Dear Ms. Alderson:I've been reading your "Blockbuster Plots" and loving it, but I have a question about the plot planner (examples of what Plot Planners and how different writers use the plotting method.). As I understand it, we're to draw the lines for an ideal plot on a piece of banner paper and then we write in our scenes above and below the lines, depending on whether our protagonist is in challenged/in control in the scene or not. So far, so good.From a diagnostic point of view, though, …
6th Annual PlotWriMo / 2013 International Plot Writing Month
As you may know Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers hosts the International Plot Writing Month, also known as PlotWriMo. Last year, to celebrate PlotWriMo's 5th birthday, I offered a free Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Write a Compelling Story every week during December to the person who tweets the most messages using the hash tag #plotwrimo for that week. I enjoyed the campaign and appreciated everyone's help getting the word out so much last year, I believe I'll …
6th Annual PlotWriMo / 2013 International Plot Writing MonthRead More
It’s Going to Take all Your Strength & Your Protagonist’s, too, to Lift Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay to a Climax
A writer who readily admits she struggles with plot and feels pulled to write about characters and relationships did the heavy lifting. She wove together character emotional development with exciting dramatic action and thematic significance.Trouble arrives after the climax. The story continues... for quite awhile, many scenes, in some of which the protagonist is downright passive. Finally, comes the resolution and true end.When the writer complains how her subplots carry the same weight as the …
When the Climax Fails The Reader Suffers
In preparation for a plot talk for children's writers and the SCBWI San Francisco/South region last Saturday (FYI: this is a post I ran nearly two years ago and am re-running now because I want to insert the Plot Planner this time. To see why, go here), I analyzed one of my favorite books from my childhood -- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. As I read and plotted out the scenes in the Beginning of the story, I was delighted to see all the effective foreshadowing (in 2 instances she …
Use Setting to Deepen Readers’ Appreciation Of Your Protagonist’s Character Emotional Development
A story is about a character transformed over time by the dramatic action.To make this character transformation more dramatic, great writers convey who the character is within the safety of a world that is familiar to her before thrusting her into a new world. The ordinary world gives the reader insight into the values, background, and habits of the protagonist (or lack thereof).Usually the protagonist has a life before the story begins, although some stories such as Ursula Hegi’s Stones of the …
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