How to use this Page

If you were reading any of my tweets or viewing my Instagram pictures this past weekend, you know that I was hard at work integrating a new plot twist into my novel.

The ending of my current novel project has always haunted me. I’ve revised it several times and it never felt right. A couple of weeks ago I had an A-ha Moment and figured out how it could work — but it involved a huge plot twist that I would have to incorporate throughout the whole novel. Even though I knew it would cause me headaches and some rewriting, it was the right thing to do. It just felt right. A kind of writer’s intuition.

At this point, I had all of my scenes in chapters, so I revisited the spreadsheet of my novel and plugged away at incorporating elements of the new plot twist, which included moving scenes around, writing scene revision notes, and creating a list of new scenes.

But I found myself juggling papers and switching back and forth with my computer screen. It was making me batty so I decided that I would create a plot grid on the wall in my office.

I got the idea from Christina Farley. She has a fabulous blog post and YouTube video on how she creates her plot grid. There are many ways to do one. The main benefit is viewing your whole novel at a glance.

Being a plot chick, my grid is based on the 3-Act structure. I love author Alexandra Sokoloff’s Story Element Checklist, which uses screenwriting structure and tailors it to novels. But even if you just break your story down into 3 parts — beginning, middle, and end — that will work as well.

Here’s a quick summary of my plot grid:

Now I can see at a glance how to better work in my plot twist and change things around if needed. It also lets me see my characters and settings to determine if the frequency works too. There are many ways to utilize a plot grid.