Plot Consultant

Plot is a Lot Like Sex: Beginnings Hook Readers/Audiences. Endings Create Fans

By

Recently, I tweeted one of my favorite bits of plot advice: Beginnings hook readers. Endings create fans.   A writer tweeted back: Sounds a lot like sex. hehe. This isn't the first time a writer has likened plot advice I give to sex. The 4th Energetic Marker and crowning glory of the entire book, the Climax often elicits a comment or two about the parallels in the act of sex and ultimate release of energy to the climax of a story. When such parallels are drawn, I simply smile in …

Plot is a Lot Like Sex: Beginnings Hook Readers/Audiences. Endings Create FansRead More

Crisis and the Universal Story

By

Beware: Do not succumb to a personal crisis as protagonist reaches darkest moment. Evoke the emotion in your writing   The recent tweet elicited a question by Laura: What do you mean by this? This is intriguing. Way back in January 2013, in honor of the release of my most recent PW book: The Plot Whisperer Book of Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing (a Story with Plot from Beginning to End), I began writing a new novel using one or more prompts everyday. I invited you to join me …

Crisis and the Universal StoryRead More

27-Step Plot Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

By

The first day of filming the 27-Step Plot Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? Youtube series was September 2010. I remember putting that 1st video up on Youtube, mortified by the yapping dog in the background and well-aware of how distracting for viewers who struggle to mask out background interference. Still, I knew if I didn't put up the video, flaws and all, I'd be waiting for perfection forever. Fire ahead four light-years filled with growth for the series, me as the …

27-Step Plot Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?Read More

5 Tips How to Write and Sell a Picture Book with a Plot

By

I'm jumping for joy, having finished filming How to Write a Sell a Picture Book with a Plot with Jill Corcoran, literary agent for some of today's finest picture books authors. Below I share 5 tips how to write and sell a picture book with a plot from the video course.  Months of creating the program, exercises and 7 scripts for each of us from the Plot Whisperer Workbook. Rehearsing and filming. Now, I'm excited and proud to announce the official launch of our latest video course for anyone …

5 Tips How to Write and Sell a Picture Book with a PlotRead More

Every Writer’s Mantra

By

Show don't tell is every writer's mantra and one of the first stumbling blocks a beginning writer encounters. Come time to revise before writing the next draft, writers with little background in the craft of writing a story with a plot find they've told the story rather than shown the story through scenes. Both writing in summary and in all dialogue, writing from a distance seems easier to manage. Even in first person POV, writers often unwittingly separate from the intimacy of sensuous story …

Every Writer’s MantraRead More