Pickle is an Awful Procrastinate-y Novelist/Student

Hello.

I have something to confess to you all:

I am really bad at deadlines.

This probably isn't surprising if you've read any of my posts on here from last year. I woke up at 5:30 am today so I could do my homework that's due in two hours. My novel won't be done until December 17th according to my stats. Although, I actually have an excuse this time, and also some tips.

Oh. Hi excuse hat. THIS IS NOT YOUR BLOG YOU STUPID HAT!

So My local Big Famous University (What? You don't have one of those?) has a biannual (twice yearly, not every two years) event where for a weekend, students and graduates teach classes to middle school and high school students. This weekend was my fifth time going. It's the coolest thing ever.

I love taking the writing classes, because, well... I like writing. This year, I took a class called How To Write A Novel In A Month. It was downright groovy. The teachers had some really great tips for making writing easier, not to mention the class came up with a list of what makes a good character.

Here is a tip that was super useful:

Graph your plot

This does not mean you need to know every detail of your plot. I'm definitely a Pantser.  My graph looks like this:

This lovely little bit of data (mmm.... data) is what I want my novel to be like. I want it to get interesting pretty quickly,  even off for a bit, and then get all exciting again. Now watch- 

BAM! Now it's a plot. Sort of. I have the ideas laid out, and I now where I want them to be! And if you're a Planner like our dear Potato, you can be as specific as you want. This way, if I get stuck, I can just choose a different point in time on the line. See?

Just remember kids:

The month of November might be a direct progression of cause to effect, but can write as wibbly wobbly timey wimey as you damn well please.

--PICKLE

P.S. I know my graph only goes halfway I'm only doing 25K, so it was a joke :P