My Kingdom for a Plot!

-->

RHYS BOWEN:  Are you a plotter of a Pantser? This is one of the great divides of mysterydom. All writers are either one or the other. Plotters look at Pantsers in horror and disbelief. How can you write without knowing where you are headed? As a Pantser myself I realize that every writer has to decide what works for him or her. Or you can be a hybrid, like today's guest. Here's Warren Easley to tell you about it:

 My Kingdom for a Plot!

      by Warren Easley

     To paraphrase one of Shakespeare’s kings—you know, the one they found under a parking lot in Leicester a few years back—A plot, a plot!  My kingdom for a plot!  I love to write, always have.  Give me a scene, any scene, and I’ll flesh it out for you.  Give me two people caught in a face to face encounter, and I’ll capture their dialogue.  Show me a setting, and I’ll bring it alive, replete with sights, sounds, smells and touch.  But put all the elements of a novel together in a coherent, believable plot?  That’s a task that gives me pause.

     Plotting a mystery, you might argue, is easier than plotting, say, literary fiction.  After all, there are some pretty clear rules in the mystery genre.  For example, unless you’re a Louise Penny or a James Lee Burke, you had better kill someone off in the first fifty pages of your book, since the patience of your readers (and publisher) is notoriously short.  And you also need to build-in an event that signals the approaching climax, and ensure that, in fact, you end with a bang, not a whimper.  This leaves the “slushy middle”, which must never be slushy, so all manner of clever devices should be inserted to not only drive the plot but keep the pace brisk, the tone engaging. 

     Easy, you say?

     One school of thought says outlining is the answer. What we have here is a need for discipline, we’re told.  Put your mind to it, and the plot will seamlessly unfold in an orderly sequence.  This group of writers proudly refer to themselves as Outliners.  I tried outlining in my early writing without much success.  The experience was a little like driving in a dense fog.  I could see a small distance ahead and very little from side to side.  Sure, I could get something down on paper, but after a short burst of writing, the outline invariably needed rewriting.  Those pesky, unruly characters of mine kept asserting themselves in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

The other school of thought says that the plot is an organic element that must be allowed to evolve as the story progresses.  In other words, the plot builds outwardly, informed primarily by what has already been written.  Enter the Pantsers, an equally proud group that flies by the seat of its pants, metaphorically speaking.  This laissez-faire approach may sound appealing, especially to those like me who dislike planning ahead.  

But the other side of that coin is that the story can easily bob and weave itself into chaos, a kind of literary proof of the law of entropy.  And I can tell you from experience, there is nothing more painful than backing out of a corner into which you have written yourself.  It invariably involves trashing a lot of good work.

     All well and good, you say, but what drives the plot for you pantsers?  Surely there are animating forces.  

For me, two things are crucial at the outset of a new book.

  First, I need an idea or situation that seems big enough to hang 100,000 words on.  For example, in the seventh book in the series, No Way to Die, I became interested in the fact that the state of Oregon allows juveniles to be tried as adults for capital crimes.  What would happen, I asked myself, if my protagonist, Cal Claxton, agreed to help a young man serving a life prison term for having been convicted of murder at age sixteen?  After all, Cal is drawn to cases involving the most vulnerable among us.  I was at once intrigued and disturbed by this practice—a good sign that the energy would be there to write a book about it.

    
The second crucial element for me is to define the principle characters who will populate the story.  I need to know their names, what they look like, what they do, and most importantly, what motivates them.  This doesn’t come all at once, but the sooner I get a handle on these rascals, the better the story goes.  For example, in No Way to Die, I envisioned the kid, a young free spirit who loved to surf the Oregon coast, his grandmother, an indie bookstore owner and committed environmental activist, the kid’s power broker stepdad, a jailhouse snitch, and his girlfriend.  I should mention that Cal’s daughter, Claire, joins him for what I thought would be a cameo, but she insisted on staying in the book.  I didn’t realize how headstrong she was!

     So, armed with a big idea and a pantheon of characters, I let the story evolve.  Did I know at the outset how or even whether Cal would be able to help the young surfer?  I did not.  But I trusted that my characters would reveal the story to me.

    
Of course, authors should adopt a strategy for plotting a novel that works best for them.  The truth is, I land somewhere between the extremes of rigid outlining and unfettered evolution, although I admit to being a Pantser most of the time.  I didn’t plan on using a hybrid strategy.  It turned out that was the only way I could get a book written and keep my sanity.

     Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to figure out how the book I’m currently writing is going to end…

REDS: So how about you, reds and readers? Writers, which camp are you in? Readers, can you imagine writing a book--would you use an outline? Or just--go for it?

Warren C. Easley is the author of the Cal Claxton Oregon Mysteries published by Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. Coming in October is book 7, No Way to Die.

 When nothing is as it seems, can the truth survive?
Attorney Cal Claxton, now well-established in his Oregon law practice after breaking off his career as a high-powered LA prosecutor, just wants to go fishing with his daughter, Claire, and he knows the best place —the coastal area south of Coos Bay. But their vacation takes a dark turn with the discovery of a body in the river.
As an investigation is launched into the suspicious death, Cal and Claire find themselves drawn into the life of the local bookshop owner and vocal environmental activist, whose grandson was convicted for murder at age sixteen. She believes he was wrongly accused and convinces Cal to reexamine the case. Together, Cal and Claire dig deep into the secrets and crumbling alliances that form the foundation of this small coastal community, and what they find could spell doom for them both...
About the Author:
Formerly a research scientist and international business executive, WARREN C. EASLEY lives in Oregon where he writes fiction, tutors GED students, fly-fishes and skis. Easley is the author of the Cal Claxton Oregon Mysteries. He received a Kay Snow National Award for fiction in 2012 and was named the Northwest’s Up and Coming Author in 2017, both honors bestowed by Willamette Writers.

Warreneasley.com

facebook.com/WarrenCEasley

poisonedpenpress.com/WarrenCEasley