There once was a young fellow from Kent
whose nose was most awfully bent.
He followed his nose,
one day, I suppose,
and no one knows which way he went.

We do need a map from “Once upon a time, there was” to “The End,” but where should it be?

Skye Taylor wants to know in the shivering month of June (on the proper side of the globe) whether you draw a map first then write a story to follow it, or sketch as you go, like the explorers of old.

I have edited many books by novice scribes that were full of dangling subplot lines with all sorts of unintended connections and disconnections that went approximately nowhere. You know, exactly like this sentence. I wrote that monster sentence with a dangling participle to imitate a dangling subplot line. Very few novice scribes are full of dangling subplot lines, which is the sentence’s claim.

So, if you are new to storytelling, I recommend the following (You can skim the intermediate bits, since longer ones expand on the previous):

• A tagline, like they have for the movies:

All of humanity needs to unite to survive. Impossible? Bill achieves it, in order to defeat the person who has worked toward our extinction for 10,000 years.

Sorry, this needs improvement. Any suggestions gratefully accepted, but I hope you get the idea.

• Expand it to 50 words:

Bdud invaded Earth 10,000 years ago to destroy us. Derit has opposed him thousands of times, but now is the time for their final duel to decide the fate of our universe. Bill doesn’t know he is Derit’s reincarnation—but Bdud does, and uses every means possible to kill him.

• Now 100 words:

Bdud invaded Earth 10,000 years ago. His mission is to convert us from our cooperative, empathetic nature to greed and hate, and breed us up into billions so we destroy our environment. Then we’ll need to reincarnate elsewhere, carrying the destruction with us. Derit opposed him from the start, gaining strength in each of thousands of reincarnations. Now in the early 21st Century is the prophesised final duel between them.

Bill doesn’t know he is Derit’s reincarnation. As soon as Bdud realises it, he attacks him in every way possible. The fate of our entire universe depends on the outcome.

• You’ve guessed it: 200 words:

Two aliens come to rescue humanity from extinction. Elsewhere in the galaxy, accelerated evolution toward the best in the local species has always worked, but on Earth an active force opposes them, driving us to greed, hate, conflict, so they select one person to champion the change. Bill from the Australian Outback is the best of all humans.

That negative force is Bdud, an invader from another universe. For 10,000 years, he has corrupted our cooperative, empathetic nature into a self-destructive culture. When we die out, we’ll reincarnate in other seats of life, spreading destruction.

Derit has opposed him from the start, gaining strength in each of thousands of reincarnations. Now in the early 21st Century is the prophesised final duel between them.

Bill doesn’t know he is Derit’s reincarnation. As soon as Bdud realises it, he attacks him in every way possible. The fate of our entire universe depends on the outcome.

Bill gains worldwide fame when Bdud manipulates a criminal boss into kidnapping his sister. Bill and his team defeat the criminal, and introduce their alien friend to the media.

By the end of this first volume, Bill realises his destiny, advises his country’s government, and is ready to expand his team globally.

• 400 – 500 words:

Humans are hard-wired for empathy, decency, cooperation. We’ve lived in harmony with nature for eons. And yet, greed, hate, war, and environmental destruction have caused the sixth extinction event of Earth’s history.

Two aliens come to rescue us. Elsewhere in the galaxy, accelerated evolution toward the best in the local species has always worked, but on Earth an active force opposes them, so they select one person to champion the change. Bill from the Australian Outback is the best out of all their many millions of “children.”

That negative force is Bdud, an invader from another Universe. There is one his kind in every galaxy, but he is their leader. Their task: to destroy our Universe.

For 10,000 years, he has corrupted our cooperative, empathetic nature into a self-destructive culture. When we die out, we’ll reincarnate in other seats of life, spreading destruction.

Derit has opposed him from the start, gaining strength in each of thousands of reincarnations. Now in the early 21st Century is the prophesised final duel between them.

Bill and his family are genius-level in intelligence, creativity, and several other human qualities. He has a twisted sense of humour, using it to stay sane in a series of terrible situations.

He doesn’t know he is Derit’s reincarnation. As soon as Bdud realises it, he attacks him in every way possible. The fate of our entire universe depends on the outcome.

Bill gains worldwide fame when Bdud manipulates a criminal boss into kidnapping his sister. Bill and his team defeat the criminal, and introduce their alien friend to the media.

Using his Universe’s energy, Bdud causes a solar flare that kills this alien. The second alien takes over, chooses the name Aurora, and acts as everyone’s mother.

Under her guidance, Bill and his team perform apparent miracles, including healing fifty people in an American hospital while still in Australia.

But he is the target of an increasing number of attacks on his life, some using physical means, others paranormal abilities.

He suffers frequent nightmares. Some are past-life recalls of previous conflicts with Bdud, others clairvoyant events from their final duel, but he doesn’t realise this.

By the end of this first volume, Bill realises his destiny, advises his country’s government, and is ready to expand his team globally.

Next will be 1000 words, then 3000. By then, you’ll have been forced to invent a logical sequence of events, introduce new characters to perform necessary roles, and hey, the map is on the way!

You can now colour your map in by making up a dossier for each person, even those intended as once-only walk-ons, and by expanding the synopsis into a list of chapter titles.

Each of those chapter titles is a tagline. Expand it into a list of scenes. Every scene will have a witness whose point of view you present it from, a link to previous scenes, a beginning, a purpose of advancing the plot in some way, an ending, and a lead to future scenes.

Then start writing, turning this daisy chain of scenes into a story.

Mind you, none of this is set in concrete. You’ll need to change as you write, and this is the reason for dossiers for even minor characters. It’s almost certain some will fall into expanded roles, and you don’t want black-haired Mr. Smith the posthole digger to change into a brown-haired postman.

Do I do this? Not for the past twenty-odd years, but it was good discipline early on.

The development of skill of any kind follows a sequence. The beginning cook needs a recipe, and obeys it exactly. With experience, the recipe is adapted to suit what’s cheap, what’s in the pantry, the tastes of visitors. The chef may skim a recipe, but probably not if it is a familiar project. The recipe is there, and an observer could write it down. And a master chef invents the recipe.

Last year, I needed to write a short story to illustrate the pain of Christmas for those who are lonely, and those caught in grief. I went to sleep with a request to the universe, and in the morning, Mario and Paddy told me all about it.

I merely needed to write Mario’s dictation down. If you analyse the story, you’ll find the plot in it, but it was implicit.

Sometimes, I use this intuitive approach to start a story, then sleep on it again and write an ending. Then I know where I am heading, and the story will flow. I did this for Maraglindi, and sent the manuscript off to a publisher I respect. She loved the story, except for the ending, which was horrific. However, that ending was necessary. My solution was to invent another ending scene, nine months later, wrote that, then filled in from murder to rebirth.

I think even if you are not a writer, understanding the writing process will add to your enjoyment when reading. And whether you are a writer or not, I’ll love it if you can comment on this, particularly on improving my series of expanding synopses. Then do visit the other round robiners, who may well be slim rather than round. (Sorry, but don’t you love English?)

Marci Baun
Anne Stenhouse
Skye Taylor