Plot for Middle Grade and Young Adult Stories: Plot Your Story Scene-by-Scene to Emotionally Engage Your Readers

The handout below is from a plot talk at the recent San Francisco Writer's Conference: Plot for Middle Grade and Young Adult Stories: Plot Your Story Scene-by-Scene to Emotionally Engage Your Readers.

I share points that serve writers of all genres and for all ages again now in honor of the plot workshops I'm teaching in Los Angeles this weekend. The Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators known as SCBWI hosts LA Writers' Days this weekend: Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, the 23rd. They have generously opened up my 5-hour Plot Intensive on Sunday to all writers. Tapping into the ancient structure of the Universal Story leads to enduring stories of all genres and for all ages. You do not have to register for the entire event.

Develop a Multi-Layered Plot for your Middle Grade Fiction and Young Adult Novels 

Bring your ideas, rough drafts, and beginning drafts rewritten 50 times and final manuscripts. Leave with an advanced understanding of how the action and emotion and meaning work together in your individualized story. Plot springs from character in conflict. Readers emotionally connect through tension shown in scene. Learn about the character emotional transformational plot, dramatic action plot and thematic significance plot, and how to apply the energy of the Universal Story to your unique project. You will be given the opportunity to explore your protagonist in new ways and practice using your scenes to create a Plot Planner for your latest project. Writing is challenging enough. A personalized Plot Planner keeps the plot(s) of your story in line.

MG and YA PLOT
Make protagonist’s flaw interfere with reaching her goal and establish in scene #1
Generate fluctuating emotion in every scene

and

Yes to a protagonist changing & transforming and becoming more emotionally mature
Assign protagonist’s goal the day before story begins and establish in scene #1


Pre-plot the 4 Energetic Markers as soon as possible
Locate the emotional moment in your story
Open your story with a character minus the skills, strengths and abilities needed at climax
Turn episodic events into scenes with cause and effect

Hope to see you Sunday!

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

SCBWI Plot Retreat Notes

Today is my mother's 93rd birthday and, as family and friends assemble, I steal this moment, desperate to imprint a lasting record of the love and learning that took place at last weekend's Perfect Your Plot Retreat hosted by SCBWI-Central Coastal California at the Mission in Santa Barbara. Already, the book launch for The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing has blurred the edges.

Lasting impressions:
The event was unique for a multitude of reasons, mostly created by each individual writer who took part -- the exact right combination.

A personal first was thanks to Alexis O'Neill's wisdom and generosity in making recommended reading  The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master and then providing each writer at registration a copy of  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

I strive never to forget the pure joy of pushing off from a shared foundation of plot concepts and an acceptance of my point of view into a deeper understanding of plot and structure. Lots of the writers had watched the free tutorial on Plot Whisperer Youtube channel and seemed to feel safe with me and my approach. That most everyone was a SCBWI member, the writers also felt safe with each other.

Everyone was so darned earnest and eager to give the plot concepts and templates a try. Watching writers complete the assigned exercises directly into their new PWWorkbooks was a dream manifest. One writer confessed to not feeling as rebellious as she normally would when presented with such a linear and organized approach because of the consistent reassurance that there are no rules or passing or failing. Simply the attempt of viewing one's story at the plot and structure level alone is enough.

The praise and kindnesses choke me even now and come at a critical time as I open to receive the vision of where I go with my teaching and writing now in Lucky '13.

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot allows for a more loving relationship with your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

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.

All Writers Need Plot

On my way to this weekend's SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) writers retreat, I stopped by my sister's house in Mill Valley. She then followed me to San Rafael and took me to Sol Food for lunch. Our waitress was a gorgeous, young woman who sported a tattoo that ran from her wrist to nearly the crook of her arm. The stick figure, obviously a girl by the triangle skirt she wore, had a star over her head and was a copy of the cover of Jerry Spinelli's book, Stargirl (I use this as a book example in the Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master).

When asked, the waitress explained that the protagonist of the book was her best friend as a child (the book first came out in 2000). Her emotional affection even after all these years for the character in a 50 page book was a poignant reminder of the power of the work we put out into the world and a wonderful prelude to the retreat for children's writers.

Every genre of fiction and memoir writing needs a good plot. Thus, I have had the honor teaching plot at every kind of writers conference, chapter and branch meetings, and universities, and have found every group has its own special "vib".

Keep in mind the following are generalizations and are based on the writers who attend my plot workshops. Okay, okay. They are gross generalizations and are by no means meant to offend anyone!

1) RWA or Romance Writers of America writers as a whole are stylishly coiffured women, manicured and neatly dressed. They ask polite questions and withhold judgment.

2) Literary writers tend toward wearing black clothes and their hair long and straight. They often challenge ideas offered and have a tendency to frown.

3) Memoir writers are often rumpled and disheveled. They scribble notes and wear an air of expectancy.

4) Mystery writers are usually quiet, a bit solitary, and keep their ideas to themselves.

5) Fantasy writers wear whimsical and brightly colored clothes. They tend to laugh a lot.

6) Screenwriters fidget and their eyes wander. They seem to prefer information flowing fast and furiously.

After this past weekend's retreat in San Rafael offered by SCBWI, I was again reminded of how special children's book writers are and how they belong in a class of their own.

This group of writers was similar to others in the SCBWI organization I have taught plot to in the past in that many of the writers who attended my plot workshop were elementary and secondary teachers, parents of young children, and/or employed in the creative arts. These writers, too, were similar in their unabashed warmth and enthusiasm and support of my plot ideas and me, even those more right-brained learners who struggled mightily with the concepts but never gave up.

I left the retreat yesterday wrapped in a feeling of joy and hope for the future. The stories these writers craft have the potential to do for young people what Jerry Spinelli did for our young waitress, provide a safe haven for those who feel painfully different, offer a feeling of hope for the future, and a sense of belonging in this great wide world of ours, one that is filled with as many different kinds of people as there are people.