Tracking Scenes In Your Memoir One Scene at a Time

Question:
I am using The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories to refine my memoir. On page 84 you give an example of a Scene Tracker for the beginning of The Great Gatsby. I cannot find an explanation of the various markings in the Emotional Change column which vary by scene.( --/--/ +/-, etc.) Could you please explain?

Also, in the conflict column, I am guessing the "X" indicates conflict present in the scene, whereas scenes without and "x" are probably summary. Am I correct?

My left brain thanks you for showing up at just the right time!

Answer: 
In Column #7, plot the emotion at the beginning of each of your scenes with a plus or a minus sign depending on how the character is feeling at the beginning of the scene. Continue to change the sign as long as the character’s emotion changes throughout the scene.

Without some sort of emotional change in your character, your story will become stagnant and you will likely lose the reader. Stories are living, breathing organisms. They must grow and change. The protagonist is a living, breathing organism who must grow and change as she tries to get something in life and fails and tries again. Each time your protagonist is knocked down, she must get back up and try again. As long as you are able to record a change in the protagonist’s emotional level somewhere throughout the scene, then your chances of keeping the reader’s interest increases.

It is best if the protagonist is in worse shape when she ends the scene than when she started the scene. No matter how bad things get for the character, they can and should always get worse. If you find that your protagonist is always happy or always sad with not many definite changes in emotions then perhaps you are like the writer who told me after she started tracking her scenes that she was finding that her piece was “a rather dour story of a dour character.”

Having had that realization, she began working on integrating a variety of emotion in some form or another to show more of the protagonist’s strengths and hopefulness.

As for your 2nd question: Yes, an X in Column #6 indicates there is indeed conflict and tension in the scene.  Those scenes without an X means that there is no conflict. Some writers choose to write a brief summary of the conflict in the box. Remember there is no right or wrong way to use the Scene Tracker. At anytime feel free to adapt it to suit your individual needs.

Today I write!

*****If you'd like more, join me at an upcoming online video-chat plot workshop , a writers conference, picture book workshop , middle grade and young adult intensive , and writer's plot and scene retreat and read my plot books.

Re-"visioned": Now What? How to Rewrite

PlotWriMo helped you separate from the word level of your story to concentrate on the overall story level. In every story's life a time comes when an assessment is needed of what you're doing with all those words. What is the whole of your creation?

Throughout December, you spent the month identifying and cutting and adding and organizing and refining and pacing the scenes of your story at the structural level. You've found what are your writing strengths and weaknesses and what are your story's strengths and weaknesses by creating Plot Planner of your story. (A Plot Planner works well at the pre-plotting, writing and revision stages.)

That is the revision process.

With all your story elements arranged just right on a Plot Planner comes time to rewrite your entire manuscript from beginning to end. Now that your plot and structure are set, you no longer have to use all that left-brained power, or at least not as intensely as during the revision process, and seize again your area of strength -- writing words.

A Scene Tracker supports you as you rewrite.

A Scene Tracker is where you track the scenes as you rewrite, beginning from scene 1 and progressing all the way to rewriting every scene to the end. You better understand your writing weaknesses and use your strengths to bolster your confidence. One way to help ensure you're rewriting balanced scenes is with the help of a Scene Tracker that includes all 7 essential elements of scene:

1) date and time
2) character emotional introduction and development
3) dramatic action
4) goal
5) emotional change
6) conflict and tension
7) thematic details

****NEW 7 Essential Elements of Scene tutorial on YouTube
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If you'd like more, read my plot books.

Track Your Scenes on a Scene Tracker

Writers use a Plot Planner to pre-plot the overall story.

To inspire deeper scenes and another place to pre-plot is by tracking the 7 essential elements in every scene on a Scene Tracker

The following Scene Tracker shows how the first scene in Cara Black's Murder in Montmartre looks on a Scene Tracker:

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Take the PLOTWRIMO Pre-Challenge:

You have 1 Month, 1 week and 2 days to get a draft written in time for PlotWriMo. Beginning December 1st, follow the exercises on the Plot Whisperer blog to re"vision" and redefine the plot arc of your story. PlotWriMo is custom designed to ensure your success even during the busiest time of the year.
Begin 2014 ready for a powerful rewrite.
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The following resources support you in your pre-challenge:
1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of

The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
named BEST BOOKS FOR WRITERS by Poets&Writers. The author provides insight on how to create works of fiction with powerful stories and focuses on how to devise a Universal Plot, plot lines and subplots, compelling scenes, and character transformation.
 
3) Refer to The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing

for writing prompts for scene #1 to the very The End, one prompt at a time.

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

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

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)

Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot Whisperer on Pinterest 

***** Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in 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.