I was having lunch with a writer-friend the other day and we got onto the topic of plotting. She says she can't write without a detailed outline, then she told me the process she goes through to put her outline together. It was very interesting to hear how another writer's brain works.

A sub-set of her process is that she brainstorms plot events (this-could-happen then that-could-happen), writes the ideas on index cards, and sorts the index cards until a coherent plot develops. I know other people who plot much the same way.

But hearing it that day, sent me screaming for the hills! Eeeeeeekkkk! :-) 

The whole idea of plotting that way just... well... well it isn't my thing. :-)

Usually I don't react so strongly to other writer's ways of doing things, so I pondered why this one hit me so hard.

My first thought was that my plotting is much more organic, go-with-the-flow kind of thing. I know the beginning and the end, and I don't know how they are going to get from here to there until I write it. But that isn't the whole story.

Then yesterday, I caught myself playing with my equivalent of index cards (flowcharts. yes, I was a programmer in a past-life), and I realized that I do my own index-card-shuffling. And I suddenly understood.

She shuffles plot. I shuffle emotions.

This book is a romance, so it has to end with the heroine and hero falling in love and happily ever after. Okay, end is set, easy enough, I know where I'm going. This particular book starts with a betrayal. Okay... so the black moment is another betrayal, actually the appearance of betrayal, and a parallel of the betrayal in the first scene, okay another point of the map of where I'm going.

The first-pass thing that's important to me isn't so much the "who does what to whom" plot aspect of that second betrayal. What's important is that betrayal ruins trust. The heroine has to re-learn now to trust, which is an emotional process. Does she get angry first? Or get depressed? Is she into revenge? Or forgiveness?

For me, the plot aspects of the story work themselves out as the emotional story is worked out.

The heroine needs to process this emotion at this point in the story. Hmmm... What circumstances can I think up that bring up that set of emotions? What emotional reactions do I need to set up along the way to make the black-moment betrayal fit the mind-sets of all the characters involved? Who's feeling what right now? This secondary character is after revenge. That one is playing out long-standing fears. That one ended up in the wrong place at the right time. Shuffle this emotional reaction to later in the story because it plays much stronger against that plot element. Move this one earlier so we're flowing emotions, not bouncing them around. Ahhhh....

Understanding my writing process, and watching it grow, is fascinating. And to recognize that I'm learning helps lessen the frustration. The the biggest problem with the two books I just pushed to the back-burner was lack of emotional coherence. The first one, I got the hero's emotions right, but the heroine's were totally screwed up. And the second book, it had no emotions, only plot... now I have to go back and put it in the emotions to justify the plot.

Maybe with this one I can get it somewhat closer to right, the first time. :-)