Goals versus Need

Goals create the front story or dramatic action plot of novels, memoirs, and screenplays. 

A goal tied to a need is even more emotional (readers and audiences connect to characters through honest "shows" of emotion). 

Tie that need to a higher good is even better.

The exotic world of the film, Winter's Bone, adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel and screenplay by Debra Granik, and the protagonist mesmerized me to the very last moment, though rarely am I attracted to dark and bleak movies. 

The protagonist with a goal to find her father drives the story. That her goal is tied to a desperate need to save the house and care for her younger siblings and an ailing mother sends the intensity of the story higher and creates thematic significance.

Haunting story with compelling action makes for a satisfying story...

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. 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. Currently, there are 21 Steps. Enjoy!

Turning Points

Turning points keep your story moving in surprising and organic directions to more fully engage the reader and audience and satisfy universal expectations.

I spoke about Turning Points in Step #11 of the wacky Plot Series posted on YouTube. 

I move with less resistance and greater joy if I follow the energy. The energy has taken me to presenting the information caught on the video camera rather than post the words here. 

So, rather than read plot tips, stop by and watch them.

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

The steps are presented in an organized format from Step One to Step Thirty-Two. We film Step 12 tomorrow.

Feel free to randomly click on any video. The 5 to 8 minute presentation will leave you energizes and with a new sensibility of your story.

This is all new to me. Hope you'll follow me into the great unknown...

Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

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.

Middle: Territory of the Antagonists

(**Coming soon = 2nd Annual International Plot WriMo 

• Pre-plot new story 
  
• Plot revision of NaNoWriMo
  
• Final test plot before send-off
  

Begins December 1, 2009)

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

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