Writing in Snippets rather than Writing in Scene

As a strategy to seize back power from the self-doubts and self-sabatoging behaviors around her writing, she signs up for ongoing plot consultations with me.

When I learn of the sacrifices she makes to afford my support, I understand how deep her resistance and negative self-talk cuts.

With the 4 Energetic Markers identified through all major plot lines, she plots scenes ideas for the beginning quarter of her story. At the same time we agree to begin incorporating actual writing into her homework. Appreciating that writing is a dance between resistance and flow, I give her two weeks to begin writing.

When she next checks in, I nearly hold my breath in anticipation whether this self-described writer who puts off writing and puts off writing and puts off writing actually wrote anything. She reports progress with the necessary research for a firm grasp of some of the activities that take place in her story and describes the banner paper she bought online and reinforced on the wall and placed the major scenes in place.

Then the news I've been waiting for. I cheer upon hearing she has indeed written. Rather than the usual sweaty palms as she works and reworks the same beginning chapters over and over again, she was determined to try writing in a new way. She'd convinced herself that writing in snippets was easier, less threatening, than writing in complete scenes and so that's what she did. She wrote snippets for the first 2 scenes.

I eager await our next session to learn if she commits to writing actual scenes with beginnings and middles and ends. She appreciates the need for complete scenes, having learned first-hand how difficult and slowing the process of keeping track of and fitting together all the various snippets.

The even greater challenge: Will she be able to write the next 4 scenes WITHOUT going back to rewrite the 2nd scene (snippet) to incorporate ideas she generated during our session and without rewriting the snippets into scenes?

An organizational system for note-keeping (rather than allowing herself back into what she's already written) I prefer is keeping notes on a Plot Planner. Because she readily admits to being a pretty disorganized writer, the idea of adding notes to the Plot Planner she's installed in her writing room appeals to her.

I know she can complete the homework. Now the question becomes, can she walk fully into the person she's becoming, empowered, taking charge of her life, trying new ideas, facing her fears and conquering them? I believe in her. Does she believe in herself? Do you? If not yet, I know she will. When will you?
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

What Happens after the Crisis and Before the Protagonist Ends the True End of the Story?

The drop in the energy of a Universal Story is symbolized on the Plot Planner by the downward line after the Crisis. This entire downward line can be viewed as the threshold separating the middle of the story from the end. Literally, a threshold is a doorsill or the starting point of an experience.

On the Plot Planner and in the Universal Story, this threshold encompasses the integration of and preparatory time needed after the crisis and before the actual crossing over into the final quarter of the story. The length of the line as the energy contracts depends on your story. In high-action stories, the drop in intensity may occur over one short scene. At its core, this time of regrouping takes place on a purely cognitive level. Though the protagonist may assemble the resources she plans to take forward with her, until she takes her first step toward her final goal she remains in the middle of the story and, as yet, has not entered the final one-quarter of the story.

This is a time, whether brief of for several scenes, of rest for the protagonist and recovery after the Crisis. It's a time of recollection, integrations, assessment and review. Before blindly reacting as always, finally now, she takes time to re-evaluate, re-invent, re-form, and redo things. She's unsteady after all that has befallen her. She makes mistakes, misjudgments and misreading as she reflects and prepares for the final ascent to the Climax.

The drop in energy allows for the reader and audience to rebuild anticipation and expectation for what will happen when the protagonist ultimately leaves the middle of the story and sets out for the climax at the end of the story.

As the protagonist considers the thoughts that have held her captive, she can mourn what was. But rather than hold onto those same old beliefs and continue to retard her progress, now she is free to reshape her life by speaking and acting in her own truth. Once she develops a new belief system, a shift occurs in her life. Having wakened to her potential, she is finally clear to seize that which she most longs for. And… the End begins. (Excerpt taken from The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master.)
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

Plot Tip How to Decide Which Scenes to Keep and Which Ones to Toss

The experience of teaching online Plot Workshops to small groups of writers using innovative technology that allows ten of us to see and interact live together is without a doubt the best teaching experiences I've ever had. The workshops revolve around weekly homework assignments from Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

A homework question came up about plotting scenes above and below the Plot Planner line.

1) The Plot Planner line shows the steady increase in tension as the story rises to the Crisis and and then again to the Climax . The Plot Planner is also a line that divides scenes with lots of conflict, tension, suspense from those scenes that are quieter and where the protagonist is in control.

Often in a rewrite after a major revision, scenes below the line switch from scenes to summary in order to move the character quickly from one dramatic action scene to the next. (For instance, if you find that a scene you wrote to move characters from one location to another does not have much external dramatic action, consider turning the scene into summary. Allows for a faster pace in the first quarter of the story, moving the reader smoothly to the middle.)

2) Also, seeing scenes lined up above the line on the Plot Planner often frees up ideas how to incorporate two pretty good scenes to make one terrific scene.
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PLOT WORKSHOPS and RETREATS
A PATH to PUBLISHING using the Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
Choose the NOVEL TRACK or the PICTURE BOOK TRACK for 4, 10 and 16-week workshops to ensure you understand concept, plotting, character development, scene development, action and emotional arc development, as well has how to pitch your work to agents, editors, and readers. Live online video chat technology. I recommend writers of all genres and all ages take at least one picture book plot workshop. Narrows all plot concepts down to 28 pages and 500 words for clarity.

WRITER PATH PLOT and SCENE RETREATS in the heart of the Santa Cruz MountainsYour story deserves to be told. Your writer’s soul needs to be nourished. Over a weekend you’ll learn how to identify and write the key lynch-pin scenes that build a page-turning story, master crucial scene types and go deeper into your plot by applying the three key layers that run through all great fiction: action, emotion and theme. Reserve your spot now for the 1st Annual Writer Path Retreat.

For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

BLOCKBUSTER PLOTS: 7 Ways to Create an Irresistible Story that Readers Will Love

1) Create a multi-faceted protagonist

2) Know who she is at the climax to determine how she’ll portray herself in the beginning – do this for any character you want to change and transform

3) Commit to the primary plot of your story – character driven/action driven/meaning driven/romance driven & use all of them for depth and meaning

4) Make her story goal important to others as well as to her

5) Pre-plot the 4 Energetic Markers as early as possible

6) Use antagonists capable of arousing emotion, tension and conflict on the page

7) Determine your story’s intention, the deeper meaning, what your story says about life
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

How to Release Scenes You've Written that No Longer Belong after a Major Revision or a Plot Consultation

She is a First Nation People from Canada, writing a memoir about her journey "taking off her nativeness" to live a different life and how she finds her way back to her culture.

She begins our plot consultation by telling me she is wearing her ceremonial dress and explains how the sage smudging ceremony she preforms on her end of the telephone opens the door for good. She follows with a prayer to "honor the creator of life". Including me in her blessing, I feel wrapped in the cocoon of safety. Then we began.

That she takes notes on butcher paper she has hung on the wall in her house in preparation for our time together delights me and I hope she sends me a photo of her Plot Planner for my Plot Planner Pinterest board.

The writer remains so open and enthusiastic about the consultation process and passionate about her journey that the time quickly passes setting the plot foundation and establishing the basic timeline of her story. Surprised to learn how few pages she has for each part of the memoir based on the total page count she envisions for her memoir, she listens as I encourage her to write as long as she can with cause and effect before resorting to a time jump and then jumping as far as necessary to get to the pivotal and exciting moments that bring meaning and coherence to her story.

I don't know until the very end of our time together the effects of our consultation when she mutters about the need to release scenes she holds onto because they are her scenes. She understands at the logical, mental level the need to cut scenes for the good of the overall memoir. She accepts intellectually that she must decide what scenes from her life (and for fiction writers, scenes you've imagined and/or written) belong in this memoir and almost more importantly, which scenes need to be cut for the good of the thematic significance of the overall story.

Perhaps that becomes her journey now, to own her entire story and then look beyond her own personal story and convince herself emotionally to make decisions about the story she wishes to share with others based on the bigger picture as she writes about the truth she's asked to be shown.

  *****NEW
Advanced Picture Book Workshop using the Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
I recommend writers of all genres and all ages take at least one picture book plot workshop. Narrows all plot concepts down to 28 pages and 500 words for clarity. Join me live and online for 4, 6, 12 video plot chats.

If you'd like more, sign-up now to reserve your spot this spring in the 1st Annual WRITER'S PLOT RETREAT in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

CBS News Sunday Morning Show -- Oscar Sunday

Are we rewarded when, rather than run and hide, we choose to face our fears and own our own story?

I'm one to answer with a resounding yes! This latest reward, however, far exceeds any gift I've ever imagined. I remember maybe ten years ago, a publicist chiding me for not thinking big enough. Then, I couldn't have even taken in the opportunity recently presented to me. After taking years to understand what she meant and to begin breaking out of the box I'd locked myself in, even now, I float along the surface of this life-changing gift.

Someone on the CBS Sunday Morning Show team read a blog post, Are Negative Reviews a Form of Bullying?, I'd sweated over, stalled to write and stalled even longer to post. The post about the negative effects of negative reviews, criticism and judgement is personal and was difficult for me to own. That those words and that effort landed before a producer… I have no words.

We speak on the phone and after he asks me questions pertinent to his vision of the segment, he explains how he and the woman to interview me and a camera crew will fly out of NYC to SF, rent a car, drive to Santa Cruz, tape, drive back and take the red-eye home to NYC all in the same day. He mentions a bit about the filming and I assure him I'm comfortable in front of the camera thanks to videos I film for my vlog, How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?. He says he knows, that he's watched them all. I had no clue at the time we filmed on a lark that the videos would prove such an asset.

A friend on Facebook made the comment "gasp!" Honestly, every time I actually think about the actual event, what's exactly been offered to me -- a thrill bubbles over me and I gasp…

For an opportunity to speak about the effects of negative self-talk and critiques and rejections have one writers I know and work with feels like the most incredible gift. (I'll post more details about the big event as I learn them!)

*****NEW
Advanced Picture Book Workshop using the Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
I recommend writers of all genres and all ages take at least one picture book plot workshop. Narrows all plot concepts down to 28 pages and 500 words for clarity. Join me live and online for 4, 6, 12 video plot chats.

If you'd like more, sign-up now to reserve your spot this spring in the WRITER'S PLOT RETREAT in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.

Success Demands Action: Writing a Story From Beginning to End Demands Self-Confidence

He's an international sensation, houses in five different countries, a TED host and a successful non-fiction journalist. He falters when considering his fiction. Having worked with him in the past on developing the plot for his now completed suspense novel, he calls for another appointment. Double-thinking the job his agent is doing pitching his novel, he asks for help establishing his "brand" in support of his novel and developing a plan to create an on-line presence in hopes of impressing editors and publishers as an expert in the field covered in his novel.

We speak and, like the first time we consulted on his novel, he again resorts to fearful self-talk about what others will think, his image and reputation, uncertainty, low energy and self-doubt. For one so externally successful, I  feel for the inner turmoil he suffers. Sensitivity to past rejections fuels a lack of self belief. He finds real difficulty in recovering from criticism, negativity, setbacks no matter how small.

Reminding him of his past doubts and ultimate accomplishment -- having written from beginning to end an incredibly exciting novel in a relevant and compelling setting about issues in the news today, he's shocked. He doesn't remember expressing the exact same doubts when starting the scary proposition of revising a complex novel as he's expressing now when starting the scary proposition of building a brand.

The less we dwell on his fears and doubts and more on establishing a concrete and measurable plan, the  less fearful and doubting he is as he sees the steps leading him from uncertainty to confidently moving in the direction of his goals. His inner story of fear and uncertainty is replaced with the realty of his success, what he's shown he is capable of and together we weave for him a new story filled with possibility.

He's not the first writer I've worked with to doubt himself. Over the course of my career as the Plot Whisperer, I’ve learned quite a lot about the structure of stories and even more about the influence our inner stories have over every success and failure we experience in life.

Success demands action. A plan, a pre-plot, a Plot Planner keeps you grounded and directs your actions toward success. Re-imagine the stories you tell yourself about the way life operates and become the person you’ve always dreamed of being.

*****NEW Space available for our Concept, Logline, Pitch Workshop . Have a bunch of ideas but not sure which one to write? Have a completed manuscript and ready to start querying and pitching to agents and editors? Literary agent Jill Corcoran knows concept. I know plot. Join us live and online .

If you'd like more, join me at an upcoming a writers conference, picture book workshop , middle grade and young adult intensive , and WRITER'S PLOT RETREAT and read my plot books.