Too Much of a Good Thing: Over Plotting Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes another look at a common problem--over plotting your novel. 

Often it’s hard to come up with a single plot, but there are writers out there who can spin a tale like they have an unlimited supply. Trouble is, too many plots can spoil a story, and knowing where the line is between complex and complicated can be hard to spot. How do you know when you have a layered story and when you have too much plot?

What’s Going On in the Story? 

When I first started writing, I subscribed to “the more the merrier” philosophy. Lots of characters, lots of point of views, lots of plots and subplots. Naturally, I ended up with a mess. It was impossible to tell what the story was about or who my protagonist was. So much was going on you couldn’t tell what was going on.

Eventually, I made it through this all-too-common phase and figured out that less really can be more.

8 Signs You Might Be Over Plotting Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Plotting a novel can be a strange thing sometimes. We might have one idea we develop without trouble, or we might struggle with every goal and scene. And then there are the novels where the plot ideas hit us so fast we barely have time to write them all down.

But sometimes, what looks like a great idea is just an extra idea, and before we know it, our novels are so over plotted we don’t even know what it’s about anymore. Trouble is, we don’t always recognize an over-plotted novel when we write one.

They can be sneaky, making every plotline seem necessary, because they’re usually connected to characters and ideas we don’t want to cut. They’re shiny, often fun, and once they’re in the story, they fight stay there.