The One True Beginning

On our way out from the Desert Rose RWA conference, a writer asks for help with her story. Using the plot planner she created in the workshop, she points to the key scenes in her story, her face filled with joy and confidence in the layout of the dramatic action scenes. She turns serious as she expresses concern about her character's likability in the beginning first quarter of the novel. Then she slices the edge of her hand, cutting off the first quarter and looks up beaming as she declares she likes her story from that point on to the end.

I wait for a moment, hoping she'll feel what I just witnessed. When she doesn't, I utter the impossible: "Why not start there?" The pain in her eyes make me long to pull back my words. I've just asked her to cut 100 pages from a story that is overly long. Still, 100 pages...

"But I introduce important elements in the beginning."

"They can be integrated into the new beginning," I suggest.

"But I love my first scene."

I cringe, wondering how many hours she spent making it perfect.

"It's only one of lots of scenes you love," I suggest.

Exhaustion overtakes her face. Three intense days. I don't want it to end this way. Still, I know when she's rested, the 300 pages that work and bring her energy and joy will reach out to her. She has a successful debut already out. She knows what she is doing...

Advice to self: Rather than labor over something that causes pain and frustration and feelings of failure, why not start with what brings you joy...

Desert Rose Romance Writers of America Conference

The conference lived up to its name; the entire desert appeared in full bloom upon our arrival in Phoenix. Met up with my agent and dear friend, Jill Corcoran, and fun began. My name badge as The Plot Whisperer seemed to part the waters; everyone was more than kind and often downright respectful to me. No Plot Whisperer books in the bookstore. They sold out before I even arrived (note to self: ask for a guarantee that the number of books available for sale equal the number of writers anticipated at my workshops)

Everywhere I turned were posters of book covers with women of incredible beauty clutching men of incredible strength oozing incredible desire. I fell in love with two young women writers, with their beauty and their belief and their earnestness. In the blinding desert light, a writer I had connected with just a few times on Facebook, albeit in a powerful way, freed me of a deep sadness as easily as if she waved a magic wand over my head. The heat of the sun lingered into the night.

I quaked a bit under the weight of the expectation writers expressed for my "keynote" plot workshop on the final day. The heat of 200 anxious writers radiated up to me high on the stage, firing hotter and hotter as more and more light bulb moments danced over their heads...

Organizing Your Plot

Some writers desire help in brainstorming plot elements for their stories. Others are looking for a way out of the corner they've written themselves into. Some want to test the story choices they've made. Others simply want encouragement and a renewed belief that the time and effort she puts into her story is worth it, that her story is worth it, that she is worth it, that someday someone will read her words and be moved by her story.

The exercise of listing scenes and filling in a character emotional development profile and coming up with a thematic statement grounds her and organizes her thoughts and notes and story. Slowly, the tangled mess of threads floating every which way on the surface of still water begins to weave into a cohesive container for her story.

In the past several months, the stories I hear from women writers seem to me to be digging deeper than stories in the past and reaching for more complexity, dealing with grittier themes that build to more truthful endings from real and powerful female characters.

To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:

1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (The companion workbook is coming this summer and available for pre-order now ~~ The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories)

2) Watch the 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. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Finding the True Protagonist of Your Story

Some writers start out writing a story knowing exactly who and what they are writing about and stay true to that vision from beginning to the end. Others write about one character doing one thing, then switch to another character doing something else, and then switch back to the first character or switch to an entirely new person with different action. Switching viewpoints reveals a multitude of sides to a story. Switching too many times leads to a tangled mess.

A writer works on the same historical novel for 5 years. She writes a completed draft from beginning to end in 3rd person omniscient. The time she takes researching and writing the first draft serves her well; she knows all the angles of her exotic and mysterious world and all the nuances of her major characters.

Unsatisfied with the distance created by the omniscient pov, she undertakes writing the story from beginning to end from the pov of a major male character in the clergy who is a true historic figure. Quickly, the writer knows he is the wrong choice to carry the story. She comes to me when she decided to write the story from the pov of view of the Grand Empress of her story -- a true historical figure.

Thanks to her broad and deep understanding of her story and the time and place in which the story takes place and a firm understanding of the craft of plotting, she plots out the entire story from the new viewpoint character's pov.

As she relates the scenes of the story, the writer struggles to surrender the story to the empress and release or push into the background some of the major elements that developed while writing the first draft and a half.

Once she sees the entire story through the empress's hopes and dreams and goals and the character arc develop smoothly from her personal character traits, slowly, the writer embraces the new story line. By the end of our time together, she accepts which scenes belong in the story and which ones need to be tweaked to support the empress's primary plot.

No time is ever lost when writing a story from beginning to end. Every draft, every dream, every scene makes for a better writer.

To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:

1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch the 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. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Crisis versus Climax

She's confused about the difference between the crisis and the climax, and this is after a 5-hour plot intensive (where we began with the climax first and then moved to the beginning). She admits to having reread chapters in my book and watched a couple of videos again. Still confused.

"What is the difference between the crisis that brings the protagonist to her knees and the climax?"

Then she briefly relates a beginning with unusual characters and a protagonist with a concrete and relatable goal. Good start.

She then jumps to a description of one of the scenes she's confused about. It's a classic crisis, the kind that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. This is where the protagonist is attacked and brought to her knees. She dies to whom she has always been, never to return to innocence. Terrific crisis.

Next is a classic threshold of understanding and personal insight. (Dori for her mother)

The story ends with an easy though satisfying climax where the transformed protagonist stands firm in her own, newly found or rediscovered personal power and makes the right choice. (Dori's refusal).

The key scenes are always there though often difficult to peel apart from all the words until a writer stands back and sees each scene in relationship to all the other scenes on a Plot Planner.

To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:

1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch the 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. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Back to Plot Basics

She reports that some members of her critique group love the beauty of her language. Others complain about her story moving too slowly, that all the scenes seem the same, that the protagonist is "reporting" the story rather than living it.

The group gives the piece a B+ for the beautiful language. They call the structure and the pacing poor and give both elements of the story a D.

She starts off with two different beginnings. Her desire is to give readers the choice to pick which beginning they like the best. Instead, the beginning comes off as distancing and confusing and self-conscious. Rather than slip into the action of the story, the reader reads the words that form into sentences and then paragraphs and chapters, all tedious and drowning in details and making the story off-putting.

Some critique members quit reading before reaching even the middle of the story. Others read out of respect. Those who continue reading finally find themselves truly committing to the story at the halfway mark.

What do I do? wails the writer.

It all comes back to what does the character want?

You don't know what she wants? Ask the writers in critique group. They know what she wants.

What is she willing to do to achieve what she wants. What stands in her way of success?

Push aside the words and analyze the energy of the story.

The stronger the pressure (antagonists) is against her, the greater the strength the protagonist gains when she confronts and overcomes that force. The greater the force is against her, the bigger the change in her direction toward her ultimate goal. The more dramatic the change in direction, the greater excitement and anticipation in the reader and audience.

To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:

1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch the 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. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter