In scanning past workshops I've done for the Society of Children Book Writers to come up with a blurb for the presentation I've been invited to share with the Los Angeles Chapter, I ran across 15 Tips to Create a Compelling Plot for Your Story (from back in the days of Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple - now known as Writing Blockbuster Plots) I thought you might find helpful. 15 Plot Tips Plot is a series of dramatic action scenes moving a character(s) toward emotional maturity and/or …
Drawing from Your Life to Create Fiction
Join me this Friday, March 25th at 11am when I discuss drawing from your life to create fiction with the National Association of Memoir Writers. Fiction or Memoir My experience writing fiction and helping writers with plot taught me that memoir writers aren’t the only ones who draw from life to create their stories. All writers do. Write what you know to capture the exact right details, riveting drama, and insightful emotion. At first anyway. Overtime, the more stories we write the less the …
Courage Needs Confidence to Succeed
Years ago I was fortunate enough to hear Maya Angelou speak in person. One of the things she said that day has stayed with me: “Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” Courage with Doubt To go forth toward your goals and dreams with courage is ideal, especially so when paired with confidence. Problems arise when you courageously go forth while dragging your doubts, insecurities, and fears of failure along with …
How Committed Are You to Your Goals?
Where I live there are bound to be guys in flip flops and baggy pants with a hoodie pulled over their heads, hands shoved in their pockets and shoulders hugged up around their ears peering out at the waves. If I find them still pressed up against the railing on my return route, I think, You know you want to, and wonder, How committed are you to your goal of surfing? Falter Between Thinking about Doing Something and Taking Action Of course, I believe in planning if that’s your style—deciding …
Scenes Work but Placements Don’t
In a recent plot consultation, the author struggled with something so common I wrote about it in The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master and thought I'd share her difficulty with when scenes work but placements don't here. Her scenes work but where she has them placed in the plot does not work. This happens to all of us which is why a firm understanding of the Energetic Markers and the revision process in testing the markers is so helpful. When Scenes Work but …
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