A flexible plan

 I'm currently re-writing a novel  which I originally wrote in 2009.  Because there was an existing full manuscript, I didn't create my usual detailed chapter plan before I started the rewrite.

The original manuscript has three viewpoints; two major characters and one minor character.  In most chapters the two major viewpoints appeared together.  They were properly separated, but the structure didn't work.  The sections in each viewpoint were far too short.  I'd just get the reader engaged in what one character was doing when I'd change viewpoint and yank them away from that action.

So one of the things I've done in the rewrite is to reorganise those viewpoints.  Now each chapter is a single viewpoint, with the character's name at the top. I decided on a structure alternating between the two major characters.  I realised I could dispense with the minor viewpoint altogether.  The essential information he gives the reader can be imparted by a report to one of the major characters.

This structure has worked just fine throughout the novel.  But towards the end of the story I've added some new content and I've slightly changed the narrative.  I've added scenes about a planet-wide election that weren't in the original book.  I've also introduced a Security commander as a new character.  I needed to organise this new material, so I did a detailed chapter plan for the last ten chapters.

Then I settled down to write the action outlined in that plan.  I've learned over the years that I need to be willing to switch things around from where I thought they should go on the chapter plan.  Many times I've realised as I got down to the actual writing that I'd missed the opportunity for a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter.  Often I'll find that I need to end the action earlier than detailed in my plan.  Often the outline means I've gone on beyond the moment of greatest suspense.

So that's one way in which my chapter plan needs to remain flexible.  I'm forever switching the ends of chapters to the start of the next one on that chapter's viewpoint,   By the time I'm finished, my neatly-typed plan has boxes around chunks of texts, and arrows moving them to new places.

In the current novel I've been even more flexible  I'd originally planned the book to end with the results of the election, but as I got closer to the end I realised the ending would have more emotional impact if I switched to scenes of the abused women witnessing the destruction of the temple where they'd been abused.  So my chapter plan got some major notations, switching the last six chapters around.  I did add a new attack scene to the election part, but it turned out not to be the grand fight scene I'd originally expected.  It reinforced my decision to switch the narrative around.

I'm pleased with the way I've swapped the story threads around.  Now the story will end with the destruction of the temple, and there are several strands which will come together there.  It will have much more emotional impact than the original idea, and I think will make for more impactful writing.