# The Blueprinting System and Scene Cards — Story Genius

## What the Blueprint Is

The blueprint is a scene-by-scene cause-and-effect structure of the plot, driven at every point by the protagonist's internal struggle. It is not a traditional outline.

### Key Differences from an Outline
- Built scene by scene, not from a template
- Grounded in the internal story (not imposed from external structure)
- Written simultaneously with drafting — not completed first
- Organised using Scene Cards
- Iteratively developed — each new scene may change earlier cards

### Key Differences from Pantsing
- Has a foundation (the internal story from Part II)
- Has direction (opening + ending bookended)
- Has diagnostic tools (Scene Cards catch weak links)
- Still allows discovery — but discovery happens within a framework

## Scene Cards

For every scene in the novel, create a card capturing:

### The Five Elements

| Element | Question | Why It Matters |
|---------|----------|---------------|
| **External event** | What happens? | The visible plot action |
| **Internal meaning** | How does this force the protagonist's internal struggle forward? | This is the test — if this row is empty, the scene is dead weight |
| **Reader question** | What question does this raise for the reader? | This creates the urgency hook into the next scene |
| **Cause** | What scene triggered this one? | Ensures the causal chain holds |
| **Effect** | What will this scene trigger next? | Ensures forward momentum |

### The Critical Test
Every scene card must have a filled-in "internal meaning" row. If a scene has no connection to the protagonist's internal struggle — if it exists only for external plot purposes — it must be cut or reworked to touch the third rail.

### Using Scene Cards
- Make a card for every scene, even obvious ones
- The discipline of articulating internal meaning catches weak links before they become wasted chapters
- Cards are not final — they change as you write and discover
- When lost in a scene, return to the card: what is the internal meaning of this moment?

## The Blueprinting Process

### Phase 1: Bookending (Opening + Ending)

**The Opening**: The novel begins at the last possible moment — when the protagonist can no longer avoid confronting the thing their misbelief has kept them from confronting.

The opening scene must accomplish:
1. Establish the protagonist's internal state (desire, misbelief, the world they believe they're living in)
2. Introduce the unavoidable external problem (or its immediate precursor)
3. Plant seeds of all major internal conflicts that will play out over the novel

Write a first-layer version of the opening, knowing it will be rewritten many times. Use TK ("to come") as a placeholder for things that must be there but aren't yet known.

**The Ending (The Aha! Moment)**: The moment of internal change — when the protagonist confronts and dismantles (or fails to dismantle) their misbelief.

The Aha moment must be:
- **Earned** — pushed to the absolute edge of what the misbelief can sustain
- **Specific** — a precise scene-level moment, not a general realization
- **Tied to the third rail** — causally connected to everything the plot has put them through

Write a first-layer version. It will change as the story deepens.

### Phase 2: Mining the Past for Plot

Most writers know more about their protagonist's past than their future. Use the past to generate the plot.

The backstory scenes already contain the seeds of external plot events:
- The protagonist's misbelief will predictably cause them to react in certain ways to certain stimuli
- Those reactions generate consequences
- Those consequences become plot events

**The Sixth Tick**: The last thing that happens before the novel begins. The final moment of the protagonist's "before" life. Usually the event that makes the unavoidable external problem unavoidable.

### Phase 3: Building Forward

Develop Scene Cards 1-5 by mining backstory:
1. What does the protagonist do in response to the inciting event?
2. Why? (Trace to misbelief and specific past experiences)
3. What consequence does that response produce?
4. How does that consequence force the next action?
5. Repeat — each scene tightening the causal chain

### Warning: The Plot Trap
Once a plot is in motion — especially in genre fiction — it is temptingly easy to follow external events wherever they lead, generating more action while the internal story quietly suffocates. For every external event, ask: does it force the internal struggle forward? If not, it must be cut or replaced.

## Story Logic

Every event must have a specific, character-rooted cause. The process for finding the "why" always involves returning to the past.

### The "Why?" Interrogation
For any uncertain plot point, ask:
- Why would this character do this?
- Why would this approach seem rational to them?
- Why would others believe them?

Each "Why?" question, when answered specifically, produces a new piece of backstory or a new scene — and tightens the causal chain.

### Nothing Is Coincidence
Every event must have a cause rooted in character. Every event must produce an effect on character. Plot events that happen "to" the protagonist without a causal link to their internal state are noise, not story.

## Subplots and Secondary Characters

### Subplots
Must have their own arc that connects to and complicates the protagonist's internal struggle. The test: does it make the protagonist's internal struggle harder?

### Secondary Characters
Must have their own internal lives, desires, and misbeliefs. Their worldview must conflict with or challenge the protagonist's misbelief. Secondary characters who inadvertently reinforce the protagonist's misbelief are often more interesting dramatically than simple antagonists.

## Writing Forward

Stories grow in spirals, not lines. You write a scene, it reveals something about the past you didn't know, you revise earlier scenes, which reveals something about the future, which changes the next scene. Each pass deepens the story rather than merely extending it.

- Draft and blueprint simultaneously — the two activities inform each other
- Expect revision — it is how a story discovers itself
- Trust the cards — when lost, return to the Scene Card
- The blueprint is never "done" until the novel is done
