Do you know how to micro-plot?

Published on by Jean M. Cogdell

Hold on- no charts involved.

I know you’ve heard all about all kinds of plot points. Turning, climax, action, rising, falling, characters, conflicts, well you get the idea. However, for most of us, pantsters, plotter’s, or half-assters we are all looking for better and easier ways to get the job done.

So how about trying micro-plotting?

Yes, you heard right. I just added another plotting point to think about.

What is micro-plotting you ask?

Today I read an article by David Farland about micro-plotting and had an ah-ha moment. If you’ve read many of my posts you’ll know I just love those flashbulb moments.

If I understood David right it’s where you give the reader a reason to care about the characters. A micro-moment in the story. A sympathy point.

So if you feel like something is missing in your WIP, go back and add a note to make the reader care.

In mine, I added stuff like (show Jack is furious) then found another place to add information about a different emotion I wanted the reader to feel and inserted that (show Em is hurt.)I discovered this sped up my writing process. It stopped me from rewriting the same thing over and over. I could add a little snippet about what I wanted to convey to the reader and get back to the story at large. This gave me the freedom to come back later and write about Em’s frustration.

Want to read David’s article? Click here… David Farland’s Writing Tips

So what do you think?

Will this stop you from getting hung up on rewrites before the first draft is finished?

Is this something you already do?

Do you have a better trick/tip?

Leave me a comment. I love talking to Y’all.

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15 thoughts on “Do you know how to micro-plot?”

  8. That’s a great idea and it would help me keep the writing flowing also b/c I tend to rewrite and rewrite sentences a lot during the creative phase, which slows down the creative phase. Thanks for the tip!

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