The W Plotting Structure
A Helpful Way to Plot Your Story
Do you all enjoy plotting your stories?
It can be fun. It’s like dreaming about a story on paper. At this point in the story creation process, anything is possible — you can brainstorm and write down whatever you think might happen, no matter how crazy. Then you can work to create a more focused story by keeping only what will work.
But the plotting process can also be frustrating, especially if you don’t like to outline your stories. Not knowing what is going to happen can paralyze a writer who isn’t into outlining.
I get it because I’ve been a writer who did zero plotting and one who over-plotted (because I thought that was what successful authors did) to one now who loosely plots. I’ve learned that it’s helpful to have an idea of what will happen in the story, even if I’m unable to think of every scene ahead of time.
The interesting thing is that I think most writers do plot, even those say they do not, otherwise how could they write anything. They just plot in their head. They must have a character in mind and must know what the character wants. Or they must have a certain theme they want to write about and the story grows from there.
Today, I want to talk about the W plotting structure and how to use it to get the basics of a story…
