I would totally read this ridiculous book! LOL BUT, on a more serious note, THANK YOU for this video. THIS right here is the type of video I needed to see for tips on outlining a book. So many videos talk about the theory of plotting, but you actually DID IT in this video. You plotted the bones and a significant amount of the meat for this little enchanted garden gnome story. That real world application is so much easier for me to put into my own plotting. THANK YOU.
Nice! I really like this whole “program” you demonstrated! This is where creativity meets organization and the two halves of the brain shake hands and become fast friends! Love it!
So glad I found this. I knew this was how JK did it but never really understood it, nor did I take the time to try if I'm being honest. Now I think I'll give it a shot for my new middle-grade adventure series. Thank you for making it make sense!
It has been a while since you posted this, but I am start my writing journey in the later years of my life, I want to thank you for this, it is a very logical way of thinking and with 28 years of software development behind me, seeing logical ways to lay out the story helps me. Keep up the work, I would be curious to read this book is someone actually did it. 😀
this was awesome! especially loved the part during the brainstorming where you kept saying "why?" out loud. i've come across this writing tip before but for some reason, it didn't click until i saw you do it!
I dislike the _feeling_ of using spreadsheets for writing (maybe because it feels like math lol) but it works SO WELL for me. The beats of the story just fall into place because you see exactly where you need to drop one in. And _because_ of the spreadsheet, it doesn't really feel like 'proper' writing and it turns my inner critic off. Like, "clearly this isn't important. I'm writing in *google sheets* for heaven's sake, who cares if it's garbage?" It's so helpful.
This is awesome and extremely useful, most of the other videos are so confusing and hard to undestand, many concepts coming in at the same time, and you just end lost, but this is well explained and inspiring
I've been diving into plot-gridding this week and your videos have been the best explanation of that process! Thanks for creating such awesome content!
I'm so glad my videos have been helpful! I definitely love making plot grids. If you ever want to see a plot grid video I don't have on this channel, lmk and I'll make one!
Off topic a bit, but interesting. A young Jennifer Aniston is in a movie from 1993 entitled "Leprechaun". It is about an evil leprechaun who does lots of mischief. Your plot is pretty imaginative, and it reminded me of that movie, which I actually really like. Thanks for another great video.
I'm new to writing. This video was super helpful, Claire, thank you! I understand much better now after watching you bring us through the process of setting up a plot grid. You're a great teacher!
If you were to put this to a book. Final Climax The reader discovers that Gregg's actually the son of the witch. Turns out Gregg isn't Gregg after all. ( Amnesia ) Memory loss after traumatic accident. Like canoeing the rapids, canoe over turned, and his head hit a rock resulting to his loss of memory. Or trick the reader through the entire novel. Turns out it was a nasty dream after all. That Gregg is actually married. That he isn't young but rather a retired old gentleman. There are no gnomes in the garden. That his wife or daughter bought him a garden gnome the previous day for his birthday which brought on the dream.
Thank you. I am a pantser writer mostly, but sometimes I do feel like coming up with subplots is the worst thing in the world for me, especially since I have a story that has a lot of characters in it, and while the minor characters are not as important as the main two (I'm doing a sci-fi romance), they're still important overall. I'm going to give your learned method a try and see if it can't help smooth out a few rough edges and give a bit more depth. Thank you again!
Great video! That story was way too good for something you came up on the spot! Maybe susannah wasn't shallow and was just insecure to ask greg out? That could be interesting haha 👏👏
Oooh true! Great idea. I did come up with it on the spot so I didn't have time to explore all of the options but there are so many different places that story could go :)
I like the idea of the plot grid, but my problem tends to be that when I’m writing down ideas, I usually end up starting with backstory, and I have *no* idea how to distribute it in the plot grid without creating info dumps.
Info dumps are super helpful when you're fleshing out ideas so info dump away! Once you figure out the idea, you can always create another column for the revealing of information and break up your info dump into pieces later and separate them into different chapters so you don't get all the information at once, but definitely don't worry about that in the beginning. My descriptions in my plot grids at the beginning are always super long :)
I’m still learning craft; but a suggestion I’ve come across on info dumping revolves around making the reader ask for the info you want to give them. In other words, it’s more likely to be perceived as info dumping if the reader doesn’t yet want to know the information. If you want to tell your reader what happened to the protagonist when they were five years old that makes them afraid of flying, don’t just blurt it out. Start dropping hints in the set up (Act 1) of your project. “She wouldn’t get on a plane for a million dollars…not after what she had experienced on her fifth birthday.” Then - don’t dump it. Just keep dropping bread crumbs about it or showing that your character has an issue…a little here a little there. Maybe Sally starts talking about when she flew to Vegas the weekend before and you show how your protagonist character turns ashen and immediately changes the subject when she talks about how rocky take off was. Build up curiosity in the reader’s mind about WHY your Protagonist reacts that way. Then a few chapters in when you flashback or have your narrator give the information it’s not so much an info dump as it is you finally satisfying the reader’s curiosity. Sometimes, it’s not about how much info you dump, but WHEN you “dump” it - as in when the reader is asking for it. Even then, maybe you only reveal some of it but not all of it. Let the reader try to fill in the blanks - and then subvert their expectation when you give them the remaining details😂. Then use the grid to look at exactly where you can drop your crumbs (where you can create an organic opportunity) and look at the spacing out of everything. Hope this helps. It made real sense to me!
Maybe under their hats lies a simple power that he gets by giving them a new hat or different hat so when he goes to school people want to lie to him, but can't? Or bad people are pushed away from him? Or people he encounters become happy and enlightened and stay that way until he trades a hat with a... I see how the outline would help expand an idea and make it cool.
What happens if the main character is set to die, and the secondary MC is the one who grows the most? I'm writing a book where the MC is a girl with a dark past who meets a troubled boy. He is inspired by the way she keeps her head up, and in the end, he doesn't commit suicide because of her positive impact. At the same time, her past weighs her down and something happens that eventually leads to her demise. He is left in the aftermath, realizing he is grateful he stayed alive and grateful that she showed him how to fight even when all hope seems lost. The story switches between their viewpoints because it has always been 50/50 in regards to what these characters endure, but how do I go about balancing these two intertwining plots?
Hi there! To balance two intertwining plots and two MCs with equally important storylines, I'd play around with switching off to another character's POV in every chapter. And you can do this in a plot grid by having every other row be for one character, and then the other rows for the other character, and color coding who is who. Because the storylines overlap between the two characters, your subplot columns can stay the same, and you can fill in what each character does to advance that subplot in the box corresponding to their chapter. Does this answer your question? Good luck with your story!
@@WritewithClaireFraise Thanks for the advice! I have never used a plot grid before, but it seems like a good way to get things organized. I have always had issues visualizing the entire thing all at once, because my brain gets too crowded and my ADD won't let me focus sometimes. From what I gather, plot grids appear to be a way of laying everything out so you can see it all at once? I'm a pantser, and I find organizing these things quite challenging. I will try to put your advice into practice, though, and see how I fare. Thank you again!
Honestly I never want to offend anybody. Merry christmas, everybody. Be more intentional with your words. Use short phrases full to the brim overflowing with meaning. Make the most out of every letter. -God
This is a great technique. In Apple Numbers you can turn on categorization. That will let you collapse and expand by chapter. I think you can do that with Excel pivot tables, but I'm not an Excel user. You can also do things like hide the columns for plot threads you aren't concentrating on and filter out the resulting empty rows to get an uninterrupted view of just one plot thread like a series of index cards. Adding more columns for Aeon Timeline values like start, end, participant, arc, etc., is pretty cool, too. A CSV export from a spreadsheet will flow right into Aeon without any changes to the file needed and it populates the Aeon grid view, too. Plottr will do the same thing and is purpose-built for this kind of outlining. For various grumpy and ill-considered reasons, I still end up using spreadsheets.
Lol I use spreadsheets without any of the bells and whistles. My need for them is pretty simple so I don't overcomplicate it, but there are definitely a ton of things Excel-savvy people can do to their plot grids!
This is a super bizarre premise and it somehow makes the lesson more memorable 😂
I would totally read this ridiculous book! LOL BUT, on a more serious note, THANK YOU for this video. THIS right here is the type of video I needed to see for tips on outlining a book. So many videos talk about the theory of plotting, but you actually DID IT in this video. You plotted the bones and a significant amount of the meat for this little enchanted garden gnome story. That real world application is so much easier for me to put into my own plotting. THANK YOU.
Hilarious story 😂 But mostly thanks for showing the process. Trying to learn outlining and the theory is often not as helpful as this👍
This was a GREAT video! Whenever I see a filled out plot grid I feel overwhelmed. This really broke it down and I am going to start using it!
I'm so glad I could help! Thank you so much for commenting! 😀
Nice! I really like this whole “program” you demonstrated!
This is where creativity meets organization and the two halves of the brain shake hands and become fast friends! Love it!
You were so close to “Gnome Alone” for a moment there 😂
Thanks for showing exactly how you do it. Very useful video for structuring a plot.
Thank you so much!!
So glad I found this. I knew this was how JK did it but never really understood it, nor did I take the time to try if I'm being honest. Now I think I'll give it a shot for my new middle-grade adventure series. Thank you for making it make sense!
I'm so glad it helped! I love plot grids, it's the best outlining method for my brain
It has been a while since you posted this, but I am start my writing journey in the later years of my life, I want to thank you for this, it is a very logical way of thinking and with 28 years of software development behind me, seeing logical ways to lay out the story helps me. Keep up the work, I would be curious to read this book is someone actually did it. 😀
I'm so glad this video was helpful to you!! I love the Greg story, maybe one day I'll write a short story version of it 😂
Ok....but now I'm invested. Book 2 of Greg and the Garden Gnomes when?
😂
LOL! 😂
These videos might just turn me into a plotter. :-)
this was awesome! especially loved the part during the brainstorming where you kept saying "why?" out loud. i've come across this writing tip before but for some reason, it didn't click until i saw you do it!
I dislike the _feeling_ of using spreadsheets for writing (maybe because it feels like math lol) but it works SO WELL for me. The beats of the story just fall into place because you see exactly where you need to drop one in. And _because_ of the spreadsheet, it doesn't really feel like 'proper' writing and it turns my inner critic off. Like, "clearly this isn't important. I'm writing in *google sheets* for heaven's sake, who cares if it's garbage?" It's so helpful.
This is awesome and extremely useful, most of the other videos are so confusing and hard to undestand, many concepts coming in at the same time, and you just end lost, but this is well explained and inspiring
I enjoy these videos a lot. As a teen, I feel that is is better to watch a video made by a teen. It just make me feels that I can do it too.
I've been diving into plot-gridding this week and your videos have been the best explanation of that process! Thanks for creating such awesome content!
I'm so glad my videos have been helpful! I definitely love making plot grids. If you ever want to see a plot grid video I don't have on this channel, lmk and I'll make one!
“Frat-boy gnomes” made me almost choke on my coffee. 🤣🤣 Hilarious image
😂😂
Very helpful. 👍
This is incredibly helpful to me today, thank you Claire. And I love how your mind works, got a few giggles.🙏🏻
Lol aww, so glad I could help! ❤
Off topic a bit, but interesting. A young Jennifer Aniston is in a movie from 1993 entitled "Leprechaun". It is about an evil leprechaun who does lots of mischief. Your plot is pretty imaginative, and it reminded me of that movie, which I actually really like. Thanks for another great video.
I haven't seen that movie! I will have to check it out! Thank you for commenting 😊
I'm new to writing. This video was super helpful, Claire, thank you! I understand much better now after watching you bring us through the process of setting up a plot grid. You're a great teacher!
I never thought of outlining that way, I find it interesting and looks fun ty for info
It's super fun, I highly recommend trying it :)
If you were to put this to a book. Final Climax The reader discovers that Gregg's actually the son of the witch. Turns out Gregg isn't Gregg after all. ( Amnesia ) Memory loss after traumatic accident. Like canoeing the rapids, canoe over turned, and his head hit a rock resulting to his loss of memory. Or trick the reader through the entire novel. Turns out it was a nasty dream after all. That Gregg is actually married. That he isn't young but rather a retired old gentleman. There are no gnomes in the garden. That his wife or daughter bought him a garden gnome the previous day for his birthday which brought on the dream.
"It was all a dream" ha ha love it! 😂
So useful! Thank you so much for showing an actual example. This makes it so much more clear then a general discussion of theory. Wonderful stuff!
I'm so glad this was helpful :) Thank you so much!
Thank you. I am a pantser writer mostly, but sometimes I do feel like coming up with subplots is the worst thing in the world for me, especially since I have a story that has a lot of characters in it, and while the minor characters are not as important as the main two (I'm doing a sci-fi romance), they're still important overall. I'm going to give your learned method a try and see if it can't help smooth out a few rough edges and give a bit more depth. Thank you again!
I hope this method helps!! Good luck with your story and subplots!
Can't wait for the movie
You have examined well, thank you.
Thank you so much! This is a game changer!
Very helpful thank you 💜
So glad it was helpful!
Great video! That story was way too good for something you came up on the spot! Maybe susannah wasn't shallow and was just insecure to ask greg out? That could be interesting haha 👏👏
Oooh true! Great idea. I did come up with it on the spot so I didn't have time to explore all of the options but there are so many different places that story could go :)
@@WritewithClaireFraise its was great work for something you plotted out so quickly 😄
I like the idea of the plot grid, but my problem tends to be that when I’m writing down ideas, I usually end up starting with backstory, and I have *no* idea how to distribute it in the plot grid without creating info dumps.
Info dumps are super helpful when you're fleshing out ideas so info dump away! Once you figure out the idea, you can always create another column for the revealing of information and break up your info dump into pieces later and separate them into different chapters so you don't get all the information at once, but definitely don't worry about that in the beginning. My descriptions in my plot grids at the beginning are always super long :)
I’m still learning craft; but a suggestion I’ve come across on info dumping revolves around making the reader ask for the info you want to give them. In other words, it’s more likely to be perceived as info dumping if the reader doesn’t yet want to know the information.
If you want to tell your reader what happened to the protagonist when they were five years old that makes them afraid of flying, don’t just blurt it out. Start dropping hints in the set up (Act 1) of your project.
“She wouldn’t get on a plane for a million dollars…not after what she had experienced on her fifth birthday.” Then - don’t dump it. Just keep dropping bread crumbs about it or showing that your character has an issue…a little here a little there.
Maybe Sally starts talking about when she flew to Vegas the weekend before and you show how your protagonist character turns ashen and immediately changes the subject when she talks about how rocky take off was.
Build up curiosity in the reader’s mind about WHY your Protagonist reacts that way. Then a few chapters in when you flashback or have your narrator give the information it’s not so much an info dump as it is you finally satisfying the reader’s curiosity.
Sometimes, it’s not about how much info you dump, but WHEN you “dump” it - as in when the reader is asking for it. Even then, maybe you only reveal some of it but not all of it. Let the reader try to fill in the blanks - and then subvert their expectation when you give them the remaining details😂.
Then use the grid to look at exactly where you can drop your crumbs (where you can create an organic opportunity) and look at the spacing out of everything. Hope this helps. It made real sense to me!
Nice!
Why are you on every video just saying, 'Nice!'?
I know him in real life, he's just being supportive :)
Maybe under their hats lies a simple power that he gets by giving them a new hat or different hat so when he goes to school people want to lie to him, but can't? Or bad people are pushed away from him? Or people he encounters become happy and enlightened and stay that way until he trades a hat with a... I see how the outline would help expand an idea and make it cool.
Pretty Good
Nice
What happens if the main character is set to die, and the secondary MC is the one who grows the most?
I'm writing a book where the MC is a girl with a dark past who meets a troubled boy. He is inspired by the way she keeps her head up, and in the end, he doesn't commit suicide because of her positive impact. At the same time, her past weighs her down and something happens that eventually leads to her demise. He is left in the aftermath, realizing he is grateful he stayed alive and grateful that she showed him how to fight even when all hope seems lost. The story switches between their viewpoints because it has always been 50/50 in regards to what these characters endure, but how do I go about balancing these two intertwining plots?
Hi there! To balance two intertwining plots and two MCs with equally important storylines, I'd play around with switching off to another character's POV in every chapter. And you can do this in a plot grid by having every other row be for one character, and then the other rows for the other character, and color coding who is who. Because the storylines overlap between the two characters, your subplot columns can stay the same, and you can fill in what each character does to advance that subplot in the box corresponding to their chapter. Does this answer your question? Good luck with your story!
@@WritewithClaireFraise
Thanks for the advice! I have never used a plot grid before, but it seems like a good way to get things organized. I have always had issues visualizing the entire thing all at once, because my brain gets too crowded and my ADD won't let me focus sometimes. From what I gather, plot grids appear to be a way of laying everything out so you can see it all at once? I'm a pantser, and I find organizing these things quite challenging. I will try to put your advice into practice, though, and see how I fare. Thank you again!
Honestly I never want to offend anybody. Merry christmas, everybody. Be more intentional with your words. Use short phrases full to the brim overflowing with meaning. Make the most out of every letter. -God
This is a great technique.
In Apple Numbers you can turn on categorization. That will let you collapse and expand by chapter. I think you can do that with Excel pivot tables, but I'm not an Excel user.
You can also do things like hide the columns for plot threads you aren't concentrating on and filter out the resulting empty rows to get an uninterrupted view of just one plot thread like a series of index cards.
Adding more columns for Aeon Timeline values like start, end, participant, arc, etc., is pretty cool, too. A CSV export from a spreadsheet will flow right into Aeon without any changes to the file needed and it populates the Aeon grid view, too.
Plottr will do the same thing and is purpose-built for this kind of outlining. For various grumpy and ill-considered reasons, I still end up using spreadsheets.
Lol I use spreadsheets without any of the bells and whistles. My need for them is pretty simple so I don't overcomplicate it, but there are definitely a ton of things Excel-savvy people can do to their plot grids!