Plot Charts—How to Wrestle Your Story into Submission

By Sarah Sundin

“My plot is a mess! How can I make sense of it all?”

Do you ever feel that way about your novel? As an outliner, I always reach this stage about midway through the pre-writing. If you’re a “seat-of-the-pants” writer, you may feel that way when analyzing your rough draft.

For me, a plot chart helps organize the chaos. A chart gives me a visual sense of the story structure and helps me see areas that are under-developed—or overdone.

I make a simple table in Microsoft Word or Excel. Each row is for a scene. In the columns, you can track the point-of-view character, date, location, brief blurbs of what happens in the scene—and you can break this down by the novel’s main plot arcs.

This is a sample of my plot chart for the first chapter of my latest World War II novel, Anchor in the Storm, including scenes from both the heroine’s and hero’s points-of-view.

Scene

In the first column, use a number or name for the scene. I use the chapter number and a short name for the scene to jog my memory.

POV character

Use a separate column to label the point-of-view character, or simply color-code. I use pink for the heroine and blue for the hero (original). This allows you to see at a glance if your characters get enough—or too much—time on stage.

Date and Location

I include the date since I write historicals and work around actual historical events. Also, if you find a two-month gap between chapters, you might need to fix it. Tracking the location is useful too. Is every other chapter set at the coffee shop? Or have you forgotten to include scenes at your heroine’s workplace?

Plot Lines

I like to break down the chart by plot arcs so each aspect is well developed. I have columns for Arch’s and Lillian’s action plot lines—he’ll be fighting U-boats on a destroyer, she’ll be working as a pharmacist, and they’re both solving a mystery about a drug ring. The middle column is for their romance. I also have columns for their spiritual and emotional journeys, the personal issues they need to work through. You can include columns for subplots unique to your story. My notes probably won’t make sense to you, but they remind me of certain plot or character elements.

When to Chart?

As an outliner, I create this chart in the pre-writing process. It serves as a map as I plan each chapter, making sure I include these elements. This saves me time when editing because the structure is already sound.

If you’re a seat-of-the-pants writer who finds outlines stifling, you may find this process useful during the content edit. Filling in a chart can show you story lines that have been neglected or abandoned, scenes that are fluffy or repetitive, or illogical jumps in character growth.

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SarahSundin is the author of eight historical novels, including Anchor in the Storm. Her novel Through Waters Deep was named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years,” and her novella “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in Where Treetops Glisten was a finalist for the 2015 Carol Award. For a complete list of Sarah’s books, please see the books page on Sarah’s website: http://www.sarahsundin.com/books/ Please visit her at http://www.sarahsundin.com, and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor 

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Chart It!—How to Keep Track of Your Characters

By Sarah Sundin

What color were her eyes again? How long has he had this job? When did she break her arm, and is she out of her cast yet?

When we’re writing a novel, details threaten to swamp us. We waste time tracking them down. We waste time fixing them during editing. And when we mess up, we drive our copyeditors—or our readers!—crazy.

A character chart can save time and headaches. I use a simple table in Microsoft Word, but you can use any form you like. I prefer to enter information as I go to keep it up-to-date. When I turn in my manuscript, I include my character chart—the editorial staff at my publishing house loves this!

Here’s a snippet of the chart from my most recent World War II novel, In Perfect Time, showing the main characters, Kay Jobson and Roger Cooper.

Characters: Each named character gets a row in the table. I group characters by story function, such as “Kay’s family,” “802^nd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron” (Kay’s unit), “64^th Troop Carrier Group” (Roger’s unit), and of course, “other.”

Name: The first column is for names. I can check my table for repetitions, too many names that start with M, and ethnic diversity. Since I use military settings, I include the character’s rank. Also include nicknames, including familial nicknames—do her children call her “Mom” or “Mama”? I also add “nonfictional” to any real historical figures mentioned in the story.

Role: In this column, I state the character’s role in the story—“Kay’s father,” “Roger’s best friend,” and their job. To keep the timeline straight, I often include graduation dates and when the character started or changed jobs.

Family: List the character’s family—birth order, names of parents, siblings, spouse, and children. Since my novels feature characters from all over America, I list hometown or region.

Age/Birthday: Self-explanatory! But it’s important to know how old your characters are, especially if the book or series spans a longer period of time, or for child characters who change rapidly. For minor characters, this might be only “middle-aged” or “early twenties.”

Description: For major characters, I list height and weight, hair and eye color, and other significant features, including scars or disabilities. For minor characters, I only list what’s mentioned in the story.

Other: List any detail you need to track. Do they wear glasses or speak Mandarin or smoke? I listed singing voice, because it’s pertinent to my story. With my military setting, I include promotion dates. I include dates and nature of injuries (I’m mean to my characters!), so I can track their convalescence and make sure the cast doesn’t move from one arm to the other. I also include the date a character is killed (I told you I’m mean).

A Stitch in Time . . .With a bit of work in advance, you can create a tool to save loads of time later. And your editor—and readers!—will love you.

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Sarah Sundin is the author of seven historical novels. Her book, Through Waters Deep, releases this month and is Book 1 in the Waves of Freedom series. Her other books include In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. A mother of three, Sarah lives in northern California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school. She also enjoys speaking for church, community, or writers’ groups.

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

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