Used Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak with a group of 15 8 - 10 year old kids. 7 kids opted for private secretaries made up of teen volunteers and other Friends of the Library board members. One of the seven needed brainstorming support only. The other six benefitted from someone else performing the fine motor skills necessary to actually write the story down on paper. Whether they wrote the story themselves or used the help of another, all the kids finished stories in 2 1/2 hours …
Universal Story Form and Plot
About a half an hour into her first plot consultation, the writer at the other end of the telephone settles into the process. I know something of her initial nervousness ~ the fear of not being good enough, not having done enough prep work, not being smart enough to grasp what is required. In anticipation of this, I jump right in, pulling the writer along with me. My immediate impression? She is drowning in ideas and plot lines. Her story incorporates suspense and romance, some mystery and lots …
Plot Your Writing Career: Traditional versus Self-Publishing
A writer who is "sick of agents" and wants to take back control over her own life considers going the self-publishing route. Following is my "take" on the subject.Writing a book is vastly different than publishing a book. Of the strengths and skills that make for a terrific writer zero prove much help when it comes to self-publishing. Yes, both writing and self-publishing involve hard work. But, writing is creative, artistic, and demands solitude. Publishing is numbers, business, and demands …
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Plot for a Non-fiction, How-to Book
Plot as a noun is what happens in a story. More specifically, the plot of a story is the dramatic action that transforms the main character and provides meaning. Plot as a verb is both to represent the plot of a story on a graph and connect the scenes (Plot Planner) and / or to formulate a plan with purpose.For fiction writers and memoirists, I work with plot as both a noun and often as a verb, too. The writer tells me the scenes and/or ideas they have for their story. I assess their piece on …
A New World Order
In the 60s, Curtis Mayfield sings of a new world order, a change of mind for the whole human race. Marie Elena Gaspari dances to it in the 90s. The old world order falling away.Isn't that what the Universal Story form is really all about? Okay, go ahead. Roll your eyes. But stick with me here. The old world order (ordinary world) falls away at the 1/4 mark. The story launches into a new world order (exotic world of the antagonists / the Middle 1/2).Antagonists from each of the Five Standard …
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