Plotting: A Novelist's Workout Guide

by Aaron Allston

New York Times bestselling author Aaron Allston shares his analytical insights to teach the craft of novel plotting.

The book includes methods for:

> Generating scenes in a logical, organic way
> Ensuring that every scene should be in your novel
> Integrating scenes, themes, and character arcs
> Unsticking stuck plots
> Discovering a novel's hidden meaning
> Correcting plot mistakes

431 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 12, 2013

About the author

Aaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

Reviews

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allston is what writers want to hear, Bickham is what writers most need to understand. A tough read that took me two full days--with tons of procrastination involved. I hate exercises and this book is full of them. I think they belong in the back of books not interspersed as though you must read them.

If you always wanted to see someone's thought process as they plot, this might be for you. It doesn't strike me as a proper organized system, more of one persons approach to workflow, but it does have checklists so you can develop your own approach. It beats trying to understand Dramatica theory.

The style is amusing, but it has many typo's and could have used another edit. Hopefully my admiration for the book will grow as I attempt to put it to use. I'd recommendScene and Structure as a better first book. I might try to get this printed out, since this book is Kindle only and I hated reading on the Kindle Browser.
The best part was on section breaks, probably the best example I've found, but his approach to chapters seems namby-pamby compared to Bickham's definition.

[Scott Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do any of these statements sound familiar?
"I come up with good ideas, but I can't develop them into complete novels." [Yes! That’s me!]
"I'm going along fine with my novel, and then it just stops. I can't get it moving again." [Again, yeah!]
"I know what happens from start to finish, but I can't figure out what it's really about." [Sometime, yeah.]
"I know what's supposed to happen and what it's supposed to mean, but my story is just not working." [Still me, a bit]
"My novel is missing something and I can't figure out what it is." [Sure.]
If any of the above applies to you, Plotting: A Novelist's Workout Guide can help. [From Plotting: A Novelist's Workout Guide, page 1]

Well, I’m here to tell you that I’ve finished this book and it is exactly what I needed. You see, I’m stuck on a story that I’m writing and I’m trying to figure out which way it needs to go (bullet point #2). Moreover, bullet point #1 is a thing I struggle with as well.

Allston breaks down his book into two large sections. The third section is the appendix. Part one is theory. Here is where he lays out, in detail, many of the concepts most of us already know: What is a scene, the basics of plotting, the four elements of plots, etc. But where this book differs from others I’ve read is in two very important ways. One, Allston gives you exercises! Yes, you have homework. Some of these exercises might be basic, but for a beginning writer (or one who might be stuck), they are fantastic. There are exercises in each chapter (four chapters per section) and, while they start out as random exercises, they gradually turn to your own work. That’s a nice way of coming at your novel--in-progress with something akin to outside eyes.

But where this book really earns it’s keep is the sample novel. To illustrate his points, Allston uses lots of on-the-fly examples. Along the way, however, he starts a novel from scratch. He poses an idea for a story and takes it from idea all the way through two to three outlines! This was like a light bulb went off in my head. I’ve heard talk of outlining over and over and I could not get past the idea of the high school-type outline with Roman numerals. I was a bit ahead of the curve with my use of note cards, but seeing Allston ask the questions writers are suppose to ask, answer them, and then build his plot was so enlightening. Especially when he got to the outlining stage, just reading and trying to absorb all that is present in the outline is both daunting and exciting.

The book has done something I expected it to do: I couldn't wait to finish it so I could start applying it’s teachings on my own work.

Allston, who recently passed away, has left writers of all stages of development with a fantastic primer on how to plot and prepare for writing.