Plotting Along

This week was a bit of an education week. I looked at plotting and other writing things. The other day I was expressing dissatisfaction with the three-act formula. I was saying that there's too much space between the beginning and plot point one at the 25% mark. At the end of November, I ordered this book after seeing it mentioned in a YouTube video. Since I'm not reading it in one sitting, I'm only a few chapters into it. One of the interesting things it mentions is that for books the first plot point should come around the 20% mark rather than the 25% mark. It also says that the third plot point should come later than in a movie. I think it said the 90% point instead of the 75% point. Obviously, that makes the middle absolutely huge. Even using 25% and 75% to mark off the middle, the middle is already huge and gives a lot of writers fits.

Instead of going with a pure try/fail cycle, I might try moving my plot points and keeping the three-act formula ending and beginning while using a try/fail cycle for the bulky middle. I'm not going to experiment on the novella that way. My plan is to use the three-act formula since the other books in the B'vellah War series all do. The middle grade trilogy is where I would tinker around.

This morning after I was awake but not out of bed I had an idea for a high-level-concept science fiction novel. It would be about a man who is trying to prevent a series of deaths that he knows are going to occur but doesn't know how his brain received the information. It ties very neatly to an experiment I read about several years back. Unfortunately, I can't remember the scientist's name, so I'll have to find him again. The novel would be stand-alone and not a series.

And that leads me to Scrivener, an organizational tool for writers. I downloaded a trial version several years back, but it wasn't a word processor. The good news about the trial version is that it only counts days that you use. I used it three days. I should still have 27 days left on my trial. What it would let me do is organize book ideas. Instead of putting my ideas into legal pads the way I do now, I could put them into Scrivener and develop a plot outline. It has a notecard feature I could use for pure ideas and still have an outline uncontaminated with clutter.

I have more book ideas than I have time to work on. What I want to do with Scrivener is input the ideas, perhaps using plot points, and add additional ideas later. Slowly over time, I would develop a book idea into something I could start writing immediately instead of having to work on it all at once the way I'm having to do with the novella, which still has not completely gelled. I have various book ideas I'd like to develop. I hope with Scrivener I'd be able to get all of them organized here and there without interrupting what I'm currently working on. Sometimes, I have an idea for something but no time for the book it's for. Maybe this tool will help. I'm going to experiment with it and see how it goes.

Scrivener would also let me work on screenplays more easily. I have an idea for a movie I'd like to work on.

Have a great weekend.