CREATING SOME STRUCTURE...

I recently attended a free writing workshop with P.D. Martin. This was part of the Casey Writers Project (Narre Warren) supported by the City of Casey and presented in association with Casey Cardinia Libraries. Have to love a writers workshop that is free! Well done all involved.

This was only a small part of the workshops offered, and alas due to work and other commitments the morning session on Plotting and Structure was all that I could attend.

However, even in those few hours, I had a lot to think about.

I love structure....and know this requires planning...however I tend not to do either.

I am always drawn to gardens that look like this. Hard landscape, strict structure and lots of forethought and careful planning.

My own garden always looks like this...

An untidy ramble (although this is a bit of an old photo, some things have changed).

I was...notice the past tense....of the persuasion of 'oh I love that, let's put it here' and 'I need one of those, let's put it there.' It led to a non-cohesive tangle. Which, at times, has it's attractions. But it wasn't what I wanted any more. 

I wanted to tame my jungle. I wanted it to look more like this...

and not this...

The same goes with my writing. I am a pantser...as in I write by the seat of my pants. I hardly plan anything and frankly it does tell.

So I was very eager to listen as Phillipa took us through some plot and structure tips. This included how to work with index cards, plot charts, the three act structure, as well as the eight-sequence structure that most films can be broken up into. These last two can be easily googled to find lots of information. 

I admit to playing around with index cards years ago.  They did work for me, I liked that visual of scene by scene, and the ability to move things around. 

I found it very interesting to think about one of my WIP and ask a few simple questions . Was I pushing my protagonist far enough? Was there enough obstacles in her way? 

The answer was no. 

I had some structure, there were some problems and obstacles...but not enough.  There wasn't the rising escalation needed for a strong story. 

It was good to think about this story, one that has been sitting idle since the beginning of the year. In fact I scribbled some cryptic notes in the handouts that morning.

'There has to be more than the teddy bear'.......and 'you have to phone your father when you discover the truth.'

I came away with the knowledge that I have to rework this WIP. That structure is vital to any situation.

That something as glorious as this, needs careful planning. A part of me worries that if I over plan then I won't enjoy the writing.  That there will be no excitement when my story takes me somewhere unexpected. 

But, as in all things, planning does help when something goes wrong. If A doesn't work, you can try B, if that fails you turn to C, D, E and work your way through the alphabet until something works.

I think I am beginning to change my mind about planning.

Or at least I'll give it a go.

Vicki