Two common queries when a story starts out too slowly and drags."When is something going to happen?""When do we get to the good part?"Something happens and the good part are when the protagonist reacts or acts in relationship to another. Prompt #4 begins the protagonist's relationship with conflict. Prompt #5 begins the romance plot. Something happens and the good part start in the story.Today, I write.I'm taking a survey on Twitter and Facebook (my apologies for not opening the …
The Joy of Writing a First Draft
My hope in providing you the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing is that you'll have an incentive everyday to write forward without going back. Following one prompt at a time is meant to eliminate the need to run back to the beginning rather than face a blank page and instead to fill that page with words.The joy of writing a first draft is that you don't have to worry if your scenes are too long or not long enough, if the character …
The Power of Antagonists
In Prompt #3 of The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing, you're asked to develop a new character, one that will serve as an antagonist to your protagonist in your novel, memoir, screenplay.Keep in mind, however, not all stories rely on a person(s) to serve as an antagonist(s). This point is driven home in the memoir Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Nearly every single person Cheryl comes in contact along the Pacific Crest Trail is supportive and …
Had a Great Start — Back on Track Tomorrow
Well, now I'm completely flummoxed. Having contracted the flu or some other evil kind of yuk that knocked me under for a few days, I am behind. Behind, not only with my writing but, of course, also with this day-by-day idea of following together with you the plot prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. So, what to do now? If I start up from where I left off at Prompt #2, I'm way behind any of you who were following and have continued on your …
Writing Forward without Going Back
Writing Prompt #2 in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing allows you to return to what you wrote from Writing Prompt #1. I generally frown upon writers going back over what you've previously written because all too often writers get ensnared in that loop of going back to the beginning rather than forging forward and securing the plot and structure in place.In this case and in appreciation of the nearly universal urge to read what you've written …
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