A Realistic (Lazy) Guide to Plotto

If you're asking yourself what kind of foreign cuisine plotto might be, you're on the wrong blog, buddy.

Plotto is a book written by William Wallace Cook, of deforesting-Canada fame. He concocted a formula for plot, wrote a book about it, and now it's super confusing to read. Don't get me wrong. You could totally read the in the front of the book instructions very thoroughly and understand what's going on.

But who has that kind of time? Also, since when is following instructions any fun?

Let's Mix It up a Little

But before we do any mixing up, you'll need a copy of Plotto. My paperback copy was a whopping $18.95 USD I didn't have to pay because it was a birthday present. If you want a tangible book, you can definitely find it on Amazon.

If you're cool with a digital copy, however, you can get it for absolutely free. Bonus: it's searchable. I definitely recommend having access to both.

The first thing you'll notice once you get past the table of contents is a deceptively simple explanation: A Clause + B Clause + C Clause = the plot of your next novel.

Keep flipping/scrolling... Keep flipping/scrolling... It will get more confusing. You'll get to know everyone, from B-4 to aGCH-B. Open up to the middle of the book, and there are numbers everywhere. Not exactly the friendliest sight.

Ready to Break the Rules?

Let's take the complex and make it simpler. We're not going to be using Plotto as it was intended; instead, we'll pick apart its elements to help you take the ideas you already have and turn them into solid plots for writing.

Of course, you don't have to come into this with your own half-baked ideas ready to Frankenstein up. But that's how this article is going to be tailored, okay?

The A Clause Exercises

The A Clause of the "plot sentence" Plotto helps you write is all about your character. Cook broke down the character into male (A) and female (B), and the rest of the characters were nicknamed based off of their relationships with either A or B. Obviously, we're not living in as black-and-white of a world, but the letters are just variables anyway, and they could stand for anything.

You can find the complete list of character symbols on page 23 in the paperback, or thereabouts.

Now, let's mess with Cook's system a little bit.

• Whoever your current protagonist is, pick a relation from the list and imagine how the story would change if they were your protagonist instead.
• Throw in a relation from the list you hadn't previously expected to include in your story. How would they add or ease tension? When and where might they pop up?
• Swap one of your protagonist's relations for another. How is the story transformed when your protagonist's sister's role is played by a female criminal?

The B Clause Exercises

The B Clause is all about the initial conflict and how your character reacts. The combinations are limitless, and thus infinitely scary. But they don't have to be!

I'll be talking about the B Clauses of the Masterplots starting on page 14 in the paperback, or thereabouts.

• Take a character you already have floating in your mind and make a list of the top five B Clauses that sound like something your character would get themselves into. Now, write a brief description of how each of these stories may play out.
• Try to fit your current story seed into one of the B Clauses. What expectations could you defy to make your story really stand out?

The C Clause Exercises

The C Clauses are how your story wraps up.

• Write your story with a C Clause that's nothing like your original ending.
• If you don't have an ending for your current story, pick three C Clauses that could be worked in and explore how each would change your story's meaning.
• Find the C Clause that's closest to your original ending. Analyze the vague language—words like experience and undertaking and wisdom—and imagine how you could alter your story's ending while staying true to the C Clause.

The Most Random Exercises I Could Think of

Now, if you'll have the book, you'll notice that in this article I didn't really utilize any pages beyond the 25th or so. Why's that? Because the whole rest of the book is just throwing A, B, and C Clauses together and categorizing everything. If you can follow it, I'm sure it'll be amazingly useful to you.

As for me, I have a different approach to handling the rest of the book. It's called opening to a random page and see what I get. And there's a surprising amount of stuff you can do with just that!

• Pick any plot sentence and explore how it could be lengthened to a flash fiction piece, a short story, a novella, a novel, and a series.
• Pick any three plot sentences and tweak them until you can make them flow in a logical order such that each plot sentence would represent a book in a series.
• Find a friend, pick a plot sentence you both enjoy, and see what different stories you both come up with.
• Use the worksheets in the back of the book the author of this post just found and do something with those!

How do you use Plotto? Did this post completely turn you off from buying a copy? Let us know by commenting below and make sure to subscribe so you can get the latest posts.