are 24 players in this game. I think his name is Cato. And he is kind of the biggest and baddest of all the Hunger Games players. And so he is the last player standing besides Katniss and Peeta. And so they know that they have to kill him to end the games. Additionally, what happens here is that they are forced to move forward. So, um, yeah, so, so the, the game makers are kind of controlling these games, but they have set like some weather, some weather struggles or challenges. So there's like a fire and there's, there's a couple other things that kind of force— they're forcing the players together in terms of physical location. And so this, this is a common thing that happens at the end of the games is that they are forced together and that. And so in your book, you may have to force that confrontation as well. You have to figure out how you're going to make these characters confront this final battle. Um, and that is really the moment that Katniss knows, like, okay, the game makers are gonna force us into the same physical location as Cato, and we have to kill him, and then the Hunger Games are over, and we can go home, like both of us get to go home. We can both be winners of the games and we can go home. And that, that is that 75% mark. So she, she has all that information. So I want to be clear, there is a twist. There's a twist during the final battle. And we will talk more about that in the days to come, how to come up with that twist or what that twist really is. So the battle doesn't play out as Katniss suspects at all. But at that 75% mark, she knows what that final battle is, and she knows how it's going to unfold. The reader knows how it's going to unfold to some extent. Like, they know, they know, like, what needs to happen. And what ends up happening is Yes, the two groups are forced into a clash, a physical clash, and yes, Katniss and Peeta do end up killing Cato, and then there's a twist on that. So then the last question is, what is the transformation? So this transformation, it's going to go very close to the end of your book. It's, you know, it's probably it's probably in that 90 to 100% of your book, um, regardless of which structure you're using. But you're gonna— you're gonna have to represent that transformation, um, toward the end of the book. So for Katniss— and again, this is on the internal arc side— um, for Katniss, this transformation is, uh, it's really that she, she has to tell Peeta that what, you know, what they experienced, like the love that she experienced with him, was fake in order to, um, in order to win the Games. And so even though she cares about him, you know, I think it's pretty clear to both of them that she does care, she has to admit to him that it's fake. And this is very, very hard on her. It's very hard on her to go back to District 12. She believes at the beginning of the story that if she can just get back to District 12, everything will be okay again. The problem is that the Games have changed her. And so as she goes back to her home in District 12, she actually, um, she actually has created a lot of problems for herself. And so that's why there's a book 2. Um, The, you know, the book too is based on the many, many problems that she creates for herself. And there's the internal problem, which is the, you know, just— well, the internal problem is really that she as a person has changed due to these— this experience. Like, she's killed people, she's lost people, she has to break somebody's heart, you know, that That is a lot for her to deal with. Even seeing the people she loves again, that's very challenging for her to deal with. And then the external arc of it is that she has really pissed off the game makers. So she, you know, she did win the Hunger Games and she did go back, but she's not free. And that's what she realizes as the series unfolds. Is that she is, you know, there is no freedom. She's got a huge target on her back. The gamemakers are angry at her. President Snow is very angry at her. He's like a very silent villain in the story, but he's very, very angry at her. And that unfolds over the rest of the series. So that's the transformational piece. And I really encourage you, so "The Hunger Games" and Katniss Everdeen, that example is truly one of the best on the market right now. There are lots of other books that do this well. Actually, "Twilight" is another really great example. And I can tell you, like you can tell it's an amazing example because that figurative death, it has both the internal arc and the external arc at exactly the 50% mark. And if you look at Twilight, like I was reading it on my Kindle, I was actually reading recently reading Midnight Sun, which is kind of the, it's the first book of Twilight from Edward's perspective. So from the vampire's perspective. And I saw this there as well at exactly the 50% mark that, you know, we saw the internal arc, and the external arc figurative deaths happening. And so this is, this is like, it's very powerful is all I can say. Getting this right is extremely powerful to your story. So, you know, don't ignore it is kind of my point here. And so I know that those two examples are both in the, you know, fantasy sci-fi genre genres, but I still recommend this for every story because it makes a big difference. So, oh, a third example. So if you've read or seen the movie "The Martian," that's another really good example. And I wanna say that I have mapped out all of these books specifically for these, these, uh, plot points. So that's how I kind of know that these are really good examples, because I was able to map them out. And, you know, right there at that 50% mark was this, and right there at the 75% mark was that. Um, so, and these are all, you know, massive blockbuster hits from the last decade. So this is the quick and dirty plot. Sorry it took me so long to explain it. Um, you can do this for 5 characters. Thank you so much for watching and listening. If you have any questions, make sure you leave a comment below. I can get back to you. I can give you some resources. I can help you out, anything you need. Additionally, if you haven't signed up for the challenge yet, there is still time. We have plenty more challenge to go, and it's very, very easy to catch up. So make sure you check the description because that's where you will find all the links that you need to sign up for the challenge. I hope this has been helpful to you. Have a wonderful day!