Over the space of a couple of days this week, I sorted out the plots for The Railway Girls book 9. As you may know, each book has three viewpoint characters, each with her own plot - hence three plots.
The first stage if planning is for me to draw up general outlines, which my editor, Katie, considers. In my outlines, I sometimes give her choices and she will decide which option will result in the most satisfying book for the readers.
After that, I do things like make a list of wartime events that will take place during the story, and also find out not just which date but which day of the week these happened. I check historical weather reports and also pick out wireless programmes from the Radio Times that I might want to mention. There is quite a lot of nitty-gritty at this stage.
One very important thing is to sow the seeds of events that will occur in future books, so I make notes of how to do this.
Then - at last - it is time to start planning the actual book. Three girls - three plots. I work out every scene for each character, including how the scene will end. I don't have to know exactly how it starts, but it is essential for me to know how it's going to end.
I work out the scenes for each plot one at a time. Every scene is on its own sheet of A4 paper. Then I put the three plots together, referring back to my list of dates.
How much detail goes into each scene at this stage? It varies. About three-quarters of the scenes have enough information to complete one side of the page and carry on overleaf. Of those scenes, about a third carry on to a second or third page, or even more. At the very least, a scene will have a half to two-thirds of a page.
This is what the plan looks like at present.
Make A Comment
Comments (0)