I plot weird.
It’s kind of like the Snowflake Method and kind of like Save the Cat, but not really completely like either. There’s also a lot of ADHD and a dash of OCD thrown into it, and it just gets messier from there.
ALSO: How I Plan My Novels
However, I’m obsessed with it, and so I’m going to share it with you. And in this exact moment, I’ve decided to call it The Expanding Plot.
The Expanding Plot is exactly what it sounds like. You expand your plot from something simple and short to something complicated and long. Like Mary Poppins’ bag or The Doctor’s Tardis.
But, unlike the bag or phone booth, the Expanding Plot can be broken down into four parts, the last of which is only necessary if you, like me, like to track far too many things as you write:
1. The Idea Plot
2. The Chapter Plot
3. The Scene Plot
3.5 The Scene Breakdown
Let’s start expanding.
The Idea Plot
This plot is literally the most basic thing you will ever come across when plotting – and that’s on purpose. I’m a part-time writer, and that means I’m a full-time something else. I don’t always have big windows to write in, and I’m often trying to shove a lot of writing into a little window of time.
ALSO: The Part Time Writing Schedule
Writing an Idea Plot should take thirty minutes or less and is, in essence, a book blurb where you spoil the plot. An Idea Plot should be a page or less and include just enough detail that you know what you were thinking when you come back to it to expand it into a Chapter Plot.
Here is my Idea Plot for the first act of my current WIP:
Elodie finds a paper that implies it is possible to return magic to the continent. She tells Anna and the two agree to flee together. Anna and Elodie are separated, and Elodie ends up in the middle of nowhere with Noah.
It’s three sentences – and seven chapters.
The Chapter Plot
Step two, a Chapter Plot, is honestly the most complicated step because it involves filling in a lot of blanks.
When working on an Idea Plot, you’re intentionally leaving things out in order to just plow through a basic plot as quickly, and in as few lines, as you can. A Chapter Plot is meant to fill in the gaps between the ideas of the Idea Plot.
That means creating a setting for each event, and creating “filler” events that get your characters from one place to the next – especially if time passes between one idea and the next.
Let’s look over the blanks from my Idea Plot above before we start filling them in. Start by breaking the Idea Plot into its preexisting sentences and asking relevant questions.
- Elodie finds a paper that implies it is possible to return magic to the continent.
- Where does Elodie find this paper?
- Does she take it with her?
- She Tells Anna and the two agree to flee together.
- Who is Anna and why is she told?
- How long will it take to prepare to flee?
- Are the pair going to cover up their flight?
- How are they going to flee?
- Anna and Elodie are separated, and Elodie ends up in the middle of nowhere with Noah.
- How are Anna and Elodie separated?
- Who is Noah?
With these questions, we can build out a Chapter Plot – something a little more detailed and answering the questions that we have, but that doesn’t nitpick the small things.
While searching her politician finance's office for a reason to leave him, Elodie finds an unreadable paper that appears to imply it is possible to return magic to the continent. After copying and replacing the paper, she leaves without being caught by her fiance. Elodie finds Anna, her friend and leader of the rebellion, shows her the document, and agrees to take the document to Acharia to be translated. Elodie returns home and begins to weave a story to convince her politically connected family nothing is amiss. When Anna comes for Elodie several days later, the two sneak through town to a hidden, magical underground railroad. At the railroad, Elodie meets the other refugees and two Acharian soldiers assigned to get her safely to their Capitol, one of whom is Noah. A group of Magic Keepers raid the railroad location and chaos breaks out, separating Elodie from Anna and sending her through a gateway with Noah that deposits them in the middle of The Felde Wilds.
We now have seven sentences – one for each chapter.
The Scene Plot
And finally, the technical final expansion.
Now that we have a Chapter Plot, it’s important to understand the details of what’s happening in each of those chapters. A Scene Plot exists to give direction on where to start writing and where to go once you do. It takes the chapters and breaks them down into three to six scenes, with a new character, a change in location, or a change in emotion signaling a new scene.
Because of the detail in this outline, we’re only going to work with the first two and the last chapter chunks I created in the Chapter plot above.
- While searching her politician finance's office for a reason to leave him, Elodie finds an unreadable paper that appears to imply it is possible to return magic to the continent.
- Elodie is searching for proof of an affair
- Elodie finds the Ashfall document
- Elodie hears a sound in the hallway
- After copying and replacing the paper, she leaves without being caught by her fiance.
- Elodie quickly copies the document and replaces it
- Elodie’s fiance comes in; she tells him she was searching for a book, which he gives her
- Elodie leaves with her finance watching; she hears him search his office
These first two Scene Plots are relatively simple. The chapters themselves have very little action and are meant to introduce the reader to the world and the story.
The final chapter in this act, however, is more complicated because there’s a lot happening and it involves a lot of “scene shifts” that I detailed above.
- A group of Magic Keepers raids the railroad location and chaos breaks out, separating Elodie from Anna and sending her through a gateway with Noah that deposits them in the middle of The Felde Wilds.
- As the group prepares to leave, an explosion collapses the ceiling; Anna grabs Elodie
- Keepers swarm the basement; fighting ensues; Anna leaves Elodie to fight
- Elodie is attacked; although she defends herself, Noah saves her
- The gateways begin flickering out as the fae sustaining them are killed
- Someone yells to go; Elodie searches for Anna; Noah pulls her through a gateway
- Elodie, Noah, and Anna’s second recognize The Felde Wilds
For this final chapter, we had six scenes!
Now my three to six scene rule isn’t hard and fast. You can have more or less depending on your personal preferences, but I’ve found that more than six leads to an overly long chapter for me and less than three feels like I’m missing information.
ALSO: How to Immerse Readers in your Story
And like shown in my example, you break down a chapter as much or as little as you’d like. The final chapter has more detail, and the gateways dying is a scene of its own. You can make stylistic choices to focus on and highlight certain things as you’d like.
The Scene Breakdown
The final part of my outlining process is an organizational step that I take for myself. It isn’t something everyone would want, but I said I’d give you my outlining method and this is it.
Using excel or google sheets, I create a chart that tracks which chapter, scene, and setting I’m in, which characters need to be directly involved in the scene I’m currently working on, an estimated word count for each scene, an actual word count for each scene, and a running word count total for the novel itself. This is what it looks like:
This may not help everyone, but this is what helps me keep organized. And it makes the OCD really, incredibly happy.
The Plottery Resources
I know the Expanding Plot isn’t going to be for everyone. But here at the Plottery, we do believe that there is a plotting method for everyone.
ALSO: Pantser vs. Plotter: Which is better?
There’s our Free Novel Plan, which includes a basic breakdown of a quick and easy plot.
Another resource is a part of the Writer’s Toolbox, the Plotter’s Almanac, which includes breakdowns and templates for the three-act, five-act, and Save the Cat methods. It also includes several premade tracking templates! Which we all know I’m a little obsessed with.
Our star resource is Novel Plotting Academy, an amazing twelve part course that gets you access to everything we have on plotting and breaks it all down into easily digestible chunks with exercises, templates, and trackers.
FAQ
Will a window less than thirty minutes still work?
Absolutely! I use thirty minute windows because that's the length of a single episode of The Muppet Show and my twins are obsessed with playing their boxes like Animal plays his drums.
They get some good dancing in and I get some good writing in and then we all go to the park!
What do I do if the plot changes while I’m writing?
This happens to most writers, and it's totally okay! Just adjust your outline.
Adjusting an outline can look a dozen different ways, but I’ve found that the easiest is to go back to the scene breakdown and adjust only the affected scenes moving forward from the change.
How do you choose the anticipated word count of each scene?
I go with my heart. And my OCD.
My brand of OCD appreciates nice round numbers, and so my anticipated word found will always be 250, 500, 750, 1000, or 1500. These numbers coordinate to an extra-small, small, medium, large, or extra-large scene respectively.
So my heart decides the size and the OCD decides the number.
Why not just start with the expanded version?
I start with a rapid, fire synopsis because I simply don't have the time to finish an expanded outline in one go or the attention span to remember where I was headed when I last stopped.
Between the kids and the ADHD, starting small and expanding over time is the best way for me to ensure that I’m leaving out as little as possible.
Elizabeth Miles
Written for The Plottery
I’m Elizabeth Miles, but you can call me Lizzie! I am a full-time stay-at-home mom and part-time author during breaks from chasing down over-confident toddlers. Mystery, romance, and fantasy are my favorite genres for both reading and writing. You can find me on Instagram (@authorlizziem) and TikTok (@authorlizziemiles)!
