Mapping Out the Story - Bloomsbury

Mapping Out the Story

by Kate Messner

Fast-drafting, whether it's during NaNoWriMo or another time of year, can be an amazing way to make quick progress on a manuscript. But chances are, somewhere along the way, you'll be chugging along and realize that you have no idea what day it's supposed to be in Chapter 3. Or maybe you'll be writing a chase scene and you'll be completely lost. Was that path through the woods behind the school or over next to the playground?

Sometimes, taking a break from your drafting to map out where you are can save you time and energy in the long run. I use the word "map" loosely. I frequently create literal maps of the places in my books. When I was writing THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, I made a great big map of Gianna's neighborhood.

Gianna's Neighborhood Map

It included not only Gianna's house and her friends' houses, but her school, the route for her morning runs, and the neighbors' yards where she collected leaves for her science project. It's easy to get lost when you're writing about a setting that only exists in your mind. Getting that place down on paper helps me to visualize the real distances and directions from one place to another so that the scenes in my story make sense.

Mapping out the timeline of your story can also be a huge help when it comes to keeping track of the details of your plot, and those timelines can range from the very, very basic to the complex. Here's an example of a bare bones timeline...

Here's a super-quick timeline I made for my work-in-progress, a middle grade novel called ALL THE ANSWERS. My goal was figuring out which chapters happened on which days of the week so that I could make sure my main characters "school days" were all weekdays and the Election Day chapter actually happened on the first Tuesday of November.

With futuristic fiction, the process of mapping out the timeline for a story takes on more significance, and I make much more detailed timelines when I'm building a future world. Here's one that I made for EYE OF THE STORM, my tornado thriller set in the year 2050...

This timeline actually spans more than sixty years, from the recent past, through the present, and into the future world of the story's plot. Creating such a vast and detailed timeline helps me to make sure the futuristic elements of my story are grounded in the reality of our current headlines and living situations, something that's essential in order for readers to feel like that fictional world is plausible.

Timeline for EYE OF THE STORM

You can tailor your maps and timelines to fit any struggle you might be having as you draft your NaNoWriMo novel. Writing a chase scene where a character is hiding in a building? Map the details of that building, including not only hiding spaces, but windows and other light sources, staircases, exits...everything that might affect what happens in that space. Whether you're wrestling with a timeline or trying to map out the details of your setting, taking a break from your draft to do some planning can help keep your story on track.

KATE MESSNER is an award-winning author whose books for kids have been New York Times Notable, Junior Library Guild, IndieBound, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. was the winner of the 2010 E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers. Kate also spent fifteen years teaching middle school and earned National Board Certification in 2006. She lives on Lake Champlain with her family and loves spending time outside, whether it's kayaking in the summer or skating on the frozen lake when the temperatures drop.

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