Evolution of a Book -- Part Four: Plotting a Book Launch

A book launch is like a wedding, a birthday, a coming out party, a graduation. Two people present themselves as individuals and ceremoniously become a couple. We throw a party to celebrate the day we are born. Before family and friends, we introduce a child into adulthood. A book launch signifies the movement away from the private and ordinary world to the communal and part of the whole. It is a moment best marked with a party.

The wildest book launch on record for me is the party for Holly Payne's, The Sound of Blue: a Novel.

At Fort Mason in San Francisco, we bought books from stacks lining the wall and entered an enormous high ceiling room vibrating with music and packed with people. Her publisher sprang for the party with the drummer from the Grateful Dead and his band, and lights and cake.

My aunt reviews the classic Capitola launch party she gave for her last book To Make a House Complete as she plans one for her current book Walking For Our Lives coming out in September. A garden party spills into the street, balloons flying, cheeses from a local dairy and strawberries from local fields.

Back in 2005, I launched Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple at Capitola Book Cafe. My stomach still flips remembering all the people crammed between the book shelves and perched on tabletops. Now that it's time to launch The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master into the world, no question about it, Capitola Book Cafe is the perfect launch location for party.

The decision makes real to me that soon the book truly will be available to writers. I'm eternally grateful that Adams Media fast tracked the book to have it available on book shelves by October 15th. Having to wait any longer would do me in...

You are cordially invited to The Plot Whisperer book launch party

Tuesday, October 18th

7:30PM

Capitola Book Cafe

Capitola, California

Further details are unfolding. There will definitely be food, though I'm not sure what. I'll talk about plot, perhaps more specifically pre-plot for writers interested in taking part in NaNo November? I'm not sure. I do know I want to include readers, too, and seekers. I'd like to bring all the aspects of the book to light: the Universal Story for writers, readers and seekers. Needs work.

Stay tuned for book launch surprises and prizes to come...

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master released by Adams Media October 2011. Available now for pre-order!

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visitPlot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Evolution of a Book -- Part Three: Working with an Editor

I like to think of them as potter people. People who look like us but are more eccentric, often with a flair of whimsy. They magically appear, complete a task effortlessly and disappear -- the exact right person at the exact right time.

Peter Archer is a bit of a potter person to me. He also exemplifies to me an East Coast intellectual. Granted, my impressions are just that... I have never met the man. He was the editor assigned me for The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master. I admire him greatly.

By the time I met Peter, via email and phone, Cathy and I had begun shooting the final steps of the Plot Series -- Step 22: How Do I Plot the Beginning of the End of a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay .

(As I write this post, I am struck by how the timing of the vlog steps fall into place according the principles of the Universal Story. At the time, if I was consciousness of that at all, it was buried beneath the task at hand -- writing a book worthy of publication.)

Thanks to Peter, the rough draft of The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master turned into an amazing book.

I started the vlog with literary examples of novels, memoirs and screenplays to "show" the concepts covered. Where the vlog leaves off, the Plot Whisperer book expands to even more examples to guide you through the process of writing the story inside of you from beginning to end. Examples come from picture books, middle grade and young adult and adult fiction, mysteries, romance, literary, screenplays, memoirs and more. Visual aides are included throughout the book to help ground the more abstract concepts.

Beneath the surface of both the vlog and the book is the element I am most passionate about -- The Universal Story and how it affects not only stories but our lives, too. Knowledge of the Universal Story allows you to push aside all the words of your story to see the bigger picture both structurally and thematically. In the same was, the Universal Story allows you to stand back from the drama of your own life to see the bigger picture.

The what-I-like-to-call "spiritual guide parts" didn't fully emerge in the Plot Series vlog until Step 21: Developing the Threshold Scene after the Crisis in the Middle but they landed throughout the entire first draft of the book.

Even before I met my agent Jill Corcoran, an editor from my favorite West Coast publisher was reading a proposal for a book I called: The Spiritual Guide for Writers. Though he thought the concept right and me the perfect person to write it, I had not been able to successfully bring the ethereal concepts and fragments of dreams, the half-baked ideas and the inspiration beating in my heart down to earth.

Peter Archer helped me do that in The Plot Whisperer book.

Plot Whispers are specific plot tips and exercises to improve your plotting skills by integrating the concepts into your own individualized story. The Writer's Way is advice about how to expand your writing life.

Peter is outrageously intelligent and in my imagination embodies the East Coast. He lives near Martha's Vineyard or the Hamptons or some other iconic locale. He is a writer and a scholar and may or may not be in real life anything like I imagine him to be. Granted, the East Coast and West Coast are sisters in that we always vote the same. Other than that, I imagine East Coast people as more conservative and straighter than those of us on the West Coast. All that to say, I don't even know where Peter was born -- he could just as easily be from the West Coast but I love imaging him as the iconic gatekeeper of traditional publishing.

He brought out the best in the book and what I like to think of as the best me -- much like Step 16: Rediscovered Skills and Knowledge in the Middle.

The greatest gift Peter gave me was "getting" the spiritual ideas I had tried to articulate in the earlier proposal and failed. He not only "got" them, he allowed them to flourish. Not a full bloom because the concepts are still growing but the promise is there. It's the part of the The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master that I am most anxious to share and what makes waiting for the release date thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

Thanks to Jill and Paula and Peter, the book is complete and eagerly awaiting its debut. I could not have done any of it if not for each of you who read this blog and ask for plot consultations and attend plot workshops and buy my plot books and videos and visit the plot vlog and who continue day in and day out to pursue your dream of publication.

What a ride. The gift of jumping in there, sticking out your neck and sticking to it is standing back and watching magic happen.

Thank you.

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master released by Adams Media October 2011. Available now for pre-order!

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visitPlot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Backstory versus Front Story

Watch your delivery of backstory ~ the story of what, in the past, made the character who they are today (in story time). 

Writers want to cram everything right up front. 

"I know all their history, why would I want to withhold it from the reader?" 
"I wrote it that way." 
"It's the good part." 

Writers spend lots of time imagining and writing every little detail about a character's past, be it for a child or an adult. So, of course, writers would want to tell everything right away. Perhaps, in the process, even show off a bit how clever they are. Until, one understands how curiosity works. 

Not telling everything makes the reader curious. Curiosity draws the reader deeper into the story world. The reader wants to fill in the "who," "what," "how" (the "where" and "when" have already been clearly established right up front to ground the reader). They keep reading. This is good.

Tell the reader only what they need to know to inform that particular scene. This is especially true in the Beginning (1/4 mark). During the first quarter of the project, the character can have a memory. But, for a full-blown flashback, where you take the reader back in time in scene, wait until the Middle. 

(PLOT TIP: If you're absolutely sure you absolutely have to include the flashback, try using one when you're bogged down in the middle of the middle.)

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay.

Visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

2 Major Story Settings

Stories generally have at least two major settings.

A story is about a character transformed over time in a meaningful way by the dramatic action. In order to make this character transformation more dramatic, writers convey who the character is within the safety of a world that is familiar to her or at least not as threatening as the next world or setting she is thrust into. The reader meets the protagonist in her usual environment and defines the beginning quarter of the story.

The heart of the story begins the moment the protagonist leaves her ordinary world. Upon entering the middle of the story world, the protagonist is confronted with the second setting: a new and exotic world. The more unusual the new world is in its surroundings, mind-set, and demands upon the protagonist, the more unusual are her experiences, explorations, endurance, and quest for survival.

The exotic world itself creates tension, conflict, and suspense merely by its unfamiliarity to the protagonist; thus, it produces a sense of overarching tension. As well, in the new world, the old rules with which the protagonist is familiar and the beliefs she grew up with no longer apply.

As in real life, in stories when one door closes another opens. The protagonist enters a new world, be it a new physical place or a new psychological state. This new world offers the opportunity to evolve and be transformed.

Writers experience this exotic new world when they move from dabbling and talking about their story to actually writing everyday.

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay.

Visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

A Writer Hits a Brick Wall

One day our writing flows. The next day we open the exact same manuscript and freeze.

A writer under contract has an advantage in this situation over a writer who is not under contract is that the writer who is being paid to write the book cannot surrender to the doubt. She must find a way to push forward or lose the money, her dreams, the contract.

Take for instance a writer who has two wildly successful novels out with a third on its way and a three-book deal awaiting his attention. Usually a robust writer, on his third book, nothing seems to be working. Even after input from his agent, each time he opens the manuscript, he freezes.

He knows the history and timeline inside and out. He knows the protagonist inside and out, the same character he spent time with in the previous two books. He knows the dramatic action front story goal and has written the story from beginning to end. Something is missing.

Two things come out in the plot consultation:
1) The protagonist is too passive and does not transform
2) A femme fatale is a minor secondary character

A passive protagonist usually translates on the page to mean the character has no passion.

To get the protagonist moving pair him with an equal or better antagonist. Who better than the femme fatale? Readers love relationships. Relationships involve emotion. Chemistry, energy, excitement, passion all come alive through people interacting in real and meaningful ways for a higher good, something the characters and the readers believe in.

The writer finishes the consultation relieved to have plan though he believes there is so much work left to reshape the manuscript. Me? I believe that when he introduces the femme fatale earlier, he'll likely find everything the story needs is all right there. The story is ready to wrap itself around the relationship. The relationship forces the protagonist into action, will make him stumble and fall from grace, and ultimately be transformed.

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

The Evolution a Book -- Part Two: Finding an Agent

Back in the dark ages, someone I admired advised holding out for an agent who is wild about your work. Not just someone who likes your story or someone who is impressed because of your platform or track-record but choose her because she is enthusiastic about you and your work.

In Part One: the Vlog, I write about meeting my agent Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency. Jill's enthusiasm radiates from her in the words she speaks and the pitches she writes. The day I met her at a weekend writers retreat lasted until after dark. A month or so later, I was lucky enough to hang out with her for nearly a week during one of my plot retreat in the redwoods. I found her to be even more knowledgeable and energetic and generous than the 1st time I met her. I love her heart and how much she loves books and writing and poetry and authors and what I teach.

In response to pitching mainstream, national publishers for the second edition of Blockbuster Plots Pure and Simple, Jill immediately received two offers. The choice was not a difficult one to make. The acquisition editor of Adams Media came back not with an offer for the 2nd edition to BBP but instead with a request for a book based on this blog. Now that wisp of inspiration is The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

All this was happening as Cathy and I continued filming our vlogs. By Step 12: How Do I Plot the Middle of a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay, the The Plot Whisperer book was visioned by Paula Munier and I was hooked.

By Step 22: How Do I Plot the Beginning of the End of a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay, thanks to the powerhouse team of Jill and the founder of the agency Ronnie Herman, the contract was finalized and thanks to a patient and supportive husband, the manuscript turned in.

Part Three: Working with an Editor

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

The Evolution a Book -- Part One: Creating a Vlog

Thanks I get from writers for the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? is an added gift.

I did the vlog (which I later learned means a video blog) on a lark with my friend Cathy Cress , fiction writer and expert on the aging family and sibling warfare. My vlogs are on plot for writers. Cathy's vlogs Mom Loves You Best - Forgiveness are on sibling reconciliation and forgiveness which grew out of her own life, her writing and her lifelong work. While I filmed her, I was struck how writers could benefit from the juicy and touching and horrific sibling stories she relates for creating more realistic familial back-stories and antagonists in stories and also for tips on how to heal your own personal sibling back-story.

I brought up the idea of creating vlogs. Sight unseen, no explanations needed, Cathy was in. Cathy's latest book: Mom Loves You Best - Forgiveness was just released. The month before I had met my soon-to-be agent at a writers retreat where I was teaching plot and she was teaching about voice and being her -- a high-energy light. Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency loves my plot teaching. I love everything about her.

Cathy and I both created a youtube channel, bought a flip camera and started filming mostly because we wanted to share our passions.

Cathy's and my spontaneity and rookie filming is evidenced in the first video -- Step One: How Do I Plot the Dramatic Action Plot. If either Cathy or I had heard LingLing (the dog barking) we would have stopped filming and opened the gate. I heard nothing, not even the sound of my own voice or what I was saying. We followed outlines on giant Post-It Notes -- Cathy's amazingly plotted out. Mine more by the seat of your pants.

The series evolved from our own gardens to using cool local landmarks as backdrops on Step Five: How Do I Plot the Three Major Plot-lines in a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay.

Another rookie mistake revealed itself in Step Ten: How Do I Plot the Beginning of a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay.

where it appears a man is mooning the camera. I was oblivious. Obviously, Cathy was too.

By Step Eleven: How Do I Plot Turning Points in a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay. the Santa Cruz Traveling Mystery Tour was born.

Cathy and I laughed our way through the steps, while my brand new (to me) amazing agent Jill pitched mainstream, national publishers for the second edition of Blockbuster Plots Pure and Simple.

Part Two: The vision for a Plot Whisperer book materializes...

For immediate tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!