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24 February 2011

Directory for Plot Series

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 story.

Whether by conventional means and you begin at Step One or the unconventional way of beginning at Step 22, my intention is to provide you with a series of videos to guide you step-by-step through the plot elements that create a pleasing form, one that mirrors the universal story. 

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? is playing on my YouTube channel. Currently, there are 22 steps. A directory of the program is to your right. Each link takes you to a video that explains that particular plot concept about the universal story.

Benefits of watching the Plot Series:

1) Become a better writer
2) Play along on The Santa Cruz Traveling Mystery Tour and win a free plot consultation with me
Enjoy!

19 February 2011

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 that. Time to write. Not to brainstorm with others or to organize your space or to read internet news or play solitaire on your computer. Your writing time is time to write.

When breaking deadlines is chronic, though I can always cancel sessions until productivity improves, the writer's disrespect of herself costs her spirit (energy). 

Once or twice is to be expected but when a writer comes up with more excuses than writing, such an abuse signals a problem. 

There are two kinds of writing deadlines:

1) Deadlines imposed on you by another professional 

2) Deadlines you set for yourself 

Meeting the first kind of deadline is a critical if you wish to be a successfully published author. Book and magazine publishers, acquisition editors and critique groups expect you to be true to your word. Do that and you become a trusted  and reliable team member. 

Meeting the deadlines you set for yourself is great practice for when you are asked to keep a deadline for someone else. Also, meeting the deadlines you set for yourself is a personal message that you think enough of yourself to do what you commit to do and that you are able to count on yourself. 

Be realistic when you commit to a deadline with others and with yourself. 

Breakdown the total number of scenes or chapters or words you need to write overall 
Divide by the number of writing days you have between now and the deadline
For every working day, schedule how much productivity is required for ultimate success

Show yourself and the muse that you are to be trusted. 

Only make promises to yourself you know you can keep. 

Show up for yourself. 

Live up to your commitment and write.

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? is playing on my YouTube channel. Currently, there are 21 Steps. Step 22 goes up later this weekend. A directory of the program is to your right. Each link takes you to a video that explains that particular writing concept. 

Benefits of watching the Plot Series:

1) Become a better writer 
2) Play along on The Santa Cruz Traveling Mystery Tour and win a free plot consultation with me
 
Enjoy!

16 February 2011

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 protagonist with a goal to find her father drives the story. That her goal is tied to a desperate need to save the house and care for her younger siblings and an ailing mother sends the intensity of the story higher and creates thematic significance.

Haunting story with compelling action makes for a satisfying story...

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information.

To watch the entire Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? go to my YouTube channel. Currently, there are 21 Steps. Enjoy!

10 February 2011

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 of your own and perhaps you'll spot from behind the veil a personal wound you have come here to heal...

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information.