Plot Consultant

How to Create Conflict in Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

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Conflict intensifies in the Middle of a story. Having left the relative safety of the shallow world of the Beginning the protagonist finds the old rules and help and guidance and belief systems of the past no longer protect her from harm -- physical and/or emotional.The Middle strips her of all that is familiar and gives her the space in which to discover who she was born to be / truly is and let go of who she was raised and molded into being. Every mistake she makes in the middle and every …

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To Cut a Subplot or Not to Cut a Subplot

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The action at the Climax is big and external and life or death and... well, it's great. The scene sounds like the culmination of exciting action in a truly exotic setting. We move from the dramatic action plot to the character emotional development plot -- or, in other words, why the protagonist does what she does at the climax and what her actions mean to the story overall. By the gaps and questions she has, I understand she's written the first draft primarily from the dramatic action and the …

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Character Flaw, Fatal and Otherwise

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By Prompt 47 in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing you have are firmly in the middle of the middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay. Perhaps you felt resistance upon entering the middle and gave yourself time to consider your story and even give into your doubts.Each time you found your way back to the PWBook of Prompts you moved yet one scene nearer to your goal of finishing.Many of the prompts you've worked through have guided you to continually …

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Writer Hates Questions of Theme

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The writer sends very little about theme in the pre-plot consultation material. The first time we talk about theme during the actual consultation I feel her shutdown and a bit of her blazing passion about her story fade. She doesn't give up. She keeps trying. Each success renews the fire.Even so, during our last session, she cries out in response to yet another thematic question."I hate those questions!" she exclaims.She prefers questions about the fascinating world she has …

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Writing Forward Everyday

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Her fear of having lost her passion for writing wanes and she finds herself writing more consistently.  Her progress forward does not hide the struggle it's taken her to get that far. Morning after morning she let slip by precious writing time. She's intrigued by the story as it appears in her head. The problems cut on the edge of nearly personal, making the anticipation of writing certain scenes difficult and easier to ignore. Often as she follows the prompts in The Plot Whisperer …

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