Crisis versus Climax

The latest video up on the Plot Tips Youtube channel is all about the difference between a crisis in a story and the climax of a story.

I write up a summary here for those of you who have not yet discovered the wonder of youtube.

Crisis and Climax are often confused.

Basically:
1) Crisis
At the Crisis (around the 3/4 mark of a novel, memoir, screenplay), the energy of the story is at its highest so far and the protagonist is at her very worst, both internally and externally.

The crisis forces the protagonist to see herself and her situation in a completely new light. She has been living her live thematically one way. After what happens at the crisis, she must re-evaluate everything.

2) Climax
At the Climax (the chapter or scene before the last one at the very end), the energy is at the very highest of the entire story and the protagonist is at her very best and acting in her true power.

Crisis = disaster (both for the protagonist and the action)
Climax = success

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

Rough Draft to Revision

Q: Last week I did something I didn't know I'd be able to do though had the drive to do it. It's taken 20 months to do it, but I've completed my first draft- I have a manuscript! Woot woot! So much of your influence pushed me to it, btw!

Anyway, I was wondering how you go about re-writing/editing. Do you do a full read through first? Do you just start with spelling checking? How do you make sure it's fluid from the color of a shirt in one scene to the next, etc.....

A: Congratulations!

See my previous post for an understanding of how I define the difference between a re-write and a re-vision.

During PlotWriMo throughout the month of December, I post daily exercises designed to re-vision the rough draft you've written (as in NaNoWriMo) for the first major re-write. I've published those steps in the Before the Next Draft ebook. The exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories do the exact same thing.

Essentially, I recommend putting aside the manuscript for at least a couple of weeks. During that time, stand back and re-vision the story now that you know the beginning, middle and end.

Don't worry about the specific details until you're confident that the plot and structure are working.

Once the skeleton and foundation are in place, that's the time to concentrate on the essential plot elements in every single scene.

This is a time of taking what you wrote during the generative stage and crafting it into a story. Happy plotting!

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

Scene Tracker & Rewriting

Even after all these years I delight every time I see a plot planner or scene tracker filled in. Each of the notation on this writer's scene tracker is clear and precise and the scenes flow naturally one scene to the next.

Ready for her first major rewrite, she's fumbling around, moving words. All the while, the naysayers in her mind are growing in strength. I can hear it in her voice. She's wobbly, ready to throw up her hands. Her steel resolve to finish this historical novel of 5 years is also detectable and could be the only thing keeping her going.

She's desperate for a way back into her story, not just rewriting to rewriting but inspired and eager for this next draft.

Thing is, she's one of the lucky ones. Her plot and structure are sound. Therefore, she is not undertaking a major revision. Rather, she "gets" to go back in her story and develop the skeleton she's developed. In my mind, that's the best part of writing.

The Scene Tracker gives her a way into her rewrite. The entire column under Emotional Change for nearly every scene is blank. The more I explain the significance of that column to her overall story, her voice lightens. Before long, she is interjecting ideas, fully involved and recommitted.

The best way into a rewrite is to focus on that #1 aspect of the story that is missing or could be deepened -- conflict, character, theme, emotion.

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

Plot Webinar Tomorrow

What's New!
I'm doing a Webinar Plot Workshop hosted by Writers Digest University tomorrow.

Begin the new season with a new vision of the plot and structure of your story... from the comfort of your own home. Click on your computer. Join me in real time for this once only (though you'll receive a link w/ video files of the workshop you can revisit as often as you like) live plot workshop.

Change how you feel about plot. Learn how to use plot and structure more effectively. See your story transform before your eyes.

For details and to sign-up, go to:
Secrets of Story Structure and Plot

9/13/12
Virtual. Live. One-time only.
Sign-up today

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

How Do You Know When It's Time to Give Up?

Last week at the Bookshop Santa Cruz launch party for The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories I share 5 Plot Tips to Immediately Improve Your Writing. Right after, we give away a free copy of Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple a friend bought and then passed out raffle tickets for it.

The guy who won BBP appears next in a long line of chatty writers awaiting their books to be signed. He tells me how he finished a fantasy novel in 2006 (or 2009 or... I can't remember the details) and then rewrote it once the following year.

As he talks, all around us is total chaos, people eating yummy cake and laughing and talking, buying books, sliding out flyers they take for themselves about the plot webinar I'm doing live this Thursday.

Quickly, the winner is replaced by the next writer in line and I'm left imagining how the trilogy of plot resources under his arm holds the promise of relighting his passion for his story.

Suddenly, he's back again. Now, at the end of the line, he looks crest-fallen, crushed, dazed and has reduced in size and demeanor to about ten years old. I wonder what happened to him between the time I met him and now.

"How do you know when it's time to give-up, to quit writing?"

The croak of a sob escapes his attempt to swallow.

"You just won a raffle for your writing," I say as gently as I can when what I really long to do is grab him by the shoulders and shake him awake. "How much more proof than that do you need that now is not the time to quit? Now is the time to keep writing."


What's New!
Webinar Plot Workshop hosted by Writers Digest:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 

9/13/12
Virtual. Live. One-time only.
Sign-up today

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

PWWorkbook Launch Party Photos

Thanks to Writers' Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan, I have lovely photos to share of both the pre-party and Bookshop Santa Cruz launch party for The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

Standing room only. Plot Tips shared. Cake devoured. Thanks to all of you who showed up and asked questions and bought books.

I add a few photos here and there (more photos on FB both the PW fan page and the Martha Alderson page and on Twitter) and share:


5 Plot Tips to Immediately Improve Your Writing

1) Start from the climax and work your way backward to the beginning.

2) As you're writing, always keep in mind the transformation the protagonist undergoes and the gift she delivers at the end of the story.

3) Continually make clear to the writer the protagonist's goals.

4) Get the 4 Energetic Markers in place first and then fill in the rest of your scenes.

5) Constantly ask yourself what you're really trying to say = what your story is really trying to say (thematic significance plot).







What's New!
Webinar Plot Workshop hosted by Writers Digest:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 

9/13/12
Virtual
Sign-up today

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories 

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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

Winners of the PWWorkbook Giveaways

The Mini-blog and Twitter Tour / Mega-PWWorkbook Giveaway ran for less than a week and awarded The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories to 15 lucky writers. Congratulations!

Thank you everyone for welcoming The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories into the community of writers.

For each day's plot tips and to learn the winners:
Day 1 and 2
The Bookshelf
Benefits of Plotting in Scenes

Day 3 
@plotwhisperer #PWWorkbookgiveaway on Twitter
(for all the plot tips tweeted that day, go to #PWWorkbookgiveaway)

Day 4
Seekerville
"Finding the Strongest Climax"

Day 3
Jane Friedman
"7 Essential Elements of Scene + Scene Structure Exercise"

What's New!
Webinar Plot Workshop:
Secrets of Story Structure Plot 9/13/12
Virtual
Sign-up today

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2)Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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