{"id":25401,"date":"2022-08-05T03:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=25401"},"modified":"2022-08-05T14:39:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T21:39:05","slug":"puzzling-your-plot-by-catharine-bramkamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/05\/puzzling-your-plot-by-catharine-bramkamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Puzzling Your Plot by Catharine Bramkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Puzzling-Your-Plot-by-Catharine-Bramkamp.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-25402 size-thumbnail\" title=\"Puzzling Your Plot by Catharine Bramkamp\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Puzzling-Your-Plot-by-Catharine-Bramkamp-300x300.png\" alt=\"Puzzling Your Plot by Catharine Bramkamp\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Puzzling-Your-Plot-by-Catharine-Bramkamp.png 300w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Puzzling-Your-Plot-by-Catharine-Bramkamp-80x80.png 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Let\u2019s welcome back monthly columnist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?s=Catharine+Bramkamp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Catharine Bramkamp<\/a> as she shares with us \u201cPuzzling Your Plot.\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>My brother-in-law and his partner like to piece together jigsaw puzzles<\/strong>. They call the activity, puzzling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After both have spent their work day dealing with the public or more to the point, the entitled public, puzzling is relaxing: not aggravating like the news, not demanding like reading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Puzzles\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Puzzles have a form, rules, and can be finished in a reasonable time frame.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>They offered to include me in the grand opening of a new puzzle<\/strong>. With great ceremony they opened a new puzzle box and carefully distributed the detached pieces, picture side up across the table.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first activity, they explain, is to build the frame.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The second is to spend minutes<\/strong>, or hours, finding the next exact piece to fit into the frame.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes a person focuses on fitting together all the pieces that have similar colors or patterns, and sets the collection, checking the box lid, into the general area of the still incomplete puzzle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are reasonably confident that they will find the linking pieces that will eventually attach and connect those sections into the frame.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Sometimes they work for 15 minutes to find where a specific piece belongs but in the end,<\/strong> they still can\u2019t find a home for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At that point, they are allowed to declare that the puzzle is stupid and walk away to watch a favorite Netflix series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>What I appreciate most about puzzling is the nonjudgmental permission to walk away<\/strong>. The pieces are not swept back into the box. The offending piece that refuses to mate is not set on fire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don\u2019t give up on the puzzle.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Because the next morning<\/strong>, that puzzle piece will suddenly reveal where it belongs. It will find its place in the frame. You can move on and find the next, then the next piece, always moving towards the goal of the finished picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just like plotting a story or novel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plotting\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We often start a novel with a clear picture in our head of what the finished novel should look like.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We build the frame intended to contain all the characters and adventures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>We spend hours<\/strong>, days, sometimes months scrutinizing our plot points and pieces and work mightily to make them fit in the frame and contribute to the overall picture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only time puzzling does not resemble plotting is during that moment when you realized that all the pretty pieces &#8212; all the colors, the butterfly, the antique car, the palm tree &#8212; doesn\u2019t fit in the frame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Sometimes a whole collection<\/strong>, no matter how meticulously worked and no matter how beautiful, doesn\u2019t fit at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a puzzle, this never happens. In a novel, it happens all the time. Sometimes our completed novel doesn\u2019t match the picture in our head, at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Don\u2019t be discouraged.<\/strong> Celebrate the completion of a whole novel. Take those beautiful sections that didn\u2019t fit anywhere and save them for another novel, or blog, or short story.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A novel is just like a puzzle. You can leave every piece on the table and walk away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Stupid puzzle<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to read more articles like this one Writer\u2019s Fun Zone? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/contact-beth\/#signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subscribe here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1RlgH6b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1rlgh6b noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-12334\" title=\"Catharine Bramkamp\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Catharine-Bramkamp-pic-274x300.jpg\" alt=\"Catharine Bramkamp\" width=\"150\" height=\"164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Catharine-Bramkamp-pic-274x300.jpg 274w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Catharine-Bramkamp-pic-300x329.jpg 300w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Catharine-Bramkamp-pic.jpg 584w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1RlgH6b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Catharine Bramkamp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0is a successful <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/yourbookstartshere.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">writing coach<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Chief Storytelling Officer, former\u00a0co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1i9eAlQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">books<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1HgxT4W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real Estate Diva Mysteries series<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1Tmil52\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Future Girls series<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also by Catharine Bramkamp<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/01\/how-to-write-flash-fiction-by-catharine-bramkamp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/01\/how-to-write-flash-fiction-by-catharine-bramkamp<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/03\/too-busy-to-breathe-are-you-being-productive-or-just-busy-by-catharine-bramkamp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/03\/too-busy-to-breathe-are-you-being-productive-or-just-busy-by-catharine-bramkamp<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/08\/showing-off-by-catharine-bramkamp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/08\/showing-off-by-catharine-bramkamp<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/08\/time-to-quit-by-catharine-bramkamp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/08\/time-to-quit-by-catharine-bramkamp<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Approach plotting as if it\u2019s a puzzle, lay out the frame, match the pieces, put them together, and walk away for a little, if you need to. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4774,84],"tags":[5035,940,5037,132,2199,1472,5036,2195,96],"class_list":["post-25401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-author-confidence","tag-catharine-bramkamp","tag-completed-novel","tag-novel","tag-planning","tag-plot","tag-plot-points","tag-plotting","tag-story"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Puzzling Your Plot by Catharine Bramkamp &#183; Writer&#039;s Fun Zone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Approach plotting as if 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