Plotting The Fall of the Black Masks

Plotting The Fall of the Black Masks - A May 2021 Update

Two updates in one month, and so close together! 

I've had a bit of a breakthrough with The Fall of the Black Masks that has made me quite happy and motivated. As a result, I've overcome a pretty big writer's block and have written more for it this month than I have in the past few months at least, and that is definitely giving me a big boost.

The breakthrough in question is plotting - or, more precisely, a plot diagram. 

I've been researching literary elements out of curiosity lately, and I ended up reading about plot. I didn't think I'd have anything to learn, but I did, because it turned out that my idea of what a plot is was actually not completely 100% correct! 

That got me thinking about using my newly re-calibrated definition to create a plot diagram for my book - in part because I was curious about what I had learned, and in part because I wasn't feeling up to writing at all that night and decided that if I was going to do something halfheartedly, it certainly wasn't going to be my writing.

So, I made the plot diagram. Now, I've tried to make plot diagrams several times before, and I always ended up giving up. But I think this was in part because of the misunderstanding that I had concerning plot. This time around, the plot diagram happened, and it happened so easily and quickly that I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know why it was so difficult for me before! Maybe because I was getting into way too much detail and making it unnecessarily complex, giving myself a headache in the process. 

Using this plot diagram, I rearranged plot elements that had been bothering me for quite some time, and figured out how my book was going to deal with certain important elements that I hadn't quite figured out when/where to introduce in the timeline.  I was so happy with the result that I ended up opening a document right away and writing over 1,000 words in one short sitting to see how my new arrangement would look. 

I love my new arrangement. With regards to plot, I think it's spot on. As for its execution, that's completely on me - how well I am able to write my ideas and present them to the reader. Suffice it to say that suddenly, I realized just how useful a plot diagram truly is - and how easy it is.

The other interesting thing this exercise taught me? 

Apparently, The Fall of the Black Masks is much easier for me to plot when compared to The Pirates of Sissa, despite the fact that I've written almost three times as much for The Pirates of Sissa as I have for The Fall of the Black Masks. I found that pretty intriguing! 

Maybe the plot for The Pirates of Sissa is more complex than that of The Fall of the Black Masks, with too many characters having their own inter-connected subplots. I might need to do a major plot overhaul in that case...

But that's for another blog post! 😄

One character that is definitely getting more treatment and a bigger role in the story due to the plot rearrangement is Hayyah, the empress of Belvatria and one of the supporting characters in The Fall of the Black Masks. I've also introduced a character that wasn't in the previous draft, but who honestly should have been, since his presence makes so many elements of Hayyah's plot make perfect sense in a way they didn't before.

I'm off to keep working on my writing-related projects, but I'm very excited to continue with manuscript! At this rate, it might be easier for me to complete and release this novel first rather than The Pirates of Sissa! But it's too early to be certain.