Plotting the Dreaded Middle

A quick note before I jump into my post about plotting: My footnote to yesterday's post gathered several comments of its own, so I've decided to post a short series on the topic next week. Stay tuned!

Now, onto plotting.

I got a question on my LiveJournal yesterday that asked: How do you deal with plot problems though? I have the seedling of a story, the 2 main characters and the baddie and I know where I want to end up. At the moment I'm still staring at that big gap in the middle, so any advice on how to fill the hole would be appreciated.

Ah, the Dreaded Middle. There are a few different approaches that I take:

The WWJD Approach
Assuming I have some sort of beginning (which may or may not end up being the *actual* beginning), I try to put myself in my characters' shoes and think about what I would do next. Literally. This sounds overly simplistic, but it works. What's the logical next step here? If I was in X situation with Y information (and so on), what's the next thing I would do?

There are a few pitfalls to this approach, however.

First, I am most definitely *not* my character. So I need to make sure that I test whatever my next move would be against my character's personality, background, etc. to make sure it makes sense for that to be his/her next move.

Second, I'm working towards a predetermined goal or ending, so I need to make sure the next move both feels logical and natural for my character and leads him/her in the direction of that goal/ending. I also typically write with at least a few subplots woven in (I like really full storylines), so I also have to figure out how the next move will impact those, if at all.

Third, sometimes the next move in real life is something like "eat lunch" or "take a shower" or "go grocery shopping." But unless I find a way to tie those activities to the action of the plot, I need to skip them and move onto the next next move. :)

The Spiderweb Approach
If I'm coming up blank with the WWJD method, it probably means I don't know enough about an aspect of the story yet. My theory is that if I understand the characters, their motivations, their connections to each other, how they are similar to each other, how they are different from each other, and how they tie into the worldbuilding (which assumes I have a firm understanding of the worldbuilding, itself), then the plotting should flow pretty easily.

If I'm stuck, I start with the individual characters first (the innermost rings of the spiderweb, if you will). Do I really understand who they are? What they want from life? What they don't want? What major experiences in their lives have shaped them? What their flaws are?

Then I move out to a slightly broader view: How do the characters connect with each other? What are their relationships to each other? How do they positively and negatively affect each other? How do they challenge each other? Are they foils? Are they opposites? Are they struggling with similar challenges but in different ways? And so on. I think this is REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT to understand in order to fully develop your plot and make your characters and their relationships seem real, as well as to get the most out of them.

Then I move out to what I see as the broadest view: How does the world I've created affect my characters and their relationships with each other and vice versa? Where do they fit in the world? How has the world shaped them? And so on.

If I can dig deep enough into these questions, I can typically get enough information that I can bounce back to the WWJD approach or the Vignette approach to continue plotting. If I'm still stuck, either I'm not digging deep enough into my characters, I still don't understand everything about them or the world, I need to change something about them to better align them with each other, or I just plain don't have a full story.

The Vignette Approach
Sometimes I'll have a handful of scenes (the vignettes) but not the full, sequential middle. In this case, I can use the Vignette approach, which is great for psyching myself out of plotting anxiety. Here's how it works:

Let's say I have only three scenes so far: the beginning, one in the middle and the end. I think about the characters and the world and another scene eventually pops into my head. Not in a linear way (like in WWJD, my preferred method of plotting), but I can see my characters doing something that appears to gel with my storyline. Okay. Does this happen before the middle scene or after? Before. Super! Now, I have a scene between the beginning and the middle. All I have to do is figure out how to get my character from the beginning scene to the new scene and then from the new scene to the middle scene. Easy, peasy! Like fractions.

Okay, not really, Ssssh! In reality, I probably need several scenes between the beginning and the one I just came up with, just like I'll need several between it and the middle scene I had. But I find that thinking more simplistically like this takes the pressure off and allows me to just relax into the characters and the story.

So then as I'm trying to figure out how my characters got to the new scene, I'll come up with something new. This will either fill the gap between the beginning and the previous scene, or it will slice it in half again.

I just keep leap-frogging through the story this way, not worrying about whether the ideas I'm coming up with are robust or linear. They're points in the story and I place them where they need to be and worry about connecting them all later. By the time I get that far, my wheels are usually turning faster than I can type and I can just let the plot spill out.

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Each of these approaches (and these aren't the only ones, just a handful) are meant to help get my mind burning up with the story, to get the movie playing in my head and to stow away that great creativity stifler: anxiety.

I hope this helps! I lurve to talk about plotting, so thanks for the great question. F-List, please add any other advice you may have in the comments. I'd also love to hear it. :)