Middle: Territory of the Antagonists

The Middle of a novel, memoir, screenplay encompasses a whooping 1/2 of the scene and page count of the entire story. More writers lose their nerve in the middle of the Middle than in any other spot of the writing process.

Two ways out:
1) Develop a list of all the antagonists that will interfere with the protagonist reaching both her long and short-term goals. (For a list of antagonists, go to: Dramatic Action Plotline.) Once you have the list in place, you'll likely find the need to introduce some of the elements earlier. CAUTION: do not go back and do it now. Make notes to yourself and attend to them in the next rewrite.

2) Develop the exotic, unusual world of the Middle. Once the protagonist moves from the Beginning into the Middle she usually enters a new world -- at least new to her. Let us see, smell, taste, feel, hear that world with the use of authentic details.

Links for more on both the exotic world and the use of antagonists:

First Draft versus Rewrites

Writers Travel Two Journeys

Meaning of Crisis and Climax

Plot versus Character

Funny to have two plot consultations with two different writers with such antithetical points of view when it comes to Plot versus Character.

In my previous blog post, I ranted about plot getting a bad rap. The day after, I consult with a writer who cares only for plot (or, since I believe character transformation is critical to plot, rather the dramatic action side of plot.) This writer states his preference right up front when he declares that he doesn't know how the character changes (Character Emotional Development) or what the story means over all (Thematic Significance). Further, he informs me, he doesn't care about that. All he wants is an action-packed story that will sell. (mass-market airport book as described by yesterday's writer)

Hmmmmm, I know there are writers of mystery and suspense who are quite successful without doing much to develop the character. But, it seems odd to me to think of a character going through all she does and not be affected by the dramatic action on some level -- perhaps not to a level of transformation but at least change. And, at the end of a long, exciting read, why not leave the reader with something to think about?

Oh, well, those are my ideals.

I'm here to support writers in their quest to follow their dreams. Not to judge. At least, not too harshly, but to help writers develop their stories.

When I have a spare moment -- yeah, right!-- I plan to do a survey of writers and ask what is their preference for writing Character-driven versus Action-driven stories AND which do they prefer reading?? Stay tuned....

An Insult to Plot

At first, I'm offended. But I'm always a little touchy when it comes to put-downs on plot.

A writer gives up dreams of literary genius. Okay... this could be good. Writing a novel is a journey; can't afford unnecessary baggage. Letting go of genius allows her to write what comes to her. Not to censor herself. Let it be crap. Trust the process as she messes around exploring different voices on her search for her own true, authentic voice. 

...for a "mass market deal you buy in the airport." My fur bristles at that -- oh, yeah, I don't have any fur... 

First off, I've never known anyone who would pass up the chance to write a mass market blockbuster novel sold at airports. It's much more of an accomplishment than the writer gives it credit for. Much harder than she thinks. 

Wait a minute. Slow down.... Me being defensive doesn't serve the writer well. 

What she is truly saying is the Dramatic Action plot is easier for her to create than the Character Emotional Development plot. 

She's approaching the time in the story when she has to peel back another layer of the protagonist. Get closer, go deeper, find the internal motivational stuff behind the character's actions. 

Actions = external. 

Motivation = internal. 

Some writers prefer one over the other.

I say: be thankful you have a strong front story (dramatic action, plotted) in place filled with conflict and suspense. Use that as the base for the rest of the story. 

You want to develop an important narrative voice. 

Okay, write the mass market plotted draft first. 

Think of what you are doing as a layering. 

Get the first layer down = dramatic action easiest for you. 

Ask yourself constantly: 

• Why is the character doing what he's doing = motivation. 
• Have him set goals that he hopes will take him closer to his  big , overall story goal. 

If that's a mass market plotted story, so be it...

Finished first draft allows for the next layer to go on.

For more on Character Emotional Development versus Dramatic Action plots:

Plot Tip: Creating An Illusion

Literary Fiction and Plot

Fatal Plot Flaw

Slogging through the 1st Draft

I wrote today's Twitter (1/2 pt. = commits to journey. Things seem to get a bit better. They're about to get way worse = Crisis 3/4 pt.) based on something I heard Andre Agassi say in an interview about his memoir. I missed the part about why he despises tennis from the start but at around the Middle of his journey to wholeness, he quits drugs and alcohol and commits to tennis for the very first time. 

Agassi's Halfway turning point does what all good Halfway turning points do: signals a move from ambivalence to commitment. At that point, as Agassi quickly finds out, rather than get better, the Halfway point signals that things are about to get way worse. 

The writer / protagonist (today's on-going plot consultation illustrates how closely the two are tied) leaves the ordinary world when she signs up for a series of on-going plot consultations with the goal of finishing a writing project she has started and stopped for years. 

She slips into the writers life with ease. Fortunate to have a lifestyle that supports writing and reading and fully sinking into the writers life, she sets up a dream writing schedule. Every morning, write with coffee. Write and walk. Write and errands. Write and eat. Write and read. Write and sleep. Sounds heavenly. Only distractions are those she allows. 

Yesterday she hits the wall. Comes up with two new writing projects in quick succession. Retires to bed sick. Rejects vision of literary genius. 

She hits the exact same point in her writer's journey that the protagonist is about to encounter on the hero's journey. Up until now, the writer and the protagonist have gone through the motions. Now, with full commitment, the writer and protagonist step forward thinking that by making the commitment, the hard work is behind them. They step forward into thin air without a clue that the worst is yet to come...

Crank up the energy. Next is the Crisis...

Scene Organization

Whether you like to work out the elements of your story on the page or are a pre-plotter, everyone benefits from a bit of periodic organization. 

See how many of the key scenes you can identify in the story you're imagining, writing, or perfecting:

1) Set-up: The set-up you create in the Beginning makes the journey the protagonist undertakes in the Middle feel inevitable. 

2) Inciting Incident: A moment, conflict, dilemma, loss, fear, etc. that forces the protagonist to take immediate action.

3) End of the Beginning: The protagonist's goal shifts or takes on greater meaning and turns the story in a new direction, launching the character into the actual story world itself.

4) Halfway Point: The moment the protagonist consciously makes a total commitment to achieving her goal and does something that signifies she has burned all bridges back and thus can only go forward. 

5) Crisis: The all-is-lost moment.

6) Climax: Just as it looks as if all is permanently lost for the protagonist, she saves the day.

For more on key scenes:

Beginning, Middle, End

5 Benefits of Writing a Truly Awful, Lousy 1st Draft

1) Rather than stop and start over again and again, when you allow yourself to write a truly awful, lousy first draft from beginning to end, you actually finish a draft all the way through.

2) Until you write the end, you do not have a clear grasp of what comes earlier.

3) You accomplish what you set out to do.

4) Once you have a skeleton in place, a writer is able to stand back and "see" her story in an entirely new light

5) One of the greatest benefits of writing a truly awful, lousy 1st draft is that it's all up from there...

For more on the benefits of writing a truly awful, completely lousy 1st draft:

The End Is the Beginning

Writer Self-Sabotage

First Draft Twitters

First Draft versus Rewrites

First Draft Blues

Tracking Conflict, Tension, and Suspense

The Plot Planner I create for writers during an On-going Plot Phone Consultations (and encourage all writers to create for on their own for their individual writing project) is simply a line that divides scenes into "above the line" scenes and "below the line scenes."

Characters grow and change based on the Dramatic Action they experience during the story. If the action is simply action with no conflict, tension, or suspense, the story does not move and the character does not grow.

In today's consultation, the writer has a tagline that is so snappy and compelling, it could sell the project alone. I was excited to hear more about his character who, based on the Character Emotional Development Profile, fits my favorite definition of a great protagonist = a strong, flawed character unafraid of taking big risks and willing to show a bit of a dark side (This writer's protagonist hasn't shown the dark side yet. When we plot out the 2nd half of the project, I'll be curious to find out whether a dark side emerges... or not.)

The plot for his project works, but the execution scene-by-scene falls short. Too many scenes fall "below the line." The potential for popping them above the line is terrific so long as when he writes the next draft, the writer focuses on writing the scenes from this new point of view = creating conflict, tension, and suspense and /or curiosity in every single scene. Well... I exaggerate. A story benefits from quieter scenes, too, but even those "below the line scenes" create more intensity and depth if they have a pallor of tension, a hint of conflict, a whisper of overarching suspense (Gawd, I can tell I'm tired...).

For more Plot Tips on creating scenes above and below the line, go to:

International-Plot-Writing-Month-Day_26 (NOTE: this is a day from last year's International Plot Writing Month that takes place in December and is designed to support writers who are in the process of creating the rough draft of their stories now in NaNoWriMo)

Second Draft

Elements of Plot

Plot & Subplots

Character Development and Dramatic Action

(NOTE: For more articles about creating conflict, tension, and suspense, go to the top, right corner of this webpage and in the white, rectangular box write tag words for what you're interested learning more.)
(NOTE: Another critical element of a good plot that reveals itself on a Plot Planner is Cause and Effect. For a simplistic definition, visit my Twitter.

A Sophisticated Form of Writer's Procrastination

Two On-going Plot Phone Consultations in a row, with two separate writers, each of whom suffers from a sophisticated form of procrastination.

Both writers, one fiction, one non-fiction, have had the dream of writing / finishing their books for a long time now. Both writers, after years of thinking and planning and researching their projects have both settled down and committed to the process. (Or, so they think.) By signing up for my services they crossed from the ordinary world of stopping and starting, dreaming and waiting to doing something about it = The End of the Beginning. 

The antagonists they faced in the Beginning (1/4) -- life, jobs, family -- are nothing compared to what they face now that they have crossed over into the Middle. Both writers have outrageously important books to write -- important for a multitude of reasons, the most important being, in my mind, to save their very spirits (I know, I'm a bit dramatic here but you know writers...) = the act of completion. Neither writer is able to move on to other writing projects that call to them (many of which they've started but never quite finished) or really much of any other creative endeavors until this one is done.

Now that they have crossed over into this new and exotic world of the Middle -- the writer's life, they face a most formidable antagonist = the dreaded procrastination. Now their internal doubts and insecurities are no longer hidden behind the worthy causes of caring for children and providing financial security to those they love. Now the doubt and insecurity oozes out all over and when they least expect it. Especially now. Always before they were competent and successful and selflessly giving to others.

Now they flounder and feel unworthy and stripped of control (after all, who really can control the creative source. It's more like sliding aboard the Giant Dipper and holding on for dear life). And, where do they hear their doubts the loudest? In the silence of their writing caves and on the blank page.

So what do they do? They do what they do best. They research more, spend hours pondering and planning, and come up with a million and one excuses -- all of them worthy -- for not sitting down and writing.

Though my primary job is to act as the archetype of the Mentor and help writers with their plots and support writers in the process of crafting a story, for these two writers and countless others just like them, I long to shape shift into the Trickster and burn, toss out, throw away their binders of research notes, stacks of reference books, and zip drives filled with information. Each of these two writers know their subject matter to a level of such expertise that they could lecture to thousands. They know so much that the act of condensing it into a compelling read paralyzes each of them.

Neither one has hit the Halfway mark yet. They are still organizing, pondering, mapping out.

Until they keep to a writing schedule and the rough ("vomit") draft is finished, they have not truly committed to the process (what symbolizes the Halfway Point of any great story)(yes, to those of you reading this who are familiar with the Universal Story form, they don't even have a clue about the Crisis that awaits them).

Until they do, I wait.

The muse waits.

Their stories wait.

The world waits....

WRITERS TRAVEL TWO JOURNEYS

The act of writing is not a linear movement from the Beginning, through the Middle and to the End. The act of writing is circuitous and indirect as a reflection of the writer’s own personal strengths and flaws, loves and fears. The writer’s life spirals up and plummets down as characters break through the surface of the imagined world and dive into the murky depths.

The journey the protagonist undertakes mirrors that of the writer’s. A Plot Planner is a visual picture of the plot as a reflection of Dramatic Action, Character Emotional Development and Thematic Significance. The Planner reflects the writer’s journey, too.

The universal story form helps writers hold up their scenes and characters against a backdrop of the whole story. A Plot Planner and a Scene Tracker allows writers to stand back from the words and gain access to a larger context. An entire world emerges along with a better understanding of the significance of each of its parts.


IN THE BEGINNING

Plot Tips
Introduce the familiar: characters, habits, setting, thought patterns. Do not confuse introduction with passivity. The opening of the project either draws in the reader or the moviegoer or it doesn’t. Dramatic Action calls for conflict, tension, suspense and/or curiosity.

The scenes in the opening 1/4 of the project cause a Separation, a Shift, a Fracture. The effect? The protagonist leaves everything behind. At the end of the Beginning, there is no turning back. The protagonist crosses into the Middle.

Tips for Writers
When you step away from talking about writing a book or a screenplay, your memoir or a children’s book into actually doing it, you join your destiny. Once you begin, there is no turning back. You can stop writing, but the act of writing changes you. The transformation has already begun.

Endure the fear of appearing foolish. The fear is justified. In the Beginning, a writer is awkward, gets lost, and makes mistakes. A Plot Planner helps keep you on track.


THE MIDDLE

Plot Tips
The protagonist leaves behind the life he or she knows for the unknown. New and challenging situations arise. Self-doubts and uncertainty confront the character. She discovers strengths and struggles with shortcomings. The character becomes more and more conscious of her thoughts, feelings, actions and life as she has always known it.

A band of antagonists control the Middle: other people, nature, society, machines, and the character herself. Scenes pop above the line on the Plot Planner. The antagonists’ rhythmic waves of assault spur the protagonist’s vertical ascent. An unordinary world unfolds. A transformation begins on an inner level of the character long before anything observable appears.

Physical, psychological and spiritual crisis ensue. Greater awareness and sensitivity open up. The protagonist perceives and experiences self and the world in a new way.


Tips for Writers
You find yourself unable to drop your characters in the crucible, allow them to appear foolish, lonely, tedious, or ordinary. Until a character experiences failure, brokenness, fear, emptiness and alienation, rigorous change cannot occur.

Just as you kill your story if you are over-protective of your characters, so do you prevent yourself from growing and changing, too. Traveling the path of the writer is meant to feel like being lost, abandoned, alone and stretched beyond one’s limits.

For writers brave enough to dare the underbrush, be aware of antagonists lurking behind every tree in your own life. As you find yourself with no way out of the seemingly endless wanderings, dead-end detours, and a frustrating sense of being lost, stop and jot it on a Plot Planner. When you bargain with yourself to go back and start over again, force yourself to go deeper into the unknown. Use the Plot Planner as a guide.

Trust yourself. The quality of straightforwardness exposes themes and patterns underlying surface attitudes and actions. The better you come to know yourself, the better you will come to know your story.


THE END

Plot Tips
The character struggles to take full ownership of her newly discovered consciousness. What started as a twinge at first, in the quick build-up to the Climax, the protagonist more and more recognizes quite painfully each time her actions or speech do not align with her new understanding of herself and the world around her.

The healing of this schism shows itself in the Climax.

The Beginning sets up the scene of highest intensity in the story so far ~ the end of the Beginning. This scene shows the shift or reversal outside the character that sends her into the heart of the story world.

The middle sets up the scene of the highest intensity in the story so far ~ the Crisis. This scene shows the character’s consciousness of the shift or reversal inside her.

The End sets up the crowning glory of the entire story ~ the Climax. This scene shows the character fully united with her new self-knowledge, new understanding of the world, new sense of responsibility through her actions and her words.


Tips for Writers
Writers benefit from fostering perseverance to offset the uncertainty. Success is not always immediate or even obvious at first. Just as the characters in the story are on a journey, so are you.

Etiquette for Introducing the Character

Have you ever met someone for the first time who proceeds to tell you in the first ten minutes their entire life's story? The pain and suffering, unfair treatment and family drama told to you before you have a chance to remember their name? You may feel empathy for this unknown person, but you may also find yourself backing away, checking your watch, and finding excuses to escape. This is also true for readers and an audience meeting your main character for the first time.

Think about how you introduce yourself to others. Usually, if we're interested in possibly developing a relationship, we are on our best behavior when we first meet someone new. We show off our strengths and keep our weaknesses and flaws in the background, if we reveal them at all. This gives the other person time to get to know and like us before we reveal the darker side of ourselves. We do this because most of know that until we feel comfortable with another person, we are not often ready to learn about their flaws, fears, and prejudices.

Today's plot consultation again brought to mind the importance of how a writer introduces the protagonist.

The writer had pages and pages of backstory and was impatient to share the details with the reader. She was okay with letting go of the Prologue she had crafted -- 30 - 40 pages -- but throughout the plot consultation asked if now she could include the information. I continually cautioned her to wait as long as possible.

Yes, a writer can incorporate backstory into the Beginning (1/4) but it is best if it is done through setting, time frame, authentic details, imbedded in dialogue (without resorting to "information dumping") through word choices, actions, reactions, mood, tone, and thematic significance. Get the front story going first to hook readers and audiences.

Curiosity is one of the most powerful tools to pull the reader deeper into the story. Give away everything up front and you lose that. Plus, you risk overwhelming readers before they have a chance to truly connect with the character.

The End is the Beginning

An agent flings a promising work against the wall. When asked why, she rants about all the times she has read entire manuscripts only to be disappointed in the end. She softens as she explains how, by the time she reaches the final quarter of the story, she longs for the work to succeed. If it fails, disappointment stings all the more. 

Agents, editors, directors, audiences, and readers alike expect the scenes of a story to add up to something meaningful in the end. 

The End is the Beginning 

T.S. Eliot said, "The end is in the beginning." 

The beginning of any entertaining and well-crafted story tells as much about where we are headed as to where we will be at the end. This means that until you write the end you will not truly know the beginning. 

Which comes first? Does a writer labor over the first three quarters of a project where the groundwork is laid for the end? Or, does one write the climax itself first? 

Before a writer can lay the groundwork about the character and the situation to build to a climax in a way that makes the highest point of the story seem both inevitable and surprising, doesn't the writer first need to know the climax? At what point do we surrender our idea of the story and our will, and let the story have its head? 

Whichever which way you get there, the choices you make for the end of your story deserve attention. 

Connecting the Dots 

A finished draft allows the writer to stand back from the story and think both forward from the beginning and middle, and backwards from the climax. In other words, the beginning defines the end and the end defines the beginning. 

As Apple co-founder Steve Jobs says, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." Of course he was referring to students at their commencement, but it applies to plot as well. For the end to be meaningful and convincing, first specific character emotional development must be established through the use of dramatic action. 

What is your story really saying? What do all those words you wrote add up to? Your story is a reflection of a truth. Not necessarily true for all time, but true for the story itself, and likely for yourself, too. What is the deeper meaning? The truth beyond the physical? The protagonist has undergone a transformation. What does that mean? Jot down the ideas that come to you. 


The Climax 

The protagonist introduced in the beginning 1/4 of a story spends twice that time in the caldron of dramatic action of the middle. In both the beginning one quarter of the story and up to the next three quarter mark toward the end of the middle, the character's emotional make-up is revealed through successively challenging events that are linked by cause and effect. 

The dramatic action and the details and interpretations of the story hold the reader's interest and at the same time show the reader what they need to know to follow the story to its climax. 

The climax hits close to the very end of the story. It is the point at which the story turns from being an interrelated deliberately arranged set of scenes to gold. "Any event that seems to the given writer startling, curious, or interest-laden can form the climax of a possible story,” writes John Gardner in The Art of Fiction. 

The Climax serves as the light at the end of the tunnel. In the final quarter of the work, the protagonist moves toward the light -- one step forward toward the ultimate transformation, three steps back, a fight for a couple of steps, being beat backwards. 

The Climax spotlights the character as she comes into full transformation and demonstrates full mastery of the necessary new skill or personality, gift or action. 

The protagonist "shows" herself in scene acting in a transformed way -- in a way she could not have acted in any other part of the story because she first needed to experience everything she does to get to the final stage. 

When the dramatic action of a story changes a character at depth over time, the story becomes thematically significant. Ask yourself which scene most dramatically shows your protagonist demonstrating her transformed self? 

When you know the answer to that question, you have your climax. 

The Climax, in turn, informs all the other scenes in the entire project. 


Hollywood Endings 

The happily-ever-after endings of the 1950s were replaced in the ‘60s and ‘70s by darker works like A Clockwork Orange, Coming Home, and Midnight Cowboy. The next decade brought in the era of Wall Street. 

By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, we could afford to produce books and movies that depicted great loss and enduring hardship. As in the The Horse Whisperer and Cold Mountain, the reward in the end often came in the form of a new life. 

Today, the shadow side of survival in these later films is fast becoming the reality in more and more book buyers’ and moviegoers’ lives. 

Darkness or Hope 

Of the two kinds of people who go to film festivals, view popular movies, and read books, one kind believes the universe is orderly and expects us to act morally responsible. These people usually find stories that end on a hopeful note enjoyable and inspire enthusiasm. 

Then there are those people who accept a more random view of things. These people are often more at peace with stories that end by reinforcing a grudging acceptance that life is hard. 

Both sorts of people are affected by the increasing connectedness of scenes and emotion in a story. In both cases, if unable to find enjoyment in a story or grasp a deeper acceptance for life, people will ultimately stop reading or opt to leave to the movie early. 

Thematic Significance 

While writing and rewriting the final quarter of the story and the climax itself, a writer looks hard at the meaning of things. An exploration of deep-rooted ideas for the fundamental meaning of events reveals thematic significance, which in turn dictates the final layer in the selection and organization, nuances, and details of the story. 

Filmmaker Halidan Hussy, co-founder and executive director of Santa Cruz Cinequest Film Festival, says, “You go to find films that get you thinking, that open you up.” 

Stories that get you thinking resonate with meaning. Stories that open you up create opportunities for a shared experience with others. A promising story with a thematically rich climax leaves the reader to ponder the deeper meaning and, in that way, is sure to deliver success. 

Character Makes the Plot

Last night, I furiously jotted down notes during my book group's discussion of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Although I avoid reading and watching violence of any kind, I read this book like one possessed. For a couple of days I was addicted to Lisbeth and have thought of her often since then. 

Yes, there is an interesting mystery plot, historical plot, political plot, dramatic action plot, and possibly other ones as well, but what drew me in was Lisbeth's plot and ultimate transformation.

In the group, I asked why? What about this character drew us in so deeply and emotionally, especially since the protagonist has such a flat affect and shares so little of herself emotionally -- her internal landscape is essential bare.

The following are comments made by the other writers and one non-writer in the group (my personal thanks to each of you for contributing):

• Rarely in literature is there such an unusual female protagonist survivor with special needs (autistic / aspergers) and one who is so violent 
  
• She doesn't belly up and lay down and take the abuse inflicted upon her by a flawed system and pathological men. She fights back and wins
  
• She is young and strange and smarter and wiser than the men in the story
  
• When she is off the page, the story lags. As soon as she appears, the story picks up momentum
  
• She has been abandoned by everyone in her life, as a reader I couldn't abandon her, too.
  
• She starts out a victim but does not remain a victim
  
• Another reason the plot and this character work well together is that it shows good reversal of conflict: a "misfit" wins and the "powerful" loses
• Her visits to her mother show her humanity
  

Writers often encourage me to write a book on character to compliment the book I wrote on plot. I always explain that in my mind character is such a key element to plot that it is impossible to separate the two. Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple is based on the belief that plot is made up of dramatic action that overtime transforms the character (Character Emotional Development) to provide meaning (Thematic Significance). 

The End of the Beginning (1/4) of Lisbeth's inner plot line happens when her new guardian of the state changes the terms (1/4 mark in this book is page 161, merely twenty pages off the actual page count of 181).

At the Crisis (halfway point) for her inner plot, Lisbeth understands no one is going to save her. Only she can save herself and other women like her. In this scene, Larsson both foreshadows what is to come and also gives the character the insight for what is needed for her ultimate transformation. 

In the end, she is able to outwit the villain by standing in her true power. She is able to show her transformed self at the Climax because of the dramatic action that happens to her earlier in the story. 

Thematic significance statement: One person no matter how young or wounded is able with cunning and patience to conquer evil. 

When A Scene Just Won’t Do

Most of a writer’s genius comes in the art of the finesse. How finely you craft your project before you let it go is up to each individual writer.

As a plot consultant, I developed the Scene Tracker Kit to help writers finesse their scenes. A story comes alive at the scene level for the audience, be it a crowd or an individual reader. Well-written scenes allow both the observer and the reader to viscerally take part in the story. Some people rather enjoy a more distanced, intellectual challenge. Most, however, engage on an emotional level, too.

Each scene has a plot structure of its own. The scene shows the character step toward a goal or desire. The move forward causes an equal or better effect with conflict and tension. The scene ends with failure or an unanswered question, or a cliffhanger, something that entices the audience deeper into the story.

Moment by Moment

Scenes show moment-by-moment action that causes an effect on the characters’ development as shown through his/her words choices in dialogue, facial expressions, next moves in response to the action, gestures, and every detail down to the breath.

Plot covers a specified period of time, from one moment in the centuries past and those to come. The Blockbuster Plots line of plot tools explains plot at the overall story level and at the scene level, too. In both cases, the focus is on scene.

But, when stories take place over a long time span, one scene cannot always cause the next scene to unfold. In order that the story not become episodic, the use of summary becomes paramount. Cause and effect soothes the audience and makes the story best spent in scene. But, there are times when a scene just won’t do.

Summary

You’ve heard the writer’s mantra: “Show, don’t tell,”

A scene shows.

Summary tells.

A story made up entirely of scenes can inject too much conflict and become exhausting for the reader or moviegoer. Summary is a place to rest and make transitions. Instead of every single moment played out in scene, time is compressed with summary.

Summary narrates quickly those events that are not as important enough to the overall story line to show in detail. Summary relates the events in their sequence or tells how things were during a particular period time. The use of summary is helpful in moving the story forward quickly. That way you, as the writer, can focus on creating scenes to show the moments that are the most important to your plot.

Movie and Novel Examples

Always a sucker for a good historical story, I have chosen two epics to serve as examples for the use of summary. Charles Frasier begins Thirteen Moons in Circumstantial Summary. Director Sofia Coppola’s begins Marie Antoinette in Sequential Summary.

Circumstantial Summary

“There is no scatheless rapture. Love and time put me in this condition. I am leaving soon for the Nighland, where all the ghosts of man and animals yearn to travel. We’re called to it. I feel it pulling at me, same as everyone else. It is the last unmapped country, and a dark way getting there. A sorrowful path. And maybe not exactly Paradise at the end. The belief I’ve acquired over a generous and nevertheless inadequate time on earth is that we arrive in the afterlife as broken as when we departed from the world. But, on the other hand, I’ve always enjoyed a journey.

“Cloudy days, I sit by the fire and talk nothing but Cherokee. Or else I sit silent with pen and paper, rendering the language into Sequoyah’s syllabrary, the characters forming under my hand like hen-scratch hieroglyphs. On sunny days, I usually rock on the proch wrapped in a blanket t and read and admire the vista.”

The opening of Thirteen Moons by Charles Frasier is an example of Circumstantial Summary. The general circumstances are described from the main character’s point of view. The audience learns what his life is like now that he faces death. The main character gives us his take on the approaching “Nightland.” The second paragraph tells us in summary the circumstances of how his days unfold.

Sequential Summary

The movie Marie Antoinette begins with a series of snippets like short summaries, some lasting only seconds. The first snippet is of Marie as a 13-year-old girl waking up one morning. Next snippet she plays with her dog while being dressed by her attendant. Next, her mother tells Marie the gravity of the honor being bestowed her. Marie then sets off on a journey. Friends appear along the way. The betrothed is introduced. Marie and friends sleep on the carriage. They play cards on the carriage. They sleep.

The opening of Marie Antoinette relates in sequence the events that happen over a specific period of time, but compresses them. This is an example of Sequential Summary.

Summary is telling and sets us apart from the action. However, in both examples, the use of authentically historic sensory details infuses the summaries with life and immediacy.

Note of Caution

In Marie Antoinette, Sophia Coppola creates Thematic Significance and forces a comparison between the story and the rock star mentality of today. Yet, both Thirteen Moons and Marie Antoinette overuse Circumstantial Summary and Sequential Summary both. Summary, no matter how well written or directed, ultimately distances the audience from the character.

In each of these examples, when we do get an intimate peek into the character, it is in scenes that flow one into the next through cause and effect. However, this happens in few too many scenes and far too short a time.

Yes, summary makes the time pass and history unfold quickly. The audience observes life during a specific time span and truly feels that time. But, ultimately, something is lost at the Character Emotional Development level when stories spend more time in summary and not enough time in scene. 

Writers' Self-Sabotage

Do you have the dream of finishing your story and then find yourself not showing up for your writing?

Think of today as the start of a whole new schedule. One day at a time.

Everyday make time for writing and for exercise. As you exercise meditate on this:

What you are writing is not hard -- it's the first draft -- it's okay if absolute shit (excuse my rant!) or second or last.

What you are writing is the answer to your dreams -- a giant step toward becoming who you are meant to be -- the big you, the spirit you.

Why does the little you (ego / resistance) have so much power???

Why does everyone else come before you and your dreams??

What are you so afraid of??

Why are you sabotaging yourself????

You can do this. One day at a time. Give your writing time to yourself as a gift.

Okay, enough of that.

You've got a great plan. 

I'm sending you loving healing energy now and now and now... Every day this week you'll stay true to your commitment to yourself. If you can't trust yourself, then who???

The Importance of Character

A dear, dear friend asked me what I thought of an editor's comments regarding her latest book. Having been told that the book did not have a wide enough appeal to a general audience but rather more valued by family and friends who could fill in the gaps, my friend turned to me. 

First let me say that my friend has had / is having an amazing life and that she is a terrific writer -- she has a wonderful way with words and, though this latest book comes closer to a true memoir than her first book -- a collection of non-fiction vignettes-- I agree with the editor. 

Without having dropped the veil on her own personal story and the deeper story of her relationships, the reader never has a chance to see how she is changed by the journey she undertakes in the story. Instead of more closely concentrating on her inner evolution, she focused on the outside. And, by keeping herself at a distance, the reader in the end is robbed of the true joy of reading -- identification. 

Universal appeal comes through the character -- the inner plot, not though the dramatic action -- the outer plot. The protagonist (in a memoir, that means you, the author) drives the story and the allows for an emotional involvement on the part of the reader. 

Yes, my friend wrote herself in such a way that she comes across strong and both empathetic and sympathetic. However, without a clear goal and an clearly identified inner problem that gets solved, the reader is left to fill in the gaps.

Key elements in the character inner plot:

1) The protagonist must grow throughout the story in a believable and meaningful way. 

2) Protagonist goal = must be specific. The goal is what motivates the character and is what allows the reader to gauge when the character comes closer to goal and when she is thrust further away. What does the character want and why?

2) The character must reveal themselves to the reader. This can be accomplished through dialogue and descriptions, and through the actions she takes. In whichever way the writer finds to "show" the character, the character's emotion must be included = Character Emotional Development. 

3) The secondary and minor characters act as real people who offer comparisons and contrasts to the main character, thus expanding the readers' understanding of the protagonist and of the overall theme itself.

4) Is the character struggling against herself and an external antagonist? Whether an inner demon or flaw and / or an external antagonist, we must understand the obstacles in the way of the protagonist achieving her goal to more fully appreciate the growth she ultimately makes.

For a simple questionnaire to help develop your protagonist's inner and outer plot, fill out the Character Emotional Development Profile.

Foreshadow versus Flashback

A good story is able to seduce a reader by the illusion created on the page. A story written in scene creates its own time and a sense that the present moment is all that exists for the reader. As the reader sinks into the world of the characters on the page, they surrender even their emotions to the illusion. This strengthens as the reader comes to know the characters and care for them, even to worry about them. The reader's body responds on a visceral level; their hearts beat faster. Perhaps they laugh or weep, present and involved in the story world itself.

Flashbacks serve as a reminder to the reader that they are indeed reading what is only an illusion. This weakens the trance and can even break it.

Foreshadowing, however, is a literary device that alludes to something that will happen later in the story. Foreshadowing is subtle way to draw the reader deeper into the illusion with the promise of the excitement to come.

In the Beginning, or the first 1/4 of the page count or scene count, foreshadows actually appear as introductions.

Harper Lee, in To Kill a Mockingbird, uses foreshadowing in such a way as to strengthen the illusion of the story world. In the Beginning of the story, the reader is introduced, but not shown, Boo as a "malevolent phantom."

At the end of the Beginning we learn that Scout was "so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when [Boo] put the blanket around you," The reader now has a sense that Boo is not what he first appeared. This act of Boo's in the Beginning foreshadows the Climax of the story. And it is the reader's curiosity about who Boo really is that draws them into the heart of the story.

Burris Ewell is also introduced in the Beginning. The reader comes to know Burris as "the filthiest human I had ever seen." "He's a mean one, a down-hard mean one. He's liable to start somethin'." Soon after we learn that his "paw's right contentious." Because of this introduction in the Beginning to the boy and his paw, when we learn what the paw has done in the Middle of the story, we are not surprised.

At the end of the Beginning, Scout wakes up to snow, something she has never seen before, and screams: "The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something --!" This is a powerful way to leave the Beginning and launch into the Middle of the story -- the actual story world itself because from that moment on, Scout's world as she knows it, does in fact, end.

Much later in the story, in the middle of the End, after Tom Robinson commits suicide, we learn that "Mr. Ewell said it made one down and about two more to go."

Soon after that the Judge, who embarrassed Mr. Ewell in the trial, has an attempted break-in at his house. If the reader had not already figured it out, they now know for sure whom the third party is that Mr. Ewell alluded to. The reader becomes viscerally afraid for Atticus and starts turning the pages faster. Soon after, when Aunt Alexandra stops short in the middle of her sentence, and says, "Somebody just walked over my grave," the reader feels the sensation as well and their fear deepens.

Even as the reader "sees" Scout in her Halloween costume and is caught up in the light-hearted fun of her presentation to the family and Calpurnia, the hair on the back of the reader's neck does not relax. When Jem escorts Scout to the pageant and their friend pops out behind the big oak tree to frighten them, the sense of doom heightens. On the way home after the pageant, when the Jem and Scout approach that same tree, the reader knows the Climax is near.

Reading is a mindful activity. When the writing is good and in scene, a reader reads the words, but rather than pay attention to them, becomes engaged with the characters. This keeps the reader in the present moment -- not real time present moment, but story time present moment. While we are reading in scene, there is only a sense of flow.

This paradigm does not only occur when reading "above the line" scenes or, in other words, scenes filled with tension, conflict and suspense. Even when the character is reflecting on an experience, going inward to find out what they are feeling and thinking, still the reader can stay in the illusion.

However, this sort of inner reflection by the character usually is not necessary because a character's external behavior is directly influenced by their inner state of being both in the moment and as a reflection of the past.

The best reading occurs when the reader is so in the trance of the story that there never seems to be a good enough reason to put the book down. Foreshadowing helps create this feeling. The reader cannot stop until they find out if what they think will happen based on clever foreshadowing does in fact happen. But what about that next foreshadow? The reader is as unable to stop or even slow down as the characters are.

Now is not the time to throw in a flashback, especially not in the final 1/4 of the story. A flashback can give the reader a good reason to stop. Foreshadowing, however, pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the story world and gives more and more reasons to keep on reading.

Fatal Plot Flaw

Of the 10 elements in the Character Emotional Development Profile, the one of greatest importance to the overall plot of the story is Goal.

The other elements help create conflict, tension, suspense and curiosity -- all critical to a successful story -- as well as create a three-dimensional character.

The #1 problem I find, well... perhaps that's too sweeping but I'm trying to make a point here, is that writers often neglect to create a specific goal that in turn provides specific action steps the character takes to achieve her goal. 

The Goal "to be happy" leads to a vague and meandering story. 

Instead, be specific. What does she need = goal(s) -- to make her happy? The Goal needs to be tangible and quantifiable = in other words, the reader or movie-goer must be able to determine when the character moves closer to her goal versus further away. 

Plot Tip: Creating an Illusion

Living in the present moment is difficult for most people.

Only while daydreaming or night dreaming, through mediation, under hypnosis, or while in the zone of writing or some other passion and with practice, can we stay mindful or conscious of the present moment for a sustained period of time. Usually our minds are darting into the future, whether the next 10 minutes or 10 years from now, or into the past, what just happened or what happened long ago.

Reading is a mindful activity. When the writing is good and in scene, a reader reads the words, but rather than pay attention to them, becomes engaged with the characters. This keeps the reader in the present moment -- not real time present moment, but story time present moment. Watching a scene unfold on the screen or while reading it on the page, we experience a sense of flow.

A story written in scene creates its own time and a sense that the present moment is all that exists. As we sink into the world of the characters, we surrender even our emotions to the illusion. This strengthens as we come to know the characters and care for them, even to worry about them. Our bodies respond on a visceral level; our hearts beat faster. We laugh and weep, present and involved in the story world itself.

Elements that entice a reader or moviegoer to sink deeper into the dream:

1)      Characters who invoke interest in the reader or movie-goer

2)      Conflict, tension and suspense that sustains excitement

3)      Only enough back story to inform that particular scene and triggers in the reader or movie-goers curiosity and investment in the dream

4)      Clarity into whom and what to root for in the story

5)      Consistency in story pacing versus missteps that can jolt the reader awake

6)      Right sensory details that deepen the overall story (dream) mood

7)      Foreshadowing that offers enticement (flashbacks can create time disorientation).

8)      No hint of the author in the story versus author intrusion

9)      The right balance between Scene and Summary

10)  Payoffs in the dramatic action and the character emotional development at just the right moments.

Once the lights go on in the theater or we put the book down, it takes a moment or two to remember that the people in the story were an illusion. Often, it is necessary to consciously detach from the world on the screen or the page in order to return to real life and regain a sense of real time.

The best stories are when we are with the characters and so in the trance of the moment that there never seems to be a good reason to put the book down or to pause the DVD. Lured deeper and deeper into the dream, we are unable to stop watching or stop reading until we find out if what we fear will happen does indeed happen, or not.

Word Count for Scenes

(NOTE: I know I said I'd address more about theme, but received the following question. Will continue theme discussion next time.)
Question:

I've been working through my scene tracker and planned 20 chapters, each with 3 scenes or a total of 60 scenes. I divided plot into the first 1/4 or 5 chapters, the next 1/2 15 chapters, and the final 1/4 or 5 chapters.

Last evening as I was writing I realized each scene would have to be about 1,000 words to get to 60,000 and right now they are only about 600. What is a good average for scenes? Are my scenes too word light (Oh no!)?

Thanks so much! I appreciate your thoughts!

Answer:

Sounds like you've done lots of pre-plotting, analyzing and preparing for this new story of yours. Congratulations!! 

Now it's time to forget about the structure and write. Well, that's not entirely true. Don't forget about all the work you've done. Use your guidelines as support as you write your way through the scenes, but don't get bogged down by the pre-plotting.

Some of us benefit from having a road map before setting off on a journey (new story). However, it's also nice to be able to wander off once in awhile if so inspired. So, it depends on if you're writing for fun and for the experience and the learning and the exploring OR if you're writing under a deadline. Under a deadline, keep to the pre-plot work to keep your writing on track. 

The scenes in the first draft generally grow in subsequent drafts as you add more elements -- authentic and thematic details, more emotion, deeper character development, snappier action.

Write your first draft all the way through without going back and without worrying about how long the scenes end up being. Once you reach the end, you'll have plenty of time to analyze what you have and make decisions for the next draft.

Great good luck!!!!

Plot Your Story's Theme

The Thematic Significance of your story is the thread that holds your story together. The more clearly you can define your thematic significance statement, the tighter your story. Once you have identified your Thematic Significance statement, your scene choices and word choices throughout your story will follow theme. The theme then serves as your compass, determining what fits and what doesn't.

Writers generally begin a new project writing in their strength:
Dramatic Action
Character Emotional Development
Thematic Significance

The writers who begin with an idea they want to explore or a concept they want to prove through their story are beginning with Thematic Significance. For the rest of us, the theme of our stories bubbles up from the story itself in later drafts. No matter what we write, the process of writing is an exploration into ourselves, our own personal themes.

Either way the theme comes to you, the themes we write about most often originate from our own personal past -- at least for the first several stories this is true. Our own belief system and the themes we live our lives by pop up in our stories when we least expect them. Unless, that is, we are aware of the themes we live by and are on the lookout for them.

HOMEWORK:
Make a list of the themes you find that seem to consistently come up in your writing.

Next post, I'll discuss how to take that list and shape those themes ideas into a Thematic Significance statement for your project.

Theme and Plot

I just finished reading The Geography of Bliss; One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner. Yes, it's a non-fiction book but because it borders on a memoir thus makes an interesting study for a compulsive plot consultant such as myself.

Selected as One of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post Book World, The Geography of Bliss is called a travelogue by the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, travel tales by Publishers Weekly (in a starred review). 

However, most of the other reviews label the book as an odyssey ("...a very funny odyssey" by New York Newsday), a journey, a quest -- all of  which sound suspiciously like the hero's journey to me. Only Kirkus Reviews got it right in my mind: "part travelogue, part personal-discovery memoir".

Yes, the book is a humorous read and, for one who rarely travels, a wonderful way to learn about other countries of the world, but what drove me deeper and deeper into the story was the main character -- Eric himself. No surprise there. That's what pulls us deeper and deeper into every great story --the character. 

As in every great story, the character opens up about himself superficially in the Beginning (1/4). 

On page 93 (the Universal Story form 1/4 mark -- the End of the Beginning), he writes that a "crack forms in [my] armor. A crack large enough, if you're lucky, to let in a few shafts of light." We know at that point that something inside him has shifted. He has left the old world behind and has truly entered the exotic, unusual world of the Middle. 

By the middle of the Middle we understand him more deeply and in that understanding truly care about him and his journey toward "personal-discovery."

The book is all about happiness -- what it is, where it is found, who is happiest, etc...

Thematically, the path is clear. Character Emotional Development-wise, we understand the inherent conflict in this story = the main character, the author, is a self-described mope looking for happiness. Perfect!

The theme of most memoirs and fiction and screenplays is not as clear-cut. However, the theme often comes from the author him or herself. Which makes exploring our own themes a worthy endeavor. Look for exercises to help you get closer to the themes you live your life by in my next post. 

How Much Plot is Too Much Plot?

Question: 

I know the entire story. I'm just not sure how much to tell.

Answer:

Tell only the parts that show more about: 

1) the character emotional development -- this info should come in stages, revealing deeper and deeper layers, the deeper and deeper the reader reads

2) the theme -- as the plot advances, the thematic significance of the story deepens

3) the dramatic action -- action becomes dramatic when filled with conflict, tension, suspense, and / or curiosity -- the sense of threat is both internally and externally driven

4) the details that make up with world the characters live in -- use only authentic and specific details and go for as much symbolism as possible

Tell nothing more. Show nothing less.

Meaning of the Crisis & Climax Cont.

Continued from 8/22 blog post:

One of the most gratifying aspects of reading and going to the theater is the experience of living someone else's life (meaning to enter into the protagonist's skin) and surviving a Crisis. Stories give us the idea that we, too, can survive the dark night of the soul and know that moment when consciousness slays the ego. 

Suspense builds as we read or watch for what the character does next.

When we, in real life, get hit with a Crisis, we can either accept what is and move on OR we can return to unconsciousness, crippled by victimhood. 

In stories, the Crisis (the scene of most energetic intensity in the story so far) serves as a slap in the face, a wake-up call, the moment when the character becomes conscious of life's deeper meaning (thematic significance = look for more on this in the next blog post). 

Stories are about, at their core, their essence, character transformation. After the Crisis, in order for character transformation to occur, the character moves out of unconsciousness to a place of acceptance. 

The author decides whether the character will move from the Crisis to acceptance only, or whether she will move on into enjoyment and ultimately, if she sets a goal for herself, to enthusiasm. 

After the Crisis, the character is now consciously even more aware of all the sensory details around her, more alive, more alert. She is absolutely present in what she does. The reader senses the alert, alive stillness within the character in the background of the action. 

Her earlier goal -- outer purpose -- expands into something much bigger now that she is empowered by consciousness. This new strength, insight, power fills her with enjoyment in the next step towards transformation. Added to that enjoyment comes an intensity and creative power beyond her imagining.

Once the character is awakened -- thanks to the Crisis, -- she moves toward her outer goal and her enjoyment turns into enthusiasm. From this moment on, the story's energy field vibrates. Tension builds. Behind each step the character takes, the story grows in intensity and energy. 

The character is more involved in each step (moment-by-moment action) as she steadily moves toward her goal than she is at arriving to her goal. Stress falls away. Confident she will arrive at her goal, in the knowing, she savors each moment in aliveness, joy, and power.

"[The character] will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target--and enjoying the journey." A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

The Climax is the "target" -- the moment when the character steps out of her ego and into pure alignment with the creative source. 

The Climax (the scene of highest energetic intensity much more so than that of the Crisis) is the place where the character is once again tested. In the Climax, the character is often confronted again by her greatest antagonist. Unlike earlier encounters, this time, however, the character is able to yield, walk around, embrace, or turn the opposing energy into a helpful one. Because of all the antagonists she has been confronted by and learned from along the way (the Middle = 1/2), at the Climax, the character is able to show us yet another way to live life in triumph. 

The reason the story can not continue for many pages moments or pages after the Climax is that when a goal is met the tension is gone. 

In the Resolution, the character surrenders to the return movement in a state of joy and the story ends. 

In a series, at the end of one story, the author promises a new wave of creative energy to come along with renewed enthusiasm.

(NOTE: I invite you to also consider the above elements of the Universal Story form as a template for your own individual writer's journey. In your knowing of the structure, you are able to bypass a Crisis yourself and rather, everyday write with a sense of consciousness more concerned with the next sentence than reaching the end, more concerned with sending out queries than attaining an agent, more concerned with your next story than reviews...)

Plot Question & Answer; Meaning of the Crisis

(NOTE: I often use this forum -- the Plot Whisperer -- to answer questions I receive from writers I've worked with. I know each writer's entire story and, since I do not believe in divulging writers' plots, I change the writer's question about her own specific story to the universal.

QUESTION:

At the Crisis point [between the protagonist and her father]... does she need to confront him any further at that point? Later in the Climax, [she shows -- in action -- the transformative power of her new-found wisdom]. MF

ANSWER: 

To confront her father at the Crisis, the dark night of the soul, the breakdown, the death of her innocence, she would be acting from her old personality, who she has always been. 

Rarely does the transformation come simultaneously in the same scene as the Crisis (if any of you have an example of this, please share...) 

The Crisis leads to transformation. 

Example: Rarely in real life do we change immediately upon being hit by a Crisis. Often, for us to change and transform our deeply entrenched habits, we need more than one Crisis -- the second being worse than the first. 

The first near-death experience affects you deeply and has the power to bring you to consciousness. Then, before you know it, you're "over it" and revert back to your old ways = your ego takes back its power over you and you descend back into unconscious behaviors and the cycle begins again.

Second near-death experience makes a deeper impression = true change begins.. sometimes. 

Sometimes, at this point, consciousness prevails over ego and transformation begins. 

Sometimes, we revert back to our old selves and the cycle starts again.

This is also true in stories.

MF, your protagonist does not need more than one wake-up call. She is young and smart and gets it. 

From the "hit" she gets at the Crisis, her transformation happens over several scenes (the End -- 1/4). Dissolving old habits and creating new, healthier ones takes practice. Often the new behavior shows itself only intermittently at first. True mastery comes over time and shows itself in all its glory at the Climax.

In other words, your protagonist is not ready to respond in a transformed way at the Crisis -- that is reserved for the Climax -- of which, yours is perfect.

Fall Line-up; Writers to Watch, Their Books to Read

WRITERS TO WATCH (books with a Fall 2009 release date by authors who have credited my plot support as helpful to their publishing success): 

Sounds Like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey (Penguin) 

Love in Translation by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga (St. Martin's) 

The House by Anjuelle Floyd (Neptune Publications)

The Lodge by David Brandin (iU -- Editor's Choice Award) 

(If I neglected to mention your book, please let me know and I'll add you to the list.)

The Zen of Plot Twists

Even knowing what I do about the Universal Story form and plot, or perhaps because of what I know about the Universal Story form and plot, I marvel all the more at the creative ways authors push at the edges, play with the unexpected, build excitement, and provide plot twists.

Creative writing is an art. Writings' artists -- writers -- balk at structure and rail against limitations, discipline and order. (I've written extensively in earlier posts about the biology and rebellious nature of writers.) All the better, because stories at the best are about struggle. We as writers, too, are at our best when, well-informed of the expectations, we use the confines themselves to provide more struggle, deeper and more profound even than the story on the page.

Within the boundaries and rhythm of the Universal Story form, the writer is free to do anything. That's where the magic happens. Intuitive wisdom steeped in our shared past serves as a guide.

Writers seem to fall into three categories:

#1 Writers who find the rhythm within 

themselves and are able to consistently tap 

into that rhythm. 

#2 Writers who learn the rhythm over 

time and study, their writing 

at first awkward

in their self-consciousness. 

After several books, 

they settle into the rhythm naturally.

#3 The pity are those writers 

who stumble into the rhythm by chance and, 

when faced with the impermanence 

of their ability in subsequent stories, 

these writers' egos prevent them from studying the craft, 

preferring instead to settle for the one-book wonder.

For those of you who fall into category #2, a couple of tips:

This, too, shall pass.

1) Lull the reader in the moment of the scene, all the time knowing that this, too, shall pass. Invite the character and the reader or viewer to sink into the moment-by-moment action through the use of authentic sensory details. Do everything in your power to help them attach viscerally to the momentary happiness, despondency, safety, fear, success, disappointment, and despair.

2) You, on the other hand, by honoring the fleetingness of every situation, are able to stay in balance and create the unexpected. As the character reels through one event, you as the writer create an effect that cuts even deeper and raises the stakes ever higher. It's best if / when you can pull a detail planted earlier in the story into the effect to bite the character in the butt (plot twist)(one way to keep track of all the authentic, thematically significant details is by tracking your scenes as you write them on a Scene Tracker.)

The character and reader react to the cause. You, on the other hand, use the transience of all forms and the inevitability of change to your advantage.

3) The character identifies with the cause and the effect. You, on the other hand, cannot afford to identify with your writing, with the scene, with the outcome or you begin to fear the loss of your writing, the scene, the outcome. If you do, you build up anxiety about the next scene and stay too long in the comfort zone. An appreciation that this, too, shall pass brings detachment and allows you access to an inner dimension of the Universal Story form. You become freed from any imprisonment.

This, too, will pass. Suddenly there is space around the writing of the next scene. Within that space, you enjoy writing without attachment and are able to explore thematic universals and the eternal. 

Space consciousness allow you to detach from the clutter of your words and research and fear and frustration to work in harmony, rather than resistance, with the rhythm. Within an alert inner stillness in the background as the writer, you can create dramatic action in the story in the foreground.

An understanding that this, too, will pass applies to the writer and to the writing, and the character and the scenes within the story. The Zen-like practice of detachment allows writers access to plenty of plot twists.

Writer's Journey Mirrors Hero's Journey

The middle of the Middle is the territory of the antagonists both for the writer and for the protagonist, too.

Antagonists, internal and exterior, sabotage the protagonist from reaching her goals. The very same antagonists plague the writer as well. 

In the Middle, the writer begins to doubt herself. Her way becomes murky. She looks to others for validation. Old beliefs of not being smart enough, good enough, or productive enough turn from a murmur to a roar. She rails against never receiving the credit she believes she is due. Accepts all the old criticisms she throws at herself. She fears. She falters. Her passion for her project wanes. The antagonists begin to win. 

Rise up out of the lower energy systems and move to the "third eye", the place of wisdom -- of intuition.

Listen, not with your mind or through your ego, but to that deeper voice. Make time for yourself. Partner with the process. Pull your protagonist and yourself through the slog and toward the Climax. See your way clear.

Writing Your Second Book

Yesterday's blog -- First Draft Twitters -- was in response to a writer who has written one very successful book and is now slogging her way through draft one of book two.

I've found that for most writers Book Two is at least as difficult to get written, if not more, than Book One.

Doubts about ability, luck, the depth of the creative well crop up more in draft one of book two.

Same advice applies for draft one of any book -- just get it down. Can't finesse that which isn't written.

First Draft Twitters

In my Twitter today I chose the wrong words.

To be sure there is absolutely no confusion = when I say "Keep going back to the key scenes", I do NOT mean go back to rewrite the key scenes. NEVER GO BACK AND REWRITE YOUR FIRST DRAFT UNTIL YOU WRITE ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE END. (I apologize for the caps -- my zeal to make my point sort of looks like I'm yelling. Not my intention. I apologize.)

What I meant to Twitter (or is it Tweet??), is that as you make your way through your first draft keep referring to the key scenes. Create a pre-plot visual with the loose ideas you have for the end of the Beginning scene (1/4 mark), the halfway point scene (1/2 mark), the Crisis scene (3/4 mark), the Climax scene (chapter or scene before the last one).

A pre-plotted visual aid like a Plot Planner can serve as your beacon. Put the visual up on your computer so you see it at all times.

Things will get choppy. If not before, then for sure somewhere in the middle of the Middle (1/2). Listen for the fog horn when overtaken by gloom and doom. Hug the coast and keep your eye on the light when the storms hit. You can survive this, I promise.

First draft is the generative draft. There is something truly magical about watching the words fill a page, a scene, a chapter, the book = watching something come out of nothing but a hit of inspiration.

We muck it up by trying to control the uncontrollable.

The first draft is often filled with angst and uncertainty, loneliness and insecurity. It doesn't have to be. Keep your head down and keep faith in yourself and the creative process, and keep writing.

When doubts send you sprialing off track, keep coming back to the key scenes. Write your way toward them one by one. Your job now is to get the inspiration down on paper. There will be plenty of time for fear and doubt later. Wait until you read the first draft for the first time. Moments of brilliance drown in the "vomit". Uncertainty and angst are sure to strike again.

About the loneliness, heck, a writer's life is lonely, but only so long as we look outside ourselves and beyond the inspiration for validation.

One thing I can promise you if you sign up for this writers life for real... Your life will be fraught with uncertainty and angst so long as you attach yourself to the process. Separate yourself / your ego from your task and you'll be fine. Trust the process. Magic happens.

Backstory / Flashbacks

Watch your delivery of backstory ~ the story of what (in the past) made the characters 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.)

Where the Wild Things Are

Used Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak with a group of 15 8 - 10 year old kids. 7 kids opted for private secretaries made up of teen volunteers and other Friends of the Library board members. One of the seven needed brainstorming support only. The other six benefitted from someone else performing the fine motor skills necessary to actually write the story down on paper. Whether they wrote the story themselves or used the help of another, all the kids finished stories in 2 1/2 hours which will now be made into a book by a local publisher for the kids and local library.

Where the Wild Things Are is a simplistic example of the Universal Story form (the paradox of life = that which is simple/small is actually huge. That which is big is actually not much at all.)

The Beginning (1/4) introduces Max, establishes his goal = to be a wild thing, shows his flaw = stubborn and belligerent, and strength = enormous imagination. 

The End of the Beginning (page twelve of 37 pages) occurs when his bedroom is no longer a bedroom but a forest. 

The Middle (1/2) begins at the precise moment Max undertakes his journey. In the Middle, Max encounters antagonists = dragon of the sea, rough water, Wild Things. The entire middle (6 pages), has no text and shows the unusual, exotic world in which Max now resides = Wild Things making wild rumpus.

Crisis ensues ((3/4 mark = page 29) when Max turns lonely and longs to be where someone loves him best of all.

The End (1/4) begins when he smells good things to eat from far across the world. Though his new friends beg him not to leave, off Max sails.

The Climax comes one page before the end of the book when he is able to shed his wolf suit (metaphor for his wildness) and settle down enough to eat his dinner (something he was completely unable to do at the beginning of the story. He needed to go through everything he does in order to gain the skills necessary to appreciate his ordinary world.)

Simple? Yes. Timeless? The book has lasted for 46 years and the movie is soon to be released.

Sometimes we as writers make things too hard. This simple story is about character transformation which is the basis for every great story. Analyze the plot and structure of your story with this in mind. Hope it helps simplify the underpinnings so you can work your magic in the details.

Universal Story Form and Plot

About a half an hour into her first plot consultation, the writer at the other end of the telephone settles into the process. I know something of her initial nervousness ~ the fear of not being good enough, not having done enough prep work, not being smart enough to grasp what is required. 

In anticipation of this, I jump right in, pulling the writer along with me. 

My immediate impression? She is drowning in ideas and plot lines. Her story incorporates suspense and romance, some mystery and lots of thematic issues. Before she goes all the way under, I catch her hand. 

Once I determine that the main plot thread for her project is mystery, I ask her to briefly recount all the scenes that advance that plot line. While she does that, I plot her scenes out on a Plot Planner for her individual project (which I mail the next day). Scene by scene, the weight of all those loose ends, straining to strangle her, lift.

As soon as we have the mystery plot line in place, it is easy to see the underlying structure of her story. And, lo and behold, the three most important scenes ~ the end of the beginning scene, the crisis, and the climax ~ were there and right where they ought to be. Ah, the magic of writing. This mystery writer's sense of relief is palpatable over the telephone. 

Of course, she still has lots of work to do, but this reveal reinforces my conviction that the answers are always right there in our stories. Finding them is the job of the writer (and sometimes along with the help of the plot whisperer).

When you're drowning in plotlines, blind from too many words, lost in your story and pulling your hair out, stop and take a breath. Then get out an oversized piece of paper and create a Plot Planner for yourself. Start with one plot thread. Hang it on the wall. Stand back and look. See if you don't feel a sense of relief wash over you, too.

Plot Your Writing Career: Traditional versus Self-Publishing

A writer who is "sick of agents" and wants to take back control over her own life considers going the self-publishing route. Following is my "take" on the subject.

Writing a book is vastly different than publishing a book. Of the strengths and skills that make for a terrific writer zero prove much help when it comes to self-publishing. Yes, both writing and self-publishing involve hard work. But, writing is creative, artistic, and demands solitude. Publishing is numbers, business, and demands interaction.

Score 1 for Traditional Publishing

To make the leap from writer to self-publisher, what once is your "baby", the project you spend more time with than your own family, what you dream about day and night becomes a "product" for the marketplace. 

Tied

Want to learn the publishing business from the ground up? Then, yes, give self-publishing a whirl. But, get ready to learn everything you can about publicity, distribution, marketing, promoting, oh, yes, and since you are only as good as your last book, make sure you schedule time to write your next book, too.

Score 1 for Self-Publishing

Just because you write a memoir, novel, screenplay, short story, non-fiction book does not mean that anyone will FIND your work. 

Nielsen Books reports that sales in the UK were up 4.4% with 120,000 books published in 2008 over 2007. Bowker reports that book sales in US were down 3.2% with 275,000 books released in 2008 over 2007, but that print on demand and short-run books were up 132% of 123,000 titles produced. 

My point? How is your book going to stand out from all those 500,000 books, more or less, that will come out the same year yours does?

Whether you self-publish or are published by a big New York house, you have to help the book grow "legs", find a readership. Yes, some authors are so big that they do not have to worry about such matters, but they are the exception. Yes, you, too, may be the exception, but self-publishing teaches you about sales. After all, whether self-published or traditional, you only get paid on the # of books sold.

Tied

On a personal note:

Five years ago, too impatient to go the traditional route of New York, I formed Illusion Press, and published Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple. Illusion Press seemed an appropriate name for the unreal quality of the entire process from inspiration to publication. Five months and the book was in my hands.

What started as a short print-run for my students morphed into BBP. Today, I continue to invite writers to experience the freedom of structure. For most writers, the most difficult part of the writing process is the inability to see the forest for the trees. Blockbuster Plots for Writers dedicates itself to the structure of plot and has helped thousands of novelists, memoirists, and creative non-fiction writers master this elusive craft.

Miracles happen.

Score 1 for Self-Publishing

The real difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing?

Traditional publishers pays you $$ up front. 

Self-publishing, you put the $$ up yourself.

Plot for a Non-fiction, How-to Book

Plot as a noun is what happens in a story. More specifically, the plot of a story is the dramatic action that transforms the main character and provides meaning. 

Plot as a verb is both to represent the plot of a story on a graph and connect the scenes (Plot Planner) and / or to formulate a plan with purpose.

For fiction writers and memoirists, I work with plot as both a noun and often as a verb, too. The writer tells me the scenes and/or ideas they have for their story. I assess their piece on both the plot and structural level either by plotting out the scenes on a Plot Planner or in the form of notes. I also offer guidance toward coherence and the continuity of their piece.

When I work with writers on a non-fiction project, I work only with plot as a verb = I help the writer formulate a plan with purpose.

"How-to" books are the biggest selling non-fiction books on the market today. More and more people, be they writers or not, are finding that their expertise can be turned into a book and sold either in the traditional form = a New York publishing house or in the more current form = as an eBook on the Internet.

The latest project involves a writer who knows more about her field -- a cutting edge, up and coming phenomenon -- than anyone else I have ever met. Her enthusiasm and knowledge is so contagious, I have to consciously direct myself to keep on task for her project when what I really want to do is pump her for information about all my personal ideas and projects and dreams!

Conflict of interest? Perhaps, but this writer, for all her passion and knowledge, desperately needs help to keep on track. In order for her to complete her book, which has the potential to be a best-seller both in the traditional route and the more current form, she knows herself well enough to know she needs help.

She is eager. She knows how powerful the final product can / will be. However, the instant she thinks about the book as a whole, she breaks down, becomes overwhelmed, and quits. 

Organization and accountability are the keys to her success. 

She craves discipline. Someone to take her by the hand and walk her through the process step-by-step. She demands blinders to put on. Given specific homework. My job is to break down the whole into manageable parts. I feel incredibly honored to be chosen as her guide...

A New World Order

In the 60s, Curtis Mayfield sings of a new world order, a change of mind for the whole human race. Marie Elena Gaspari dances to it in the 90s. The old world order falling away.

Isn't that what the Universal Story form is really all about? Okay, go ahead. Roll your eyes. But stick with me here. 

The old world order (ordinary world) falls away at the 1/4 mark. The story launches into a new world order (exotic world of the antagonists / the Middle 1/2).

Antagonists from each of the Five Standard Antagonists serve to trip up the protagonist on her way toward her life goals. Rather than break down the secondary characters into the traditional archetypes of mentor, ally, etc, I focus here on the concept of all characters serving as antagonists because, for the most part, ultimately all the characters test, hold back, interfere with the protagonist achieving her goals. Some secondary characters may shapeshift from ally to antagonist and back, but nearly all the characters challenge the protagonist in one way or the other. 

Each of the characters hold up a mirror for the protagonist to better see herself. Yes, even the antagonists. Especially the antagonists.

I am a devout student of plot, the elements of great fiction, the Universal Story form, Character, Action, and Theme. I also am a devotee of physics / the study of energy. Forgive me when I interchange the two. 

The energy of a story pretty much ebbs and flow like the energy of our lives. It takes until the Crisis (3/4 mark) before the protagonist comes to understand what the antagonists represent in her life. For us? Sometimes, it takes until the very end of our lives before we finally understand what the antagonists in our own lives really represent to us and about ourselves. 

In the end, the character and, in turn, we come to understand that the antagonists, be they someone else, society at large, nature, machines, time, ego, is nothing more than a reflection of us giving up our own individual power to what we perceive as having some sort of authority over our lives.

In real life, we can play the victim. 

Not possible in stories. No matter how insecure the protagonist may act, or fearful, no matter how small they play their parts, how much power they relinquish, how poor, how weak, the protagonist in a story never allows herself to be victimized, at least not for long. Ever. 

An interesting message.

The Crisis causes the protagonist to rethink life as she has always known it and earns the protagonist a gift, a special skill, consciousness, enlightenment (thanks to the very antagonists who caused her the most grief).

In the End (1/4)(old), the protagonist goes back to the Beginning (now new). What she brings back ultimately, because of her transformation, also transforms and allows for a new world order to emerge. 

This is the work of heroes and heroines in stories... and of common folk, like you and me...

The Downside of Critique Groups

Writers benefit from critique groups in a multitude of ways as writers will learn when my friend Becky Levine's new book -- The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide -- is released by Writers Digest early next year.

Personally, I've found critique groups a helpful place to:

• Connect with like-minded people
  
• Learn more about my own individual writing strengths and weaknesses, both from feedback on my own pieces and just as dramatically, if not more so, from giving feedback to others in the group about their own individual pieces
  
• Improve at my craft
  
• Brainstorm
  
• And more...
  

However... I continue to believe for many writers, DO NOT SHOW YOUR FIRST DRAFT TO ANYONE.

This practice can prove detrimental in that many groups require that everyone submit. Still, I'm sticking to my belief.

Why? Because for most writers getting the first draft down on paper is like trying to capture the fragile thread of a dream. Whether you pre-plot or write by the seat of your pants, this generative stage comes primarily from the right side of your brain (for an absolutely terrific book about this, check out the non-fiction New York Times bestseller: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.)

Yes, the two hemispheres are "neuronally integrated" and "two complementary halves of a whole rather than as two individual entities or identities." However, each side does process information in uniquely different ways.

For those writers with a preference for the right hemisphere and who excel at seeing the big picture and the "congruity of the overall expression", to bring in too much feedback, too early in a "linear form of creating sentences and paragraphs that convey very complex messages" (left hemispheric strength) can throw the writer into a tailspin and actually derail their progress.

Also, for most, with feedback too early, the writer tends to get ensnared in the lethal cycle of Going-back-to-the-Beginning Syndrome. Rather than forge ahead all the way to the end, writers attempt to please everyone in their critique group by going back over the critiqued information over and over and over again. Thus, a project that should take months, ends up taking years.

I feel like I'm ranting again, but I've just had two writers thrust into this position and it pains me.

We, as writers, bring enough of our own insecurities to the process. It takes discipline to shut out the inner critic during the first draft. Why allow in a group of critics (because isn't that what a critique group is made up of??? Supportive and helpful, but... According to thefreedictionary.com, critique has been used "to review or discuss critically" since the 18th century, and used to be a neutral verb between praise and censure, but is now mainly used in a negative sense).

I'm not saying that critique groups are negative, if so, run. But, too much analytical input too early can actually shut down the muse and you end up writing for your critique group rather than for that magical realm of the creative process itself...

Once you have written all the way to the end, especially speaking = the Climax, and begin your rewrite (and only then), get all the feedback you can from trusted sources.

• Find yourself a critique group that excels in both praise and censure.
• Listen carefully.
  
• Stay open.
  
• Have fun...
  

Literary Fiction and Plot

A writer requests help for her character-driven, literary masterpiece and then spends our time together moaning fears of how the use of plot corrupts her literary pursuit. She worries what the professors in her graduate program will say.

Having just finished reading two award-winning literary novels: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and Run by Ann Patchett in quick succession, I wonder how many literary novels the writer in question has read. She is confused about what plot really is and how useful to any writing endeavor.

In the Elegance of the Hedgehog, not only do the two main characters move from living in their head to their hearts at the arrival of a mysterious stranger, the book finally develops a plot and becomes an actual page-turning story. And, it is precisely then, when the two character's open their hearts and begin to express actual feelings beyond spite and bitterness and resentment and judgement of others and look inward to the part they themselves play in creating their own misery that the reader in turn begins to emotionally connect to the characters and, finally, care desperately about what happens to them.

The publisher of Run, Jonathan Burnham of HaprerCollins, says of the New York Times bestseller, "The story, although it's intricately plotted, is really driven by the characters." (NOTE: isn't all great fiction???) Yes, we love the characters Ann Patchett breathes life onto the page. But, what makes the book impossible to put down is due to her amazing plotting skills (she is the mistress of plot twists).

When did plot get such a bad name in literary circles? Why the intense fear that creative writing withers and dies within plot and structure?

First Draft versus Rewrites

I twittered recently about how at first writers often give their full attention to one plotline alone. Subsequent rewrites, we are able to multitask.

The plot line that first comes to a writer generally reflects the writer's strength and preference.

This particular writer gives great thought to the action plot line -- outer plot -- and to the romantic plot line -- romance plot (not necessary in every book, though this particular writer is a romance writer, so... Also, because romance fiction is selling well despite the economic downturn, seems to make sense to include some romance??)

Same writer struggles with the character plot line -- inner plot. She balks at filling out the character profile as it applies to the character traits and has done little to explore the protagonist's inner life. Thus, the character shows no transformation in the end. The writer especially resists coming up a flaw -- "I've never been any good at that."

Quick assessment of the key scenes:

1) Launch
2) End of the Beginning
3) Halfway point
4) Crisis
5) Climax
6) Resolution

The scenes themselves point to the character flaw.

As soon as we know the flaw, it is possible to determine how to rewrite each of the key scenes (and all the other ones, too), at least in relationship to the inner plot -- the character emotional development plot line.

**Beginning (1/4):
Introduce the flaw

**Middle (1/2):
Deepen the readers' understanding all the different ways the flaw is revealed. Expand upon all the ways her basic flaw sabotages her from achieving her long-term goals. Yes, the Middle (1/2) is the territory of the antagonists and of the exotic or unusual world, but both of those elements serve to underline the flaw in no uncertain terms. Antagonists serve to challenge the protagonist, but generally speaking our inner issues and beliefs directly influence the growth and development of the flaw and that flaw does more to sabotage us than any external source. (Can't help it, the plot work I do gives me valuable insight into not only character's behavior but our behavior as writers, as well.)

**End (1/4): Shows the character becoming conscious of flaw and the steps she take to remake herself = character transformation.

First Draft Blues

Today's post is similar to the last post as far as information goes but revolves around one specific writer's dilemma (2-hour plot consultation occurred earlier in the year). Thought it might be helpful to others.

Question: 

...Wishing you a wonderful summer. 

It`s like hell in Southern Norway, a three week heatwave is just about to

drain all energy from nearly  everybody, but I guess we`ll survive. Hope all

is well with you.

I`m having trouble finishing my book, don`t know how to continue to the end.

It may be better as soon as the heat goes, hope so. I look at your scene

tracker every day, again and again and I see how clever you are to grip the

meaning and help writers like myself. But now?  The more I read it the worst

it get. Maybe I should get one hour with you if it get any worse?

Answer:

I'm sorry about your weather. I do wonder how much the heat is contributing to and influencing your lack of  

progress. I send you thoughts of a cool and calming air floating  

through your mind and bringing peace, both with the temperature, but  

mostly with your story.

Don't forget: the first draft is supposed to be like "vomit-on-the- 

page" -- horrible, embarrassing, messy, infantile, etc....

No matter how terrible, once you have a first draft, you are then  

able to refine, hone-in, smooth out, bring meaning and beauty to your  

work. A first draft is critical both for the final product, but also  

for you to know you have finished what you started (though there will  

obviously still be lots of work to do).

You are being tested. Writing to the end is not for the faint- 

hearted. I know you can do it!!!!

I'm always available for another hour. I'm more than happy to get you  

back on track. See how you feel and let me know.

Three links you may like to read:

1) my blog speaks a bit about what you are going through -- http:// 

plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/

2) the page to sign-up for another consultation, if you so decide --  

http://www.blockbusterplots.com/consult/ongoing.html

3) my 89 year-old Swedish-born mother's blog I thought you might get  

a kick out of reading -- http://svensto.blogspot.com/

I believe in you!!! Keep at it......

Response:

Thank you so much.  What you said about the first draft made it so much

better for me. I feel now that I can finish, and then I start to refine and

change all that awful stuff.  My God, this is just so wonderful, I must have

been blind dumb and deaf to not think about that. You really put it into

place for me dear angel. Gosh!!! 

I`ll let you know how I progress, and you are so right about that throw up

feeling when I read it and never thougt of it as my first draft.

Hallelujah!!  And if I get stuck again I`ll call out loud and clear. 

Lokking forward to read your mothers blog, thank you.

The terrible heat is gone and I pray to heaven it does not come back.  Last night

thunder and lightening and lots of rain, wonderful.

And oh, should I print out my first draft before I start anew, or work on

what I have rigt here on my computer. How do others do it and what do you

think is best?  Sorry to bother you so much, hope you forgive me for that.

Thanks a thousand times for your belief in me, I know you mean it and I`ll

work all I can and remember your good advice, that first draft is blah....

Ps. I just have to tell yoy, that nobody here talk about first drafts, but I

guess they write more than one, but never tells about it.  You sort of have

to help yourself so I`m happy I found you, thanks again.

(NOTE: I'll address her question about rewrites in the next post...)

Starting a Story Too Early

Remember, just because you write a scene does not mean the scene belongs in your story. 

We often write twice as many scenes as will ultimately end up in the finished novel, memoir, short story, screenplay. 

Still, every single word and line and scene you write is invaluable to you as a writer because in writing, you:

• Expand your writing skills
  
• Deepen your writer's voice
  

And most of all, the more scenes you write, the more you learn about: 

• The characters in your story

No writing you do is a waste of time. Quite the opposite. However, what separates a good writer from a truly great writer is the ability to assess what stays in and, more, what needs to be cut. 

The Scene Tracker is one way to help writers decide whether a scene is working hard enough to warrant staying in the piece and it gives clues as to how to expand weak scenes and make all your scenes truly great. 

Whatever method you use to help you determine what stays in your manuscript and what needs to be cut, do not worry about this in the first couple of drafts. 

The #1 defining skill needed to ultimately finish a story is the ability to write the story all the way through to the end. Yeah, I hear you -- duh. But, you might be surprised to learn how many "want-to-be" writers never accomplish that. They never finish even a first -- what I call "vomit-on-the-page" -- draft, much less the finished, polished draft. That is why I call them "want-to-be" writers. Before you can truly call yourself a writer, you have to finish what you start. I cringe writing that because I can hear the objections. In this blog, I speak to writers who hold the dream of one day being published. 

First, finish one draft all the way through. Even write a couple of drafts. After that and before writing more, begin evaluating:

• What works in your story?
  
• What does not work?
  
• Why?
  
• What to do about that which does not contribute to the whole = cut or expand?
  

Pacing Your Plot

The energy of a story rises and falls in a somewhat predictable nature based on the Universal Story Form.  Consider, therefore, the placement of your scenes that carry the highest emotional impact. 

The scenes in the Beginning (1/4) have less conflict, tension, and suspense than do the scenes that come in the End (final 1/4). Think of story as energy rising ever higher to each of the major turning points (End of the Beginning scene, Halfway point scene, Crisis, Climax) and often falling after each of those turning points only to rise again to the next major scene.

A writer places a high emotional impact scene in the Beginning which her critique group criticizes as not working where it is. In reaction to the feedback, the writer cuts the scene all together. However, when that same scene is moved to after the Crisis and on the ascent to the Climax, the scene works wonderfully on a multitude of levels. The scene centers around a natural disaster that turns out to be the perfect metaphor for the swirling emotions the protagonist feels after confronted with the dark night of the soul scene at the Crisis. 

During the consultation, I was again struck by how it's all always right there in front of us and how it's up to us as writers to take the scenes that come through the miraculous thing called the muse or inspiration and reorder them to craft the perfect story.

Mystery and Romance Genres

In filling out the standard Character Emotional Plot Information (see **below), writers who write in the mystery genre invariably list the character goal as solving the mystery. Writers who write in the romance genre invariable list the character goal as finding love or to get the guy. This is fine.

However, to create more complexity to your plot, you may want to give the protagonist an additional goal(s) as well. 

The protagonist has a life, and thus, goal, before the mystery hits or before the love interest arrives on scene. In other words, the protagonist has a goal before the story itself begins. Identify that goal and you create an additional plot line in the story. Create a personal goal that conflicts with the solving of the mystery goal or the getting the guy = added drama. 

**Character Emotional Plot Information

1. What is this character's goal?

2. What stands in the way of the character achieving his/her goal?

3. What does the character stand to lose if he/she does not achieve his/her goal?

4. What is the character's flaw or greatest fault?

5. What is the character's greatest strength?

6. What does the character hate?

7. What does the character love?

8. What is the character's greatest fear?

9. What is the character's dream?

10. What is the character's secret?

Best Websites for Writers by Writer's Digest

Writer's Digest Magazine recently award Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers as one of 101 Best Websites for Writers in 2009.

Whittled down from 2,700 nominations, this year -- the 11th -- the list of 101 Best Websites for Writers is divided into eight sections. 

That Plot Whisperer fit in "Publishing Resources" makes me consider the blog differently than I have in the past. 

Plot Whisperer is the blog for Blockbuster Plots for Writers. As such, it started as a place for writers to read weekly updated tips about how to create plot and find ways out of some of the plot (plot being defined in terms of character, action, and theme) and structure pitfalls that confront all writers when creating novels, screenplays, musicals, memoirs, short stories, music videos. 

Plot Whisperer is a blog. As such, I often poll other bloggers on their "take" of the writing process. I was surprised at how blasé many bloggers are to the idea of plot and planning and rewriting and revisions. I slowly have come to understand that blogging is a vastly different forum than the writing those writers do who come to me for plot consultations and help.

Based on writers and bloggers feedback and now this award, I understand that I speak best to writers who have been published and want to be again, and those who want their work published for the first time -- whether a blatant desire or a secret kept even from themselves. 

To be published, a story has to speak on a multitude of levels to the reader as much, if not more, as to the writer herself. 

Thank you Writers Digest both for this prestigious honor and for helping me hone in on what exactly I do offer. 

And thanks to each of you who follow this blog; offer your comments, questions and support; have signed up for the free monthly Plot Tips eZine; and nominated this blog for this wonderful award and recognition. 

You keep Plot Whisperer alive to support writers everywhere make their dreams come true.

But Am I Good Enough?

Though not often spoken aloud, I hear the fear whispered in many of the plot consultations I provide to writers. 

I know answering a question with a question is not always helpful, but the query begs a list of qualifiers:

Are you good enough for what?

Good enough to make time for your writing?

Good enough to put the right words together to evoke just the right emotion?

Good enough to come up with a compelling plot, engaging characters, a deeper meaning?

Good enough to finish what you started?

Good enough to find the right agents to query, land an agent, land a publisher?

Good enough to deserve a fair advance or, better, a great one?

Good enough for the story to garner good / great reviews?

Good enough to find a readership, be invited to the Oprah show, make a best seller list?

Good enough to make money with your writing, earn a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize?

Good enough to write another story?

Good enough to finish that story?

The question speaks to a fear buried much deeper than the words themselves.  

Writing, like every other endeavor, is an outer activity which affords the opportunity to learn more about your inner self. As most of you know, in my down-time when not consulting with writers on their plots, I use what I know about plot and the universal story form to delve deeper than the words themselves. 

At that level, the question indicates that the writer is becoming overwhelmed by the external demands of writing, enough so, she is losing her passion for the writing itself. 

Rather than carry the pain of all the hundreds of things that can interfere with your writing life, focus your attention instead on the one thing you can do right now in this moment. 

Trust that if you are called to write there is a reason for it.

Write...

Formatting for Submission

Same writer as in the previous post has finished her outline, synopsis, and bio, and her entire book has been edited and is now ready to go out to interested agents.

In making sure her attachments can be opened -- some problems arose earlier because instead of word doc files, she had gif files and docx files I could not open -- this time I could open. When I did, I caught a couple of issues which I addressed in an email, a portion of which I include here:

Comments on formatting (these are no biggies, but I believe industry standards???):

1) Appears you've justified both margins, meaning the words begin and end on each line at the same place. It's best if the right margin is more ragged-looking and you only justify the left.

2) You've place the page numbers on the bottom right. "Should" be at the top right.

In sending these comments to you, I can hear a short story friend rant about picky rules when submitting to literary contests. She's highly creative, bigger-than-life writer, as I imagine you to be. She rails against such "left-brain" sort of rules as I imagine you do. I do, too. Most of us do except those lucky ones who like organization and order and rules...

These submission guidelines are yet another challenge -- antagonist -- writers must overcome. Yes, there are those writers who are picked up who break all the rules. They are the exception. Yes, you, too, can be an exception, but if you can, why not format your submission in such a way that all the agent notices is the writing.......

P.S. -- Yes, I am quite aware that this is not a "plot" issue. Yet, I am confident that most of you reading this blog will, if you haven't already, one day hit this phase in your writing life -- the submission process -- and may benefit. That's my hope anyway...

The Writers Submission Process

One of my favorite writers recently attended at a meet-the-agents day in NYC where she pitched her latest writing project to a slew of agents. She returned home with a headache and a long list of interested agents. Now that the excitement and nervous energy is abated, she's left with burn-out and overwhelm.

Following is my sympathetic response to her experience.

...as for your burn-out. I'm not surprised. All that interfacing and the nervous energy from all the writers around you. Congratulations for taking time to rest and take care of yourself.

Once you are rested comes the tedium of sending out all the different packets --not the easiest thing for any of us, but especially difficult for right-brained, highly creative types such as yourself. You just have to put your head down and do it, one submission at a time.

The submission process is a brutal business fraught with more rejection that one person should have to endure. However, it's a part of the life we have chosen and one we have to toughen up for. 

There are agents who will love what you've written -- they are the ones you're looking for. 

Rejections from the others have to be brushed off without the sting allowed to pierce your body. These agents are those who either have just signed on a new writer and don't want to take on another, promised to clear their desk today and send out a sweeping stack of form rejection letters. Others are in a bad mood and take it out on the stacks of awaiting submissions. And the list goes on... 

There are as many reasons for rejections as there are agents and writers, Many, many, many of the rejections have absolutely nothing to do with your project at all.

Plotting the Climax of Your Story

In the End -- the final 1/4 of the entire page or scene count, the protagonist still has foes to confront and overcome. Only now, she is armed with a new understanding of herself. For the first time, her goal is within reach.

The Climax at the end serves as the light at the end of the tunnel. The protagonist moves toward the light -- one step forward toward the ultimate transformation, three steps back, a fight for a couple of steps, being beat backwards.

The Climax is the crowning glory of the entire project. The Climax is where protagonist "shows" in scene her acting in a transformed way -- in a way she could not have acted in any other part of the story because she first needed to experience everything she does in the book to get to the final stage.

The Climax spotlights the character in full transformation demonstrating the necessary new skill or personality, gift or action.

Ask yourself what scene will most dramatically show her demonstrating her transformed self?

Writing Inspiration

Daily, I gain strength from a quote of Goethe's: 

"What you can do or dream you can, begin it

Boldness has genius power and magic in it." 

He also said, 

"It is almost impossible in the present day to find a situation which is thoroughly new. 

Only the matter of looking at it can be new, and the art of treating it and representing it." 

 

Your unique voice comes from how you: 

• Look at your story
• Treat your story
  
• Choose to represent your story 

Listen for it. 

Hone it. 

Trust the process.

 

Creating Curiosity

Writers, especially beginning writers, often find themselves wanting to blurt out everything up front. This often shows up as a flashback early on in the story to show the back story or event that first sent the protagonist off kilter. 

Don't.....

Keep in mind throughout to pace the info you share with the reader. In each scene, only put in as much as is needed to inform that particular scene (this can include foreshadowing clues of what is to come, but don't overload the scenes.) Invite the reader in slowly, but with a bang. Keep curiosity high = creates a page-turner book!

Don't tease the reader, but don't give them everything. Allude to problems, tension, conflict, who the character truly is, but hold back from revealing the details. Curiosity is one of the most powerful ways to pull the reader deeper into the story. 

Hold off with flashback and even memories, if you can get away with doing so, until the Middle (1/2). 

Also, be careful how many characters you introduce at a time. Introduce slowly and keep names to a minimum -- make sure we meet the protagonist first and get a clear idea who she is and that this is her story before moving on to the secondary characters. 

Character Transformation

The moment the protagonist is hit with the decision whether to change or remain the same either comes at the:

• 1/2 way point (based on the page or scene count) or
• 3/4 mark or the Crisis 

In some stories, the character emotional development plot line (CED) "wake-up call" occurs at the 1/2 way point. 

In other stories, the CED plot hits simultaneously with the dramatic action (DA) plot line at the 3/4 mark or the Crisis, the moment of greatest energetic impact in the story so far .

Either way, after the Crisis, the character is left to decide whether to take the hit to heart or not.

If the character understands the part she plays in her inability to achieve her long term goals and is willing to change, thus begins her conscious move toward transformation.

Keep in mind this forward movement is not smooth.

The best way I can explain how this path unfolds is to use an example from my life before I started writing and helping other writers develop the plot and structure of their stories. 

Years ago I had a clinic for kids with speech, language, and learning disabilities. When working with kids to master a new skill, I found they generally pass through three distinct stages:

1) Emergence -- in other words, the "new" behavior reveals itself only intermittently and when the child is consciously aware and trying. However, in play and when the child is not concentrating, the predominate behavior continues to be the "old" way.

This is also true of the protagonist after they decide to banish their inappropriate behavior or try to change a deeply entrenched negative habit. 

2) Regression -- in most cases, when the "new" behavior becomes more and more habituated, the time come when the child slides back to the "old" behavior. This set-back can be caused by stress or change. However, often, it is merely a time when the "old" behavior gives one last great gasp in its attempt to hold the child back. 

If the CED plot line Crisis hits at the 1/2 way point, then the regression or set-back takes place at the 3/4 mark and usually has a direct influence on the DA Crisis. If the CED plot line crisis hits at the Crisis at the 3/4 mark then the regression will come closer to the Climax at the end.

3) Mastery -- most of us do not come to mastery over an old habit without some struggle. Eventually, if effort is put forth and the "new" behavior is consciously worked on, mastery will come. Parents do not always understand this. They expect that with consciousness of how to perform the "new" behavior mastery is automatic. In the classroom, I often found that teachers shared the same expectations. Kids are tested on the information at a mastery level rather than as an emerging behavior 1st and mastery over time.

Lots of writers I work with operate under the same assumption. The Crisis hits. The protagonist's eyes are open as to how their flaw interferes with them attaining their life goal. Automatic mastery. Wrong!

This is almost never the case in real life or in stories. Try it yourself. Decide to change a behavior that has been habituated over time. See how many mistakes you make and revert back to the "old" behavior before you find yourself at a mastery level.

Mastery for the protagonist is shown in all its glory at the Climax at the end of the book where the character shows their true and ultimate transformation.

Cause and Effect / Character Emotion

Recent plot consultation:

Literary Fiction

Many POVs

Question:
Does my story have too many scenes?

Answer:

(We did not get to the end of his story during our session so I cannot answer the question.)

My comment however is to do what you can to make the scenes feel linked.

The tighter the story, the easier for the reader to follow. Every element of every scene contributes to the scene that follows and to the overall story itself.

Link scenes through the use of:

• Cause and effect
  
• The transitions you create using:

Thematic significance of the overall story
Similar themes in the scenes to be linked 
Similar authentic details in scenes to be linked

Also, be clear about the structure you're going for and be consistent. This is especially true for the POV. Each time there is a change in POV, you risk the reader putting down the book. 

We connect to one character and resist and resent leaving that POV. Moving into another can be off-putting. 

Be careful and make sure the first line in every POV switch is compelling in order to pull the reader immediately into the next character and not feel like they are missing the character they were just connected to.

Humor Writing / Character Consistency

Humor writing continues to be in great demand = as always, comic relief keeps the darkness at bay.

Writers with the gift or innate talent to write funny lines make it look easy. It's not. As with most aspects of writing, humor writing can be taught: timing, subject matter, and how to keep from crossing over to satire. With humor writing, the reader laughs along with the characters. Satire holds human folly and vice up to scorn, derision, or ridicule and causes the reader to laugh at the characters or at least at the characters' action.

Good humor writing can blur aspects of character development, dramatic action, and even thematic significance when going for a laugh. A character can even act "out of character," if doing so is funny and furthers the story.

In the end, however, humor writing like every other genre in that the story at its core is still about the protagonist's transformation. Humor writers, like all writers, benefit from plotting out in logical and meaningful character change step-by-step to the ultimate transformation that drives the Climax. The character who delivers the punch line at the end of the story behaves differently at the Climax than the character we're introduced to in the Beginning. At its deepest level, that change is what the story is about.

At the Climax, the protagonist faces her biggest fear, deadliest antagonists, most taxing test, deepest prejudice. This is the moment the entire story has been steadily marching toward.

After the Climax, the energy of the story immediately drops. In the Resolution, the character acts in her newly transformed way. This reinforces that her new skills are fully integrated in her new life. The character, now surrounded by allies, has nothing to fear. Here, at the end, she demonstrates her new behavior with ease and great humor.

Especially for Memoir Writers

Anxious to leave a legacy, more and more baby boomers are turning to writing their memoirs or the next Great American Novel. For some, the story reveals itself effortlessly. Others have difficulty raising the veil for clarity. In the second case, I often find the problem lies in having lived a vast and rich life. What to put in and what to leave out becomes the dilemma.

In order to bring a story to fullness, a writer searches for the underlying sttucture that will best demonstrate some sort of meaning. As far as I'm concerned, there are three ways to do this.

1) Write what you are drawn to write and see what you end up with
2) Pre-plot scenes and ideas on the Universal Story form, alert for the moments that could constitute a major Crisis which in turn creates a jumping off place for the crowning glory of the work ~ the Climax.
3) Write what you are drawn to write and, at the same time, plot out scenes and ideas, keeping in mind the Universal Story form.

A scene does not warrant staying in a story merely because "it happened that way."

A good writer also knows that in order for a certain passage or sentence or character or plot turn to be in a story is not because of the beauty of the writing or the cleverness in the plotting or the depth of the characters, although these things are critical in captivating the reader. A good writer knows that each line and each element in each and every scene belongs there because it has a definite purpose in providing an overall meaning to the piece.

The only scenes that belong in a piece are the ones that best show how a character responds to the challenges, conflicts, tension, and suspense in one's own life as they move closer to transformation, and that contribute to the overall meaning of the story.

One Plot Strand Stronger than Another

As an addendum to Plot or No Plot, I'd like to clarify the Plotless...

When I say literary novels are plotless, what I mean is that the Character Emotional Development plot-line is at the fore and drives the story. Dramatic Action is present, though generally as a prop more than a plot. Thematic Significance makes the entire story worth reading. And... the Universal Story Form is always flawlessly present.

Plot or No Plot

I recently perused the stacks for reading material with several writer friends. One of them picked up a book and exclaimed, "Does it have a plot? I'm not reading one more book without a plot!"

When I first started teaching plot to writers more than six years ago and then writing about plot extensively, plot was little talked about. I remember searching for plot in the index of several of the most popular writing books at the time and only one had even a page dedicated to the subject. 

Now, the taboo has been lifted and plot seems to be the "it" element most discussed in writing circles. 

And then there is literary fiction....

As much as I appreciate the need for plot and the struggle writers face in creating compelling and multi-layered plots, I love plotless books. I love when the language takes center stage and characters who develop without much dramatic action dominate. 

Literary fiction is essentially plotless and yet all of my favorite books and the ones I remember the most fall in that category. 

Sometimes I worry I've gone too far in my zeal to support writers in creating well-rounded stories with exciting action that transforms the protagonist and in the end means something. 

Plot is well and good, but often no plot is sublime....

Thematic Significance of Your Story

Question:
..as I'm in this second rewrite deep...I'm losing track of my big idea--what's the biggest problem that I should keep in mind as I'm moving ahead? I think it's to get closer to the character, with every action meaning something, showing...the theme will arise out of all that as the plot is well defined at this point...right?

Answer:
Support surrounds you and your story always. What a leap of faith, of bravery... I'm so proud of you!!!

Q: what's the biggest problem that I should keep in mind as I'm moving ahead?
A: This is the $64 million dollar question, isn't it???

Q: I think it's to get closer to the character, with every action meaning something, showing...the theme will arise out of all that as the plot is well defined at this point...right?

A: Yes.

Constantly ask yourself: what am I trying to say?? What is my story trying to convey?? What do I want the reader left with at the end??

Keep writing down thematic ideas as they come to you. Which ones seem to consistently show up in one form or another in most scenes? What does that mean to you?? What beliefs do you carry about these ideas?? Are they consistent with what you're showing in your story??

Explore your own themes, beliefs; they usually show up in our writing.

The more honed in you are to the deeper meaning, the big problem that needs to be solved in your protagonist's life, the more focused the scenes start to become.

Don't stress about it -- trying too hard gets you all stiff and the muse has absolutely no way of breaking in.

Take lots of walks asking the question you asked me. Be sure to carry a little notebook and pencil in your pocket because answers will flow.

Ask yourself right before you drift off to sleep. Be sure to wake up and immediately write down what comes to you.

It's all there. I promise...

Great good luck!!

Plot for Murder Mystery Writers

Two male writers, both writing murder mysteries -- one for the adult market, the other targeted for urban middle-grade boys.

In reading the two character profiles I was sent before the plot consultation, I quickly ascertained their writing preferences. The adult writer had complex goals plotted out for his characters with spotty character traits. The middle-grade writer had well-thought out character traits for the protagonist AND the major secondary characters, too, and the character goals had more to do with the internal life of the protagonist than to solve the mystery.

For the writer of the adult mystery, I wasn't too concerned about the spotty character information. In a murder mystery, the more complex the crime, the less complex becomes the demands for the protagonist transformation. Plus, we had worked together before and I knew he struggled with character-driven plot and excelled in dramatic action-driven plot. However, when we were actually in consultation, I learned that the protagonist was going to take action at the Climax that for him would have been completely out of character and something that was impossible in the beginning of the story based on who the character was. I immediately knew the writer was in trouble. He quickly caught on, too.

In order for the character to transform enough to do the action that would be required of him at the Climax, the writer had to step back and plot out his character emotional development over the course of the book in order to make the final action taken by the protagonist to be believable and inevitable in the end. The writer groaned, but only so much as if to say he already knew, was resisting, and needed me to give him the shove...

The writer for an urban middle-grade audience had the exact opposite weakness. In order for the murder mystery to work as a murder mystery, he was going to have to put his preference and strength -- everything character-driven -- aside and delve into the dramatic action -- the solving of the mystery -- itself.

My wish? I wish these two writers could meld together to create the next blockbuster story on the New York Times bestseller list. Or, since we're dealing with real life here, I wish them both the time and motivation and passion to work on their area of weakness until it becomes a strength. That way we'll end up with two uniquely different blockbuster murder mysteries for two uniquely different audiences.

I wish them both well....

Birthday Wishes

My mom blogged about my birthday.  Svensto
No wonder I dabble in magical thinking...

History Provides the Perfect Antagonist

A writer I've been working with on an on-going basis picked a unique time in our country's history to write about. Built into this time frame is an event where nature colluded with industry and for five days led to the deaths of many in the community. 

It's an age-old dilemma -- what brings a livelihood to everyone in an entire community ends up killing them. Unwilling to admit to what is right there in front of them, people trust the "powers-that-be" -- they would never knowingly poison an entire community in the name of profits, or would they?? Issues specific to this time in our shared past have been repeated countless times before this specific event and will be repeated countless times in the future = creating a thematic universality to her story.

The event lasts five days and serves as a perfect antagonist. Every step the engaging cast of characters take toward their own personal goals is thwarted by the event. Page-turnability is built in as the events unfold. 

Years of research and the author's own passion for the time have contributed to the authenticity of the project.

As the days pass, the situation worsens. The built-in "ticking clock" creates tension and conflict and challenges all the characters, though in the end the protagonist is affected the most and is transformed at depth.

I've always been a sucker for a great historical. Hers has got all the elements. I wish her loads of luck in writing the next draft all the way through, taking care to treat the event as a major character and plotting out each and every turn the event itself takes as it destroys everyone around it. 

Lead the Reader to the Plot

White pebbles help Hansel and Gretel find their way home. Breadcrumbs simply vanish.

Stories are shown in scene. Each scene leaves little pebbles to advance the plot on at least three levels:

Dramatic Action plot
Character Emotional Development plot
Thematic Significance plot (and more...)

A Few White Pebbles to lead the reader to the important parts of the story:

• Cause and Effect = because of what happens in one scene, the next scene arises. Cause and effect leads the reader from one scene to another. Cause and effect lessens confusion about motivation, which leads the reader deeper into the real time moment of the story.

• Authentic Details = generic details lull the reader to daydream rather than follow along with the story. Authentic details ground the reader in the world of the story unfolding moment by moment.

• Foreshadowing = Provide a few beats of foreshadowing so the reader does not just read right past an important scene. Example: A powerful secondary character triggers the Crisis. In the Beginning (1/4), she's introduced in conflict with her father. She wants to sing in Nashville. He wants her to get a swimming scholarship for college. Both of her strengths and the core conflict are alluded to in the first scene in which she appears. The second time the secondary character appears is practicing vocals with her band. The audience does not yet know the importance of this character in the overall story. The reader is still scrambling to get oriented in the story; determine who is who, what's going on. To help ensure that the reader does not just read right past the practice scene, toss out a few white pebbles to lead the audience. Scene of introduction contains dialog about what is coming: "we're practicing at the house after school today." The reader anticipates the later scene. When the scene comes, the reader pays attention.

• Exotic World = Show the scene as an exotic world that identifies the daughter as uniquely separate from her father.

Any white pebbles to share?

How to Create a Classic Story Plot

The Universal Story form echoes in every great movie and in our lives, too, both as observers and as ourselves.

In some form or another, everyday we leave behind the known world and enter an unusual and exotic world of the unknown. Once there, we go through an outer journey that affects who we are internally.

The sequence repeats itself in each scene, at the chapter and act level, and in the overall story itself. We face foes and find allies. In the Middle, mostly unconscious, we stumble around, out of balance. A Crisis hits. The dark night of the soul overtakes us. Out of the darkness comes a gift = a wake-up call. But not everyone "wakes up" the first time disaster hits. Often, one Crisis hits at the halfway point only to be repeated again at the 3/4 mark.

The ascent to the Climax is about shedding the skin of who we or the characters were in order to become who we are meant to be.

How we face the Climax has everything to do with choices and grace. Transformation at depth or superficial proclamations that amount to nothing but air? Victim or victor? You decide about your own life and about your writing life, too.

When we enter a movie theater or begin a new book, we take the journey with the character.

The author creates an outer dramatic action story -- mystery, romance, historical, rescue, some concrete goal that is achieveable -- in order to show an inner character emotional development story. Both plot lines rise at the End of the Beginning, falter in the Middle, are shaken at the Crisis, and deliver at the Climax.

The showing of character transformation (along with incorporating tons of other aspects of good writing) suspends time and entertains.

At its best, a story not only transforms the character.

Truly great stories transform the reader, too.

What stories have transformed you?

Dialog -- When is Enough Too Much?

Writing a story often comes in drafts. Each draft / layer is determined by your own personal writing preference.

Some writers write their entire first draft in dramatic action. Character emotional development comes later. Meaning comes later still. Others begin with character. Still others start with dialog. First draft has little action. Little character emotional development. Terrific dialog.

Well, some of the first draft dialog is terrific. In other places, the dialog serves as a place to dump information. With dialog, especially in the first quarter of the story, less is more. Only tell as much as needed to inform that particular scene. Leave the info dumping for later (or better yet, forgo it all together).

By less dialog, I mean less in terms of how much each character says at a time. Lots of short and specific dialog back and forth in rapid succession, keeps the pages turning and draws the reader deeper into the heart of the story world itself.

Dialog is a gift. At its best, dialog communicates to the reader the character's interior world, their thoughts and dreams, how they lie to themselves, to others, their beliefs, patience level, expertise, intelligence. At the same, great dialog advances the dramatic action plot.

The Dramatic Action plot is the external movement that allows the character to show who they truly are, first to the reader, then to themselves and then on a trajectory for character emotional transformation. Rather than random movements, the Dramatic Action plot works best if wrapped around the protagonist's well-defined goal. Dramatic action plays out in scene. Dialog comes from the dramatic action and unfolds moment-by-moment.

Think of dialog between two characters like two ships passing in the night. Each speaker has their own agenda, their own reason to converse. The characters' words lap up against each other. Often their words have little effect. Sometimes their words throw the other completely off route.

To create conflict on a secondary level, use the character's individual goals to help define their point of view in dialog. When each character comes to the conversation with something to prove or accomplish, the story moves forward. (And, sprinkle the dialog with authentic details and word use that reflects the time and setting.

Plot Authentic Details

The Middle of every story begins with the entrance to the story world itself. The more exotic and unusual this world, the better the read. 

List sights and sounds, smells and tastes, texture and mood of the setting of your story. 

First list may be general and generic. Refine the list as you refine drafts. Little-by-little find the exact right authentic and unusual and historically-just-right word, detail, object, sensation...

Each day draws me deeper into the exotic and unusual world of a premiere surf spot, The Hook at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, California.

The Hook

• Mean age range: 25-30 years old
  
• Principal occupation: surfing
  
• Palm trees tower 
  
• Cypress trees sway in the bay breeze
  
• Fog horn blares
  
• Gulls cry
  
• Surfboards stick out from truck beds, latched atop car roofs
  
• Boys dressed head to toe in black zip by like seals astride bicycles built for two = boy and surfboard
  
• Nightly news tracks high and low tide each day
  
• The aroma of bacon, eggs, and hash browns rolled in flour tortillas waft from a shack known for "rolling fatties"
  
• Girls in uggs, cotton sun dresses, and hoodies 
  
• The smell of seaweed at low tide
• Snippet of conversation: "Hey, dude. The sun's coming out. I might have to go surfing."
• Mexican music floats in on a hazy layer of marine warmth

Thematically, the place reeks of youth and movement and the power of nature, though I have yet to mention the sea...

What are some authentic and unusual details of your story world??

Self-Sabotage and Success

A local wrestler wins the state title. In the beginning, odds were against him due to internal fears and flaws. The newscast chronicles his story with a thematic flair that it's not unusual for someone to binge on toxic food when faced with possible success. Wrestler's dad seemed also to serve as antagonist in someway personal to the family itself. Mom sends the boy on a journey to an exotic land. He trains at a wrestling camp, sheds his old beliefs, practices important new steps, returns home and wins the state title. 

The newcaster's easy acceptance of our often compulsive and self-sabotaging behaviors when faced with possible success was refreshingly honest...

Isn't that what writer's block is all about? Self-sabotage. Isn't that why so many writers have never finished a story? Or if they have, it sits on a bottom shelf in the dust?

Moving forward, becoming conscious, finishing, showing up takes energy and trust, study and discipline. 

Discipline... When did it become associated with punishment? "You'll be disciplined for that..." Only in the past decade or so have I come to understand the other side. Root word of discipline is disciple. A writer who writes and finishes serves as a disciple of the creative force. 

It takes energy and discipline to achieve our goals in life and never more so than in a writers life. 

How do you keep energetically strong?? What is your discipline???

Boston Globe

Thanks to Google alerts, I find the Plot Whisperer is mentioned in the Boston Globe.

Click to read the article.

Of course, I commented.
Hope you will, too...
Enjoy...

Heart and Soul of a Story

Yesterday's post was in desperation. The work I was reading was good. 

By about the End of the Beginning (1/4), I found the plot working, the character believable though not completely likable, the issues of value. 

I wanted it to be great. 

Continued reading to the end today. Things picked up shortly before the Halfway mark. The heart and soul of the work emerged. I shed tears. I really cared. 

Made me a believer again. 

Cautiously though....

Work needs to be done. More authentic details. Entire first quarter reworked. Character deepened. More foreshadowing. Smoother flow. Interconnecting thematic significance on all levels.

Can't help but wonder -- how many times will he rewrite his piece to make it truly memorable??? 

How many times do you rewrite a piece from beginning to end in an effort to make it truly memorable?? 

What Makes a Good Story?

I don't know anything about video games. Truly. I'm embarrassed to expose the underbelly of my ignorance about one of the largest revenue markets out there, but here goes...

Video games have a character doing stuff -- action driven. Character propels from one event to the next. Setting. Mood. Theme. Journey.

It's a story.

There's also a character doing stuff to reveal self -- character driven. Character propels from one event to the next. Setting. Mood. Theme. Journey.

It's another kind of story.

So many stories created today -- online, hardcover, softcover, movies, music videos, plays, radio, newspapers, video games...

What makes for a good one?

Likable characters. Exciting action. Meaningful issues???

Enough, I guess. Thousands of stories are published in one form or another everyday.

The good ones are so rare.

Seems to me, a good story makes real time, rather than pass unconsciously, bring us to consciousness...

Unsatisfying Climax

Viewed two movies recently, both of which left me disappointed and dissatisfied at the end.

The first movie is actually made up of three movies -- the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I watched all three on a marathon movie day while recovering from an awful flu going around. Non-stop action and conflict, tension, suspense and curiosity effectively kept my mind off my coughing. However, my disappointment at the end nearly sent me spiraling back into the abyss of illness. Exaggeration, of course.

I was truly dismayed at the ending. Yes, I understand about the power of the ring and the evil lure of greed it evoked in all who saw it, but still... The Climax of every great story is when the audience and/or reader get to see in moment-by-moment excitement, the protagonist act in a transformed way and doing something they were unable to do anywhere else throughout the story. In other words they needed to go through every other trial and test and scene first in order to be transformed at depth overtime.

Even in the final seconds of the highest point in the entire story -- the Climax, Frodo was the same Hobbit he started out being -- brave with the urge to do his best. The only transformative change came in him being as seduced by the ring as everyone else. He ends up wanting it even as much as Gollum.

The other movie was Vicki Cristina Barcelona. The characters were amazing, the scenery beautiful, the action exciting -- all the elements of a truly wonderful flick until the very end. Every single character remained unchanged by all that transpired -- thus no character transformation which in the end equalled extreme disappointment.

Anyone else seen either movie??? Anyone else disappointed??

The Deeper the Meaning, the More Lasting the Project

Every story that becomes a classic has at least three universal plot threads:

(1) Character Emotional Development
(2) Dramatic Action
(3) Thematic Significance

Many writers develop one plot line at a time. The plot line you first choose to carry through the entire first draft is usually directly tied to your strength; strength determines preference (Take the Test).

Whether you begin with the Character Emotional Development plot line or the Dramatic Action plot line, most writers put off the Thematic Significance plot line to the end.

By your final draft, you have at least a vague idea of the deeper meaning of your story, what you are trying to say and the ways you have attempted to communicate that meaning through your story to your audience.

Crystallize the meaning you are attempting to convey into two specific universal themes and improve your chances of creating a classic blockbuster project.

Two Kinds of Thematic Significance

When a character is changed at depth over time, a story becomes thematically significant.

1) Character Emotional Development Thematic Significance

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick serves as the narrator. Of all the characters in the story, Nick is the only one who is changed by the Dramatic Action, thus making Nick also the protagonist. (The definition of a protagonist is the character most changed by the dramatic action in the story. Unlike The Great Gatsby, if other characters are changed by the dramatic action in your story, then the protagonist is determined as a matter of degree and significance of change.

Some might point to Gatsby as the protagonist, alive in the beginning and dead in the end. What counts with thematic significance is not the change from alive to dead, but how the dramatic action creates a long-term emotional change in the protagonist.

Nick sets his own thematic significance in Chapter 3 when he states that he is one of the few honest people he has known. Since he is the narrator, the reader is curious to know if he is reliable, or not. Does Nick have a clear sense of himself from his time in the war as he thinks? Or, does he have more to learn about himself before he can accurately judge himself? In the end, Nick understands he has only begun to live up to his initial assessment of himself as stated in the beginning.

A thematic significance statement for Nick’s character emotional plotline could be:

Only with maturity and assuming personal and moral responsibility are we able to accurately judge ourselves and others.

Hands on
1) Who is the protagonist of your story?
2) Write down a Thematic Significance statement that encompasses the emotional transformation your protagonist undergoes from the beginning and throughout to the end of the story.
3) Infuse your story with the theme through details and comparisons, metaphor and simile.


2) Dramatic Action Thematic Significance

The Great Gatsby, as with all classic stories, deals with universal themes. Along with Nick’s personal thematic significance, there is also an overall meaning or Thematic Significance for the entire story.

A thematic significance statement for The Great Gatsby as a whole could be:

Ambition for money and another man’s wife leads to destruction.

Hands on:
1) Write down a Thematic Significance statement that encompasses the meaning of the overall story. In other words, what do all of the scenes and dramatic action together add up to mean in the end.
2) Infuse your story with this theme through details and comparisons, metaphor and simile.

When a story embodies universal themes for the characters themselves and through all of the elements and details of the story itself, a story becomes lasting.

Refer to Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple for more tips about each of the three universal plot lines and how to incorporate each one in your writing project and have fun doing it.

Creating a Sacred Writing Space

We as writers spend countless hours in our writing "caves," creating characters and stories we hope will engage and captive our readers. The more enticing our writing environment, the more apt we are to enter and stay awhile. 

Surround yourself with objects that have helped you find your way in life -- books, totems, photos, quotes, special rugs, notepads, pencils and pens. Pay attention to little ritual details. Do you like to light a candle before beginning to write? Brew a cup of tea? Have classical music playing in the background? 

Creating a sacred writing space releases you. And, as Joseph Campbell writes: "...since that space is associated with a certain kind of performance, it evokes that performance again." "To live in sacred space is to live in a symbolic environment where spiritual life is possible, where everything around you speaks of exaltation of the spirit."

As you cross the threshold into your sacred space, cast off all your responsibilities. Banish the internal critic. Seal yourself off from distractions. Allow yourself to sink more deeply into your inner life. Invite in the sense of play and discovery. 

And most of all, have fun!!

Plot Consultations for Writers

I always disguise the identity of the writer when I unwind here and reflect after a plot consultation. I keep my comments general in hopes of showing how universal most of the plots and the plights I encounter.

In my mind, I already see the writer successful and imagine how notes like these would shed a certain sense of historical perspective when the time of success truly arrives.

Today's consultation was all about subplots and themes.

Every element in a memoir, novel, screenplay contributes to the greater thematic significance of a story. 

• Every character functions like a mirror shining back to the protagonist the very elements of themselves they can see in others but not in themselves
• Every subplot does the same thing to the overall plot of the story 
• Every word contributes to the theme and mood and nuance

Nothing is extraneous or there simply because the language is beautiful, the action clever, the character quirky. Every element contributes to the deeper meaning of the piece.

Do you know the thematic significance of your story?

Can you condense the overall meaning of your story into one statement?

This Thematic Significance statement reflects the truth of your story. Not the necessarily a universal truth or truth for all time, but true for your story itself.

A Tough Nut to Crack

The only real antagonist is the protagonist herself.

1) Draw a bubble in the middle of a piece of paper. Write the protagonist's deepest held belief, the one that prevents her from having that which she wants more than anything else in the world. Or do this exercise on yourself to determine what's blocking you -- I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I don't do enough -- pick one, create one, we've all got them.

2) Spiraling out from the bubble, create other bubbles each with an external antagonist that these deepest held beliefs attract -- accidents, bad men, addictions, drama, dead-end jobs, half-finished projects, arguments = conflict, conflict, conflict -- blockage, blockage, blockage... walls that keep the protagonist from achieving her goal(s).

He was balled up, resistant, bitter, deeply resentful and so tight he could barely speak, ready to take offense, full of self-pity = a mess.

Came around to see how the experience (our plot consultation) could work in his benefit. (He didn't stand a chance -- I know what I'm doing and I've worked with so many just like him...)

I give him huge credit for not falling deeper into victimhood. He arose out of the muck long enough to shine.

We'll see how it goes... Wish us luck...

Don't Relinquish Your Power

My apologies up front. After today's consultation, I'm in the mood to rant.

Hold onto your own personal power no matter the cost.

Don't give your energy over to another and/or to a belief that no longer serves you. Let me repeat that. Do NOT give your energy over to another or to a belief that no longer serves you.

Don't forget, no matter who critiques you, you are the artist. You are the final decision-maker.

Don't give your power over to anyone else.

Listen.

Take notes.

Thank them.

Do for them what you want them to do for you.

Go home and mull over what they have to say.

What resonates with you, follow.

What doesn't feel right, let go of...

You're in this with the divine.

Trust yourself.

Listen to yourself.

Whatever drains your energy run from.

Whatever fills you up move toward...

Have fun...

Plot Therapist

"I believe talking about the story blocks the story."

"So do I," I say, wondering where the writer is going with this.

Later in the plot consultation, she reveals that she had reunited with an old friend who had successful published a book. She read it. Now she's blocked.

"So because you talked to your old friend about your story, you're blocked?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then why are you talking to me about your story?"

Pause.

"Because you're the block buster..."

Ahhhhhh

Bird's Eye View of Your Story

I'm humbled by how many writers open up to me about that most vulnerable part of them -- their stories. 

Immediately ascertainable is how closely a writer is identified by the story. 

1) This is the story they have told themselves and lived by their entire lives. 

2) This is a fun romp, thrilling mystery, or pure romance.

#1 is generally character-driven. 

#2 is often action-driven.

(To see which way you write, Take the Test).

I get to not only sit in the crow's nest and analyze the plot and structure of the story, from that vantage point I often also see a higher archetypal pattern emerge.

For instance, in a character-driven memoir about strong political and historical and religious themes, the protagonist (the writer) is betrayed as a kid by her father. Later she falls in love with four men. She is betrayed by all four of them.

A bigger picture unfolds... Or, is it only my imagination?

Are there other ways to tell this story? You bet ya. 

How much of that which comes intuitively throughout the plot consultation do I divulge? Like a palm reader, say everything and let the writer decide? 

How much would you want? 

Fascinating journey this is, being a plot consultant to writers. 

Authentic Details

Draft one, writers attempt to create a story with a Beginning, Middle, and End, filled with Dramatic Action that affects the characters in meaningful and coherent ways -- a firm foundation. 

Subsequent drafts, writers create more layers, each of which benefits from the use of authentic details. Authentic details "show" who the characters truly are by the objects they surround themselves with and how their actions support their dialog, and allow the reader to sink into the exotic, unusual story world. 

For example: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman -- "... In some distant arcade, a clock tower calls out six times and then stops. The young man slumps at his desk. He has come to the office at dawn, after another upheaval. His hair is uncombed and his trousers are too long. In his hand he holds twenty crumpled pages, his new theory of time, which he will mail today to the German journal of physics..."

Authentic details make the story unique, come alive, pulse with meaning.

Research reveals authentic details. How do you find yours?   

Writing for Ourselves. Writing for Others.

Now on her third book, the writer moves away from herself. 

Memoir writers aren't the only ones who write about themselves. Many of us write to work things out in our minds, our hearts, to learn our own individual truths, to make sense of our worlds. 

Memoir writers shape their stories around their own lives and stick to the truth and call their work a memoir. 

Fiction writers take their lives and embellish for meaning or humor or excitement's sake to create a novel or screenplay or short story.

Some of us tire of ourselves and find more compelling fodder. 

Others continue to delve into the well of our lives. 

How many of your stories are about you?

Choosing POV

Today's consultation challenged conventional point of view and arrangement. Most stories revolve around a protagonist who is changed at depth over time by the dramatic action that happens to her. The story is arranged into chapters and told through either:

First person present -- I revel in the balmy ocean breeze 

First person past -- I reveled in the balmy breeze

Third person present -- she revels in the balmy ocean breeze 

Third person past -- she reveled in the balmy ocean breeze

Today's consultation revealed a story more about the transformation of a culture which is changed over time by the dramatic action that happens to the characters who live in the culture than to one particular character.

Some of the most difficult aspects of writing a story, be it a screenplay, novel, or short story, are deciding where the story begins, who's tells the story -- POV, and how best to arrange the overall flow the story.

We seem to gravitate toward a favorite way of telling a story. First person allows the writer and thus, reader closer access to the character. Third person allows the writer and thus, reader less intimate access to the protagonist from her point of view but more access to information beyond the character herself. 

What's your favorite?

Memoir Writing

I'm personally excited about an upcoming plot consultation with a well-respected veteran writer and photographer of some 50 years for most of the top news agencies and magazines in the country and the world.

From the early info I require about the character (for a memoir writer that is the writer himself) and theme, I sense this writer is interested in using his action-packed background of intrigue and danger to illuminate his flaws and fears and thus give meaning and significance to his life.

Memoir writing at its best shares the writer's past with the reader in order to entertain, enlighten, motivate, and/or make sense of life itself. 

One of my personal favorites is Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton.

Have you read it? Did you like it? Any memoirs you recommend? 

2nd Draft Blues

He finishes the first draft with a vengeance. His vision of a complex story crystalizes. The characters reveal themselves. The story world captivates. Action builds to a dramatic climax. Character grow and transform. Thematic threads run deep throughout the manuscript. 

Celebration over his accomplishment is short-lived and little acknowledged in his eagerness to keep going. 

He rounds up his notes and begins crafting and writing draft #2 and immediately comes to a screeching halt. 

The quality of his writing in draft #1 dismays him. Doubt sets in. Energy lags. Procrastination takes over.

Yet, another example of what I've addressed the last two entries. 

Any success stories about starting out on the next draft of your project?

Resistance

Comment from yesterday's post Great Doubt. Great Faith. Great Effort:

"This is one of my biggest struggles. I have faith in myself and my story, but I have a hard time finding the energy to actually write. Any tips on dealing with this?"

The comment came anonymously, so my answer won't appear personal.

Your lack energy for your writing is like a character who resists the call to adventure. Resistance generally comes from one or more of the following character profile traits (each of which has the potential to create dramatic action):

• fear
  
• flaw
  
• prejudice
  

At least that's what happens in stories -- it's the character herself who gets in her own way -- the Character Emotional Development plot line.

Based on that assumption, following is a tip for finding the energy to write:

1) Make a reminder sign -- a post-it note on the mirror, a ribbon hanging from the lamp shade, something to remind you of this tip.

2) As you brush your teeth or otherwise prepare for bed, meditate on your resistance.

3) With your head on the pillow, make a goal for yourself for the next day. Imagine yourself taking action, step-by-step toward your goal. Anticipate possible antagonists -- your own resistance included. See yourself in your mind's eye replacing the story you have been telling yourself that is causing your resistance with something different.

This is your life. You are in charge. You may not want to be. That's fine. Feel the resistance.

Now, tell yourself a different story, one that draws you to the successful completion of your goal.

There's no hurry. Either way, the day will come and the night will go. The only thing that changes is your attitude and your action. Think of it less a journey and more a process -- the process of being a writer...

Any other tips???

Great Doubt, Great Faith, Great Effort

The final plot phone consultation of '08 illustrated to me how thirsty we writers are for support and someone to believe in us. 

A writer with an incredible gift for dialog and in collaboration with an accomplished illustrator is creating a graphic surfer girl novel for middle grade. The plot rocks, the protagonist feisty, the setting unique, the father-daughter issues universal, the theme significant. The problem? Somehow along the way the writer lost energy for the story. 

The longer we chatted and the more praise I expressed, the more enthusiastic he became about his project. By the end -- it took us two, two-hour sessions to work our way all the way through the story, he was pumped and ready to devote the time and attention needed for the next and, dare I say it, final draft before beginning the submission process.

As thrilled and honored as I was to work with him on this worthy project, when I hung up from our call, I was also a little sad. I wondered about all the writers out there who may not be able to afford a service like I provide and are without someone to encourage and support them. I despair over the gifts out there half-started and never to be finished. A dream that never has a chance to manifest because of self-doubt, little faith and thus, the inability to put forth the effort needed to finish.

It's all a journey. And, the writer's journey is as filled with conflict, tension, and suspense, crises, and obstacles as any compelling story. It's our path to take and up to us to find what we need to make it to our own climax.

Any tips and tricks to offer other writers about how to restore faith when doubt stills all your writing efforts? 

(The phrase: Great doubt. Great Faith. Great Effort. -- comes from The Little Zen Companion and are the Three Qualities Necessary for Training.)

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Thirty-One

Today marks the final day of International Plot Writing Month. Thank you for visiting and following along. I'm pleased to know the information has helped so many of you prepare for your next rewrite and that you're confident and ready to begin writing tomorrow.

On this last day:

1) If you don't have one already, create a space devoted for your writing.

2) Organize your space. Purge and cleanse the space of everything but your manuscript and notes. 

3) Hang your Plot Planner for easy viewing from where you'll do your daily writing.

4) Create a writing ritual for yourself. For instance, every morning at 4:30AM before I begin writing, I make myself a cup of green tea and drink a glass of water. From having done the same ritual everyday for so many years, my body knows immediately up I'm up to and responds in kind. 

5) If you're going to write during family time, consider creating some sort of signal so your family members know you're working and honor your time by not interrupting. Isabel Allende lights a candle and as long as the candle burns her family knows not to bother her. A dear friend hangs a sign indicating her "office hours" that day. So long as it's hanging on her writing studio door, her husband knows not to enter. The more seriously you take your writing time, the more seriously your family and friends will honor your writing time, too.

6) Tonight after all the festivities of saying goodbye to '08 and greeting '09, before you fall asleep, see yourself tomorrow going through each step of your ritual and really see yourself writing, for even longer than the length of time you scheduled. Ask the "powers that be" to help support your efforts in the morning and to show you in ways that only the great beyond is able to that you have been heard...

7) Great good luck!!

I hope you'll continue to visit here for inspiration as I unwind from plot consultations and comment on the problems other writers confront in their process and offer tips to keep going.

My intention is and always has been to help support writers to keep at the business of writing.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Thirty

It's time to create your writing schedule for the new year. Take out the calendar you bought on Day Twenty-Seven.

Think long and hard about your daily life and obligations, and your personal best and most productive times of the day. Decide how many days a week you are willing to devote to your writing. Add an extra day to that. 

Now mark on your calendar the days and time you will devote to your writing. If you have to, wake up an hour early or stay up an hour later than you are used to. (I find my most productive creative writing time is at 4:30 AM. Don't ask me why. But, it's a magical time to be awake when the rest of the world sleeps. I always wake up automatically. Getting out of bed is another matter entirely, but the point is, I do. It's a habit now. You will, too.)

By scheduling in your writing time like this, you'll be more apt to stick to the schedule. Plus, when friends or family or work request/demand your time, you'll more easily be able to tell them the truth:

I have a pre-arranged appointment at that time. We'll have to come up with another time.

If you don't have the time pre-scheduled, chances are much greater that you'll put yourself and your writing last, which invariably means you'll not get to it. 

Don't despair if you find that honoring yourself and your writing time difficult at first. With practice, however, you'll find yourself joyfully committed to your special writing time. An added bonus is that when the muse finds you consistently showing up, creativity will more readily be available to you. The habit itself creates miracles and mysteries. 

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-Nine

Continue with Day Twenty-Eight assignment.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-Eight

I'm running out of energy!! This daily posting practice is a challenge for people like me who rail against any and all kinds of routine. This month has given me a great appreciation of all you NaNoWriMo Winners!! I work better in fits and starts, intensely focused writing with times of backing off and recharging.

Enough about me. 

Back to International Plot Writing Month....

Reread your manuscript, keeping in mind all the work you've done this month. Take notes right on your manuscript -- detailed enough so that when you reach them in your rewrite you know what you were thinking. 

Mark out with a big black X any and all words, paragraphs, and chapters you plan to delete in the next rewrite. Add ideas of what you wish to add or create in the next go round. Keep your Plot Planner in front of you as you work your way through your manuscript. 

I'm giving you two days for this (though since I'm behind you'll have to work fast!! My apologies.)

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-Seven

Five days and counting...

As you continue to arrange the scene Post-it notes from yesterday, don't fret about your manuscript's chapter numbers or formatting. You can address those issues in January when you undertake writing the next draft. 

For now, concentrate on the plot and structure for the overall book. 

Move scenes around in anyway that best serves the manuscript. Be creative. Switch the Crisis to the End of the Beginning. The Climax to the Crisis. Be brutal. Make broad cuts and assess results. 

Line things up. Organize. Think of the work you're doing like packing before undertaking a long trip. Plan ahead now so you can let go and have fun during January's rewrite. 

Two steps for today:

1) At the top or bottom of each of the three parts of your Plot Planner, write the protagonist's goal. The protagonist starts the story with a specific goal in mind. That goal usually shifts, either subtly or radically, when the protagonist moves from the Beginning to the Middle, after the Crisis, and as she faces the End.

2) Buy yourself a '09 calendar - day-to-day at-a-glance or monthly or one of those big hanging ones for the entire year. 

If you are just joining us, begin on Day One and move forward to today.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-Six

Cause and Effect

Using the master Plot Planner you created on Day Twenty-Five, now draw a line from one scene to the next when they are linked by cause and effect. In other words, if the action in one scene causes the action in the next scene, draw a line to connect the two of them. Continue that way through every scene. 

Where one scene does not cause the action in the next, do not connect the two scenes with a line. Leave them blank.

Six days left and counting...

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-five

Above and Below

For twenty-four days, you have analyzed your story through plot and structure, searched for meaning, arranged scenes, and considered the energetic flow throughout. In the process, you have likely seen your story in a completely new way, and even perhaps, yourself, too. 

7 days left -- time for finesse and nuance. Let the countdown begin.

Collect the the Beginning, Middle, End Plot Planners you created on Day Thirteen, Day Twenty-one , and Day Eight respectively. 

Transfer the scenes onto Post-It notes (helpful if you use different colored Post-It notes for the different plot lines -- blue for character emotional development, red for dramatic action, yellow for thematic significance, orange for political elements, etc.).

Arrange the Post-It notes on banner paper -- sorry, I wish there was a smaller version possible, but if an average novel is 60 scenes, you can imagine how long the Plot Planner for the entire project will be. 

Trick this time? Arrange notes either above or below the Plot Planner line determined by who holds the power in the scene. When the character is in control, the scene goes below the line. When the character is out of control and an antagonist in control, the scene belongs above the line.

Above the line - scenes with conflict, tension, suspense.

Below the line - scenes where the protagonist is in control.

(While you're at it, clear a place on the wall to hang the Plot Planner when the month is over and you're ready to begin the official next draft rewrite with an entirely new vision of your story.)

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-four

The Middle (cont.)

The Crisis is the highest point energetically in the story so far. 

Both the Character Emotional Development plot line and the Dramatic Action plot line rise to a Crisis. These can happen separately (the 1/2 mark as one and the 3/4 mark as the other). The greatest impact occurs when the two happen simultaneously at the 3/4 mark.

Either way, the Crisis represents the end of something, a death -- figuratively or symbolically or metaphorically -- a job, a relationship, a belief, or an old personality. 

A Crisis is life taking the protagonist by the shoulders and shaking her until she has to wake up, become conscious, see life as it really is. Without creating some sort of learning or awakening or consciousness, an event is does not constitute a true Crisis. 

Falling Energy

Once the Crisis hits, the reader and the protagonist need a time of rest. The story has exploded and now, reeling, both the character and the reader need time to adjust, take things in, plan, come to terms.

This is where the character often decides whether because of what happened in the Crisis, she will take on the mantle of the victim or the victor and thus, determine the final 1/4 of the story.

By slowing the action and drama for a bit now, allows the energy to rise more quickly in the End and with greater impact. 

Plot the scenes that come after the Crisis in your story and before the final (1/4) -- the End.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-three

The Middle

Following are several posts that deal with the Middle (1/2). My hope is that they may stimulate more insight about what works in your Middle and where you might put a bit more attention.

The Middle
Crisis
Crisis
The Middle
Consider the Reader

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-two

The Middle (cont.)

Consider the "middle" of the Middle of your story. 

The scenes in the middle of the Middle of a story often line up looking like below. So long as the unusual and/or exotic world is intriguing and mysterious and fascinating enough, you're in good shape. By the time the reader is at the middle of the Middle she has surrendered to the dream you've created. The story and the characters have actually replaced parts of the reader's world and become real for her. 

The early Middle and middle of the Middle are the honeymoon stage. The reader likes the character as revealed so far. The reader wants to hang out with the story and the characters. The middle of the Middle the protagonist is still on her best behavior -- relative to her and her alone. 

Eventually, later, closer to the 3/4 mark and when the Crisis hits, the character opens up more and more to the reader as the stakes rise higher and higher. Under pressure, the protagonist reveals who she really is, flaws and all. 

But, that's for later. For now, here, in the middle of the Middle, the character has settled a bit into the new world and no longer feels so much like a fish out of water. She begins to catch on to the rules of the new world. 

In other words, the story can slow down a bit here (keep in mind, however, a sort of major shift or "hit" usually occurs at the exact 1/2 of the entire page count mark.) 

Homework:

• Continue to plot out your scenes on the Middle of your Plot Planner
  
• Research the unusual world for authentic details. Take notes for your next draft. 
  
• Consider how the Middle and the End work together. What in the Middle is contributing to the overall character transformation of your protagonist at the End? 
• How many of the following antagonists** are you using to create conflict, tension, and suspense. The antagonists must arise out of the story itself and contribute to the overall meaning or thematic significance of your story overall. (If you do not know the thematic significance statement for your story, continue the exercises on: Day Four and Day Seven.)

**Antagonist List

Other people: friends, family, lover, co-workers, boss, children

Nature: flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, freezing temperatures, drought

Machine: anything mechanical or electronic

Society: rules, laws, customs, traditions, expectations, religious institutions, dogma

God: spiritual beliefs

Self: flaw, hatred, prejudice, fears, past mistakes

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty-one

The Middle

You created the Beginning (1/4) of your Plot Planner on Day Thirteen and the End (1/4) of your Plot Planner on Day Eight.

Now it's time for the Middle (1/2) of your Plot Planner.

I want you to create the Middle portion of your Plot Planner similar to how you created the other two parts of your Plot Planner. To review, so far, you have an index card or piece of 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper or whatever works best for you as the Plot Planner of the Beginning and one for the End of your story AND a smaller version for the Middle where you had plotted at least one or possibly two scenes from the Middle section.

Today, expand the Middle portion to its own index card. Simply draw a line similar to below:

Write in the Crisis scene you came up with in your first draft. Plot any other scenes you remember in the middle 1/2 of your draft. Don't refer to the draft itself. Just write what comes to you. Don't push to remember. Give each scene/event a title. Write the scenes above the line in the order of appearance in the story. Write in pencil.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Twenty

I bet you're itching to get back to writing, aren't you? 

All you wordsmiths out there, patience. This analytical stuff is counter-intuitive for most creative types. But trust me. The more you stick with it now, the better your next draft. Plus, I want you eager for the word and sentence and paragraph level. That way, you'll stick to the writing schedule in '09 that you create for yourself at the end of this month.

And, besides it's Winter Solstice. This is the time to release old stuff you don't need, which includes scenes and chapters your story doesn't need. Any scene -- energy -- that doesn't line up with the story's highest good, release it to the universe and it will go to a better place. 

The 1st draft often produces quality of a lower vibrational level than subsequent drafts. The more you purge now, the more space your story has to receive that which serves the work best.

As we release the unneeded words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs, our stories embrace a new identity and with that comes a new higher more vibrant and dynamic meaning.

The more you line your story up with the correct material, the faster the story will create.

Think of what we're doing now as the anticipation stage and the main event as writing the next draft. Remember, in an earlier post, when I talked about the three ways to create more emotion in your story:

• Anticipation
  
• The main event
  
• Reaction
  

Character anticipation can be the strongest emotional stage. I want you prepared and excited when the time comes for you to embark on your next draft.

The Middle (1/2)

I love the Middle of stories. By the Middle, I've committed to the story. I know nothing too terribly awful will happen for awhile -- at least not as awful as I know will come later -- and I can sink into the story world itself, hang out with the characters, and get to know them better. Of course, all along and deep down, I know the story is building to a Crisis. I can taste it, sense it, feel it coming. I try to pretend the Crisis will not come, but after a while it's obvious. Doom is about to hit, has to hit. There is no other way for the story to go. 

What is the unusual, exotic world of the Middle in your story?
What character flaw continually sabotages the protagonist?
What other antagonists get in her way? (Remember, the Middle is the territory of the antagonists.) (Use as many as you need to create tension, conflict and suspense...)

The Middle 1/2 often has a plot of its own -- with a Beginning (as the character enters the story world itself, she feels like a fish out of water), a Middle that rises in intensity (a major turning point often happens in the middle of the Middle), and an End that culminates at the Crisis. (Do NOT confuse this with the Climax -- the Climax comes at the End of the overall story itself and shows the character fully in her own personal power.) The Crisis shows the protagonist at her worst -- after all, it's a Crisis.

The 2nd draft is well spent at the overall plot and structure level. Until the form of the story works, -- a likable character, action linked by cause and effect that rises and falls and rises again that all adds up to mean something -- finding just the right word in just the right sentence can be premature. Writing a book can drag on forever, often both because we love the characters and because we bury our heads in the words rather than taking time to analyze. 

Happy Winter Solstice

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Nineteen

If you like fluffy words and easy stories, skip this month-long analyzation of plot and structure. The International Plot Writing Month is about writers intent on finding enlightenment through their stories.

It can happen to you. Your path? The revisioning process in preparation for the next rewrite. In a flashing moment something opens. Your story is new all through. You see the same unsame world of your story with fresh eyes. 

This universe-renewing power comes by grace, not logic. The old Chinese devised problems, called koan, to stop their students' word-drunkenness and mind-wandering. Didn't you feel that, at least a little, after NaNoWriMo? Word-drunkenness. I like that.

My intention this month is to have you "meditate on koans." Or, another way of saying: Don't waste your life merely sensing; channel thought and feeling to one purpose -- your story -- and then let it happen. Put your mind--and all else you have--to it.

What is the right answer to a koan? There are many right answers and there are also none.

Writing a story is an act of creation, after all. 

Tomorrow we begin the Middle (1/2). 

For now, finish up connecting the dots between the Beginning and the End.

If you're just beginning the month with us, please start at the beginning and work your way forward.

Gratitude to: 

Shambhala Pocket Classics Zen Flesh, Zen Bones complied by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki for some of the text and concepts offered here.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Eighteen

For those of you who hit this blog and are not writers, explore an issue you face using the Universal Story form. Go to Day Twelve for the steps to take.

For those of you who are preparing for the next draft of your novel, memoir, or screenplay by following the day-by-day suggestions here, how did the read-through go? I hope you found moments of brilliance. I'm sure you found lots of clunky writing, passages that at one time made so much sense and now make absolutely no sense at all. Whatever you found, be gentle with yourself. The first draft of anything is suppose to resemble vomit-on-the-page. The first draft is all about getting words on the page.

Now, take time to rethink your story.

The best way to begin is to reread the Beginning (1/4) and the End (1/4). Look for any connections to deeper meaning and make notes on how best to expand those connections. Search for opportunities to foreshadow in the Beginning what comes at the End.

Forget the Middle for now. The Middle (1/2) is the exotic or unusual world of the story world itself and generally functions in its own unique way. However, the Beginning and the End need to link up. See what you can find.

Recheck the list of scenes you created on Day Three. Of the scenes that were NOT listed, which ones can be cut altogether? Of the scenes that WERE listed, how many can be cut altogether.

Check the Plot Planners you created for the Beginning and the End. What scenes do you wish to include that you had forgotten earlier? Add those now.

Keep your focus on the overall meaning of the story while you analyze the Beginning and the End.

Good luck....

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Seventeen

Got it! I stayed open and waited for inspiration. Finally, it hit.

It's time....

Pull out that binder with your manuscript that you created on Day Two.

With all the work you've done in the past sixteen days, read your manuscript from beginning to end. Do not take notes. Do not edit. Just read. Like a reader. Keep in mind the deeper meaning you've been exploring in the past couple of weeks.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Sixteen

When I first started helping writers with plot I was known as the Plot Queen. My friends and family had been calling me that for years for the way I've always plotted out Thanksgiving dinners and parties I throw.

The lists I make are illustrated, linear, and compulsive -- a list of guests (characters), and then the sequence for shopping and preparation (which correlates to the anticipation scenes you write), and then I plot out the main event. The "follow-through scene" invariably comes the next day, unscripted, when I clean up and relive the fun.

Now, I'm even more obnoxious. My plotting compulsion has transfered to everything that happens in life. I translate political and historical events, strangers and friends' behavior, everything that happens into the Universal Story form -- the hero's journey. Often, by identifying the archetypes involved in friends' dramas, I help them separate from what's happening on a physical level into a deeper wisdom -- similar to what I do with writers stories in the plot consultations I offer.

So, what's the point??? Just to say that with everything I've plotted and helped others plot throughout the years, I neglected to pre-plot this most special month -- the first ever International Plot Writing Month.

The idea came so suddenly and only a week or so before the first day of December...

No excuses. Been fun for me so far, but today I lost the energy for where I was going.

Need a day to regroup.

Keep at your plot and structure analyzing. Catch up if you fell behind. Re-scan the posts. Begin again from Day One.

Thank you for your patience....

Until tomorrow, keep warm.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Fifteen

We're halfway through December -- International Plot Writing Month. I trust the time you've spent reading the posts and exploring the exercises has given you a new angle, passion, and energy for your writing, and has deepened the meaning of your story.

So much of writing is by feel. The suggestions here are simply ways to help support your groping...

The Climax decides the Beginning. Examine the Climax you've written for insights into what is being revealed about the protagonist. Think of the protagonist's flaw as the weakest link in her growth -- I'd like to write: spiritual growth but am afraid the word spiritual will be misunderstood. What I'm referring to has nothing at all to do with religion -- it's the part of you that is beyond the physical body. Oops... I was talking about your protagonist, not you...

What does the protagonist have to overcome in herself in order to do what she does at the Climax???

A story is a spiritual quest. Once the character has taken the challenge and entered the story world itself -- Middle, she is knocked around, shaken up, challenged, and tested. In order for the quest to have meaning, the protagonist must share the gifts she has learned with the "tribe".

This is why so many stories are circular -- the protagonist must return home with the elixir -- the End circles back the Beginning...

Any character/person brave enough to step outside her comfort zone is being invited on a quest. Sharing the gifts completes the circle.

What is your protagonist's flaw? What does she do to sabotage herself from achieving her goals? What does she do to get in her own way of attaining her dreams? What is she doing to herself unconsciously that the story forces her to become conscious of and, once she aware of herself, is able to do things differently and thus, reach that which she longs for in life AND helps make the world around her a better place??? The answers to these questions will help determine what belongs in the Beginning of your story.

International Plot Writing Month -- Day Fourteen

The Beginning

The work you did yesterday -- Day Thirteen -- creating a Plot Planner for the Beginning (1/4) of your story -- comes in handy today.

Every writer faces a multitude of choices, two of which are:

1) Deciding where to begin your story

2) Which Point of View to use.

Today we'll go over #1 -- Deciding where to begin your story.

One of the many benefits of NaNoWriMo is that it forces a writer to keep writing all the way through the first draft to the end. Without this sort of discipline, many writers end up creating a horrible habit for themselves -- the going-back-to-the-beginning syndrome. NaNoWriMo writers often have less trouble cutting the typical 35-100 pages from their WIP because they haven't invested hundreds of hours by going back to the beginning and starting over again, over and over and over again. That is not to say cutting any of our work is ever easy, but it's easier than if you've invested umpteen hours and perfected every word and sentence.

In other words, deciding which scene best starts the story often includes the realization that major cuts are in order.

Once the shock and resistance fades, look over the Beginning scenes you plotted out yesterday. Compare those Beginning scenes to the End scenes you plotted on Day Eight.

The fact you have completed at least one draft of your story gives you an advantage. You know what the Climax of the story is.

The dramatic action in any story forces the character to transform over time. At the Climax of the story, the character is then able to do something she was unable to do at the Beginning of the story. She needed to go through every other scene in order to be transformed and get to the place where she could face her greatest fear--at the very least thematically.

The Beginning (1/4) of your story should foreshadow what has to come at the Climax. The Beginning scenes should set the tone, the mood, a "ticking clock", the theme, introduce all the major characters, including the setting -- which often serves as a secondary character in stories -- and get the story going.

Keep the scenes that create conflict, tension and suspense, and/or curiosity or have the potential to create those elements.

Cut or combine and compress the scenes that are slow, benign, and telling.

Another reason the decision of where to begin your story is so difficult is because the "inciting incident" -- the moment when the protagonist lost her balance -- often occurs years before the story begins.

Writers try all sorts of techniques to capture that moment -- flashback, telling in summary, info dumping in dialogue, and the like. For now, try to keep the story going without revealing the moment from the past. For now, create a first scene that can function as an "inciting incident" -- a new moment when the protagonist lost her balance enough so this time she is forced to take action.

Once the protagonist launches into the heart of the story world -- the Middle -- she takes on a quest, a journey to regain the earlier capacity or balance she had lost so long ago. At the Climax at the End of the book, she will use this capacity -- it's not a new ability or balance, it's the one she lost so long ago -- at the Climax.

The Beginning (1/4) of your story is determined by your Climax.

Study the Beginning and End Plot Planners. Take them with you as you shop and drive. Search for connections while you wait in line, traffic, or just have a moment or two to daydream...

Ask for guidance from your story. What are you really trying to say in your story overall??

Take your time.

The answers are right there in front of you...

Good luck. Oh, and have fun.