Plotting Templates

This template is a rather simple one but in this case simplicity means versatility.

You can shape it for your own purposes, but the general structure tends to work straight out of the box without much tweaking. You could call it an universal tool.

The general idea is that we'll try to tell a story initially in 24 chapters plus 2.

I mostly think of this last two as Prologue or Epilogue, but since many stories start with jumping in the middle, the chapter that'd take up the leading edge of the plot got placed in the end, allowing a longer Epilogue, which can be handy when you've got a lot to tell to make the ending of a story satisfying and feel complete without the sense or rushing it.

The 24 chapters will form the core of the story, and by default it is set to deal with Four Acts in the story arc. That usually is suitable for most stories with

• Act One being the introduction and setting up of the following events,
• Act Two serving as the ramping up to the main event,
• Act Three presenting complications and
• Act Four presenting the solutions, final outcomes and the conclusion of the story.

The "content" field is deliberately set to hold only three lines of text, because it is just long enough to write down the core concept of the chapter but having to squeeze everything into three lines will make you be considerate and selective about what is important and what is just a side-thought and with that it helps to see the plot as a structure, stripped of all the bells and whistles.

Keep in mind that this plot is only the first iteration of your story, a map for your first draft.

Once you completed the first plot you will follow through with writing your first draft, then you'll read through the first draft and mark if you feel the chapter's contents deviated much from the original plot.

Sometimes writing the first draft of a chapter takes you to unexpected roads, which I call organic growth. This deviation can be integrated into the second version of your plot later on, which is why there is the "rework" part.

Some deviating chapters can be interesting but won't help you in the later segments of the story, or cause difficulties, so those deviations will have to be trimmed off over the course of the rework.

Of course it would be easy enough to just delete the offending parts and eliminate the deviation ever happening, but you may find through the second or third draft that you need a bit of story-padding and that is where keeping track of these trimmed-off parts come in handy. They can be very handy as source material to modify and insert to round out your story, plus it would make use of what you already wrote once, meaning you don't have to work twice.

Keep in mind that working toward the final product of your imagination is an iterative process where you work from your concept to make a plot, write a draft, make a second plot and follow through with a second draft and so on until you feel satisfied with the results. So don't expect your first plot or draft to be perfect, don't have unreasonable expectations toward yourself.

Think of it as sculpting where you initially only have a lump of clay, then some general shapes and you work toward the sculpture you had in your mind.

This template is just serving as help material to prompt you with questions regarding the plot you had in mind and to solidify vague issues you may feel about either the plot or the structure of your story.

It is generally a good idea to ask yourself questions about the story you had in mind but sometimes we can have trouble with coming up with the right questions which is where this template can help you out.