Flip it, flip it, flip it. Like a pancake. In other words, TURN IT ON ITS HEAD.
Right now I’m plotting a scene where O (O is short for Olesya, TUBE’s main character) is calling the hospital in Moscow to find out if her mom has died (everyone is telling her that, but she refuses to believe it).
Before I write down a single word of this scene, I think about major plot points, then I block it out, then I write it.
Here is how.
Plotting looks like a list of lines, from 5 to 15 or so, to indicate major plot points (I’ve posted a sneak peek from it for Hedgehogs and up).
For example, here is one major plot point that gets flipped and flipped and flipped again (and fractured in the process into smaller plot points), until it becomes enough material for one or several blocks of the scene.
O picks up the phone in the workman’s office, calls hospital.
BORING. How to flip it?
O picks up the phone in the workman’s office to call the hospital, but the line is dead.
You see how I flipped it? Great. How to flip it even more?
O picks up the phone on the desk next to the workman’s office to call the hospital, but the line is dead, then the door to the workman’s office opens, and she sees the workman, he talks on the phone, covers the mouthpiece, nods at the phone and says “it’s not working.”
Wow, see how now there is conflict? And how from one phone I fractured it to two? How can we flip it more?
O picks up the phone on the desk next to the workman’s office to call the hospital, but the line is dead, then the door to the workman’s office opens, and she sees the workman, he talks on the phone, coves the mouthpiece, nods at the phone and says “it’s not working.” O asks to use his phone, but the workman says no, it’s only for work use.
I could’ve had the workman just agree and let her use the phone, but that’d be boring. So I flip it and have him say no.
Let’s skip ahead in this scene, for another great example, when O is on the phone finally, and is asking about her mom, which is another major plot point (O calls the hospital and learns that her mom died).
O asks for her mom, the nurse says her mom died.
This is as straight as you can get. BORING. How to flip it?
O asks for her mom, the nurse says no one here by that name, hangs up.
Oh, we kicked up the interest. Is the mom alive? Dead? Where is she? See how I flipped it? How to flip it more?
O asks for her mom, the nurse says no one here by that name, try calling this ward. O calls the other ward, another nurse comes up, says wait, then a man comes up, says he’s a doctor, O asks for her mom, doctor says we have expenses.
See, the doctor calculated that he can squeeze a bribe out of O, so he strings her along. He doesn’t say her mom is dead, he fishes for money. So again I flipped it. How to flip it more?
O asks for her mom, the nurse says no one here by that name, try calling this ward. O calls the other ward, another nurse comes up, says wait, then a man comes up, says he’s a doctor, O asks for her mom, doctor says we have expenses, when can you pay? O says I'm not in Moscow, thanks for taking care of my mom, can I talk to her? Doctor says he can’t put thanks in the pocket, call this number. O calls the number, a man asks for a name, she gives her mom’s last name, he asks when is she picking up the body.
So O called the morgue. How to flip it? We can flip it at the end of the conversation.
O calls the number, a man asks for a name, she gives her mom’s last name, he says no one here by that name, about to hang up. O racks her brain, says her mom’s other last name, before she was married. The man yells, is she joking, no one here by that name. Finally, O recalls her mom’s maiden name, says it, the man says Valentina? O says yes, can I talk to her? The man laughs hard and long, then says sure, you can try. Where you calling from, the nuthouse? O says, what do you mean? The man says you have 3 days. O says what happens after 3 days? The man says we burn the bodies and bury them in the common grave. Hangs up. O is stunned. Now she knows for sure her mom has died.
You see how one single plot point has expanded and flipped, flipped, flipped to make it into blocks that will later comprise the scene?
That’s what I teach in more detail in writing classes. See you there and in Discord chat!