A couple of years ago, I believed I'd retired from being The Plot Whisperer. I even performed a candle-lighted ceremony to cross over from a life of teaching, writing, and speaking about plot to step into the unknown. As the old saying goes: Never say never. Because ... I'm happy to report that the Plot Whisperer returns! Two years ago, during one of the darkest times of my life, an angel reached out to me. She suggested resurrecting the plot whisperer. Her vision was to create an umbrella …
How to Create an Elegant Transition
There are elegant ways to transition from one scene and chapter to the next. One way is to use tight cause and effect. Another is to let the last line of one chapter determine the first line of the next. Or, smoothly ground the reader in time and place while immediately connecting the reader emotionally to the point of view character. But ... I digress. The point of this post is not to teach – a role I instinctively fall into. Rather, I’m here to announce that after years of writing about plot …
Plot Planner as a Story Vision Board
A vision board holds images you find inspirational and that represent visions of your goals. It’s a place to put drawings, magazine pictures, photos, quotes—anything that gives you a jolt of joy. What if you could create that same sort of magic for your story? A place where you could visualize and imagine your story and feel inspired to write. Where your actions and beliefs begin to align with your goals and intentions. You can. Think of a plot planner as a vision board for your story. Plot …
15 Tips to Create a Compelling Plot for Your Story
In scanning past workshops I've done for the Society of Children Book Writers to come up with a blurb for the presentation I've been invited to share with the Los Angeles Chapter, I ran across 15 Tips to Create a Compelling Plot for Your Story (from back in the days of Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple - now known as Writing Blockbuster Plots) I thought you might find helpful. 15 Plot Tips Plot is a series of dramatic action scenes moving a character(s) toward emotional maturity and/or …
Drawing from Your Life to Create Fiction
Join me this Friday, March 25th at 11am when I discuss drawing from your life to create fiction with the National Association of Memoir Writers. Fiction or Memoir My experience writing fiction and helping writers with plot taught me that memoir writers aren’t the only ones who draw from life to create their stories. All writers do. Write what you know to capture the exact right details, riveting drama, and insightful emotion. At first anyway. Overtime, the more stories we write the less the …
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