Plot the Beginning of Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay

Take a moment to assess where you are in writing your story now that you're 4 days into NaNoWriMo.

To ensure that you stay on track and write a solid beginning, middle and end by the end of November, stand back from your writing for a minute and consider the following.

Tuesday marks the day you and your protagonist enter the exotic world.

Begin opening up to the idea of pulling the beginning together so you're sure to be writing the End of the Beginning scene on Monday.

For support:

Plotting the Beginning
Energy Anatomy of Stories
Plot the Dramatic Plot
Plot the Character Emotional Development Plot
The Three Major Plotlines

***I am giving away 4 free autographed copies of The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master AND

and Scene Tracker Kit (which includes Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple).

To win, simply comment on each of fourteen blogs that took part in the mega-blog book tour

listed on the Master Schedule. As one writer says of the experience: "I feel like I just took in a 2 hour writing workshop in a few minutes."

For more about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, read: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Pre-plot for NaNoWriMo

Today's Monday Plot Book Group (click to watch the video) covers thematic significance or the deeper meaning of your story.

It's never too early or too late to begin asking yourself:

What does my story means to say?

Or, if you plan on writing a story during November for NaNoWriMo, what sorts of themes do you find bubbling to the surface?

For step-by-step guidance into pre-plotting your novel, memoir, screenplay, refer to:
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

For more about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit all the other Monday Plot Book Group in the series (A directory to this 2nd plot series is to the left of this post and scroll down a bit) and visit the first Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?on YouTube. (A directory of all the steps to the 1st plot series is to the right of this post.)
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Book Blurb

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master is for writers, readers and seekers, artists and creative people of all types.

Martha Alderson is known as the Plot Whisperer for the plot help she offers writers worldwide. The more writers she works with and the more novels, memoirs and screenplays she analyzes, the more convinced she is that every scene in every book and every moment in every life is part of a Universal Story that flows through our imaginations and in the reality that surrounds us.

The transformative energy in stories is available to everyone. After using Martha’s ideas, you begin to understand yourself better. You’ll see your writing and the work you do in a brighter light. The way you interact with your writing and with the world around you shifts.

Open up a new dimension of life you never before imagined.

Click to buy the book:

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

For more about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, read: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Backstory versus Front Story

Watch your delivery of backstory ~ the story of what, in the past, made the character 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.)

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay.

Visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Order The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master NOW and receive it in time to pre-plot for NaNoWriMo in November!

The Universal Story

Thanks to the plot consultations I do with writers from all over the world, the plot workshops and retreats I’ve taught and the novels, memoirs and screenplays I've analyzed, I have come to believe that every scene in every book is part of a Universal Story that flows throughout our lives, both in our imaginations and in the reality that surrounds us.

Every story ever told participates in this universal pattern as words grow and expand into sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. What is left after the end of the story has the potential to transform not only the writer but all those who read the story as well.

I teach the Universal Story to writers through plot. Though difficult to accomplish successfully, plot is critical to stories. As I continue to teach and write and consult, I gain new insights into plot . . . and into writers’ lives.

You bring to your writing, your art, and your stories a piece of yourself. In return, the act of creating gives you the possibility of something even greater: true transformation.

The better your understanding of how to integrate the energy of the Universal Story into your story, you come to understand yourself better. You begin to see your writing in a different light. The ways you interact with your writing and with the world around you shifts.

Be forewarned, though. Writing a story can expand your everyday life; it can also destroy the person you are now. Commit to your own journey as your protagonist embarks on hers. Explore your true essence. Whether you emerge from the experience better or worse is your choice. But I believe the act of writing offers you the possibility of transformation.

Your imagination allows you to see worlds invisible to others. Imagine the Universal Story into reality and reclaim a miraculous and mysterious way of being.

More about the Universal Story is coming in The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master in October and is now available for pre-order. 

In the meantime, for tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Transformation and the Universal Story

From the hundreds of novels, memoirs and screenplays I have analyzed for plot workshops and plot retreats for more than twenty years and as I complete the final, final edit -- well, there is still the galleys to come, but still..., on the Plot Whisperer book (the cover is up on Amazon and the book available for pre-order!), I have come to appreciate that beneath every great story beats the Universal Story.

Creative writers hate to be reined in and limited by an imposed set of generally accepted plot standards on their stories, crying out that they will be come stifled and their stories cookie-cutter.

Might I suggest instead, to see that in writing with the Universal Story, your creativity and own unique voice has a place to light, to flow into, and you will more likely stay focused and achieve that long-term goal of yours to finish your story. 

For more tips about the Universal Story, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?  on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

What's Stopping You?

I am always fascinated when one writer curls up in a ball and gives up and, when faced with the exact same problem, another writer is empowered to persevere. 

Discovery that everything you've written sounds trite and infantile, frustration over how to get across what you are truly trying to say, a negative critique, a rejection from a query, poor reviews... we all experience a crisis, a dark night of the soul . Yet for some writers, these beliefs, limitations, judgments strip her of all her power whereas another writer listens and learns and moves on. 

You can spend all your time wallowing in your backstory -- that moment when you first lost your way and relinquished a bit or all of your own personal power to an antagonist(s), be it internal or external, or you can stay in your front story of putting one foot in front of the other or one word after another on the page toward completion of your goal and hold tight to your own power -- not in resentment and revenge but in the loving embrace that all antagonists are simply in your life to challenge you to grow and stretch.

Shrivel and die

Seize your power and move forward

You decide...

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via vlog. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information.

To watch the entire Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? go to my YouTube channel. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

The End is the Beginning

A plot consultation this week reveals to the writer that the scene sequence she believed was rising to the Crisis rather represents the Halfway Point... perfectly.

Undoubtedly she was disappointed to find she is only halfway through writing the 1st draft of her story rather than 3/4 finished. Still, she knew the story needed the additional page count and by the time we hung up she sounded enthusiastic and empowered to write her way to the Crisis.

Thanks to my background with working with children with learning disabilities (and my own), I appreciate the process of learning new material and find helpful explaining new concepts in as many different ways as I can think of at the time.

The idea of putting her main character in the sort of peril her story demands at the Crisis took to time to penetrate her consciousness on a practical level. She knew intellectually what the Crisis represents to a story. She even had an example in her head of the exact moment in a favorite book of hers. However, to actually bring the concept of the Crisis down to the actual moment-by-moment action necessary to bring the protagonist to her knees and die to her old personality took time.

The writer knows her Climax which I always view as helpful to a writer because the Climax informs all the other parts of the story.

With the Climax fixed in her mind and the scenes waiting to be written to the Crisis and her commitment to herself to a timeframe, she's off and writing...

For more on the Climax and what to keep in mind as your write your way there, view Steps 7 & Step 8 of the Plot Series: How do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

For information on the contest we're running with the series (I'm doing it with fellow writer -- 

Cathy Cress who has a terrific new book out: Mom Loves You Best; Forgiving and Forging New Sibling Relationships): go to Santa Cruz Traveling Mystery Tour.

Cause and Effect in Plot

Without cause and effect there is no plot. Without cause and effect, events are simply episodic happenings.

Writers who write by the seat of their pants, or pantsers, versus plotters, those writers who pre-plot before and during writing, are able to craft entire stories through cause and effect.

This past weekend at the SCBWI retreat in Northern California, I met a classic pantser, Kathleen Duey an outrageously generous and creative and successful author of more than 50 books for children, middle graders, and young adults. She, and others like her, are able to write scene after scene by asking: because that happens in this scene, what does the character do next? Because of that, what does she after that?

I used to say simply, because that happens, what happens next? Kathleen's more focused strategy is even better. Because of what just happened in that scene, what does the character do next?

Not all scenes can be or need to be linked by cause and effect, but the more scenes that are causally driven, organically rising up from the action that takes place from one scene to the next, the better.

1st Writers Plot Retreat -- Photos

Writers Plot Retreat took place in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California
Easy access to San Jose airport

Click for information on the next Plot Retreat, this time for 5 days: November 3 - 7, 2010

Gorgeous private home on 25 acres of redwood forest

Ten writers worked on Plot and Structure

Our canine companions

We ate food worthy of a 5-Star Resort

A spot with your name is waiting for you

Testimonials, and more photos of the 1st ever Writers Plot Retreat

Click for information on the next Plot Retreat, this time for 5 days: November 3 - 7, 2010

Antagonists in Stories and in Life

We make up stories in our minds about events in our lives. Are the stories real? Real only to us and only as far as our perception is capable of seeing at the time.  The stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world around us have a direct impact on how we react to new events in our lives.

That is the only explanation I have for why one writer is slain by the antagonists that pop up in the middle of her writing journey. While, another writer faced with the exact same problems is able to effortlessly make her way forward. 

Or, perhaps, the answer lies in the understanding one has of the task itself.

The writer who is slain may have heard rumors about the meddlesome, messy, sagging middle but when confronted with the reality of writing her way through the middle, takes the challenge personally, surrenders all her power and gives up (either for the day or for months or even years).

Another writer has researched not only the setting and authentic details needed for her story but also the craft of writing itself enough to understand that the antagonists that arise in the middle are not to be feared or felled by or taken personally but part of the process itself. 

I'm not explaining myself well here and the reason could be because this more informed writer is an anomaly to me. She has only been writing for two years and is well beyond the halfway point to creating a compelling novel. Though slowed down by the antagonists in the middle, rather than create resistance by judging herself as the problem and throwing herself against the wall or curling up in a ball for years before seeking help, she reaches out almost immediately and is now off and flying again.

Replace the story you tell yourself about writing the middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay from one of threat and opposition to a story of strength and determination. Antagonists are self-created and have power over you only so long as you give away your own personal power first.

Fiction Author Reaches Climax of Her Book

In plot consultations with writers, I often see how the writing of a protagonist's transformative journey in a novel, screenplay or memoir mirrors the writer's own personal transformative writing journey.

A few weeks back, I wrote about a client struggling to bring her protagonist to the Climax of her book. My impressions were that perhaps the writer's problem came from not having truly reached the end of her own transformative journey enough to grasp her own personal power in life and thus is having difficulty showing her protagonist in her true power at the end.

This week, I am pleased to report about another writer who after twelve years and lots of incarnations of his story has reached the true authentic ending to his book.

In those twelve years of struggle to find the right balance, the writer often despaired. He would write all the way to the end, send out query letters and sample chapters only to be rejected. Though he always received encouraging words about his writing, he always reacted to the rejection the same. He would beat himself up and, believing himself not worthy of success, quit. Each time, after he pulled himself out of the garbage bin he inevitably threw himself into, he would write another draft and send out more queries. This process repeated itself for years. The toll it took on his spirit and his body was devastating. 

Finally, he undertook his own personal transformative journey. In so doing, he became clear enough to find the true story. In so doing, he found a new depth to his beliefs and his story.

Now, in retrospect, it is clear to see that if his earlier passionate dream to be published had come true, the book he holds today would have been a fraction of what it shows itself to be. 

Perhaps the lesson to take away from this is the belief that until the manifestation of the thread of a dream is right and the story what it is meant to be, do not take things personally. See it as a process. Be patient. Continue to show up and write. And, at the same time, continue to challenge yourself as a person and to grow into who know you are meant to be. Find where you are on the universal story and push yourself deeper. Find your true strength and trust that when you are ready, the ending will appear. 

Honor the process.

Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings hook readers. Endings create fans.

The other night when talking about readers with a writer friend, she interrupted to comment that she did not believe many writers consider their ultimate readers when writing a story. She went on to say that most writers she knows spend most of their time perfecting the beginning and usually peter out at the end.

The next day I received an email from a mighty disappointed agent friend who had just finished a 400 page manuscript she was SO hopeful for and realized "in the last 60 pages or so there must be a book in there, somewhere," but not in the shape she needs it to be.

How many of you do endings well? Not just with your stories but in other aspects of your life, too. Ending a relationship. The end of a visit. The end of any phase. Often, we just let things peter out...

All that to say, a friend and prolific writer, Penny Warner, has a terrific blog post about beginnings. Check it out. (NOTE: I just realized all the mystery writers who make up The Lady Killers are blogging about beginning. Penny's post is on May 12th)

Universal Story and Plot

I bow down to the writer's spirit in each of us -- the spirit of perseverance and for continuing against all odds and against all conventional reason.

A writer on her third major rewrite finds the Universal Story defines the linear plot and structure of her intuitive and otherwise random story. Now that she has the logical, sequential order of the scenes in place and objectively knows where the story is going, she can forget about the bigger picture and subjectively concentrate on writing each scene one word at a time. 

This is not necessarily easy for a random, intuitive and subjective writer. Classically favoring "right-brain" thinking, for her to focus in on the parts does not come naturally. However, as long as she stays at the concrete level (a strength) of the scenes and words, she'll be fine. 

I especially love it when writers like her reach the Middle because the scenes there take place in an exotic world of her own making. Thus, she can craft those scenes in her truly authentic voice and style and can follow the energy. Here, time does not have to travel in a linear fashion, the exotic world can be anything she wants it to be, as random, intuitive and subjective as she desires.

Light a Candle

Go only where you feel cared for and supported; where everyone sees you as perfect.

How are you doing in that department when it comes to you and your writing? Do you care for yourself enough to show up for your writing? Are you supportive of your passion for writing? Do you see yourself as perfect? Do you see your work as perfect?

The relationship we have with our writing is reflective of our relationship with ourselves.

• Show up daily for your writing 
  
• Light a candle
  
• Ask for guidance and support
  
• Begin writing
  
• Quit writing before you begin to lose energy for what you are doing, before you begin to trash talking your work, before you despair. Quit while you're still in the flow, feeling good about yourself and the process of creating something out of nothing on the page
  
• Blow out the candle
  
• Ask the smoke to take your thanks and gratitude for your writing to the source of all creation

Our stories represent a deep and passionate calling. 

Begin a new relationship with yourself as a writer.

Shift from Wantabe to Writer

Comment from a writer I'm working with that shifted the same writer from resistance and excuses to consistent, daily writing and led to this post: 

"My identity is not wrapped up in the book. I am just the writer."

This is big. From my work with writers, I've seen that the more invested the writer in the end result = creating the great American novel that will give them status and awards and attention and respect or, in other words, self-enhancement, are the writers who struggle the most and take the longest to finish, especially the first draft. 

The more our egos are attached to the outcome, the more difficult the process of writing.

Identification means you're someone when successful and that you are no one when you're lacking. 

The more you identify with the end result, the more difficult it is to stay in the now of putting one word on the page at a time and the easier it is to listen to the internal antagonists as they whisper doubts and tell you you're not good enough, don't do enough, don't deserve success, aren't smart enough...

The more your ego is involved in the outcome, the less able you are to actually write.

Writing and every other artistic endeavor is linked to the act of creation and is meant to be honored. 

When you separate yourself from the identification of "my" book, you create distance which allows inspiration to flow.

Your Truth is Trying to Reveal Itself to You

Listen to yourself. Write the way that feels right to you.

Often comments from others are more an indication that something needs work. In our zeal to support our fellow writers, we come up with all sorts of solutions. However, what's most important is to know something isn't working and for you to come up with what is the best fit.

I just don't want you to get into trying to please everyone else.

Most important is your relationship to the story.

The story will tell you everything you need to know.

Ask the story what is best and then listen...

Writers on the Hero's Journey

Last Saturday I taught the 1st in a series of 3 Plot Intensives in Capitola, CA. I covered plot at the overall story level. This Saturday I teach the 2nd plot workshop to cover plot at the scene level. Next Saturday I teach the 3rd and final workshop; Plot for Meaning at the overall plot level.

Saturday for the first time I asked writers to fill out the Character Emotional Plot Profile for more than just their protagonist and antagonist. This time, they also filled out one for themselves as a writer and another for themselves personally. 

I felt a bit weird about asking for their own personal profile and after glancing at a few, I knew for certain I won't do that again. I don't need to know a person's secrets to help her with plot. However, the writers' profiles were fascinating in their universality.

Everyone wants to write a story and everyone suffers from the same doubt, insecurity, fears which begs the question: if a writer stands back and analyzes where she is on her writing journey, will it help her as much as standing back and looking at the overall plot of her writing story on a Plot Planner?

You tell me.

Where are you on your writing journey? 

• Still in the introductory mode (Beginning - 1/4) and mostly talking about writing, how you're not writing, what you want to write about, thinking about writing, wanting to write but don't very often? 

• Stepped over into the land of the exotic and solitary world of writing filled with antagonists of every kind (Middle - 1/2)?

• Clawing your way to the Climax (End - 1/4)
  

Does your answer surprise you? 

Does the understanding of where you are on the Universal Story form or your life's journey give you a deeper understanding of you are in relationship with your writing?

Does it give you a deeper understanding of the journey your protagonist is on, too?

Caution: Writing May be Hazardous to Your Health

Not every writer I work with admits to her flaw(s) but many do. The more prevalent flaws I encounter operate exactly like the protagonist's flaw in a story = the internal flaws of feeling not good enough, smart enough, or producing enough do more to sabotage the writer (and protagonist) from achieving her goals than any outside antagonist ever can.

Writers who have labored for years start when hopeful and stop when fraught with insecurity and fear (both of success and of failure). They do this over and over again. Sadly what often happens as they strive for their dreams with perseverance and determination is only to give up in the end.

Then there are the writers who find strength and determination not within their own personal power but with drugs and alcohol. These writers concern me the most because of my own demons I have struggled with over the years. 

These writers often start when sober and stop when the drugs and alcohol become more important than the writing. Often what triggers the angst is the writing itself. In supporting these writers through a writing project I am always asking myself if what I am doing is helpful or even healthy for an addict. 

Heavy-duty addicts in my experience are generally too sensitive for the world around them and they believe that being numb is the only way they can deal with life. In guiding these writers deeper into their writing projects, we wade deeper and deeper into the pain that first brought on their self-abuse through drugs and alcohol. 

Recently one writer kindly wrote to me: You keep coming up with new ways to help us poor struggling writers.

I try, yet still after all these years and all these writers I have worked with, I have not found a way to help a writer write about their nightmares without having them relive the pain as they write. Yes, if the writer can slog through the Middle and survive the Crisis, they come away not only better writers for it, they come out stronger in their own personal lives as well.

My only saving grace is the confidence I hold in the writers I work with and all those of you out there I will never have the honor of helping that you are better than the addiction and that you are strong enough to find solace in leaving the drama on the page. 

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...