Plot Consultant

Dramatic Action Inciting Incident and Character Emotional Development Dark Night

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A writer asks: isn't the inciting incident of an example I use -- the Pulitizer Prize winning The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt -- when he steals the painting?Yes, the dramatic action inciting incident is when he steals The Goldfinch in the museum. His action energizes the external action, changing the ordinary to the dramatic -- thus inciting the dramatic action plot.I was describing just prior to her question the scene that occupies the all important 1st Energetic Marker: the End of the …

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Plot Tips for Introverts: How to Survive a Writers Conference

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I muse out loud why the heck I ever agreed to leave my tiny paradise for a crowded plane ride smack into hundreds of anxious, eager, confident, quaking writers. Quaking myself in anticipation of my presentation, I question the emotional cost of forcing oneself to be something we're not inherently pre-disposed to be.Quietly listening to me moan, the serenely beautiful and thoughtful literary agent Danielle Smith from Red Fox Literary Agency recommends Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts …

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How to Show Character Mastery and Transformation through both the Internal and External Plots

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The final quarter of your story carries the responsibility of getting your characters to the right place at the right time for one final confrontation and support the final opportunity that leads to success and ultimate transformation.The scenes that comprise the final quarter of your story are filled with the tension of not knowing whether protagonist will win or fail at the climax.Writing to the end of your story may very well be filling you with tension. Will I ever finish this thing???Not …

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A Compelling Concept Elicits: Tell Me More!

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A writer asks about what concept to bring forward in the Concept, Logline, Pitch Workshop this weekend (8/9/14). She has several novels in-progress and complete (are our stories ever really complete? The longer we take to finish, the more time we have to grow and change which ultimately servers to deepen and enrich our work).Her heart's desire speaks of something else entirely.I explain about Saturday's workshop, you'll have 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the afternoon. You want to …

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The Exact Right Beginning of Your Story — How Do You Know for Sure?

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We quickly cover the BIG Energetic Marker, nearly at the end, the Climax and I know already from the character profile and thematic statement that she's got a whopper of a story. (Is that even a word anymore? a whopper. Was it ever?) Her story is so timely, I want to nudge her to finish faster, go the distance, see her story with a plot all the way to the end. She's committed. And she's already done so much work.When she finally settles on memoir rather than fiction (pros and cons on both sides) …

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