To the right of this post is a list of the 22 Steps in the Plot Series: How do I Plot a Novel, Memoir and Screenplay? (a few more coming soon complete the series)Now that I posted the directory of the YouTube series, I wish I started the list with the last one and encourage you work your way forward. Perhaps this will work as a strategy for the writer who never reaches the end, finishes, accomplishes her goals. Perhaps beginning at the end will help you stay true to the cause of writing your …
Writing Deadlines
Nothing worse than when a writer commits to a deadline and then is unable / unwilling to accomplish the feat. Well, that's a bit extreme but too often, I see what happens when writers fail to meet deadlines. Such a failure frustrates me personally because rather than move forward in our consulting sessions, even if the writer tells me how much research she accomplished or thought she gave or plotting she did, if she is not writing, we are standing still. Two, a writer's writing time is just …
Goals versus Need
Goals create the front story or dramatic action plot of novels, memoirs, and screenplays. A goal tied to a need is even more emotional (readers and audiences connect to characters through honest "shows" of emotion). Tie that need to a higher good is even better.The exotic world of the film, Winter's Bone, adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel and screenplay by Debra Granik, and the protagonist mesmerized me to the very last moment, though rarely am I attracted to dark and bleak movies. The …
Behind the Veil
Personal themes pulse from the belly of the novel, memoir, screenplay you're writing.One of my own I wrote in the thematic significance section of the up-coming Plot Whisperer book:Speaking up and speaking out come at a price worth paying.Now, with the book nearly finished, I find the gem promised in stories waiting there in real life for me.Speaking up and speaking are not punishable. Silence is.Speaking out and speaking up are living one's truth, a truth from behind the veil.Write down a theme …
Three Key Scenes
There is the holy trinity in the Christian religion, the holy trinity as a culinary term in all sorts of cuisine and, I hope it is not sacrilege, the holy trinity in stories. Perhaps it's a bit wacky to use the term in plot... what can I say? The three cornerstone scenes in all novels, memoirs and screenplays are:The End of the BeginningThe CrisisThe ClimaxHowever, there is another trio that is my very favorite in the Universal Story because of the power these three scenes produce in stories …
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