Plotting Fiction: The Pulp Master Plot, Part 4

For the last few blogs, we’ve been looking at the four-and-four strategy that many twentieth-century writers used for plotting popular genre fiction, which needs to be fast-paced and benefits from a four-act structure.) We’ll conclude this series by putting the plan into action. I’ll develop the scenario I’ve been using as an example into a working outline for a romance novel.

The Roadmap

We start with our four story elements:

• Setting: The traveling rodeo when veterinarian Doc and widowed horse-trainer Bonnie both work
• Objective: For Doc and Bonnie to live happily ever after
• Obstacles: Resistance from Bonnie’s work family, especially rodeo clown Chuck
• Mystery: Something in Bonnie’s past that causes her emotional distress, keeping her from committing to Doc

Beginning with the end in mind, we devise solutions for our central mysteries. Bonnie’s dark secret is that she is not yet a widow; her husband Ben is still alive, albeit in a near-vegetative state, having suffered a traumatic brain injury eight years previously when a horse he was training ran wild. Bonnie remains both Ben’s spouse and court-appointed guardian, so her growing love for Doc is complicated by her survivor guilt.

As the story progresses, Bonnie receive updates on Ben’s deteriorating health, and near the climax he finally passes away, leaving her both grieving and free, comforted by the hope of a future with Doc.

There’s a secondary mystery too, namely, the root of Chuck’s anger. At first, Doc thinks that Chuck is himself in love with Bonnie, but that’s a red herring. Chuck was Ben’s best friend. He was present at the accident, and blames himself for causing it.

Now that we know our final destination, we can break the journey into quarters as per Dent’s master plot and lay down our mile markers, the checkpoints we must pass along the way.

In my graphic above, I use the term “fireworks” for what I’ve previously called a “set piece,” a splashy mini-climax on the way to the grand finale. It may be a fight, a chase, a love scene, the discovery of a clue, or some other moment of excitement, as appropriate to the genre of your story.

The Itinerary

We see the path before us, complete with landmarks. Now it’s time to fill in the details. To outline our plot, we work our way down the list of chapters and goals, telling the story to ourselves. For my first pass through, I generally stick to pure narrative (this happens, then that happens) to flesh out the motivations later in my predraft notes or even in the draft itself.

The key for me is to work quickly. You can only fix writing once it’s out on the page, so it’s important to get it out as soon as possible. My plot outlines takes the form of notes to myself, so they’re not in complete sentences.

Plot Outline

Here’s my plot outline for the book described above.

1. Doc joins rodeo three weeks before tour. Set scene (show off that research!). Onboarding by MC Reggie. Instant mutual dislike w Chuck. Passes paddock on way to office, sees Bonnie training a troubled horse (Fury).

2. Meet cute; Doc diagnoses why Fury’s giving Bonnie trouble (minor—burr under saddle?), mutually impressed/attracted. Impulsively asks B to dinner; she suddenly turns cold; Chuck turns up to glower.

3. Doc invited for drinks w workmates. Roadhouse: Chuck challenges D to billiards, loses, sulks. Bonnie arrives. Doc apologizes for overstepping earlier. She accepts . . .

4. . . . and asks him to dance (de facto love scene). Magical night.

5. Morning. Doc visits her trailer; she’s on the phone. She tells him last night was a mistake, he should stay away.

6. Rodeo on tour. Day-in-life sequences. Bonnie continues working w Fury, Doc continues watching. She cries often.

7. Bonnie comes to Doc for help with a horse. Tentative friendship.

8. Rodeo in uproar; Fury’s broken loose and run off into the woods. Bonnie and Doc search and talk all night (bonding ordeal).

9. After looking all night, they find Fury and lead him back to the stable, make love on blankets as dawn breaks.

10. Doc leaves B sleeping; surprised by a drunken Chuck, who beats him savagely.

11. Reggie saves Doc, tells rest of official story (Ben killed/accident), suggests Bonnie shouldn’t mix work romance, Chuck “trying to protect her.”

12. Another rodeo stop. Doc running errands, sees Bonnie in town, impulsively tails her.

13. B stops in at private clinic, stays a long time, leaves ashen-faced. Doc assumes (wrongly) she’s sick/dying (she’s actually visiting Ben/saying goodbye).

14. Doc paranoid about secrets. Chuck does a show drunk; his carelessness causes a panic . . .

15. . . . horse injured. Doc must put it down mid-show. Disaster.

16. Doc finds B shook over horse death, tries to console; misunderstandings. Kiss/pull away.

17. Doc to roadhouse, drunk. Reggie appears, tells story-within-story/parable. New resolve.

18. Doc confronts Bonnie to confess his love/make his case. She’s crying. She’s just gotten word Ben has died.

19. Bonnie tells Doc the whole story re: Ben. She’s ready to quit the rodeo altogether and leave D forever. He loves her but doesn’t know what to do.

20. Chuck hears of Ben’s death, lashes out: riles up Fury and turns him loose in the paddock, aiming to kill Doc/scare him off.

21. Fury attacks Doc. Action escalates as Bonnie reverses, jumps into paddock; Chuck also rushes in; injured, nearly trampled.

22. Doc’s action and medical knowledge calm Fury, save Chuck’s life. From hospital bed, Chuck confesses his (imagined) part in Ben’s accident, repents.

23. Graveside service for Ben; Bonnie on Doc’s arm, fragile hope for future together. Bittersweet button.

Head on Down the Trail

And there we have it—a complete (if very rough) plot outline for our romance novel! There are still a few blanks and placeholders, but now that they’re on the page, they can be fixed. From here, you can plunge right into writing the first draft or do a second outline, even a third, breaking it down scene by scene, even sketching dialogue: whatever is most comfortable for you.

Up for Grabs!

By the way, when I say “our” romance novel, I mean exactly that. I don’t claim any copyright or ownership on this story, so if you’d like to write it up as an exercise, you are free to do so under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator (in this case, Jack Feerick), and allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only.

If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms. See the Creative Commons website for more details. And of course you can send your version of the story, or any other creative writing, to me or any of other editors at ProofreadingPal for editing and critique when you’re done. Or if you’re not ready for that level of commitment, we also offer free samples!

Jack F.