A Wasted Effort



The picture above may not look like much, but it is my attempt at determining where each of the various elements of a three plot structure go. What I found interesting is that some of the structure elements seemed to line up and others seemed to be ofset. Plot A and C run together some at the beginning and the end. I think that is because Sara and Neal are both involved in these scenes. It makes scene that we would keep moving along our structure, as we move along. Plot B doesn't really get going until we get to about page 90. But plot C has a similar gap in comparison to Plot B. Near the middle, things seem to run together more for A and B. But keep in mind that we aren't necessarily talking about them having the same scenes here, just that the midpoints occur close together in time.

Anyway, the process wasn't very helpful, so maybe the best thing to do at this point is to start writing these scenes for each plot, with priority given to the A plot and try to work the others in where they seem like they fit.

Comments

Jessica Bell said…
That's a very interesting tactic, Timothy. I wouldn't give up on it so easily. You could just draw up a mock one, of where the scenes 'should' structurally go, and then rewrite accordingly. I looks like it could be a very useful tool.
March 24, 2010 at 2:34 AM
Timothy Fish said…
I haven't thrown it out just yet, but given that I'm not sure it's telling me anything, I may come back to it later in the writing process, recreate it from the way things are and see if it shows a different picture.
March 24, 2010 at 10:01 PM
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