Aug 22 2010
Organizing Your Story With Cause and Effect
If you’re worried that your manuscript isn’t as coherent as it could be, mapping your plot can be extremely helpful. To do so:
- List the 25-50 most important events in the plot.
- Place one event each on a post-it note.
- Organize as many of the post-it notes into a cause-and-effect chain as you can.
For example, here’s a political thriller with two main plot threads. (I wouldn’t recommend more than 3 plot threads).
For more information on how to use your map to tighten up your plot, see below.
