27 November 2011

Monday Morning Plot Book Group -- the Climax Scene

How do you do endings? Do you put forth effort all the way to the very end? Do you give up before you reach the end? Do you throw something together just to have an end? Do you push yourself even harder to finish with a flourish? Do you stay in the moment of writing your story all the way to the end?

The countdown to the end of NaNoWriMo has started. Soon you'll have to remember your life before nanowrimo but for now, you've still got time to write a lot more words. Every word nearer you write to the end, the better off you'll be next month when we start in on PlotWriMo.

Because of PlotWriMo, there will be no Monday Morning Plot Book Group during December. We will reconvene in January. (NOTE: I did say in today's video that we'd likely make The Secret Garden the January selection. Read the POST for an explanation why we are NOT using The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett... what fails as a climax scene, and why I gave a novel I remember as a favorite when I was a kid a 1-star out of a possible 5 on Goodreads)

November's book selection for Monday Morning Plot Book Group for Writers is
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The Alchemist has sold more than 65 million copies in 150 countries and been translated into 60 languages. I use Coelho's story to demonstrate some of the plot techniques from the Universal Story he used so effectively that his novel continues after nearly 30 years as an international bestselling phenomenon.

I chose Coelho's novel because his story inspires me and had a direct impact on The Plot Whisperer book. Watch how he creates the Climax of his novel.

For more support about the Climax scene:
1) Check out Chapter 11 of:
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also sold as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch:

For more 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.